THE TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
30 August Anno + Domini 2009
"Ephphatha! 'Be Opened!'â€
Mark 7:31-37
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
The ability of the ears to hear is directly related to the ability of the mouth to speak. People who are born physically deaf cannot speak plainly. They can make noises with their mouths, but are unable to form those noises into coherent language for communication. Even when people go deaf later in life, their ability to speak plainly is greatly hindered. The ability of the ears to hear is directly related to the ability of the mouth to speak.
But this is not just true physically. It is also most certainly true spiritually. If our spiritual ears are not opened to hear God's Word, our ability to speak about God will be limited to making incoherent noises. So it is that the world is filled with people who talk about God, but the words come out from most as nothing but useless babbling, since their ears are deaf to hearing God's Word.
What happened
just over a week ago at the ELCA's Church-Wide Assembly is a good example of
this. If you haven't heard by now, the
ELCA, which is the largest "Lutheran†denomination in
I watched a lot of the ELCA assembly online, since I wanted to hear how those in favor of adopting these new positions on homosexuality would argue their case. Every person who went to the mic to speak in favor of these new positions showed that they had closed their ears to God's Word and what came out of their mouths was nothing but useless babbling. Most of them didn't argue their case on the basis of God's Word at all, but rather made their appeal to emotions and feelings, using words like justice, fairness, equality, freedom, and so forth. And the few who did take a stab at arguing their case on the basis of God's Word revealed that their ears had been closed to God's Word as well, for what came out of their mouths was completely ridiculous. To give you an example, one lady "bishop†went to the mic and said that Jesus was in favor of homosexuality, which can be seen by the fact that when He sent out the seventy-two disciples during His earthly ministry, He sent these men out two by two (cf. Luke 10:1ff.). I'm not sure I've ever heard anything as absurd as this. And this is a "bishop†in the ELCA. But, this is what happens when your ears are closed to God's Word. Out of your mouth comes incoherent babbling.
But, as our Lord teaches us, before we can attempt to remove the speck in our brother's eye, we must first remove the log in our own eyes. Who among us has not been guilty of closing their ears to God's Word? Every time we use our mouths to gossip about others, to grumble and complain, to speak lies (even if they're just little white fibs), to make excuses about why we can't give our time, talents, and treasures in service to our Lord and His Church as we should, to bad-mouth our brothers and sisters behind their backs, to express our own opinions and desires as if they were on par with God's Word, we show that we have a hearing problem. For if our ears were truly opened to hearing God's Word, our mouths would speak it plainly and rightly.
Repent! Stop closing up your ears to God's Word, that your mouths may be used how they were intended to be used, for prayer, praise, and for confessing the truth to others.
That's why Jesus heals the deaf and mute man in the Gospel lesson this morning. He unstops his ears so that the man can hear the Word of God which saves, and He loosens his tongue so that the man can pray, praise, and bear witness to the salvation he has received.
And, dear friends, Jesus did the same for you when He baptized you into His kingdom. Just like with the deaf and mute man, Jesus took you aside and brought you to the font. There, He spat on you with water combined with His Holy Word and said to you, "Ephphatha!,†that is, "Be opened!†and, at that instant, your ears were opened and your tongue was loosed. You were healed from your spiritual deafness and muteness so that your ears could hear the saving Word of God and your tongue could pray, praise, and bear witness to the salvation you received through Jesus.
When the deaf and mute man in the Gospel lesson was healed, we're told that "he spoke plainly.†But that word "plainly†in English doesn't really convey what is said in the original Greek. The Greek word is orthos, which means "rightly.†It's the same word used in the word "orthodontist,†the person to whom you go to have your teeth straightened and made right. It's the same word used in the word "orthodoxy,†which means "right praise.†You see, it's not just that the man could now speak plainly so that others could now understand him, it's that the man now spoke rightly - his ears and mouth were now opened in order that he might both hear rightly and speak rightly.
So it is with you. The Great Physician of your soul has healed you that you might both hear and declare His Word rightly. He healed you so that your ears could hear the Law, reminding you of your sinfulness and need of a Savior, leading you to repentance, and the Gospel, reminding you that the Savior you need has come in Jesus Christ, who lived the perfect life in your stead and died on the cross for your sins, leading you to faith. And He healed you so that your mouth would be opened to make the good confession of the faith and to proclaim to all what Jesus has done for you. He healed you so that you would be like the people in the Gospel lesson who couldn't keep quiet about what Jesus had done, even though He charged them to tell no one.
But, you aren't like those people, are you - at least, not most of the time. You don't spread the word about Jesus as zealously as you should. None of us do. Instead, we often live as though we haven't been healed at all, as though our ears remain stopped up with sin and our mouths remain bound from proclaiming the truth.
When people use their tongues to complain and grouse about this or that, or the other thing; when they use their tongues to slander people behind their backs; when they use their tongues to do these things, and at the same time, claim to be Christian, they need to hear, again, the Word that God has for them. They need to be convicted by the Law. They need to hear that Jesus desires that their ears be opened to His Word, not their opinions, not their desires, not their own grievances and gripes, but to His Word. And, opened to His Word, they would approach whatever it is that's bothering them in a Christian manner, going to the person with whom they're upset, or people with whom they're upset, and talking to them, expressing their feelings and seeking reconciliation. That's what Christians do. And when they don't, they show that their ears are stopped up.
Hopefully, that's why you come to this Holy House of worship, for here Jesus, your Lord and Savior, continues to meet you to open your ears to hear His Word and to loosen your tongues to offer right prayer, praise, and confession. Even though He healed you at your baptism, you are in need of His constant healing touch. The perfectly white baptismal garment you received when He spat on you at the font gets dirty and needs to be cleansed. Your ears get filled with the dirty wax of the messages they hear from the world, the devil, and your own sinful flesh, and your dirty ears lead to a dirty mouth, out of which comes gossip, slander, and lies. You need to be washed clean again - and again, and again, and again. In fact, you can't ever stop getting washed clean as long as you breathe air this side of heaven. You need to be washed clean again, and so your Lord invites you here to His House that He might clean you as you need. He fills your ears with the truth of His Word and your mouths with the blessing of His own Body and Blood, to forgive you and to strengthen and preserve you in the faith, that, washed in the cleansing agent of His Holy Blood, you would depart in peace with opened ears to filter everything you hear not through your own opinions and desires, but through His Word, and with loosened tongues to proclaim His praises to the world.
Dear friends in Christ, your Lord says to you today, just as He said to you at the font, "Ephphatha! Be opened!†May your ears hear with faith, that your mouth will be opened to tell everyone you meet: "Jesus has done all things well! He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak! He lived and died for me! He healed me, I am saved! Come, let me bring you to Jesus so that He can heal you, too!†Lord, grant this good confession unto us all. In Your Holy Name. Amen.
Now the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, unto life everlasting. Amen.