Pentecost XV- Skip Windsor

                                                              Be Open

                     “He sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha’ ” (Mk 7:34)

This morning, as we return to Christ Church and resume our shared ministry in Christ, I would like for us to consider the idea of church as a listening place.  The Gospel reading from Mark today invites us to listen to God’s call and to listen to one another with fidelity and truth, honesty and compassion.

Phillips Brooks, the great 19^th century preacher of Trinity Church, Boston, after fifteen years as rector there, decided to make a personal gift to the parish that he loved so much. Brooks commissioned, and had made, a stained glass window for the clergy vesting room. He gave it the name Ephphatha, which means, “Be open.” The window portrays Jesus healing of “The man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech.” Of all the many healing stories and of all the mighty acts of Jesus, Brooks chose this event for his window at Trinity. It was to be a window for all succeeding generations of preachers. Of this window, Brooks wrote to a friend, who admired it,

“I am glad you like the little window in the robing room because it is my very own thought entirely and one I took the deepest interest. The makers did their work just as I wanted them to, and the result has already given me great satisfaction and inspiration. I hope that it will help a long line of future preachers at Trinity to speak with free and wise tongues.” (Phillips Brooks, by Alexander V. G. Allen, p. 420)

Ephphatha. This word of Jesus written in the Phillips Brooks Window at Trinity must have symbolized to Phillips something special about the personality, the humanity and the divinity of Jesus. And, it is from today’s gospel reading from Mark that provides an important clue for us to understand the mystery and the majesty of the incarnate God,  Jesus Christ.
 
The region of the Decapolis lies on the southeast coast of Galilee; and as Jesus entered the town of Sidon his reputation as a healer preceded him. People heard about demons being cast down, lepers cleansed, and about a paralyzed man being healed and forgiven with the words, “Take up your mat and walk home.” For many people these miracles of Jesus were sensational events front-page National Inquirer material such as we might see at the Sudbury Farms checkout counter:

 --- “90 year old mother expecting her 23^rd child.”

--- “Kansas couple home again after spending a year in a UFO.”

--- “Carpenter from Nazareth spits, says magic word and heals man born deaf and speechless” (more inside on page 6.)

Jesus may have been front-page material for the people of Sidon but he did not want such notoriety because he knew his healing actions were widely misunderstood. He performed miracles but he was no miracle worker. He did magical things but he was no magician. None of this was to call attention to himself. It was all about God. All of his actions were to proclaim the Good News of God that would evoke in peoples’ tired and lonely lives hope, inspiration and joy.

Jesus was the bearer of a hope beyond the boundaries of their imagination. It was no wonder that he took the deaf and speechless man aside. All prophetic ministries begin in the pastoral. All healing comes from a deep well of compassion. All encounters with the living God begin with a one-on-one relationship.

Imagine then how much care and concern for others filled Jesus. He embodied divine love. The prophets foretold of his coming. The prophet Isaiah prophesied that One would come and would bind up the wounds of many:

“He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongues of the speechless sing for joy.”

Jesus didn’t seek the power, the glamour nor the lure of the world in order to influence it. Rather, the force unleashed by Jesus to the sightless, the deaf, the speechless, the lame and the marginalized was the healing power of God’s love. It was a love of profound depth, of such unchartered width and so immeasurably great that the thickets of discord and the thorns of affliction would be completely cut down forever.

This was never more intimately and compassionately realized than in today’s gospel lesson. Like so many things, it all begins with a one-on-one relationship.

 Jesus did not let sensationalism stop him from healing. Instead he took the disabled man to a quiet place. In that place, Jesus’ physical actions matched exactly the needs of the man as he put his fingers in the man’s ears. Touching the man with his own saliva, Jesus utters the word, Ephphatha that is “Be open.”

In that moment of encounter transcending time and space, miracle and magic, Jesus says a word of prayer, not as a command but as a sigh. Captured in this intimate moment between Jesus and the man is the revelation of the true identity and reality of Jesus as both fully divine and fully human.

This is the sigh of a loving and protecting Creator who groans with us in our travails and hardships with unwavering love and loyalty knowing and assisting us towards wholeness and holiness. It is the sigh of a Nazarene who lived in this world being raised in a loving family, educated as a pious Jew, grew in wisdom and stature as a rabbi, and inspired a motley group of men and women to become his disciples. Jesus’ sigh reveals not only the man but also God who became flesh and experienced both the joys and tragedies of human life.

Sensing these mountainous burdens among God’s people, Jesus emits the same sighs of frustration, despair, and despondency as they felt. Feelings we share today. Jesus’ sigh is offered on our behalf and on behalf of the world.  It is offered to all people who feel muzzled, imprisoned, silenced, and pronounced as unimportant and insignificant.

You and I are called through our baptisms into a shared ministry with Christ to “hear one another into speech.” It is a ministry in which we extend ourselves to one another – friend, foe and neighbor – with honesty and integrity remaining in community with another despite our differences and persuasions.

Ephphatha. Be open. It is the word of prayer spoken in Jesus’ own idiom, undefiled down through the centuries, calling us as healers in his name to be open as a church to all people. We are not only to be a speaking place but a listening place hearing others into speech, hearing others into wholeness.

The world right now needs more listening places. Places where people can come and begin to learn their own words for themselves, speaking up for themselves, gaining self respect and dignity and beginning the healing and transforming process to holiness and wholeness.

The Church, the people of God, is the listening place where the silent, the speechless, and the maimed come to be opened and to be healed. In our world today there is a blistering sound of audible cries of people who need to be heeded and heard. The infant voices of freedom in Russia and Iran need to be heard. The muffled sounds of the abandoned in Haiti and Bolivia need to be heard. The belches and cries of the hungry in Boston and in the bleached out prairies of the Midwest need to be heard. The voices of lonely immigrants living on the margins of society need to be heard. The silent among us need to be heard.

As long as you and I remember whom we serve and who listens to us with loving care, we will be empowered to listen to others empowering them into speech and into action. As long as we recall Jesus’ word to the deaf and speechless man, Ephphatha, be open, our souls will be set free, the lonely will be befriended and the needy with find comfort, hope and healing.

It is no wonder that Phillips Brooks wanted this Gospel story and this word emblazoned on his window at Trinity Church. Ephphatha. It is a word to be cherished by all preachers. It is a word to be cherished by us all.

And now to God who is able to do more than we ask or think may all honor and glory be given in the Name of Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.