Be Opened!

In today’s Gospel (Mark 7:24-37), Jesus had just concluded yet another difficult exchange of words with the Pharisees. The Pharisees had condemned Jesus and his disciples for eating with unwashed hands, and Jesus in turn condemned them for their unwashed or impure hearts and minds. Even Jesus’ disciples didn’t “get” what Jesus was saying without his having to patiently walk them through what he meant. It must have been draining for Jesus to be so consistently misunderstood by his own people and even his own disciples – as John’s Gospel puts it, “he came unto his own, and his own received him not.” So Jesus needed some downtime. We know that sometimes he would go off to a deserted place to pray alone to the Father. In today’s reading, Jesus left the region of Gennesaret – Jewish territory – to go into the region of Tyre – a gentile territory. He entered a house, and tried to lay low. He did not want anyone to know he was there. But as so often happens throughout Mark’s Gospel, even when Jesus sought to undisturbed, Jesus was being watched – Mark tells us “he could not escape notice.”

A Gentile woman of Syrophoenician origin came and bowed at Jesus feet, begging for help for her demon-possessed daughter. And of course “gentle Jesus, meek and mild” went at once to the woman’s house and graciously healed the daughter, right? Well, not quite like that. Actually, Jesus was abrupt with the woman, to put it mildly. “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” Jesus told her in no uncertain terms that compared to his own people, the Jews, she was a second class citizen – one of the dogs, not one of the children. Charming, no? But the woman was not put off. Like any mother, she would walk through fire for her kids, and she wasn’t going to be turned away by this rude remark. She turned Jesus’ argument against him, “Ok, if my daughter and I are dogs, well, even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the children’s plates.” And the woman’s argument won the day. – “For saying that, you may go, your daughter is cured.” Matthew’s version of this story – it’s in Matthew 15, beginning with verse 21 – adds these words from Jesus, “Woman, great is your faith!” Indeed, what a contrast between this woman’s persistent faith, a faith that literally would not take “no” for an answer, and the obtuseness of Jesus’ own people.

Jesus went to Sidon, to the region of the Decapolis, the Ten Towns – again, Gentile territory. A deaf man with a speech impediment was brought to him, and the man’s friends begged Jesus to heal him. Jesus took the man aside in private – you could almost imagine Jesus beckoning the man with his hand, saying, “step into my office” – spat, and touched the man’s tongue. With the Amamaic word Ephphatha meaning “Be opened”, Jesus restores the man’s hearing and speech. As often happens in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus ordered the man and his friends to be silent, but they shouted to the mountaintops about what they experienced. “He has done everything well”, they said, “he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

These two accounts mark a point of transition in Jesus’ ministry. God’s grace is being extended beyond the children of Israel to the surrounding Gentiles – and they hear his words gladly, even while Jesus’ relationship with the Jewish religious establishment continues to deteriorate. I’m reminded of the words of Isaiah 2, which speaks of the mountain of the Lord’s House being established, and all nations coming unto it. In considering this passage, I kept coming back to those words of Jesus, which we are given in Aramaic – the language Jesus himself spoke – Ephphatha – “Be opened.” “Be opened!” Of course, in the text Jesus is commanding the ears and mouth of the deaf man to be opened. But in another sense, God’s grace is also being opened to the Gentiles, to those beyond Israel – indeed, to us, sitting here in Bridesburg. And, indeed, I believe Jesus’ words were not just for one specific deaf mute, but for the wider church, and indeed, for us.

“Be opened!” The church has been given the task of proclaiming the good news of the Reign of God, the good news about Jesus Christ. Remember Mark’s Gospel opens with these words, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Mark’s Gospel tells about the beginning. We here in the church are called to continue to proclaim the good news; indeed to be part of the good news. However, so often we in the church are like the deaf man with the speech impediment, not attuned to the still small voice of God, and garbled in our ability to proclaim it.

It takes discipline and practice to hear God’s still small voice in our lives. I’ve tried numerous times – with very limited success – to learn Spanish. On the rare occasions where I’ve been in Hispanic church settings, such as ordinations and installations at our Hispanic UCC congregations, I always try to speak or preach at least a few words or sentences in Spanish as well as English, but I greatly struggle with the language. My Spanish teachers used to tell our class that, though we could memorize and read Spanish text, in order to really succeed in learning Spanish, we needed to “tune our ears,” so that out of what seemed like an unending torrent of very fast syllables, we could begin to recognize words and phrases.

Just as I have tried with variable results to tune my ears to Spanish, in the same way, we need to tune our ears to God’s still, small voice. If we’re not used to listening, it will be hard at first. We’ll mostly hear the babble of our own racing thoughts going in a hundred directions at once, what practitioners of meditation call our “monkey minds” clamoring for attention. But, like learning a language, it becomes easier with practice. If we wait on God, God will open our minds and our hearts to his word for our lives.

“Be opened!” Just as our ears need to be opened and tuned to hear God’s word, our tongues need to be loosened by God so that we can proclaim the good news of God’s reign, the good news of salvation. And this doesn’t have to involve standing on a street corner and thumping a Bible – in fact, often the loudest proclaimers have the least Good News to offer. As Yeats put it, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” Far more often, God uses our acts of compassion and our quiet words of caring, our quiet conversations with our friends and co-workers about what God has done in our lives. If our tongues are loosened, these quiet one-on-one encounters can be God’s way of reaching those God loves with the message of salvation.

It may also be that, like the woman seeking Jesus for healing for her daughter, those outside our circle will find their way to our congregation, seeking healing for their suffering of body or mind or spirit. These may be people from the Bridesburg and Port Richmond neighborhoods, or the neighborhoods surrounding. And here is where our words from James’ letter (James 2) can be instructions for evangelism as well as hospitality – don’t treat some visitors differently from others. As James puts it, “God has chosen the poor to be rich in faith ……” I never cease to be amazed at the steadfast faith of many Christians who are really struggling with the burdens of life, who would have no shortage of reasons to complain, but instead give thanks to God for what they have. So our tongues need to be loosened, so we can proclaim welcome to those who come our way, those who are our neighbors from nearby, and those who are our neighbors from far away.

And – here’s my nod to Labor Day - James’ words also speak to what we aspire to in our society – or say we do, anyway – but so often fail to accomplish – liberty and justice for all. In our public life, do we, through our voting habits and other public actions, support policies that benefit the working poor - or the "wish they were working" poor - or oppress them? Currently the gulf between rich and poor in our society is as great as it’s been in the last 100 years, where a CEO of a financial house makes hundreds of times the earnings of their entry level workers. And at least the custodial staff is presumably managing to keep their facilities clean, to do what they’re being underpaid to do, while CEO’s are paid millions to fail miserably at their job descriptions, and millions more to go away to make room for the next overpaid failure. And I quote: “Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?” The words of James, the brother of Jesus, not mine.

Be opened! May our spirits also be opened to the presence of the risen Christ in our midst. May this presence of Christ be with us so that our neighbors may meet the Christ that accompanies us on our daily rounds. May the Christ who is a healing presence in our lives, be healing to all we meet, so that they, like the crowds who witnessed Jesus’ miracle may say, “He does all things well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

Please join us for worship at Emanuel United Church of Christ on Fillmore Street (off Thompson) Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. www.emanuelphila.org