Ephphatha - Be Open!

Pentecost 15

Proper 18

Year B

Mark 7:24-37

September 9, 2012

“Ephphatha! —Open up!” This is the word that Jesus said to the deaf and mute man in this mornings Gospel. He opened the mans ears to hear and his mouth to speak. This is a truly amazing miracle. Open up! I can’t get that word out of my mind – Ephphatha! What if we as a church were to all (universally) open up? What if we as a church blew the doors off their hinges and invited every single person we encountered into our midst. What if we like Jesus listened to the Syrophoenician woman? What if we invited all of the tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers, and outcasts into our very midst? What would this church look like? What would any church and every church look like? To open up is frightening.

When I was in seminary I’ll never forget the first time that I knowingly was hugged by a young man with AIDS. I was terrified that I had opened myself up to that awful disease. Yet I hugged the man anyway. I stood at the point of Ephphatha. I could either remain closed and walk away or I could open up and receive the mans embrace. Years later I was able to be open to a young man and hold him while he died of the same wretched disease. Because I listened to Christ I was open and unafraid. The listening and trusting the voice of the Holy Spirit is important.

Jesus tells us (like the man he healed) to “open up!” Notice he opened the mans ears to hear before he released his tongue to speak. Perhaps it is wise to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit before we speak, before we act and before we judge. The more we listen the more we hear. The more we hear the less we speak. The less we speak the more we listen to the needs of the other, and not our own chatter about our wants. That is what Christianity is about. It is about listening to those in need such as the syrophoenician woman and the deaf, mute man and opening up our own ears to listen to their needs and then respond to their needs through not only our speech, but actions as well.

Opening up is risky! It means we have to listen to those we disagree or are prejudice towards. It means we have to speak the Gospel message to them as well as those we are close too. To open up is scary! Like the man in today’s Gospel it transforms our lives.

I have two friends who will not come to church. They are both deaf to God and are literally terrified that I might try and preach to them. What if their hearts were to open up? What if their lives could be transformed so that they couldn’t stop talking about the love of Christ? (That would be a true miracle!) But it is scary for me because if I open up to them about Christ, I risk losing them as my friends. Yet Jesus says – Ephphatha!

Jesus took a big risk opening up to the syrophoenician woman. After all she was a gentile and a woman. In Christ’s day and time speaking to her as a good Jewish person would have been scandalous. Yet Jesus set aside prejudice in order to (seemly and reluctantly) help this woman by curing her daughter. He made himself vulnerable to her needs.

When we open up we make ourselves vulnerable to the needs of others. We open ourselves up to risk – perhaps the risk of losing friends; the risk of losing our reputations (there goes another one of those ‘Bible Thumpers’); the risk of losing our place in society. If we blow the doors off the church and invite in all the AIDS victims, the prostitutes, the drug addicts; the poor and needy what will people think about the church and us? I know this sound like rhetorical questions, but they are important to ask.

We are called to be Christ like and vulnerable to our neighbor despite what the rest of the world thinks. As a matter of fact we are to be open to our critics and invite them into the church as well. The man who Jesu healed went and proclaimed the Gospel to everyone – (everyone!) not just a few safe select few. This man would have been looked down on in Jesus’ day. He or his parents would have been judged and treated with ugly prejudice. Yet we hear the words of the Gospel tell us that he proclaimed the Good News to everyone! That is how full of the Spirit he was, and that is how full of the Spirit we are called.

When we are on fire for Christ; when the Gospel (the Good News) is set ablaze inside our hearts we become people open to mission; mission is the heart of the Gospel. We willingly allow ourselves to be vulnerable to the world and all the people in it.

Whether we are criticized or not, afraid or courageous, reluctant or ready - Ephphatha! Be Open!