September 10, 2006 Sermon
This page is offered for those unable to attend the service or who would like more time to study the message.
Proper 18 – B
September 10, 2006 Emmanuel, San Angelo
Go any day to the grocery store, stand in the check-out line, and there you will see the sensational headlines on the covers of such notable publications as The Inquirer, The Star, and The Globe:
“Kansas Couple home
again after a year aboard UFO.”
“Nostradamus predicts worldwide depression in 2007.”
“93 year old Grandmother expecting 23rd child.”
Then imagine the headline for this morning’s Gospel: “Jesus Spits, Says Magic Word and Heals a Man Born Deaf!” For most people in our modern culture- at least most educated folks- a story like this found anywhere else would, like the tabloids themselves, be just too far out to be believed. Fundamentalist preachers insist that the Bible must be read with wooden literalism. However most of us (even though it might make us still just a tad uneasy to admit it in public) simply don’t read the Bible that way any more; to do so is contrary to our intelligence, and actually diminishes the power of our faith.
Yet historians remind us that, in the time of Christ, faith-healing was common-place. There are many accounts of miraculous healings from antiquity, performed by religious and non-religious people alike. The Roman Emperor Vespasian healed a blind man by putting spit on his eyes, and restored a lame man by touching his heel. For people back then, the world was filled with good and bad spirits, and the gods directed everything for their pleasure. What WAS newsworthy was who was healed and who did the healing.
Look at the Gospel this morning. Jesus was in northern Israel passing through the region of the Decapolis—the 10 towns which were the center of Roman occupation. For a pious Jew this was a ritually unclean area, to be avoided if at all possible. Yet there he was, and while there he met and healed a ritually unclean man. Why he did this, and why the man came to Jesus in the first place we do not know - except to say that Jesus often did things to challenge the rules of the day. And you can bet those headlines spread faster than a California wildfire: “Deaf Man Hears Because of Traveling Preacher!”
So what does this mean for us? Today at Emmanuel is Rally Sunday. It is our time to officially welcome everyone back from vacation. It is the time to start Sunday School, Youth Group, and Junior Choir. It is the time to begin fall programs: Altar guild, Choir, Grace and Grub, mentally challenged group, EFM, Project Dignidad, and Stewardship. It is a time to reinvest ourselves in the life of our Church…and to rededicate ourselves to our God. James reminds his hearers: “Be doers of the word and not merely hearers.” That is what Rally Day is about. We are called to Rally round the flag of Christ, and acknowledge our dependence upon God; to provide for our own spiritual nurture and that of our family and children. Growing daily in our faith means that we will care for others, and in all things be kind and forbearing. Being “quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger” are words we all need to hear.
To underscore the need to grow daily the Gospel functions as a metaphor for our faith: A man came to Jesus who was deaf, that is, unable to receive the words of life. His speech was impaired, that is, without meaningful communication. If we are honest, we know this deafness. All around us we are daily bombarded by the sound bytes of our culture. Shouts from the right and the left incessantly clamor for our attention, our money, our vote. Voices from within fill us with fear and terror: for our health, for our country, for our borders…and, of course, the worst fear of all, death. Oh, how we would like to “tune it out”!
But if we are not careful we can also become deafened to the voice of God…the voice that comes to us in the cries of the poor, and those who have so much less. If we are not careful, we can find ourselves paralyzed, impaired, and unable to speak out against things we know are wrong; against injustice, against corrupt powers and principalities; and for the cause of peace. Deafness has also been a problem in our church. Only recently have we begun to address the evils that all too often masquerade as “God’s will”: racism, discrimination and gender inequality. Only now it seems are people starting to speak out against attitudes and practices that marginalize and degrade God’s people and God’s creation.
But into the midst of the human condition, Christ came. To one, yea even one who was deemed unworthy by the outward standards, Christ came. He took aside. He prayed for. He touched. And he healed. We believe that Christ does so still. “Be opened!” he said to the deaf mute. “Be opened,” the Spirit of Christ says to us today. In the words of Isaiah, to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God.”
As it so often does “the Word of the Lord” presents us—just like Rally Day does—with an opportunity for new beginnings, and new challenges. The Good News is that Christ, the ever-healing One, gives new direction to our old ways. God’s life becomes our life, God’s way our way. Once that happens then, prayers, hymns, and children’s voices—in liturgy as well as life—are all heard anew. As Mark says, “They were astounded beyond all measure.” So will we be.
“Hear him, ye deaf; ye voiceless ones, your loosened tongues employ; Ye blind, behold your Savior comes; and Leap ye lame for Joy!” (Hymn 493)
Copyright © 2003 Emmanuel Episcopal Church. All rights reserved.
Revised: 09/18/06