Fourteenth Pentecost
Mark 7:24-37, Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23; James 2:1-17
The greeting is a familiar one. You answer the phone, you recognize the voice on the other end of the line and then, almost without thinking, say something like, “how are you?” or “how’s it going?” Most of the time we expect the reply to be something like, “Okay. How are you?” The exchange is almost automatic and most of the time we really aren’t all that interested in how the other person is feeling or how their day is going because we are calling for some other reason than inquiring about their health or well being. But lately I have found that it is not a good idea to ask the question “how are you doing?”unless I really want to explore the reality answer. While I think it is still safe to say that the majority of the congregation is generally healthy, there has certainly seemed to be a significant increase over the last few months in the incidence of disease and illness in the congregation and community. The range and types of diseases are many and varied but the one thing they all have in common is the fact that they impact the daily routines of life and have the potential to make us stop and access our very values and priorities.
While humanity has tried for centuries to explain the presence of disease and illness by assigning special meaning to its existence, the truth is that there is no simple answer to why all living things, be they plant or animal, are vulnerable to many types of disease or illness. The ancient pre-scientific world often tried to blame some divine force for the pain and suffering of disease seeing illness as either punishment for miss-deeds or as proof of the existence of evil in the world. You might remember in the Old Testament story of Job that the question is repeatedly asked of Job, “What deed have you done to cause God to bring you so much suffering?” The answer that Job keeps providing is that he has done nothing that “deserved” such suffering and pain. The Bible records, especially in the Old Testament, the emerging understanding that pain and suffering are not punishments from God paid out into our lives based on how good or bad we are. Scripture passages like that from Proverbs that was read this morning, set forth the understanding that God created us all, rich or poor. As the as the proverb notes, our actions and deeds have consequences that may separate us from others and our God but the causes of disease and illness are not to be confused with either our or God’s will. The fact is, that for all our medical and scientific advances, we still have very little understanding or explanation for why certain diseases occur in the way they do and why one person becomes sick while another does not. To be sure, we have theories to explain the occurrence of various diseases that take into consideration genetics, lifestyle choices, economic, social, ethnic and cultural factors, but in the end we are left with the fact that there is no simple explanation for why one person seeks healing and wholeness and another does not.
Disease and illness raise very important questions in our lives that we otherwise might try to avoid. When we are sick we find ourselves viewing time differently. We begin to re-evaluate the choices we make each day. Do we really need to do all the things we had planned to do or can we get by with only selected activities? We may make changes in our diet and physical activity. If the disease is life threatening to ourselves or someone close to us, we begin to see the world with different eyes. Maybe even noticing certain things for the first time that we always took for granted before. And sometimes this new way of seeing can also open others. Certainly the many special walks and appeals on behalf of medical research and certain disease awareness have effects far beyond the circle of those who suffer from a medical condition.
Diseases of various types have existed as long as life itself. Thinking cynically it is easy to conclude that the divine plan for creation was flawed from the beginning but we need to remember that just as there has been illness and disease since the beginnings of life, so there has also been healing and wholeness. Much of the richness and wonder of the world is due at least in part to the energy and adaptive adjustments living forms exert to not only survive but to thrive. In the quest for healing and wholeness we find offered the possibility of seeing the world with renewed hope, reconceived futures and discoveries of grace filled moments of faith. That which threatens to do harm or even destroy life can become the opportunity for newness and grace filled moments. It is this story of the transforming power of the quest for wholeness that lies at the center of our Gospel lesson for today. Jesus the healer is approached by a woman with a child suffering with an “unclean spirit”. Most scholars are inclined to interpret this diagnosis as referencing a little girl subject to seizures of some kind. Perhaps she was epileptic or suffered from some debilitating nerve disorder. At any rate we are told the woman was not of the Jewish heritage or tradition where Jesus had been focusing his ministry. Just as the debate about healthcare reform in this country finds many who want to restrict and limit who is eligible to receive medical assistance, so it appears at this stage in Jesus’ ministry it was considered appropriate that Jesus’ miracles of healing be limited to only certain groups of people. Some scholars believe that the very human Jesus, raised in a small ethnically tight knit community was only himself just beginning to understand the fullness of his calling and mission. Using words that were rather harshly dismissive yet not uncommon to his day, Jesus attempts to refuse the woman’s request for help by saying, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” While such words should have rightly offended, the desire for healing and wholeness often reframes the order of the world. Recognizing the limitations of a disease or physical condition can often be the first steps toward finding new wholeness and even healing. The woman takes Jesus’ very words and discovers what little hope she can in them. “Sir,” she replies, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Her words admit the reality that she does not expect a lot but she will take whatever “crumb” Jesus can throw her way. And in her reply, Jesus sees an opening of his ministry and mission. A grace filled moment suddenly moves from a need for healing to miracle. She may have dared to hope for such a possibility but I am not so sure she expected such a result. Jesus’ ministry is now opened to the broader community and the next story takes it even further.
The word at the center of the next healing story is the word “Ephphatha” which our text states literally means “Be opened”. While the miracle of this story is the opening of a deaf man’s ears and the loosing of his tongue it is quickly apparent that we are witnessing the power of God, through Jesus, to open people’s lives.
If our first story helps us explore the hard questions of disease and suffering in God’s world, this second story invites us to recognize that God does not always wait or need for us to invite divine grace into our world. Surely the deaf man of this story had no idea who Jesus was. But his friends found a way to get him to open himself to the miracle Jesus presented. It is not always easy to open a way into someone’s life.
When I was a young boy I had a morning paper route. Every time I read this story I think of a house I had on that route. When I first took over the paper route from the kid who had it before me, he took me on the route with him to show me the ropes. As we rode up to the Christianson house, he said, “Now watch me.” He got off his bike and started waving his arms over his head while he jogged up the driveway along the side of the house. He took kind of long bounding strides as if he were trying to get airborne and he kept waving his arms over his head jumping especially high as he went by the side of the house and the windows that looked out on the driveway. When he reached the back of the house he turned around and did the same thing coming back down the driveway to the street. “What are you doing,” I asked him. “Getting their attention,” he replied. “The Christianson’s are both deaf so it doesn’t do any good to knock on the door or ring the doorbell, but they usually notice someone leaping up their driveway waving their arms.” Then he added, “But you do need to be sure to collect from them before dark, especially in the winter time or they’ll never see you outside.” Brad taught me a number of things about knocking on doors and being a paper boy but he lacked creative insight in dealing with a deaf couple. I got to know the Christianson’s quite well and I came to prefer collecting at their house after dark. You see, I carried a flashlight after dark to be able to read my collection book names and addresses and I quickly discovered that all it took was a flick or two of my flashlight at their front window and they would open the front door every time. Getting someone to open the door, to open themselves to the world just beyond. The deaf man did not choose to be deaf but at some point he did have to decide if he was going to open himself to Jesus
The medical miracle sought by those who came knocking on Jesus’ door would be a lot harder to come by today. It is just plain harder for those outside the system, whether because they are uninsured or immigrants, to gain access to the medical services needed or desired. It is harder still for most of us to believe that a miracle will actually touch our lives. Jesus proclaims “Ephphatha”, be opened. And it is not just that a deaf man could hear. It is that the whole world was opened to him and his friends who had brought him discovered that they had opened the door to a miracle, an unexplained in breaking of God’s grace. Ephphatha, to be so open to God’s grace that a greatest hope and dream is fulfilled. Imagine what that would be like.
We all have parts of our lives that are closed, sealed, locked down, hidden away. If suddenly that part of our lives were opened up, would we rejoice or would we weep? Openness carries with it many risks that not everyone is willing to embrace. Sometimes it is easier and safer to lock the world out. To trust others enough to let the door be opened risks catching even other diseases and experiencing other’s pains and suffering.
When we open ourselves we also find others who have closed themselves off. The community of the church is supposed to be an open community, but it doesn’t always work that way. Often without any intent to do so, the church becomes a segregated and closed community. In our second lesson James writes his letter to a church that was closing itself off from anyone who was not wealthy enough or socially acceptable enough. James warns that the openness of God’s grace is not to be limited by culture, class, doctrine or even teaching. He reminds the people that openness to God is found in the intentional actions of those who witness and practice that openness.
I think of our involvement this year in assisting to settle refugee families through the Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Ministries. This involvement has taught us that the security precautions imposed by our country have locked out thousands of refugees who would have normally been given new hope and life in America. Refugees of famine and wars in other parts of the world. Refugees for whom our Lutheran and interfaith immigration and refugee agencies, have been unable to get papers processed. Even for people trapped in horrendous conditions of disease and starvation, people who we have sponsoring families and supporting congregations. Our fears and anxieties over change and openness close us off from the very things we know to be good and life giving. The healing and wholeness that comes from being opened is not just a matter of being disease free. There are changes to be made in the way one lives healthily and in new relationship to the world around us. How the deaf man’s world must have changed. He could hear the birds chirp and the child sing. He could also hear the dog growl and bark and the mother weep. To be opened is not all joy, nor is it all pain. It is the new possibility.
We celebrate each new opening. That is why the baptism this morning is placed at the beginning of the worship service. The Ephphatha event in each of our lives was the opening of God’s grace first revealed to each of us in our baptisms. The opening of a new life. We are in the season of opening and beginnings. A new school year, new activities, new children, new challenges and new moments that need healing and wholeness. Like the flashlight flashing in the Christianson’s window, the word Ephphatha rings out from our lesson this morning. For a moment we look to see what in our lives has closed us off from others, from our true selves, from God. We hear the word Ephaphatha, be opened. That is what God’s grace is all about. Doors are not intended to be opened only one time. Doors are opened again and again, so with our lives. The gift of healing and wholeness comes through the opening of ourselves.
It is a good word to remember this day. Ephphatha, be opened.
Amen