Isaiah 29:17-24; Romans 10:9-17; St Mark 7:31-37
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And it was good. It was kalos. By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host (Ps 33:6). And it was good. It was kalos. By His Word He separated the seas, formed the dry, caused vegetation to sprout forth. And it was good. It was kalos. By His Word He scattered the stars, placed the sun and moon, created swarms of living creatures on land, sea, and air. And it was good. It was kalos.
On the sixth day He created man. This He did intimately, privately. He stooped to the dust and got His hands dirty. He formed man from the ground, fashioned him from earth and breathed the breath of life into him. And it was good. It was kalos. He gave man and woman ears perfectly attuned to His Word. Tongues free to sing His praises and confess His holy Name. Hands to work the ground and serve one another in love. Everything was in perfect order, right alignment, and in accordance with the Lord’s holy will and Word. It was kalos.
But it was not long before Satan wormed his way into the goodness of God’s perfectly ordered creation. And unlike the Lord God who does all things well, Satan only does one thing well. He destroys. He creates nothing. He tears down, he breaks, he disjoints the perfect union of God’s good creation. He pollutes the waters, sows tares among the wheat, turns beast against beast.
And where he encounters ears attentive to the Word of the Lord he seeks to stop them up. Where he hears lips and tongues singing the praises of the Lord and confessing, he desires nothing more but to silence them. He cripples hands and palsies limbs. He destroys the goodness of God’s creation. This is the one thing Satan does well.
Behold the deaf mute in today’s Gospel. Behold the devil’s work. Ears blocked. Tongue chained. Eyes sad. A man shut down, closed up. Doomed. The devil is not creative, but he is effective. Because what he did to Adam and Eve and the goodness of God’s creation, what he did to the poor creature of God, he has done to all of humanity.
For we have suffered at the effects of his malice and envy. Not only as recipients of aging eyes and aching limbs, but as willful accomplices to his deception and destruction. We have shut our own ears to the preaching of the Lord’s Word, obstinately hearing and refusing to learn it. Fighting against the truth, seeking to submit the Word to our own reason and strength. We bite our own tongues in silence when it comes to speaking kindly to friend and foe, to confessing our Lord’s holy Name, the truth of His saving Word, and prayer.
Our minds are twisted with thoughts only of self. Our fists are tight around what we have, closed to helping others. Even our hearts are shut to certain people. Look at the deaf man. Look at yourself. Look around everywhere. Ever since the devil slithered up to an open-eared Eve, he’s done his thing very well. Man shut down. Man closed up. God’s good creation made crooked, relationship with Him put out of joint.
Repent. You are not only a victim. You have been complicit. Call upon the Name of the Lord for mercy and forgiveness. Call upon the Name of the Lord in prayer and praise and thanksgiving.
For everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved. But how will they call if they do not believe? And how do you believe if you have not heard? And how can you hear without a preacher?
Today the Preacher comes. Into the broken, twisted, disjointed creation, comes the Creator, the Lord of heaven and earth. The Word eternal, throned on high, Word that brought to life creation. And He encounters a man ensnared in the devil’s work. A man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. And as it was in the beginning, the Lord took the man aside, privately, intimately, and He got His hands dirty in the restoration of His good creation. He put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, He sighed, that is, He breathed, He exhaled, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.
He spoke plainly. Not only intelligibly, so that others could understand. He spoke orthos, as in orthodoxy. He spoke rightly. The Word of the Lord struct his ear, moved from his ear to his heart, and from his heart to his lips. He spoke orthodoxly. He confessed. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Jesus took that which was out of joint and aligned it rightly. He took that which was crooked and made it straight. The man who was shut down and ruined, was restored. Not only in ears and tongue, but his whole being, body and soul. By His Word, our Lord put him in right relationship with His God and Father. He justified him.
For the devil may do his thing well, but the astonished crowds in our Gospel said of Jesus, “He does all things well.” He does all things kalos.
They spoke too soon. They really had seen nothing yet. For He is the Word that came from heaven to die, to be crucified for our salvation. On the sixth day, that Good Friday, God recreated man. As Man He stooped low, into the dust of your sin, the thorny ground of the curse, and got His hands dirty. Those fingers full of wax were stretched out and nailed to the Cross. Those wounds are healing for your stingy hands.
He may have touched the man’s tongue with spit, but when Jesus went to the Cross, His tongue was parched and dry, sticking to the roof of His mouth, as He thirsted for your righteousness and the healing of your unkind tongue. He may have looked up to heaven and said, “Be opened,” but when His hour came to save the world, His cries to the Father fell on deaf ears, so that heaven would be opened to you and your prayers be heard.
All His bones were out of joint, even as you were disjointed, separated from the Father by sin and death. And His head drooped in death, as He was buried and shut up in a tomb, because that is what it took to atone for your mean thoughts and closed hearts.
But that same head was lifted from the bed of the grave, bringing your reconciliation and healing, your restoration and justification. He has come to you, deaf and mute, twisted in on yourselves by sin, broken and out of joint. And taking you aside, privately to the baptismal font, He stuck His fingers in your ears when the Word was spoken: In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. There, by water and the Word, your tongue was loosed to confess orthodoxly, to sing His praises and confess His holy Name. There heaven was opened to you that you may call upon the Name of the Lord and be saved. For faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of Christ.
This morning He again thwarts the work of the devil, as He did at your Baptism. For He sends you preachers, who in His stead and by His command, say to you, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened, and your ears are opened and attentive to hear again that you are forgiven completely. Those words recreate you, restore you, realign you into a right relationship with God. And again, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened, and your mouth is opened to receive from His cup the Blood that revives your faith, rekindles your love for Him, and enlivens you to open your heart to be rightly ordered with those around you. Indeed, He has done all things kalos.
But you don’t speak too soon, either. For you’ve seen nothing yet. For the devil desires nothing more than for your soul to be imprisoned in hell and your body to be separated from God forever. So how great will it be when Jesus comes again and your grave is opened up and your dead ears hear His voice and you come forth. And your dead tongue moves again and shouts for joy forever. Then we shall say, He has done all things well.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And it was good. It was kalos. By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host (Ps 33:6). And it was good. It was kalos. By His Word He separated the seas, formed the dry, caused vegetation to sprout forth. And it was good. It was kalos. By His Word He scattered the stars, placed the sun and moon, created swarms of living creatures on land, sea, and air. And it was good. It was kalos.
On the sixth day He created man. This He did intimately, privately. He stooped to the dust and got His hands dirty. He formed man from the ground, fashioned him from earth and breathed the breath of life into him. And it was good. It was kalos. He gave man and woman ears perfectly attuned to His Word. Tongues free to sing His praises and confess His holy Name. Hands to work the ground and serve one another in love. Everything was in perfect order, right alignment, and in accordance with the Lord’s holy will and Word. It was kalos.
But it was not long before Satan wormed his way into the goodness of God’s perfectly ordered creation. And unlike the Lord God who does all things well, Satan only does one thing well. He destroys. He creates nothing. He tears down, he breaks, he disjoints the perfect union of God’s good creation. He pollutes the waters, sows tares among the wheat, turns beast against beast.
And where he encounters ears attentive to the Word of the Lord he seeks to stop them up. Where he hears lips and tongues singing the praises of the Lord and confessing, he desires nothing more but to silence them. He cripples hands and palsies limbs. He destroys the goodness of God’s creation. This is the one thing Satan does well.
Behold the deaf mute in today’s Gospel. Behold the devil’s work. Ears blocked. Tongue chained. Eyes sad. A man shut down, closed up. Doomed. The devil is not creative, but he is effective. Because what he did to Adam and Eve and the goodness of God’s creation, what he did to the poor creature of God, he has done to all of humanity.
For we have suffered at the effects of his malice and envy. Not only as recipients of aging eyes and aching limbs, but as willful accomplices to his deception and destruction. We have shut our own ears to the preaching of the Lord’s Word, obstinately hearing and refusing to learn it. Fighting against the truth, seeking to submit the Word to our own reason and strength. We bite our own tongues in silence when it comes to speaking kindly to friend and foe, to confessing our Lord’s holy Name, the truth of His saving Word, and prayer.
Our minds are twisted with thoughts only of self. Our fists are tight around what we have, closed to helping others. Even our hearts are shut to certain people. Look at the deaf man. Look at yourself. Look around everywhere. Ever since the devil slithered up to an open-eared Eve, he’s done his thing very well. Man shut down. Man closed up. God’s good creation made crooked, relationship with Him put out of joint.
Repent. You are not only a victim. You have been complicit. Call upon the Name of the Lord for mercy and forgiveness. Call upon the Name of the Lord in prayer and praise and thanksgiving.
For everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved. But how will they call if they do not believe? And how do you believe if you have not heard? And how can you hear without a preacher?
Today the Preacher comes. Into the broken, twisted, disjointed creation, comes the Creator, the Lord of heaven and earth. The Word eternal, throned on high, Word that brought to life creation. And He encounters a man ensnared in the devil’s work. A man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. And as it was in the beginning, the Lord took the man aside, privately, intimately, and He got His hands dirty in the restoration of His good creation. He put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, He sighed, that is, He breathed, He exhaled, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.
He spoke plainly. Not only intelligibly, so that others could understand. He spoke orthos, as in orthodoxy. He spoke rightly. The Word of the Lord struct his ear, moved from his ear to his heart, and from his heart to his lips. He spoke orthodoxly. He confessed. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Jesus took that which was out of joint and aligned it rightly. He took that which was crooked and made it straight. The man who was shut down and ruined, was restored. Not only in ears and tongue, but his whole being, body and soul. By His Word, our Lord put him in right relationship with His God and Father. He justified him.
For the devil may do his thing well, but the astonished crowds in our Gospel said of Jesus, “He does all things well.” He does all things kalos.
They spoke too soon. They really had seen nothing yet. For He is the Word that came from heaven to die, to be crucified for our salvation. On the sixth day, that Good Friday, God recreated man. As Man He stooped low, into the dust of your sin, the thorny ground of the curse, and got His hands dirty. Those fingers full of wax were stretched out and nailed to the Cross. Those wounds are healing for your stingy hands.
He may have touched the man’s tongue with spit, but when Jesus went to the Cross, His tongue was parched and dry, sticking to the roof of His mouth, as He thirsted for your righteousness and the healing of your unkind tongue. He may have looked up to heaven and said, “Be opened,” but when His hour came to save the world, His cries to the Father fell on deaf ears, so that heaven would be opened to you and your prayers be heard.
All His bones were out of joint, even as you were disjointed, separated from the Father by sin and death. And His head drooped in death, as He was buried and shut up in a tomb, because that is what it took to atone for your mean thoughts and closed hearts.
But that same head was lifted from the bed of the grave, bringing your reconciliation and healing, your restoration and justification. He has come to you, deaf and mute, twisted in on yourselves by sin, broken and out of joint. And taking you aside, privately to the baptismal font, He stuck His fingers in your ears when the Word was spoken: In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. There, by water and the Word, your tongue was loosed to confess orthodoxly, to sing His praises and confess His holy Name. There heaven was opened to you that you may call upon the Name of the Lord and be saved. For faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of Christ.
This morning He again thwarts the work of the devil, as He did at your Baptism. For He sends you preachers, who in His stead and by His command, say to you, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened, and your ears are opened and attentive to hear again that you are forgiven completely. Those words recreate you, restore you, realign you into a right relationship with God. And again, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened, and your mouth is opened to receive from His cup the Blood that revives your faith, rekindles your love for Him, and enlivens you to open your heart to be rightly ordered with those around you. Indeed, He has done all things kalos.
But you don’t speak too soon, either. For you’ve seen nothing yet. For the devil desires nothing more than for your soul to be imprisoned in hell and your body to be separated from God forever. So how great will it be when Jesus comes again and your grave is opened up and your dead ears hear His voice and you come forth. And your dead tongue moves again and shouts for joy forever. Then we shall say, He has done all things well.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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