I wish to focus today chiefly on the Gospel and Old Testament readings with occasional references to the James reading. In the Gospel passage we find Jesus in outsider territory, in Gentile lands, and ministering to one whose disabilities made him an outsider among outsiders, cut off from communication with anybody. Jesus cares for those who are marginalized, who are on the edge, those who don’t appear to matter much in the scheme of things. Jesus reaches out across barriers which divide and separate. Jesus challenges us when we say you can’t do it this way; those people are beyond help we too easily say; I want things to remain just as they are. As he pushed the religious people of his day to stretch their boundaries, to think laterally and creatively, to set aside ancient but outdated attitudes, to step outside their comfort zones, so he pushes and challenges us. At another Homecoming and in this transitional time in the parish when we are preparing for both the calling of a rector and a new building, the challenge from Jesus to think afresh and to think generously and broadly is timely. Who is our community? Who are we ministering to? To whom do we reach out? Are we in fact building barriers or genuinely attempting to dismantle them?

To Jesus is brought the man who remains nameless but whose life was doubly impaired by deafness and the inability to speak properly if at all. He cannot communicate by the usual means. It is hard to imagine his situation although those of you with failing hearing will have an inkling of it. And those of you who have battled with speech impediments know something of his hell. This man is really an outsider in every way, cut off from human community. Jesus does something very basic to demonstrate his love and compassion for this poor man. “He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue.” In other words Jesus used sign language, communicating with him by intimate touch. Sometimes in our own ministry that is what it takes to communicate love. Just to do something: to hold the hand of the weeping friend; to put a reassuring hand on a shoulder of someone who is fearful and afraid; simply to sit with someone in their pain or dilemma. James says: “be doers of the word, and not merely hearers.” Sometimes all it takes is to give someone some time, to listen to their story, to show some interest, to make someone feel welcome, to give a smile. At other times it may be particular ministry like giving shelter, or feeding, or helping a person to take the next step to employment or education or assisting them through some crisis or loss.

But this is no mere healing story, that is a man who was ill made better, although in fact he was. Jesus transforms his whole life. “Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, Ephphatha, that is be opened”. Jesus looks to heaven because all he does is in union with God. Jesus is not putting on a personal magic show, hey, look at me! No, Jesus here as always in the Gospels, is revealing the very nature of God; he is demonstrating the nature of our salvation. The word of command he uses rings out across time in its original Aramaic form, “Ephphatha.” “Ephphatha, be opened.” The gospel dramatically tells us the effect of that command: “And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released and he spoke plainly.” The man for the first time in his life could communicate with other human beings. He was liberated from his disability; he was enabled to hear and to speak and to be understood and thereby to be restored to human community. Jesus commanded reticence in speaking of this healing but his words were ignored. The Gospel writer seems to be highlighting the sheer impossibility of keeping silent in light of such remarkable events. But the concern of Jesus also reminds us that for the onlookers this was only a foretaste of the miracle to come that is of course the Resurrection and Exaltation and Outpouring of the Spirit of Jesus. This miracle of the healing of the Deaf and Dumb Man like all the Gospel miracles points us to the miracle at the heart of our Faith: the Death and Resurrection of Jesus.

In the words of those onlookers but more likely in the minds of the Evangelist and his community of faith this occurrence was the fulfillment of the words of Isaiah we heard in the first reading: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water.” That passage speaks of the very nature of the salvation from God, a salvation which encompasses all humankind but even more the whole of creation. Again it is addressed to outsiders, to the Jewish exiles returning from Babylon, as the gospel passage is situated in outsider territory. The salvation of our God which we know and experience in Jesus Christ but which is also witnessed to in the Hebrew scriptures has that breadth to it of which we must never lose sight. Note the ambit of this salvation which is so beautifully expressed in the poetic words of the prophet. It is a salvation which is total: political since it involves the liberation and vindication of an oppressed people; human, embracing the whole person, body, mind and spirit; and cosmic since it concerns the whole of creation. Salvation from God is nothing less than that because God and his Christ is Lord of all.

God’s word to us today on this Homecoming Sunday is “Ephphatha, be opened.”

Be opened afresh to God’s holy, life-giving, liberating and empowering Spirit. Be opened to God in new ways in worship, in prayer, in reading the Bible, in perhaps participating afresh or anew in some aspect of our spiritual life, or in the Adult Christian Education Program each Sunday at 10am; be opened to God by availing yourself of a volunteer opportunity in our parish life; as a welcomer or hospitality person or helping with the maintenance and care of the buildings and fabric; by assisting with the work of the Altar Society; by helping with the choir, the acolytes, the readers or the ushers; and by being stretched and enriched by the experience; be opened by revisiting your attitude to stewardship, to ensure that your use of your money reflects your faith; be opened to people in this community and in your wider communities in fresh ways by trying to build bridges and to communicate friendship, acceptance, care and concern. Above all be opened to God’s great love for each one of us for we are his children and we are called into relationship with him through the Death and Resurrection of Jesus which we celebrate in this Eucharist. Welcome home and be opened.   Amen

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