“TRINITY 12”
Saint Mark 7: 31-37
12th Sunday after Trinity: 27 August Anno Domini 2023
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
You know your Lord loved and loves the world. Which is why in the general prayer we have the petition “…show Thyself a very present Help, the Savior of all men, especially of them that believe.”
The reason The Christ was in the regions of Tyre and Sidon, from where He departed to come back south into Galilee, is that even before the intentional sending of the Apostles to the Gentiles, He went to this land of non-Jews out of love. And even at the Sea of Galilee He was routinely surrounded by Jews but not Jews of the higher-elevated, socially superior Judean variety—Sadducees, Pharisees, Scribes, and Lawyers.
The reason The Christ in now in the regions of the Kansas City metro area—points west—is that now in the intentional Apostolic ministry to you Gentiles, He comes here for you out of love.
It is a wonderful story. It is a true event that demonstrates God’s love, well…at least for that deaf mute—that one day. It is a miracle. It’s a true supra-natural demonstration of power—of God’s sovereignty as the heterodox Calvinists would term it. We would also note that beyond being “a” miracle, that it is a Sign that the Nazarene, this Jesus, is in fact God—God in the flesh.
You would like miracles, at least every now and then; or maybe just one in your life. You do receive them but they are a bit muted and not quite as stunning as an “in-person” demonstration of a physical malformity instantly healed. You have been brought through surgeries. The loved ones who have been near death may have been spared. Many of your heartfelt needs for which you prayed for deliverance, have been granted.
But so too were the Hebrew people in Exodus shown miracle after miracle, sign after sign, and deliverance and forgiveness over and over. And yet, with their hard hearts and sinful natures they grumbled, and looked to gods that were not gods. You my fellow Lutheran Christians sadly do the same.
You are not deaf. But do you use the gift of hearing to really listen to God’s Word, and to listen to your neighbor’s needs when he speaks and impleads your help? Are your ears filled with the wax of ego and the constant blathering of your own words—chit-chatting away about yourself and your will.
The devil wants you constantly jabbering. The devil is the king of noise, din, background static, and chaotic rumblings. But one “little Word shall fell him.” The Lord told King David to write “be still, and know that I Am The Lord.” The same Lord had Samuel write: “and after the earthquake a fire; but The Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.”
In the beginning was The Word. And God said “let there be light.” And God said “Lazarus come forth.” Thus, Christ can say “this Is My Body; this Is My Blood.”
I said you have ears that work. Jesus says “he who has ears let him hear.”
Our Gospel reading today is Gospel—good news for the deaf mute and good news for you. Our Gospel is literally drenched with Baptismal + regeneration. At the waters of the Sea of Galilee Jesus united His Word to those four fisherman sitting on the water and they followed Him. Near that body of water, at Cana, Jesus’ The Word turned water into wine. And now some “baptismal sponsors” brought to Pastor Jesus a man that was “deaf, and had an impediment in his speech.” Yes. How like the infant brought to the Holy + Font—deaf to the Word of God and incapable of “confessing” The Faith. Even as young infants are taken aside from the “multitude” (those sitting in the pews in the nave) and brought to the womb of The Church, so too this man was taken by Christ—by himself.
God placed His fingers in the man’s dead ears, as He does to every infant at the font; God spit and touched the man’s tongue with spit—the very water of God from the mouth of God—the same Mouth that breathed moist air in the lungs of clay giving Adam life and The Holy Spirit.
United with His spit—the water—Pastor Jesus speaks the words of God, His own Words—one small word in Aramaic. Ephphatha is the equivalent of the word used frequently in the New Testament “luo” which means be loosed! Here to it is translated as “be opened” or be released.
New life is created. The Lord Who would have his own ears silenced and His own tongue swollen shut in crucifixion and death after uttering the one small word: “Tetelestai” (it is finished). Would rise again on the Third Day to proclaim to the Apostles one small word “Peace.”
Your prayer is answered. Your home is given back to you. Your life is restored and your jail cell is demolished as He carried you out of the tomb. You are “loosed.”
“O Lord, open Thou my lips” you sing with David.
And He does.
Faith cometh by hearing and Hearing by The Word (Jesus) God.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
Email the webmaster.Contact Augsburg Lutheran Church: (913) 403-6194