September 9 2012 15th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 7:31-37

 31 Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis] 32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him.

   33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). 35 At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.

   36 Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37 People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

“The Power To Open”  

Life is full of interesting and exciting possibilities.  We have to be motivated or inspired to seek them.  Our spiritual lives also need to be opened to all the possibilities God has in store for us.  

Faith opens our hearts and minds to the love of God at work for  and in us.

Faith in Jesus Christ opens our senses to the deep stimuli of life.  We see what we could never otherwise see; hear what we could never hear; speak what we never dared utter.

Jesus words of forgiveness and love open us up to all the possibilities of life.

Faith is giving God permission to have at us.

“Be Open”  

They couldn’t keep quiet about it; but they didn’t say all there was to say about it.

They missed the most important point - that these miracles, as with all miracles, means that salvation has come to our earth!  God has come to dwell with us in human from, in the man Jesus to heal ALL our infirmities, not just of the body but of the spirit as well!

There is a healing and a wholeness which is deeper then the physical.  He has come that all might be saved (be made whole from within) and come to the knowledge of the truth.

To be so saved is to be open to God’s love moving in our lives and through our lives into our world.  It  is to be able to smile, no matter what, and to be a beautiful, healing person for others.  Physical handicaps cannot keep a ‘whole person’ down.  They simply radiate joy and love, and bring healing into living.  This is Christ in us, the love of God making us whole!