Opened to Receive: God's Abundant Mercy in Word and Sacrament

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable to thee, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer, and Lord, give us eyes to see and ears to hear the Sacred Voice that still speaks to us through your written word and our ancient faith, and we offer you all the praise, honor, and Glory for it in Jesus’ Holy name. Amen.

Good morning, my fellow encouragers! The Collect for this Twelfth Sunday after Trinity reminds us of a fundamental truth about our God: that He is “always more ready to hear than we to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve.”

What a glorious statement about the character of our Lord! While we often approach prayer with hesitation or distraction, God leans in, eagerly awaiting our voices. While we frequently limit our requests, believing ourselves unworthy of greater blessings, God stands ready to pour out “the abundance of [His] mercy.”

This divine eagerness to hear, and His generosity in giving, outline our worship today. It invites us to ask: How open are we to receiving what God offers so abundantly? Are our ears truly attentive to His voice? Are our lips ready to proclaim His goodness? Are our hearts prepared to be transformed by His mercy?

These questions find their answer in our Scripture readings, especially in St. Mark’s Gospel account of Christ’s healing of the deaf and mute man. Mark presents us with one of our Lord’s most intimate and symbolic healing miracles. One that speaks directly to our condition as believers, which is our need for divine opening. Before I get into that, let’s review St. Mark’s Gospel.

Jesus has traveled into the Gentile region of the Decapolis, which is located to the east of the Sea of Galilee and comprises ten interconnected cities. There, he meets a man who is both deaf and has difficulty speaking. Imagine the sense of isolation this man must have felt, especially in a time without modern hearing aids. He couldn’t hear the scriptures being read in the temple, participate in community prayers and songs, or clearly communicate his own needs and desires.

The details St. Mark provides are unusually specific and physical. Our Lord takes the man aside privately. It’s an intimate encounter. Jesus places His fingers into the man’s ears, then spits and touches the man’s tongue. These are very personal, even uncomfortable actions that demonstrate Christ’s willingness to engage directly with our human brokenness. Then comes that powerful Aramaic word that Mark preserves for us in the original language: “Ephphatha” – “Be opened.”

The effect is immediate and complete: “And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.” (Mark 7:35, KJV) Jesus physically healed the man, but it’s more than that. Jesus has restored him to community, to worship, to relationship. The man can now hear God’s word and respond with praise.

Notice what follows, though. Despite Jesus charging them to tell no man, those who witnessed this miracle “were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.” (Mark 7:37, KJV) They cannot contain their testimony.

This miracle points back to Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the Messianic age: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing” (Isaiah 35:5-6, KJV). In Christ, these promises are realized as signs of the Kingdom of God, where all creation is being restored and brought closer to God’s presence.

Our Epistle reading this morning from 2 Corinthians helps us understand this point. St. Paul discusses how our abilities and strengths originate from God, rather than within ourselves. He makes a distinction between the old way of following the law, which can lead to death, and the new way through the Spirit, which gives life (2 Corinthians 3:6). Essentially, the new covenant in Christ is far greater than the old one because it allows us to see God’s glory directly, as the obstacles that once separated us from Him are lifted.

Last Sunday, we witnessed the Baptism of young Ambrose into Christ’s Holy Church. That sacred moment connects meaningfully with today’s Gospel. In the ancient baptismal liturgies of the Church, the priest would often perform what was called the “Ephphatha” ceremony. He would touch the ears and mouth of the person to be baptized, saying, “Be opened,” directly echoing Christ’s actions in today’s Gospel.

This ritual acknowledged a spiritual truth: that we all enter this world in a condition not unlike the man in our Gospel. We are spiritually deaf to God’s voice and unable to praise Him properly. Through the waters of Baptism, we are opened to new life in Christ.

As the Psalmist declares in our Psalm 139: “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:13-14, KJV).

When the baptismal water touched Ambrose’s head, it was Christ Himself saying “Ephphatha”, be opened to grace, opened to faith, opened to the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. In that moment, Ambrose became part of the company of the opened, those whose spiritual ears are attentive to God’s word and whose tongues are loosed to declare His praise.

Our OT lesson from Deuteronomy reminds us of our responsibility to those baptized into our community: “And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” (Deuteronomy 11:19, KJV) The opening that begins in Baptism must be nurtured through continuous teaching and formation in the household of faith.

If Baptism marks our initial opening to God’s grace, the Holy Eucharist represents its continual fulfillment. Here at this altar, we experience anew God’s abundant mercy, giving us “those good things which we are not worthy to ask,” as our Collect reminds us.

Think about how the Eucharist reflects the miracle in today’s Gospel. We come to this altar in our spiritual deafness and muteness, often distracted, unable to properly hear God’s voice or articulate our deepest needs. Yet Christ takes us aside, as it were, into this intimate encounter.

Through His sacramental touch, our spiritual senses are opened. We hear His word proclaimed and broken open in Scripture and homily. We taste the bread and wine, physical elements that convey spiritual reality. And having received, our tongues are loosed to proclaim: “He hath done all things well.”

The Eucharist is the supreme manifestation of the truth expressed in our Collect, that God gives “more than either we desire or deserve.” We approach with empty hands, bringing nothing but our need, and God fills those hands with Christ Himself. We come seeking mere sustenance, and God gives us the Bread of Heaven. We come seeking forgiveness, and God gives us transformation.

For those newer to our Anglican tradition, you may notice how our worship engages all the senses. This is intentional, for we believe that God speaks to us through the Word, and through water and oil, and through bread and wine, and gesture and posture. In the beauty of holiness, we find the sacred still speaking through these ancient practices. They open us up to experience God’s presence in ways both timeless and immediate.

And the Eucharist offers us a powerful opportunity to engage with God’s living presence among us. Each time we come together at the altar, it’s like another divine moment of “Ephphatha”, opening our hearts and minds to receive the incredible gifts that God has for us. In this special gathering, we experience God’s grace as we actively participate in His unending love. A love that transforms our lives.

My fellow encouragers, if Christ has spoken “Ephphatha” to us, if our ears have been opened to hear His word and our tongues loosed to declare His praise, then we must live as opened ones in a world still trapped in deafness and silence.

This is precisely what it means to be “The Encouragers” for one another and in this community of Bellville. St. Barnabas was called the “Son of Encouragement” because he recognized God’s grace at work in others and spoke words that opened them to greater participation in that grace.

When others saw only Saul the persecutor, Barnabas saw Paul the apostle. When others saw only John Mark the deserter, Barnabas saw Mark the evangelist.

To be encouragers for Christ, His hands and feet in this world, means to participate in Christ’s ongoing ministry of opening. Like Jesus in today’s Gospel, we are called to reach out and touch those isolated by their inability to hear God’s voice or speak His praise. We are called to speak “Ephphatha” through acts of mercy, words of truth spoken in love, and a community life that embodies the openness to which God calls all people.

Our Psalm reminds us that God knows us intimately: “O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.” (Psalm 139:1, KJV) He knows us not so much for judgment, but for blessing. God knows precisely what in us needs opening, what areas of our lives remain deaf to His voice or mute to His praise. And God knows the same about our neighbors, our community, our world.

As we live out our identity as “The Encouragers,” we must remember that the opening Christ offers is not a one-time event. It’s a continuous process. Every day we need to hear “Ephphatha” spoken over our prejudices, our fears, our comforts, our assumptions. We must allow Christ to take us aside, to touch our areas of deafness and muteness, to open us anew to His transforming presence.

My friends, “The Sacred Still Speaks.” This describes the living reality we experience each time we gather around Word and Sacrament. The same Christ who spoke “Ephphatha” to the deaf and mute man speaks it still to us today. He does so through the ancient words of Scripture, through the timeless liturgy of the Church, through the water of Baptism and the bread and wine of the Eucharist, through the community of faith gathered in His name.

Our calling is to be opened; opened to receive God’s abundant mercy, which is “always more ready to hear than we to pray, and wont to give more than either we desire or deserve.” And having been opened, we are called to be openers, to participate in Christ’s ongoing work of opening ears to truth, opening mouths to praise, opening hearts to love, opening hands to service.

As we prepare to receive the Sacrament, let us pray that Christ would speak His “Ephphatha” anew to each of us, opening whatever remains closed in our lives. And let us commit ourselves to being His voice of opening in a world desperately in need of encouragement.

May the God who opened the ears of the deaf and loosed the tongue of the mute continue to open us to His transforming presence, that we might be true encouragers for Christ, His hands and feet in this community and beyond.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen..