Sermon

Rev. Robert A. Kem

Rector St. Anne’s

Sept. 10

Year B Proper 18

Healing of Deaf/Mute



Good morning. Are you ready for our Tail Gate Party today? What a great way to begin the fall year together as a family. Here is chance to sign up for education classes, register for Sunday school for the youth, eat, greet and meet new people.

You know that there must have been quite a celebration thrown in the town where Jesus healed the man who was deaf and unable to speak.

Although the eyes of all were upon this man who from birth had these physical disabilities the people, his family relatives and friends saw God for the first time as a physical and spiritual healer in the person of Jesus. Jesus desire that day was the same as God’s to heal this man totally in all three areas of his life his mind, his body, his soul.

As he opened his ears and his mouth to speak he said “Be Open” to God’s possibilities for healing in our lives.

The Kingdom of God, where ever that Kingdom reigns, allows no sickness, no physical disabilities. It is the sphere of influence where God reigns as the healing God and reigns supreme over our bodies that sometime fail us. God’s acceptance and love for us is shown in his desire to heal us in all three areas of our lives. In today’s lesson from the Gospel of Mark we see that God loved this man and that love was proclaimed through Jesus Christ.

This is why the people shouted in joy,”He has done all things well.” This was a clear sign to every person who witnessed this healing that the Kingdom of God had broken through into their lives and the lives of that man on that day.

Our cause for celebration is always when we see God breaking through into our needy lives. The more Jesus told the people not to say anything the more they went out and celebrated, “Let the Tail Gate Party begin.”

Don’t you find that is true. Good news travels fast at the birth of a healthy baby. The phone chain is stated and the parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles’ cousin all know the good news first and they spread it even faster.

We can never appreciate exactly what happened in the healing of this man until we understand the theology of Jesus day and how it placed blame on human sin as the cause for every bad thing that happened.

This man was born with a physical handicapped. The people of Jesus day even the religious leaders the Pharisee and the Sadducees believed that this man sinned or his parent’s sinned and that was why he had this condition. Cause and effect. You did something wrong and that caused God to respond by punishing you in some way.

It’s like you broke one of the rules and now you must pay for it for the rest of your life.

In the case of the deaf-mute he was born with this handicap just like the man who was born blind. Someone sinned and someone must pay the price for this sin.

This same theology creeps up on us today. If someone is in a bad traffic accident we investigate the reason why? Was there alcohol involved? Was there speeding? Was there a momentary distraction? We look for the answer for a simple answer for a tragic situation. This is human nature in Jesus day and even today.

The trouble with this faulty theology is it does not cover every situation such as an explanation for natural disease like cancer, a tornado or a hurricane. Was everyone in the city sinners so they received from God what they deserved?

Now let us look at that deaf-mute today. He had received this as a physical handicap from birth. Someone somewhere sinned in his family. God was punishing him for this sin and that was the reason he could not speak or talk.

This man from his early childhood grew up with parents and relatives and friends wondering why he was this way? He was the black sheep in the family and kind of a curse on all involved. The finger of blame was pointing out at someone.



The man himself grew up with the thoughts like “I am not loved by God” I am not accepted, I am not attractive like other people.” I am not good enough; I am too dumb to be loved.” These were actually untruths or lies. But his did not stop the feelings of rejection by this man and the guilt that remained on his parents and family.

Rejection is the opposite of begin fully loved. It is something that even as a child we have all experienced in life by others. Who among us has ever felt humiliation? Failure? Embarrassment? Fault or someone’s disapproval for something we have done?

Years ago I was fired from my first job at a gas station in college for showing up late on the second weekend I was to open the station.

Owner came by the station at opening time. I was not there. I overslept and the station was not opened. He simply said ‘turn in your keys.” That ended that job and I felt terrible.

There were no excuses. I lost my chance to even say I am sorry and make it up. This incident I look back on now and say “oh well life experiences are learning experiences.”

In the case of the deaf-mute there were deep emotional scars that happened over and over again. Rejection this world comes in the words of people, their not associating with us and their shunning us. Rejection in this world is the sources of domestic violence, even killings as we read the headlines of the newspaper about people who have been rejected and have been victims of violence or have used violence to hurt those who have rejected the,. Columbine High School was clearly one of those tragedies that we have seen in our lifetime. Rejection can bring out the worst in human nature. The fighting in Iraq and the Middle East Jew against Muslim, Muslim against Muslim. Rejection, bitterness, killing is often the sources for continual fighting.

On this day Jesus reverse the world’s theology. He comes into the town and the people bring a man to him. Deaf unable to hear and unable to speak.

Jesus lays hands on him and asks for God blessing on him “Be Opened” and his tongue was released and his speech restored. And in those words “Be Opened” life was changed for many.

Be Open to God acting in a new way.

Be open to the scripture in Jeremiah 31:3 that says “” have loved you with an everlasting love:

Be open in Romans 8. Romans 8:39 -39 Be open to a love that neither life or death, nor things present more things to come nor heights nor depth nor anything created shall be able to separate us from the love f God which is in Christ Jesus”

Be open to the parents who were able to shed their guilt and pain and disfavor.

Be open deaf man from the feeling of failure in this world

Be open and be restored physically which also meant you have found God’s love in this life.

Be open to love and Acceptance by God which will now spill over into your families life and friends and all those who have stuck by you in the past.

Be Open to the fact that you are welcomed back into society. God loves you and that has always been from the beginning but now you see it because you are spiritually healed forever.

All these changes were to BE OPEN to this man on this day forward and to the people who witnessed his healing.

One of God’s main purposes for our lives is to fill you with so much of his love that it overflows into others lives.

But first we must know God’s love is there. This is something that never changes. The Bible time and time again reaffirms God’s love for us.

John 3:16 God so loved the world that he gave his Son.

I John 4:11 We love because God first loved us.

I John 4:16 We have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love, abides in God and God in him.

We hear today of God’s overwhelming love for us. We do nothing to earn it or deserve it. His spiritual truth is that God is love. What we are called to do is accept it in our lives and then act on that love. Love others. We as Christians are called by God to share that love with others. Where we do that in our families and friends and work place God will bless us with this Kingdom,. Where we fail to do this than rejection, hatred and revenge takes over and threatens to destroy God’s creatures.

As we go out to tailgate today let us share God’s love. As we begin the new school year let us share God’s love. As we raise our children in this church family and in our homes let us share God’s love.

And above all let us know that there is something in this world that does not have a simple cause defect to them. This is where we have to trust God’s love even more to get us through those tough times together.

He has done all things well especially loving us so let us go out and love others interwar of the Holy Spirit. Amen.