Sermon preached by Rev. Emily Tanis-Likkel, Eagle Harbor Church, UCC
September 6, 2009
Mark 7:31-37
Be Opened!
Helen Keller's parents did not know what to do for their daughter. She was fearful and confused in her dark world, and threw terrible tantrums. They contacted the Perkins' institute for the Blind, and they sent Anne Sullivan to the family. She herself was a former student of the institute. Helen -- lacking sight, hearing, and speech, learned to communicate through Anne Sullivan's fingers touching the palm of her hand. It was touch that opened Helen to a whole world of possibility. Anne Sullivan used her fingers to teach Helen the words for the world around her because it was the only way for her to hear. It was unconventional, but that didn't matter. It was what worked. And although she was blind and deaf her entire life, she also found healing which empowered her to go on to become inspiration to countless people. She was a writer, an activist, and the first blind and deaf person to obtain a Bachelor of Arts degree. I thought of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan when studying the story in the book of Mark about Jesus healing a deaf man, because in both instances, touch was used to unlock what was getting in the way of hearing, speaking and healing.
Jesus took the man aside, put his fingers in his ears, spit on his own hand and touched the man's tongue. Strange! He looked up, letting him know he was praying, and then he groaned a sigh. He called out, Ephphatha! Be opened! And the man's ability to hear and speak was restored. I love how earthy Jesus is in this story. He is so grounded in his own body and so comfortable with touching another human being. He does not whip out a Hebrew prayer book and flask of oil. He used gestures that were much more like pagan magic than Christian anointing. It was a method the Gentile man would understand -- he would hear it.
Be opened! Why do we need to be opened? Are we really so deaf? Are we that inarticulate? People of faith throughout the ages have struggled spiritually. We don't always listen for God speaking in our lives; we are distracted by the countless things vying for our attention. We don't always know how to talk about our faith with others. We feel awkward, weird, misunderstood. It's easier to not talk about it. I must admit I've been in situations in which I wished I wouldn't be asked what I do for a living. It often opens up a conversation, which theoretically I would welcome. But usually if I am getting my hair cut I just don't feel like talking about God, I would rather talk about hair, or nothing at all. When I am particularly open to God, I passionately talk about my faith anywhere and to anyone. But I am not always that open. Being opened heals us, helps us hear God, and attunes us to others. Openness begins within. Sometimes our healing is blocked because we believe that if everybody else shaped up, then we'd be fine. In therapy, there can be a tendency to focus a lot on one's family of origin. It can be helpful to understand how the state of our childhood contributed to our current issues, and how we are like or unlike our parents. Yet true inner healing goes beyond this. Inspirational writer, Sark, writes about her years of psychotherapy. One therapist suggested that they no longer talk about her parents. She wrote, “I felt like I'd fallen out of a plane without a parachute, and finally managed to say, 'what will we talk about then?' I really didn't know. 'We'll talk about just you.' I couldn't imagine how we'd fill up the time! I felt flung into the unknown. . . It's much harder to look at one's self. Jesus said, 'Stop pointing out the speck in your friend's eye, and concentrate on the log in your own.' Or to use the story of the day, stop pointing out another's deafness, and take a look at yours. Jesus didn't want them all to talk about the healing, because they didn't get that it was about so much more than a physical healing, they didn't realize that he embodied all that they needed to live whole and healed lives. Jesus said, be opened. Our bodies, minds and spirits need to be opened. What does it mean to be opened? Perhaps it is to realize we just may not have all the answers, that the more we try to be in control the more frustrated we become, and to have eyes and ears of hearts on alert. When we are opened, we become attuned to our need for healing. Quieting down in prayer, we notice where we are holding tension in our body, if our breathing is shallow – if we are holding onto something that we need to let go. We notice if we are feeling tired or weary. We notice if we are feeling grateful or strong, or believing or disbelieving. I just began a prayer practice of praying the Psalms with movement, using a book written by Benedictine oblate Roy DeLeon. The movements use yoga-like poses to embody phrases from the Psalms. He writes about how other religions integrate prayer and body much more than our Christian tradition. God took on human flesh – the body matters. Healing needs to take place in our spirits and our minds and our bodies.
Opening ourselves to God is prayer. Prayer unites our bodies minds and spirits. One writer on prayer explains, “Prayer brings the walls down . . . nothing should block the flow of God's life-bestowing force in the world.” What is blocking us from hearing God? What is threatening to crowd God out of our lives? Addiction? Despair? Busyness? For some it is not necessarily being overextended, but simply not living attuned to God. If we don't spend much time in prayer, in spiritual reading and practices, or worshiping in community, then it is very easy for our ears to become blocked. Communication goes both ways – God is speaking, but we simply are not always listening. We can quiet down and slow down to hear God, then respond in action.
In Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard wrote, “Experiencing the present purely is being emptied and hollow; you catch grace as a man fills his cup under a waterfall.” The kingdom of God is within us, so we are opened to the Spirit residing in our hearts. We do not need to search far and wide. Everything snaps into focus when we live attuned to God's Spirit. We can hear so much more clearly, see the ones we love. Being opened to God is healing, and it helps us see more clearly the world around us, sensitizing us to others' needs.
Being opened is being like a child. Children soak in their surroundings. They remember the most minute details. Kids see endless possibilities for the objects that grown-ups throw in the recycle bin. Their imagination and faith is astounding. They revel in ritual. When my daughter Eva sets up a church service at home, it is communion that becomes the central experience. It makes me smile, because in our tradition we only celebrate communion once a month, and are more of a word-centered community. But Communion goes where words cannot. It opens us up. Children do not convolute the sacrament with complex theology, but know that it is about Jesus and love and being thankful. It's about sharing bread and juice. It is catching grace, filling our cups under a waterfall.
When we are opened to God, God opens us up to others. Our openness leads us to be more compassionate, to put our empathy into action. It reminds us of the profound interconnectedness of life. I read a story about a man some time ago who suffered a heart attack near the front door of his home. His wife caught him as he began to fall, but wasn't strong enough to move him to the floor to call for help. She immediately prayed, and immediately there was a knock at the door. Come in! She cried, and a stranger walked in, lifted her husband onto the bed and called for help. The man said later, “I don't know what came over me. I never come this way to town. But today I experienced an irresistible urge to take this street and to knock at this door.” I bet if we stopped and shared stories at this point we could have a lively discussion that could last for hours. So many of us have stories of how God seemed to send a blessing straight to us, or used us as a blessing to someone else. Moments like these are powerful, because they aren't anything that we've planned. I have had some really grace-filled experiences lately, such as a time recently when I felt compelled to walk to a certain place on the ferry and found someone I had tried to connect with an hour prior. When we are open, we see miracles where we did not see them before. And although we are to look at our own need for healing, it is not an individual experience. Your healing affects everybody you meet. A transformed life has a ripple affect that changes the world.
Being opened up is a lifelong process. We can pray for God to open us, using not only words but also our bodies and imagination. We can listen to Scripture. Helen Keller said, “Unless we form the habit of going to the Bible in bright moments as well as in trouble, we cannot fully respond to its consolations because we lack equilibrium between light and darkness.” We can also listen to our dreams. Some of us remember them more than others, but dreams can unlock truths for us in a way that is much more difficult to hear when we are awake. Openness to God is facilitated in different ways in different people, from music to silence. The lesson we can take from the story of Jesus healing the man who is deaf can teach us that it doesn't need to be complicated or formal. We simply present ourselves to God as we are, and accept the grace. We need not deny our body's role in our healing, but seek integration of body mind and spirit. When we are opened, we receive the grace that God offers. We breathe out all that is toxic in our lives; breathe in the Spirit of God. We can let go of resentments, worry, and our desire to control everything. We can put our trust in God who fills us. When we are opened, we trust that God can work something good out of the most trying situations. When we are opened, we experience the present more fully. When God opens us, we are opened to others.
After Jesus healed the man, he couldn't stop talking about it. The folks he told couldn't stop talking about it. They were amazed and astounded at Jesus and couldn't keep quiet. They opened up. Our still-speaking God opens our ears and our mouths so that we may listen and speak.
Being opened comes not from a self-help book, but from Jesus. Are we open to the miracle? Are we open to the strange and wonderful ways of God? Are we open to living in hope instead of despair? When we let other people into our lives, really let them in, our loneliness gives way to joy. Love heals. May we open ourselves that we may catch the grace that comes not as a dribble but a torrent over us.
Transformation Soup: Healing for the Splendidly Imperfect. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000, p. 18.
John Killinger. Bread for the Wilderness, Wine for the Journey. Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1976, p. 59
Bread for the Wilderness, p. 16.