Opening our Hearts to God
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Today’s passage from the gospel of Mark provides us with two powerful examples of individuals who, despite their differences and challenges, opened their hearts to God. I think Mark places these two stories side-by-side for a reason. And this reason centers on an interesting word in the passage, a word that itself needs to be translated because Mark chose to preserve Jesus’ original language when he wrote it down. That word is “Ephphatha”: Be opened. Openness is the key to these two encounters and one that I’d like us to think about today because openness is one of the keys to our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. Or---it perhaps it should be. An openness to God’s healing and grace, an openness to possibilities, an openness to one’s self and to our neighbor’s. Open verses being closed off.
For many years, faithful readers of scripture have had more trouble with the story of Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman than almost any other story in the Gospel. And this was for good reason. Jesus does not get a free pass here. He is calling this woman a dog. It is likely he was aware of the economic hardship that many Jews in the region of Tyre experienced due to the exploits of the Gentile landowners and his rebuff of the woman may well have reflected this. Her faith in Jesus’ healing power takes him by surprise. It was probably even shocking! She accepts his priority of ministering first to the people of Israel, yet she is not satisfied with this. Her faith calls forth a larger vision of God’s mission to the Gentiles. Jesus immediately recognized the God-given wisdom of her words, changes his mind and commends her outspokenness. (Feasting on the Word).
I imagine Jesus standing there, dazed for a minute, then realizing how closed off he is being, how stuck in a cultural norm, how unlike his usual self who is always pushing boundaries and interacting with outsiders. This woman helps Jesus remember who he is! Could it be that SHE opens Jesus’ heart?
The beauty of living a life of openness is illustrated in the next encounter. People bring to Jesus a man who cannot hear and can hardly talk. Jesus looks him over, touches him, and says, “Ephphatha”: Be opened. Immediately, the man is able to hear and speak. Jesus could have said any number of things to heal this man. Or he didn’t have to say anything at all. And yet the word he chooses is a word of openness. That word has many layers, right? I’m thinking that Jesus was thinking about his interaction with the Syrophoenician woman and says Ephphatha in all of its meanings.
Be open. Really open. Jesus, the word who became flesh to live among us, was on a mission, and still is, to open the world’s eyes and ears, but also to open the world’s hearts, to soften them, so that the voice of God could be heard, with the ears of our heart.
Our hearts are not necessarily soft these days—one crazy news story after another, and our ears are hard of hearing. So, what do we do? What did Jesus do? In the case of the deaf man, it was pretty simple, really. Jesus took him aside, put his fingers into his ears, spat and touched his tongue. Then he looked up to heaven, sighed, and said, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”
How can Jesus open our hearts? How does Jesus open our hearts, so that we can hear his good news, not just with our ears, but with our hearts?
For many of us we find ourselves open to receive God’s grace through our life together as a community of faith. When we come to church to learn. When we join a small group and learn together. Through Sunday school and youth group. We open ourselves to receive God’s grace when we serve other people and work for justice. We open ourselves to receive God’s grace when we come to worship and we pray together, sing together, listen together…and for many of us—music helps us to be open to God’s grace.
And so today we have an opportunity to say thank you to someone who has helped us as a church for 25 years to open our hearts to God through worship and music. Nicole, you have left an incredible mark on this faith community. Thank you.
Let us be a church where we see, and hear and experience people who have been touched by Jesus. Let us a be a church where we remind one another over and over what being open looks like! For when we open our hearts to God—we can let God fill us to overflowing with grace, healing and hope. We can then share that with the world. We, like those who witnessed the healings in our text today, won’t be able to remain silent! “People were overcome with wonder.” Fairport UMC may we be overcome with wonder! May it be so!
Amen.