The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

Trinity 12 – August 18, 2024

Psalm 70; Isaiah 29; 2 Corinthians 3:4-11

St. Mark 7:31-37

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In the Rite of Holy Baptism, after hearing the Holy Gospel and praying the Lord’s prayer, the Pastor touches the baptismal candidate’s mouth and ear while proclaiming, “Ephphatha, that is, be opened!” These words act as both a prayer and a blessing. They are a prayer that the Word of God just spoken to the candidate would open his ears and mouth to receive and proclaim this saving Word. They are a blessing in that “whatever you ask in [Jesus’ Name], that you will receive.” The blessing is that God’s Word will do precisely what it says. The ears and mouth of the Baptized will be opened to receive and proclaim the Word of God.

Ephphatha is taken from the healing miracle heard this morning. Our Lord goes to great lengths to heal this man’s afflictions. The man cannot speak, and he cannot hear. He cannot receive the words of others, and he cannot express himself. What’s more, because he is both deaf and mute, it is likely that he was born this way. He has never heard, and he has never spoken. He is in a truly pitiable state.

This man’s afflictions are an allegory, a picture, of the natural state of man. By nature, we are not born open to the possibilities of the world. We are not born neutral toward God such that we need to be convinced or persuaded. We are born deaf and mute. We are turned away and hostile to the Living God. How did God create the universe? By speaking. How does St. John refer to Jesus in the first chapter of his Gospel? As the Word. Faith comes by hearing. Yet the natural man, our flesh, is so “anti-God” that we are born deaf and mute. Our flesh hates God such that our ears are stopped in a fight against the words of faith.

Our flesh is healed, is opened to the Word of God in Holy Baptism. Just as our Lord used the means of spittle while healing this man, He uses the waters of Holy Baptism to open your ears and your mouth. Baptism now saves you. How? By bringing the Word of God to bear on your soul, pouring it on your flesh to open your ears and mouth.

“What then,” you might say, “of the adult brought to Baptism? Don’t we usually teach first and then baptize adults? If their ears are plugged by nature and opened in Baptism, why not Baptize them before teaching?” This is an excellent question. Christ our Lord says that if we want to inherit the Kingdom of God we must turn and become children. By this, He means we must learn to trust like children. The inherent quality of trust that is found in children is not innocence in the sense of a “lack of guilt.” The trust of children can very easily be misused, or malformed. Children can easily be taught to trust the wrong things. That is why teaching children is a full-time job from the moment they are born. They trust whatever they are presented, without question.

An adult who is brought to the church has passed this stage of unquestioning trust. He has been formed by his experiences and by the world. For such a one as this, the Word of God must work not only to teach Him of the One True God but to unteach him of the doctrines of the world. The preparatory teaching of an adult before his baptism is primarily so that when he receives this holy washing, he does not immediately blaspheme it.

Yet even in the case of the adult, Holy Baptism is effective. It is not only an outward sign of an internal change that has already taken place. When the pastor proclaims, “Ephphatha, that is, be opened” to the adult baptismal candidate, the same thing is happening as when it is said to a child. Truly, the baptized is being opened to the Word of God and his tongue is being formed for the proclamation of the same.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God.^[1] Thus, the pulpit on Sunday morning is the beginning of all pastoral care. The Divine Service is the foundation upon which the minister of God brings the Word of God and distributes the Sacraments to you, the people of God. All other activities and works of the Church must proceed from this one thing most needful.

As such, the Pastor must spend a majority of his time devoted to the Word of God. The Pastor is a man, like any other. He does not have perfect knowledge of the mind of God. He must spend time studying the Word of God so that he can rightly bring it to you. Sermons, bible studies, and devotions do not spring forth from a last minute of hurried preparation—or at least they shouldn’t. Even the study of the conduct of the liturgy itself should be a priority for every Pastor because it is that place in which God comes to His people most intimately.

There is also the truth that the Divine Service on Sunday morning is a very small proportion of the week. It represents only an hour or an hour and a half each week, leaving 166 hours outside of the Divine Service each week. Like the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, we cannot abandon the world to encamp in glory.^[2] Rather, we must bear the glory of Christ throughout the week. We must take what we have received on Sunday morning and carry it throughout all our days.

That means you must read the bible every day. One or two verses in a Facebook group or half a verse with a devotion won’t cut it. It is the Word of God that forms your heart, and it is the Word of God that unplugs your ears. The same goes for 5 or 6 random verses each day. What you need is a constant and steady stream of the Word of God. Reading straight through the Scriptures, then doing it again and again will form your heart and mind to the Word of God. You will begin to see the world through the eyes of God and will begin to speak in complete sentences even as the formerly deaf man began speaking correctly after the miracle.

The Congregation at Prayer that we use to open Bible Study every Sunday has a reading plan with two chapters a day. That should be possible for almost everyone here. For the youngest of children, you might go a little slower, but it is entirely possible to read straight from the Scriptures and talk about the details – who is involved, what happens, when it happens, where it happens, and why it happens. If you want or need a different reading plan, just let me know. There are literally thousands available.

Jesus groans as He opens the ears and looses the tongue of the deaf man. He commands the friends of the formerly deaf man to be silent about the miracle and yet they persistently proclaim the miracle throughout the region. Jesus groans and commands silence because He knows human nature will see only the miracle and stop all ears from the Word of God. We hear what we want to hear, and we speak without thinking, bound to the language of the world.

This miracle shows that Christians are called to the exact opposite. Christians are called to be silent before the Word of God, to receive it daily and live by it at every moment. Christians are then called to speak that Word of God plainly throughout the world, just as the tongue of the formerly deaf man was unbound so that he could speak plainly.

May your ears and tongue be loosed by the Almighty Word of God this day. Ephphatha, that is, be opened.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] Romans 10:17.

[2] St. Matthew 17:1-9.

The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

 The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity – September 11, 2022

Psalm 74; 2 Chronicles 28:8-15; Galatians 3:15-22

St. Luke 10:23-37

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

God is no respecter of persons. He does not choose to love some and hate others. He does not have one set of expectations for kings and a different set of expectations for beggars which will determine their salvation.

At the same time, God knows each of you by name. God knows each of you to be an individual with unique needs. Last week, we heard of a miraculous healing in which Christ put His fingers in a man’s ears, spat, touched the man’s tongue, looked toward heaven, groaned, and finally said, “Be opened.”[1] No other miracles are recorded as being attended with such liturgical specificity. Each healing miracle seems to be unique. There could be many reasons, but at least one reason is because each ailing person is unique. One deaf man is not identical to another.

“Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it.”[2] The disciples are not blessed because they are humbler than the prophets. They are not blessed because they are poorer than the kings. They are not even blessed because they were in the right place at the right time.

The disciples are blessed because they hear and see the very Word of God in flesh. They are uniquely blessed because they behold the One True God in whom all other wants and desires are fulfilled. They are blessed because they receive the teachings of Christ directly into their ears and these teachings change who they are.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, we see that God is no respecter of persons. Sin and temptation beset the man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and leave him half dead, that is, spiritually dead. He only lives in his flesh but his soul is given over to death. The priest and the Levite can only reveal the wounds of the man. This is the primary use of God’s Law: to reveal sin. They pass by on the other side as they cannot save the man’s soul.

It is only the Samaritan, the one who comes from a foreign place but has joined Himself to Man, that can save the man’s soul. He sooths the man’s soul with the oil of the Holy Gospel and purges the remaining sin with the antiseptic sting of the wine of the cross the man must bear. Jesus carries the man’s burden upon His own back as He brings him into the church, where he will be cared for by the servant, the under shepherd, of the Samaritan. The two coins are that by which the Church cares for the souls of man: the Word of God and the Sacraments. The Samaritan then promises to return and clear away any remnants of debt the man has incurred, bearing him at that time to eternal rest.

The Samaritan cared nothing for the history of the man on the side of the road. He cared nothing for the wealth or poverty of the man. He was no respecter of the type of person he might be, but the Samaritan cared deeply for the individual who was placed before Him.

This is the exhortation given to the young theologian. “Go and do likewise,” that is, “Go and be no respecter of persons, but care deeply for the individual placed before you.” The answer to the question, “Who is my neighbor?” is not “Everyone,” but rather, “He who has been placed before you.”

Jesus Christ is the Good Samaritan. He is the perfect Samaritan. It is He who has perfectly born your sin to the cross and died on your behalf. He died for the great and the small. He died for the weak and the strong. He died for the rich and the poor. He died for you.

You, beloved Christians, are called to go and do likewise. You are called to be holy as your Father is holy. You are called not to be a respecter of persons but to show genuine love for your neighbor, the one who has been placed before you.

Let us first begin in the Church. The Word of God has come for all men. No matter how someone might look, this Church exists for the salvation of man. We exist to bring the Light of Christ to individuals. That means that when someone comes through those doors, it doesn’t matter what they look like, they are to be treated the same as anyone who attends weekly and gives abundantly. Should they be dirty from having slept behind a dumpster, Jesus is for them. Should they drive a new, fully loaded pickup, Jesus is for them. If Jesus is for them, then Mount Calvary is for them. We are not a respecter of persons because God is not a respecter of persons.

It is neither Jesus nor His disciples who treat the sick, homeless, or demoniac as though they are dangerous or untouchable. Even when Jesus’ disciples do act this way, He rebukes them.

On the other hand, God nowhere commands His people to be foolish. We ought not cast pearls before swine or pretend the road between Jericho and Jerusalem is paved with roses. Yet caution is not the same as suspicion. Caution means being aware of your surroundings. Suspicion means assuming the worst-case scenario, something explicitly forbidden by the eighth commandment: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. What does this mean? We should fear and love God that we may not deceitfully belie, betray, slander, nor defame our neighbor, but defend him, speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything.”[3]

So, when someone comes to visit the church, do not treat him as a suspect. Do not stand 3 or 4 deep at the door, pointing and discussing the visitor. Likewise, do not sneak sideways glances to discern her mental state. This person has been placed before you just as the man in the ditch was placed before the Samaritan. Go and sit with him. Such a visitor is likely confused about how to follow the service. Do something about it. The Samaritan did not just throw money at a situation (though He did use His money to assist), but He did something for the man before Him.

If you are concerned about the safety of those around you based on the visitor’s actions, you should also go and sit with him. Engaging the individual presents you with far more opportunities to diffuse a situation without escalating to violence than standing afar off. Jesus died even for this person, who intends violence. Be no respecter of persons but engage the individual.

What is true here in the church is true also in your daily lives. Everyone in the whole world is not your neighbor, but everyone in the whole world has the potential to be your neighbor. Your neighbor is the one who is placed in front of you. This is first your family. You have a responsibility to your family that goes beyond making sure there is food on the table. Scripture says that we are all born half dead, that is spiritually dead, and must be made alive through the Word and Sacraments. You are given to foster that faith within your family.

Yes, clothing and shoes, meat and drink, house and home, fields, cattle, and all other goods are blessed gifts of God. Yes, these must be provided for. But these are never the primary concern of the Christian. The primary concern of the Christian concerns the soul. More than a full belly, the Christian mother desires her child have a love of Truth, the Word of God. More than a high-yield retirement plan, the Christian father desires his son to have the harvest of the fruits of the Spirit.

Beyond the family, it becomes difficult for a preacher to address. Why? Because you are individuals. The neighbors God has placed on your road are individuals. It is impossible for the preacher to address every situation in which you will find yourselves. You have the Scriptures. You have the Holy Spirit. You have the sanctified wisdom of the Christian to guide you in your ways.

If it is frustrating that the Pastor cannot tell you what to do in every situation, it is either because you want an answer to all things so that you don’t have to think or because you haven’t read the Scriptures, especially the Wisdom literature such as Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Psalms. Or possibly, it is because you wish that every person you encountered was the same, that human interaction could follow a prescribed set of rules, drawn in your favor, so that you would not have to engage the person before you. That is not human interaction. That is the internet.

No one is the Good Samaritan in the way that our Lord, Jesus Christ, is. He is the Good Samaritan who dragged your sinful body out of the ditch and has given you rest. You cannot be perfect in this lifetime, but you have been called to make a beginning. You have been called to love your neighbor, whomever has been placed in your path. God is not a respecter of persons. God loves individuals. Beloved child of God, redeemed by the blood of Jesus, go and do likewise.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] St. Mark 7:33-34.

[2] St. Luke 10:23-24.

[3] The Small Catechism.

The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

 The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity – September 7, 2022

Psalm 70; Isaiah 29:17-24; 2 Corinthians 3:4-11

St. Mark 7:31-37

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

When Christ takes the deaf man aside, He puts His fingers in his ears, spits, touches his tongue, then lifts His eyes to heaven, groans, and finally says, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”[1] This is the only time Christ is said to groan in this way. He is displeased with the current circumstances.

Jesus is not displeased that a suffering man has come to Him for help. He is not displeased that a crowd brought this man to Jesus that he might be healed. Christ cares about this man’s physical body just as He cares for his soul. Your flesh is the temple of the Holy Spirit. God cares a great deal for your body and His compassion moves Him to perform miracles of healing.

Our Lord is groaning in displeasure over the fact that while He is trying to preach, to establish a pulpit from which He will proclaim the Word of God which replaces the stony heart of man with a heart of flesh, the multitudes cry out for miracles.

Some time after the events of Mark 7, the formerly deaf man died. If Jesus had not opened his ears and loosed his tongue, he still would have died. He would have died with the ability to hear or without. The miracle performed for him was a band-aid over the more serious wound of his sin.

There are times when a band-aid is necessary. If you suffered a gun shot wound, someone would need to put pressure on it until you got to the hospital. The dish cloth pressed firmly into the wound is not the permanent fix, but it sure helped get you there. The miracles of Christ are similar. They are a helpful band-aid, demonstrating that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. They demonstrate that God is merciful. He cares for your body and your soul. Yet the miracles are not what will save your life. Ultimately, they do not save your body either.

I do not expect Jesus to walk through those doors any time soon for the purpose of loosing tongues and healing wounds. I pray that He would come quickly, but that is another matter. If we are not looking for Jesus to perform miracles with spitting, sighing, groaning, and commanding words, what then does this matter to us?

It matters a great deal. It teaches us that the most important thing in the world is the Word of God. Christ may not walk Himself through those doors, but He has called and ordained a servant to do it on His behalf. God calls men to be pastors to proclaim His Word to the Church. He calls men to steward the sacraments which are His Word connected to physical elements. Christ has ordered His church such that the ministers of the Gospel are to attend to the preaching and teaching of the Word and the right administration of the sacraments.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing the Word of God.[2] Thus the pulpit on Sunday morning is the beginning of all pastoral care. The Divine Service is the foundation upon which the minister of God brings the Word of God and distributes the Sacraments to you, the people of God. All other activities and works of the Church must proceed from this one thing most needful.

As such, the Pastor must spend a majority of his time devoted to the Word of God. The Pastor is a man, like any other. He does not have perfect knowledge of the mind of God. He must spend time studying the Word of God so that he can rightly bring it to you. Sermons, bible studies, and devotions do not spring forth from a last minute of hurried preparation—or at least they shouldn’t. Even the study of the conduct of the liturgy itself should be a priority for every Pastor because it is that place in which God comes to His people most intimately.

There is also the truth that the Divine Service on Sunday morning is a very small proportion of the week. It represents only an hour or an hour and a half each week, leaving 166 hours outside of the Divine Service each week. Like the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, we cannot abandon the world to encamp in glory.[3] Rather, we must bear the glory of Christ throughout the week. We must take that which we have received on Sunday morning and carry it throughout all our days.

This begins with Bible Study on Sunday morning. Bible study is little more than an extension of the Divine Service. It is an opportunity to continue learning about God’s Word. The only real difference is the ability to dialogue with your teacher, the Pastor. Carrying the light of Christ into the world continues by daily reading of your bible. You cannot bear the light of Christ into the world if you do not know what that light says. As the week stretches on, it means preparing yourself once again to enter through those doors and receive the Word of God, the Holy Supper, and the forgiveness of sins.

Yet there is still more. Bearing the light of Christ means being the best machine operator you can be. It means being the best mother you can be. It means being the best grandfather, cousin, sister, manager, clerk, secretary, and son you can be. Fulfilling your vocations to the best of your abilities is fulfilling the Love of God toward your neighbor.

Striving to be promoted at work so that you make more money is delightful in the eyes of God, so long as you do so with an honest heart. Do not learn from the world to lie and cheat to gain favor. Gain favor by being the best you can be. Then with your increased earnings, support the Word of God by supporting the local church, supporting the planting of new churches, or even supporting your sister in Christ who could use a little help.

All these activities then flow directly back into the Divine Service. Carrying the light of Christ into the world means guiding the world to that place where they will receive Christ—the Church. It also means showing the world your humility in needing the Word of God. Christ came for the sinners, not for those who counted themselves righteous. Simply by showing the world that you need forgiveness, that you need the Word of God, speaks volumes about the value of Christ and His death to forgive your sins. Everything in the Church, everything in the life of the Christian, flows from and flows toward the Divine Service.

Jesus groans as He opens the ears and looses the tongue of the deaf man. He commands the friends of the formerly deaf man to be silent about the miracle and yet they persistently proclaim the miracle throughout the region. Jesus groans and commands silence because He knows human nature will see only the miracle and stop all ears from the Word of God. We hear what we want to hear, and we speak without thinking, bound to the language of the world.

This miracle shows that Christians are called to the exact opposite. Christians are called to be silent before the Word of God, to receive it daily and live by it at every moment. Christians are then called to speak that Word of God plainly throughout the world, just as the tongue of the formerly deaf man was unbound so that he could speak plainly.

Pastors are solemnly charged with teaching you the Word of God, something which requires great study. Yet, just as Jesus could not refuse the miracle of healing this man, pastors cannot refuse the other duties throughout the church. Jesus could not refuse the miracle of healing because of His compassion. The ears and tongue of this man are precious to Jesus. In the resurrection, this man’s ears and tongue will be perfected because God created him to be perfect in body and soul.

From the color of the carpet to the orientation of the Fellowship Hall, everything that happens in the church is theological in nature. It is theological because it either flows from and toward the Divine Service or it doesn’t. If it does, then it should be promoted, enhanced, and featured. If it doesn’t, then it needs to be corrected.

This entire topic is called sanctification, or the life of the Christian. You are declared righteous by God in an instant—the moment faith entered your heart, causing you to repent of your sins and trust in the forgiveness of Christ. But the life of sanctification continues throughout all your days on this side of glory. Learning to receive the Word of God, learning how to bear the light of Christ into the world, and learning to strive against your own sins is a task you cannot complete on this side of heaven.

This process of sanctification is a burden, but it is light. It is a yoke, but it is sweet. It is sweet and light because the victory over your sin has already been won. The deaf man did not have to be trained to speak, his tongue was loosed in an instant and he spoke plainly. The victory was already won for him. But he had a lifetime of dry mouth, sore throats, and other ailments to face before he received the eternal reward for Christ’s victory over his disabilities.

You too, have days of trials and suffering ahead of you. You have sins to fight against—both your own and the sins of those around you. But the victory has been won. Jesus has done everything well. He makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak. He has conquered your sin and given you the victory.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] St. Mark 7:33-34.

[2] Romans 10:17.

[3] St. Matthew 17:1-9.