Spirit Sunday, September 8, 2024

Isaiah 35: 1-7       

Mark 7: 24-37   

Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”

Prayer: Help us catch your Holy Spirit today, O God of new life and grace. In the Spirit of Christ we pray, Amen.

So what the heck is going on today? Balloons? Beach balls? Bouncing around the congregation? Being caught and then batted away? Streamers blown from a fan? The person behind you tickling you with ribbons on a stick? Tambourine style ribbon catchers? A brand new banner?

It’s all about our Spirit Sunday theme, “Catching the Spirit!” Who said worship is dry and boring?

Of course, I’m well aware that some of you are bristling going, “Seriously? For cryin’ out loud, Pastor G, worship is supposed to be serious. And sedate. And ponderous. It’s not supposed to be fun and joyous. Spunky and spontaneous.”

On the contrary. Worship is supposed to give God our unbridled praise for God’s power of renewal. For celebrating God’s grace that opens doors. Blessing God for the forgiveness that frees us, and for the love that throws out fear of others.

So, I encourage us. Today, be opened.

Be opened by the power of the Holy Spirit’s presence as we celebrate Spirit Sunday! Amen!

But, more importantly, in worship, we rejoice in God’s good news of spiritual freedom. Which can open minds that seem impossibly narrow. It can warm up those who are cynical. It can release those who struggle with their own human brokenness, frailty, and guilty consciences. And melt hearts that are ice cold and soften the ones hard as stone.

That’s what I imagine the people of Isaiah’s day were experiencing. They were hardened. They were in Babylonian captivity for the past 70+ years of their lives, and Isaiah’s word comes to them saying that the wilderness experience of their captivity will soon be over. And they were probably like, “Yeah, right.”

But God pushed through their cynicism. Isaiah basically tells the people to “Be opened” to what God can do. Because their lives will soon be like the desert that blooms. Their nation will be like weak hands that get firm. Knees that get strengthened. Their faith will be like blind eyes that  get opened, deaf ears that get unstopped, lame legs that can leap. And people will say, “YES! Here is our God! God comes and saves you!” Be opened to what God does. 

I mention this because Jesus has a “be opened” experience with the Syro-Phoenician woman. This story is amazing to me—it shows Jesus actually growing! Who knew that the Holy Spirit would use a non-Jewish woman to actually help Jesus broaden his horizons? Because Jesus being fully human, he had fully human feelings, human thoughts, human opinions. And he was of the opinion that his first calling and priority was to the Jewish people. And he was emphatic about it, even sounding harsh when he slams the woman, likening her to street dogs. Saying that the children’s food shouldn’t go to the dogs. Whoa.

 To which the woman was like, “Oh yeah? Well, too bad. My daughter is in need.” Boom! Of course, she didn’t actually say that. What she did say was a bit more respectful: “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

Which I have to believe sent Jesus into a creative pause. One where he had to listen deeply to her words. One where he had to be opened from one perspective to a broader perspective of what God’s purposes were. God’s intention through Christ was to redeem the whole world. Because the whole world is in need, Jesus! She fit under God’s tent of salvation just as easily as the children of Israel fit under that tent. Her needs were just as great. It was like Syro-Phoenician lives matter! Jesus grew and was opened to God’s deeper truth.

Then comes the story of the deaf man with a speech impediment in the Decapolis, a Roman city. With the new insight of God’s wider purpose firmly in place, Jesus puts his fingers in the man’s ears, does this weird thing with spit and touched the man’s tongue, (something that would never fly today given our clergy boundary training and all—just sayin’). He looks to heaven, sighs, and says “Be opened.” And the man’s ears were opened, and his tongue was released. He could hear and his speech impediment was gone.

Be opened. Those words had a profound impact on me this past week. It was the first week without an Associate Pastor with all its challenges. And I’m hearing God say, “Be opened to what I’m doing at Christ Church.”

It was a week where there was another fatal, mass shooting in GA, and a shooting on a highway in KY, and I heard  myself looking to heaven, sighing within my inner spirit, and praying that Jesus would speak the words “Be opened” to the log jam in Washington DC, that is keeping our country from having stronger gun laws in place.

So, I wonder if we can look to God, and sigh deeply in prayer, and say “be opened” to the plaguing attitudes, prejudices, and bigotry that stops us from seeing the image of God in other person, the immigrant, the politician, the person of a different faith?

Can we look to Jesus, and sigh from the depths of our being, and say “Ephphatha” to the confining walls that make me think that God’s grace and love are only for me and for those who are like me? Who think like me? And worship like me?

Can we look to God and say “be opened” directly to the deafness, the wall of disbelief we have of God’s incredible message of resurrection power?

Say “Be opened” to the tomb that keeps my inner spirit on lock down, to the grave that tries to keep my authentic self from emerging. Pray “be opened” that this whole gospel of Jesus Christ thing is actually very, very, very REAL. And it is very REAL for each one of us. That the spiritual freedom we have comes when our ears and our hearts are opened and we hear God’s message that we are really, really loved. Say “Be opened” to the walls that prevent us from hearing all that.

Pray “be opened” to whatever spiritually gets us dried up, clogged up, backed up, blocked up, stopped up, closed up, dammed up, hardened up, freezed up, caked up, gummed up, and clotted up!

And watch what God will do!

So, send those beach balls a-flyin’! Get those balloons in the air and let those ribbons blow in the wind! Because we’re catching God’s Spirit! We’re being opened by our spiritual freedom, opened by God’s grace and love, opened by the Spirit’s forgiveness and renewal as we worship and as our new church program year begins.

And we will say, “Here is our God!”

Thanks be to God! Amen.