Readings:
Sermon:
When I said I felt called to become a priest, there was an interesting reaction around my deafness. Some saw it as a gift to the church, that I could share my insights on accessibility and exclusion. Some saw it as a practical problem. Some saw it as a theological problem; insisting that I needed healing prayer.
Some, however, looked at the person I am: and saw someone called by God in all that I am, to grow and serve within his Body as we are all called to do in our different ways.
And in the times of Jesus, even more than today, deafness and disability closed doors. People were told that deafness was a consequence of sin, and were barred from community.
Jesus is love, walking amongst us. He is all about restoring community, he is all about tearing off labels, and restoring the dignity of a beloved child of God to each other. So who we are, and all our gifts, can shine through.
And today we see Jesus in two stories, clearing away the boundaries, and allowing his children to shine.
The deaf man is brought to Jesus completely passively, because of the barriers around him, he has had to learn to live within that way of being.
Jesus takes him aside, away from all the staring faces, protecting him from the sudden onslaught of noise when his hearing returns. He directs attention away from himself and gives the man back his own agency, - and his community - no fuss, no drama.
Jesus is never all about Jesus, he is always all about us.
And about bringing us together with each other, and him.
There are no barriers to the receiving and sharing of God’s love. Jesus challenges us to see beyond the ‘in’ and ‘out’ groups. To see that to God, there is only, ever, in.
Bringing down the barriers: Ephphatha! Be Open!
In the Jewish community of the time, being disabled, or being a foreigner, meant you were outside of God’s love. But being from the region of Tyre? Well, they were Israel’s ancient enemies – Deuteronomy 7 says Israel must show ‘no mercy’ to the seven pagan nations. No Mercy. Yet here she is, the Syrophoenician woman… begging for mercy.
Jesus is Lord, and God is all goodness, life, freedom and truth, he simply cannot be anything else. No ifs, no buts, no small print.
Jesus never refuses a single healing. He hasn’t hesitated to touch unclean lepers, unclean women; only two chapters earlier in the gospel, he crossed to pagan territory and healed the Gerasene demoniac. Jesus is not afraid to cross boundaries, nor bound by prejudices.
Imagine the scene, as Jesus articulates the prejudice around him when he responds sarcastically; What really? Heal your daughter, gentile woman? Let the children be fed first, we can’t throw their food to the … dogs. The dogs was a slang term for people who didn’t know the Torah, the Holy Scriptures of Israel.
And, just as he allowed the deaf man to go speak for himself, so he doesn’t speak for the woman. Instead, he enables her to speak for herself and join with Jesus to overthrow that prejudice. And she with great wit and intelligence, does exactly that.
What the children let fall, she says… the dogs treasure.
Today, community is often shattered. Ernst & Young carried out a study that showed that just 7% of the world’s leaders and managers have a disability, and that 80% of those people kept that disability secret. The country has been torn apart in recent months by racially motivated riots.
The gifts and goodness of God’s Beloved Children are often let fall in human boundary-making and closed and fearful hearts.
God’s mercy – God’s love…. Knows no limits.
And we, sisters and brothers, we are given the gift of sharing in that - of God’s all-inclusive, all-empowering love; for ourselves, but also in our role in advocacy, in opening doors, in standing up for each other, in praying for and with each other …
In a world of so many closed doors, glass ceilings, post-code lotteries, racial-riots and exclusion…
Let us pray
“Ephphatha!” “Be open!”