Be Opened

My friend, the elderly woman in the hospital bed was dying. She had developed a brain bleed the day before, on Friday morning. It was Saturday evening, her children had gathered, and she would be with Jesus by morning. The family were singing hymns which guided me down the hallway, for they had all been raised in church by a woman who had played the piano and violin, taught music in the school system, gone to church all of her life, and showed compassion and generosity to her students and the people she met along life’s pathway.

She had come to church on Sunday – I played piano that Sunday because her fingers were stiff with arthritis, but she sang. On Tuesday evening, she then sang gospel songs at the hospital with her son, as they did most Tuesday evenings, for she believed in cheering up the sick. Wednesday, she had closed our Bible Study with prayer and driven home in the dark by herself, for she was still learning about Jesus. Friday, she had been preparing to go to the other church on the charge to work her usual weekly 11 am shift in the food pantry, helping the poor, when something happened. We weren’t sure whether the bleed happened first and she fell, or she fell first and that caused the bleed. But her son checked on her because her car was still at home and it was after eleven. And now she was in the hospital, repeatedly praying to Jesus to have mercy on her. She was three days short of her 93^rd birthday.

She saw me enter the room and motioned to me. Her speech was slurred, she spoke quickly, too quickly, and she spoke to me in a voice no one could understand – but the Spirit spoke to me and I understood. She was saying, over and over, “tell them, tell them, tell them.” And I told her I would tell them. There was no way to keep it a secret – for she had already told them in word and deed over her lifetime.

A week later, the funeral home was packed. I knew it would be so, because the previous fall there was a reunion of her family – a hundred fifty people showed up. And I told them. I told the family what most of them knew already, that their mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, great-great-grandmother, and even a few who knew her as their great-great-great-grandmother, had been a solid believer in Jesus Christ. I told them that all the good they had loved in her had been what she had been given by Christ. I told them that she was not dead – but now she was more alive than she had ever been. I knew that most of her family were believers – but some were not. I told them of her life – and how that life had happened because of her strong faith in Christ. A grandson who is also a pastor stepped forward to speak; a son who pastors a small church in the hills sang a song. 

And we sang hymns. At this funeral, it was not the typical funeral where a bit of piped music comes over the speakers, speaking of a mansion in Heaven, of being buried high on a mountain, or traveling across a rainbow while people sniffle and weep. No, at this funeral, ancient hymns were sung in full voice by the assembled congregation of the family and friends. “Amazing Grace” was sung at full volume; “It is Well with My Soul” was sung with parts and echoes. Other songs were sung as though a thousand voices were present. It was the most joyous expression of love and faith that I have ever heard!

And it was all because of what she had made her priority in life. Her family understood that she was not dead – that her life was continuing. And so, this funeral was like the celebration of a new birth, a child of God had arrived in that permanent new home. There was no way to keep her faith a secret if I had tried. Everyone who knew her told others in the crowd about her faith, her deeds, her kind words, her gentle way. You usually knew if she disagreed with you, but you always knew she loved you, because nothing was critically important to her except the Gospel, she had lived long enough that she knew most things were inherently trivial. What was the core message I was to tell them? What did we find earlier in Isaiah today?

“Say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, …he will come to save you.”

Simply enough, my friend wanted me to tell those family members who did not know about meaning of the Gospel. God does not seek to destroy us for our sins, but loves us so much God sent His only Son to die in our place, as a substitute sacrifice, that we might spend eternity with God. I told them.

So many people today believe that God is like most of the people they know. Some people are good and nice; others are rough and unfriendly. And most people judge others by these behaviors. I like you because you help me – I don’t like you because you are odd, different, you’ve hurt me. We play favorites. We decide whether or not you will be my friend or my enemy. We put you in one of those categories and leave you there for years and years, if not forever. Friends forever – or enemies forever.

And we largely do this because of social class. We look at how much money people make, we look at the clothes they wear, we listen to how they talk and we decide, “I’m better than you” or “I’m not as good as you”, and it mostly – not completely – but mostly depends upon looks and clothing and speech. James, the brother of Jesus who led the early church after Jesus returned to Heaven, wrote strongly about this.

2 My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. ² Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. ³ If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” ⁴ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁸ If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. ⁹ But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.

And we do this – at least, in the church, we usually realize that it is wrong to show favoritism, for we realize that God doesn’t show favoritism, even while those who simply live in our society around us show favoritism without realizing the evilness of it. Because everyone shows favoritism, most people believe that God shows favoritism – even though God doesn’t.

We even show a reverse favoritism. We are most comfortable with people who speak like us, look like us, dress like us, live in homes like ours and drive cars similar to ours. We make friends of those we work with and who live nearby. We are mostly uncomfortable around people who have much less than us – and but also around people who have much more than us. This is reverse favoritism. After all, how many of you have invited your doctor over to your home for dinner? How many of you have invited your doctor to church? Have you ever thought of it?

But James tells us that showing favoritism is a sin. James does not put tight boundaries on what constitutes favoritism, but simply tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves. All our neighbors. Anything less is favoritism. And we are to avoid it because it is a sin which harms people.

A great wave of sin is passing over our land at this time. Almost everyone is harshly judging other people in our country rather than loving them. We judge politicians, we judge those who disagree with us about masks, we judge people who have different opinions about vaccines, about different politicians, about ways of speaking, about just about anything that we can hold opinions on. We narrow down the list of people who can be our friends as we learn their opinions on this and that. Do you like masks or not? Are you vaccinated or not? Are you a Republican or a Democrat? Ford or Chevy? Steak or chicken? Jeans or khaki’s? Marshall or WVU? Dresses or slacks? PHS or South? Anything to divide you and me. Anything to justify rejecting you or accepting you. And the number of people whom we allow to be friends keeps getting smaller and smaller as the vital issues all become political. We judge based upon the least little thing – Kroger or Piggly Wiggly or Wal-mart?

And we rarely show mercy or kindness in our judgements, because even showing mercy will bring the judgement of others upon us, because, as I mentioned before, everything is becoming a political statement, a statement worthy of fighting over, everyone is either a friend who will be defended until death - or an enemy who deserves to be canceled and die and never be heard from again. If he is your friend, then you must be a spawn of Satan, also!

Where’s the mercy? Where’s the kindness in our society? Freedom of speech isn’t found in the Bible, just in our country’s founding documents, but showing mercy to others for their comments and their actions and their opinions is Biblically highly suggested and even commanded. Why? To save us from judgement by God. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Where has mercy gone to? Where has love gone to? Where has the ability to pleasantly disagree and discuss ideas disappeared to?

James says:

¹² Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, ¹³ because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

But in our society today, judgement is preferred – mercy – which is love in action - is almost non-existent. That is a key way that we know our society is becoming evil. Outside of our walls, forgiveness has been forgotten.

But we can be different, we must be different, and we shall be different inside these walls. We can constantly show mercy and love rather than judgement. You may think your brother or sister holds poor opinions, acts poorly, makes poor decisions. But if you do not show mercy, you have forgotten to love your neighbor. I can – and should – pray and use wisdom to pick a particular politician for a particular office. But mercy and love say I should pray and use wisdom to understand why that politician makes his or her decisions that I disagree with – and show mercy in my speech – and even in my thoughts. After all, I don’t have all the information that politician does. It is always easier – and more fun – to make fun of, to tear down, and to insult a man and his decisions after the fact than to run for the office and make the decision ourselves. It has always been safer to throw stones than to step forward where people might throw them at us. But James asks us to show mercy to people, to leaders, to celebrities, even to politicians. Perhaps most especially to politicians.

And perhaps we might choose to reduce our support of those people who like to tear down others. Perhaps we might suggest a bit of mercy, and if they will not give mercy, we might just walk away, hide their posts on Facebook, not share their comments, simply close our own mouths, control our own tongues, and walk away from those who destroy our society. And I’m not focusing upon one particular political point of view, for I’ve seen this on all sides, on too many postings, with too many people. James would ask us to show mercy, to speak graciously or not at all, to love all of our neighbors, even the loud fools. James would ask us to have faith that God will take care of the situation, especially if we choose to open up and be kind and merciful to others. The judgement is not up to us, but to God.

James finishes up this section with a disturbing discussion of faith and deeds – some translations say “faith and works”. Many people think that James is opposing Paul’s comments in the Book of Romans and Ephesians about faith saving us. This wisdom has caused many theological arguments over the centuries – until we sit down and calmly understand that James is not in opposition to Paul, but is extending what Paul says.

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 

Most of the conflict in this passage with James and Paul lies in the idea that we are saved by faith and not by works. Have you heard this before? “We are saved by faith and not by works”, as the Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:8-9

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

This is true, but this is also a case where a little bit of knowledge is dangerous. We must look deeper to resolve this conflict.

In the days of the reformers, 400 years ago, the great debate that developed was whether or not people were saved solely by their faith in Jesus Christ – or by “works”. In that time, the “works” that were talked about were primarily the works of the priesthood. The question was whether or not the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church, administered by properly ordained priests of the Roman Catholic Church were necessary for salvation. Those sacraments were baptism, confirmation, Holy Communion, marriage, confession and penance, ordination, and extreme unction, commonly known as “last rites”. According to Catholic belief, these sacraments administered properly were needed for salvation, with certain exceptions.

The reformers, beginning with Martin Luther, Jean Calvin, and continuing with such people as John Wesley, maintained that these sacraments, or “works” would not save us, but instead, we must believe that Jesus is the Son of God – this is the faith part - and be baptized. Various groups developed shades of meaning around this, mainly around the question of whether baptism was strictly necessary, but you get the general drift.

And then, we run into James.

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

Most who have put this together understand this. The question the Reformers answered – that faith is critical and works do not save – was to reject the idea that some ritual performed is all that is needed. James asks the next level of question. “Okay, you have great faith – but you never do anything that actually shows love for anyone. What good is your faith?”

In other words, while your actions will not save you, it is highly questionable whether you’ve “got it”, whether you are actually saved, whether you actually have faith in Jesus – if you never do anything that might cause you some inconvenience. Do you really trust in Jesus, do you really have faith in Jesus, if you won’t share your wealth, your food, your clothing, your home with others who are not in your family? Where is your faith? You must be opened up and become vulnerable, trusting in Jesus to handle things for you. Prove your faith to me!

Once, many years ago, my wife and I were having a tough time in our business. A couple of large customers had chosen to take their good ole time paying us – and we owed our suppliers for the goods. I got a phone call from a collection agent who was demanding money. Saying a quick prayer, I said, “I will get you $500 this Friday, $500 next Friday, and the balance a month from Friday.” I just had a slight glimmer of a hope that this money would come in, but I trusted in Jesus to provide. We made the payments, for Jesus honored my faith. But it was a necessary test for me so that I would know I could trust in Jesus.

So many times, we do not step out in faith because, frankly, we don’t really have faith. We aren’t willing to open ourselves up, to become vulnerable. We don’t put the extra money in the offering plate, we don’t raise our hand and say, “I’ll do that”, we don’t speak to the waitress about what Jesus can do for her because we are afraid. We don’t really have faith that Jesus will back us up.

But if we truly have faith that Jesus is the Son of God and loves us very much – then do you really think Jesus will let us down when we start to talk to someone about His love? James is telling us – if you won’t talk, you really don’t have faith, because if you had a deep faith, you wouldn’t be scared and you wouldn’t be making excuses.

The more you go out on a limb for Jesus, the more He will get involved in your life.

But don’t test Jesus. Remember his words when the devil asked him to climb to the top of the Temple and jump – “You will not test the Lord your God.”

Instead, gradually go toward the point of some inconvenience, some minor pain, I’ve seen situations where I or Saundra gave up a modest amount of money to help another – and each time, the money has come back from another source, unexpectedly, within a week. Not a profit like the prosperity preachers would have you believe – but a match. $100 out - $100 back in. $300 out, $300 back in. $20 out, $20 back in.

You see, Jesus understands that developing faith is difficult and scary. So He’s there, ready to reward us for our faith, like a father in a swimming pool teaching us that we will not drown, that He’s there to catch us until we can swim everyday with faith.

In our Gospel reading from Mark, Jesus has traveled to Tyre in modern Lebanon, near Beirut. He has left the Jewish area around Galilee and gone into a Greek-inhabited part of Syria. He goes to stay at a house – trying to get a few days vacation, peace, rest, perhaps. He wants to keep His presence a secret. But the people of the town find out and suddenly, it is like finding out that Prince Harry and Meghan are staying over at Donna’s house, everyone wants to visit.

A local woman, not a Jew, has a daughter who has been possessed by a demon. At her wit’s end, desperate, she goes immediately to find Jesus and beg him to heal her daughter.

Jesus, uncharacteristically, turns her down. And He does it with rather harsh words.

“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

Yes, Jesus has called her a “dog”.

²⁸ “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

You can see the smile creep onto the Son of God’s face, for He has seen her love for her daughter, her understanding of what is right – and her faith in Him. Even after a refusal, she still had faith that Jesus would do the right thing! She has opened up herself to a terrible scolding, to verbal abuse, even possibly to a beating because of the way people related to different groups back then. He rewards such openness and vulnerability.

²⁹ Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”

³⁰ She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Yes, Jesus tests our faith now and again. He wants us to be opened to Him. It is easy to say at first, “I trust in Jesus.” But, like Job, will you trust in God after your home has been destroyed, your wealth taken away, your children lost, and you are sitting around a campfire scratching boils on your skin with a piece of pottery? How strong is your faith?

Will you still trust like Hezekiah, King of Judea, even though your city is surrounded by enemies, even though you are outnumbered three to one, even though there is no escape? How strong is your faith? Will you still pray for salvation?

Will you still trust like Jesus of Nazareth, arrested, beaten, hoisted upon a cross to die, all your disciples leaving you to your fate? How strong is your faith?

God restored Job his health, wealth and children, doubling what he had before his difficulties. God rescued Hezekiah by destroying the besieging army with a plague. And God resurrected Jesus from the dead.

How strong is your faith?

Jesus walked back to Galilee and traveled to the Decapolis, the region of ten cities on the southeastern side of the lake. There, he encountered a man who was deaf and could hardly talk. He examined the man, poking fingers in his ears, touching his tongue. He then looked toward Heaven and said, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). And the man could hear and speak plainly.

In our lives, we mostly live a life where we do not fully see or hear the life that God would have us live. It is almost like we live in a dream, not fully awake, stuck in a world where we cannot speak or hear everything that is going on around us. We stay closed to God, avoiding God, hiding from God.

We work hard but there is quicksand and there are spiderwebs that keep us from freely living in the world. We often feel like men and women who are trying to run a race with a couple hundred pounds of weight upon our back, thirty pound weights on our legs, and twenty pound weights on our arms. And the world is black and white and gray like Dorothy’s Kansas in the Wizard of Oz – and all the while, we can feel and hear the tornado coming at the edge of our senses.

There is a reason for this. We are trying to use our bodies, our natural bodies to run the race. Our pride is so strong that we must do it by ourselves. But we were not intended to rely just on our bodies and our minds to succeed. We were intended to be opened up to the Holy Spirit of God to energize us so we can double our speed, to lift us so we can jump hurdles, to help us see in color, to open our ears so we can hear a symphony around us, to loosen our tongues so we can shout and sing praises to the One who created us. We were intended to be living with God who can ride the tornado!

Do you feel down, sluggish, lonely, depressed? Are you burnt out with the pandemic, looking with dread at the next few months as more and more cases build in our community, locking us down, masking us up, keeping us inside? Again?

Then turn to the One who created us. Be opened! Become vulnerable to God. Turn to Jesus, to God, to the Holy Spirit, with a deep faith and ask “What’s up? What shall I learn from this? How shall I learn to hear and to see and to speak and to do better than I do today? What great things would you do through me?” Allow yourself to be opened up to the working of God.

The other evening, I was sitting on the back porch. In the dark. Despite the fact that this is Charge Conference season, a time when I have considerable paperwork to prepare in addition to the sermon, Facebook postings, selection of music and prayers and such for the bulletin, despite the fact that people needed called – I was sitting on the porch. I wasn’t reading – although I do read a lot. I wasn’t watching television. I wasn’t planning anything or cleaning or getting ready to mow the lawn. I was just sitting there on the porch, for I learned a few years ago that sometimes the very best thing I can do is to sit there, apparently doing nothing.

But I was doing something. I was being open to God.

I was sitting there quietly, asking God to speak to me. And I was listening.

Various sounds were there. I could hear thunder in the distance and see lightning. I could hear a bird calling and a cricket chirping. Water ran over the little fountain we have on the porch. A couple of bats flew by. The clouds moved above me. Cars drove by. All this was pleasant. But I was listening for God’s voice.

And then, deep in my mind, far in the back, was a voice saying that we would need to draw closer together. It was a voice saying that Covid was just a preparation, that Afghanistan wasn’t the important thing the news said it was, that there would be flooding from Hurricane Ida, but I needed to tell the people to begin to act as James said, loving people and not having favorites. For we would lose people this winter and the remainder would need to help the people around us. As a church, we are ideally positioned to help those around. We need to be opened up.

And the Voice told me that there are people listening to this sermon who are looking for a home, a place where people will treat them well, a place where they can speak safely, where their children will be safe and they will find friends. We are to become a refuge for many, a welcoming home for men and women who have met with trouble over the last couple of years. And we will change this town for the better. But, most of all, we will be safe because of God’s protection. And I felt at peace, sitting there on the porch.

How about it? Do you have the faith in God that will help you to trust Him? Will you grow closer to Him, opening up to Him, sitting and talking to Him as though He were sitting next to you, which, of course, the Holy Spirit is? More importantly, will you take time to speak with the Spirit, to turn away from the things of this world, the distractions, the fears, the loudness of the world, to read our Bible, to ask God what we should each do, to listen for that quiet, whispered reply? And then, will you help your brother or sister without favoritism?

On the last evening before He was arrested, Jesus told His disciples to remember Him every time they ate bread or drank wine, that He would give his body and His blood for them – and us. He opened up to them. And that evening, He was arrested. But they understood His love for them because of it.