I recently bought a new tool for work. My wife thinks it is just a gadget. But it’s a pretty cool gadget.
It’s a thermal or infrared camera to help see hot and cold places and also areas of moisture in homes. And it’s pretty cool to use. But when it came time to understand it more, I didn’t look for just anybody to tell me how to how to operate it. I didn’t seek instructions from folks who were not experts. No, I looked up the best source possible. The manufacturer and downloaded the instruction manual.
Because I knew the one who made the thermal camera knew the device better than anyone and knew what it needed to work correctly, what settings were best and even what issues to watch out for, what limitations there were.
I think we all seek the best advice and direction about devices, appliances, work and even how to run our business. We spend a great deal of money and time and energy on how to be better, perform better.
Self-help books we know are a billion-dollar business and it doesn’t matter what credentials are presented, if it is new, people buy it. Cause you never know what will really help your business take off, be the secret to relationships and for many, help keep the weight off.
We understand and seek the best advice and instructions we can find in most areas of our life.
Which brings us to today and our readings.
Today, we hear about the healing of the deaf, the blind, loosening tongues that cannot speak, Isaiah talks about curing the lame, so they leap like stags and the mute sing!
But our readings today are not talking about just physical improvements and transformations. The symbolic and underlying meaning also refers to the spiritual deafness, spiritual blindness, the inability to speak the word of God because we have not ourselves truly heard the word of God…not in our hearts because we may not be opened to it.
I believe this is true because we have the greatest guide or user’s manual, self-help book known to mankind in scripture, but many times that is not the guide we use to live our lives and make decisions.
He even sent one of the company founders, Jesus Christ to show us in person, speak in our language, clearly and concisely on what is best. And when we were overloaded with all the intricacies of the instructions that others had added, he simplified things to capture the spirit of the instructions.
As we have heard again and again, Love God and love your neighbors.
But the problem is most people aren’t listening and reading and praying the Gospel. Instead, they are listening to false voices from alternate sources about how to live – instead of listening to Jesus Christ.
Why would we listen to a friend or stranger on the internet who has only anecdotal understandings of living a good life instead of Jesus Christ —-who spoke, and the world was created!
Why would we listen to the source of meaningless and endless babble, voices from the internet and Hollywood over the creator of the world?
Voices that say just forget about the user guide and wing it? You have too much to do with kids’ soccer and football and work and multiple vacations. Heck, your schedule is full.
No time to read a book that requires you to be quiet and listen.
We are the deaf and mute man in the Gospel today.
We do not always hear Jesus words, not in our hearts, for we are not always open to his word. There is anxiety, busy lives and too much happening getting in the way. And the unending noise and darkness can darken our whole world.
The Internet and pundits every day tell us we live in a world filled with anger, hate, division growing more and more each day. The noise and sorrow and anxiety can be overwhelming to us if we forget who we are and who we are supposed to hope in and trust in and listen to.
And today there is much evidence that many people have turned away from God and are no longer listening.
September 11th is just around the corner and if we think about it we have, as a people, lost not only much of our innocence but also, lost much of our hope and trust in God since then.
Our political parties, whose distance from each other is only surpassed by their distance from the truth, are deteriorating into hate factions that many of us buy into. How as Christians can we do that?
We hear more and more about the scandal in our church and are shocked by some whose actions and conduct is so far from the Bishops, Priests and Deacons we love that we wonder if we belong to the same church.
And even in the home, so many seem to have failed to remember the promises made to God on their wedding day to put the other first in their life….as they put themselves ahead of their spouse and family. Choosing to spend too much time on partying, drinking, work and pursuing money and numbness. Choosing bitterness in the end instead of love and forgiveness.
Today we need to open our ears and eyes and hearts to the Word of God again. It is good news still. But we must be willing to hear it HERE (in our heart)!
We have much to pray about today. We have more reason than ever to take time out of our day and our family’s day to stop. Stop moving. Stop texting. Stop surfing. Stop talking. And sit and pray and listen.
Jesus gave the command to be opened as he spoke to the deaf and mute man and it is a command we need to listen to and act on also.
It is time, to listen and ask if we have loved our neighbor or attacked those who think differently.
It is time, to listen and ask if we have loved God above all. If our day has no time for prayer and just being quiet with the daily readings we have other things ahead of God.
It is time, to listen and ask if when we hear about the scandal of the church, the fighting and division in all facets of our world —do we hold to our faith and believe in the hope Jesus has promised? Do we choose to love and not hate? If not, are we really in a relationship with God?
Disciples of Christ must put their trust in God and be opened and take risks. Opened in our hearts with the discipline to act on what God’s instruction book has told us. The Gospel has not left us. Have we left the Gospel behind?
But who else should we put our faith and trust in but the one who created us?
We can make a difference in our world by witnessing the truth laid down by our creator in his user manual.
By praying and realizing we too need conversion and a closer relationship with God we can be part of the solution for our church and the world. We all need to ask to hear better and see better his truth and wisdom.
This is a time to be opened to the one voice in our life that can transform us and the world. Listening, prayer and quietness of heart and mind should be our focus today. Our hope should be in Jesus Christ alone for he has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak if they are willing. Even for people like us.
Be Opened.
Deacon Tony Pynes 
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