When we encounter someone unable to speak, then we are touched so that we dimly perceive that our speech is impaired in a spiritual sense. Without seeking to do so, that person mirrors a problem in us, a problem that may be more limiting than a physical disability.
This is a liberating gospel. We can put down our burdens today. The burden to have all the right answers, or to do all the good deeds. What we need to do, at all times and in all places, is to allow Jesus to open our ears and let loose our tongue.
Some of us may find it difficult to be open in heart and mind. But our individual presence, perhaps in a word or a smile, with a hand or a hug, even our sharing of bread and wine in the name of Christ, might be an occasion of ministry.
A mother approaches Jesus with a request; “Master, my daughter has an unclean spirit, would it be too much to ask you to come to my house and heal her?” We expect Jesus to say yes. Immediately, yes. But that’s not what Jesus does; not even close.
What are the boundaries of your faith? Do you believe that you have to be a Presbyterian to be in God’s good graces? A Protestant? A Christian? Speak in tongues? Does your faith include people of other races, other nationalities, other cultures?
Our problem is not with things outside us. Our problem is inside us. Consider an alcoholic. Insofar as the alcoholic is recovering, she will recognize that the problem is not a bottle of whiskey. The problem is that she suffers from a disease called alcoholism.
As with all of our life, because we do not want to just talk the talk, but we want to walk the walk, we will handle it with...what's that word again? Oh, yes. INTEGRITY.
Perhaps you have heard this statement with the blank filled in by one thing or another: Anybody who __________ is not a Christian. This blank can be filled in by any of a number of phrases.
Our consumer society bombards us with messages about how consumption can solve our problems. But consumption cannot solve the problem that Jesus exposes. What we need is not to pour still more tea into our overflowing cup. What we need is to empty and detoxify our hearts from the poisons flooding forth from it.
Every church has traditions that have become sacred cows. In one church, the color of the carpet had become the sacred cow. We had always had red carpet, but now the property committee was going to change it to blue. Some people just weren't sure they could worship God on a BLUE CARPET.