Sermon for The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, 2026
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Deafness and the corruption of speech are not defects that fell on one, or some. They are the result of the hereditary disease, inherited by every child begotten of man and born of woman, carried down the ages, to your own ears and mouth, here in this park this morning.
For you have your own instances of the same deafness and muteness. After all, this is not just an account told once about a healing long ago. When did you last hear His word and turn a deaf ear to it? Was it when He said, “Beware of false prophets,” and “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven”? Was it when He told you that anger is murder, and withholding is theft? Was it when He said, “It is finished!” yet you still find yourself acting as though you must contribute something to your salvation? When did you last know exactly what needed saying, to a neighbor, a friend, a relative, and yet said nothing because silence would cost you less? That was not caution. It was the same muteness Adam had in the garden when a word needed saying, yet he said nothing while the serpent twisted what God had said. And that satanic Foe has not stopped talking since, and–time and again–you have listened to him more readily than you have listened to the Word that made you. That is the same kind of deafness and muteness Adam and Israel had, dressed differently now, yet not new.
Therefore, Christ does not wait to be asked, nor for ears prepared to receive Him, for on your own, such asking and ears will never come from–or belong to–you. Rather, the Lord puts His fingers into ears unprepared to receive them. He touches what, by nature, is unclean. He sighs, and it is no mere human sigh, no; it is the groan of Almighty God confronting what sin has done to what He made good. Then, He speaks the word that undoes it. Not a suggestion, not an invitation to be weighed and considered, no; a command, laid on a man who did nothing to deserve or arrange it. “Be opened.” This is exactly what was done to you in your own baptism: fingers not your own touched you and water not of your making washed you, as the Word sounded forth, opening your ears and loosing your tongue.
Readings:
Old Testament: Isaiah 29:17-24
Epistle: Romans 10:9-17
Holy Gospel: Mark 7:31-37
you spent a few moments criticizing Adam for not speaking out to Eve - but nowhere does the scriptures say that Adam and Eve were together when Satan tempted her.