A fellow from down home had married, moved from the farm, and became terribly overweight very quickly.  His wife begged him to see a doctor and, reluctantly, he agreed.  The doctor was up to speed on all the newest weight loss methods and promised the man that he would lose 10 pounds in two weeks if he followed the doctor’s directions precisely. 

     “Here’s what I want you to do,” said the doctor.  “I want you to eat regularly for 2 days, then skip a day, and repeat this procedure for two weeks.  I’ll see you in two weeks and you will have dropped 10 pounds.” 

     In two weeks the doctor was astounded that the man had lost 50 pounds.

     “Well, that’s amazing!” the doctor said, “Did you follow my directions exactly?”

     “Yes, sir,” the man said, “but I thought I was going to drop dead every third day.”

     “From hunger, you mean?” asked the doctor.

     “No, from skipping!” the man replied.

      Giving and receiving directions is an inexact science, kind of like predicting hurricanes and earthquakes.  Billy Graham loved to tell the story on himself about the time, early in his career, when he arrived in a small North Carolina town to preach a sermon.  Wanting to mail a letter, he asked a young boy on the street for directions to the Post Office.

     After being told the way by the lad, the Rev. Mr. Graham thanked him, adding, “If you’ll come to the First Baptist Church this evening, you can hear me tell everyone how to get to heaven.”

     “I don’t think I’ll be there,” the boy said.  “You don’t even know your way to the Post Office.”

      Getting from one place to another is a task that every human being faces at some point in life.  The challenge may be a physical one, dealing with geographic locations, or it may be a spiritual one, discerning the leading of the Holy Spirit.  Getting from one place to another is a concern for the church, as well.

     As we celebrate Welcome Back Sunday, the questions remain.  How do we move from thinking someone else will do our mission outreach?  Do we still believe we can pay someone to do it for us?  Can we develop an active, hands-on program that gives opportunities for many of us to be involved?  How do we move from giving as little as we can of our time, talent, and treasure to supporting the work of the church with the freedom that comes from tithing?  As we look to the future, are we willing to stretch ourselves financially, spiritually, and congregationally in dealing with issues of accessibility and Christian Formation space?  Will we address those issues with a dream and a vision of what can be when sight is focused on abundance and not scarcity?

     Partial answers to those questions may come if we accept the Lord’s invitation to take a trip today.  That journey is described in Mark’s Gospel for today.  We are going from the region of Tyre to the region around the Sea of Galilee and we reach that destination by going through Sidon.  A brief glance at the map will tell us that such a trip makes about as much sense as going from Bedford to Roanoke by way of Washington, DC.  It does not make any geographic sense, but it makes a great deal of spiritual sense.  Disciples are not allowed to go where they will, but where God in Christ wills.

     Remember who it is that heads up this trip.  The tour guide, this one called Jesus the Christ, wants to teach his disciples that he is the truth, the way, and the life.  This journey might take eight months to complete.  It is, in fact, the calm before the storm.  This time together is the long-term communion Jesus needs with his disciples, so that they may learn some things about who he is and about their own ministry in his name.  He invites us to tag along.  If we go with him, it is his hope that we see three central truths.

     One, understand from whom all power comes.  After taking this long route to Galilee, Jesus is presented with a problem.  A man who is deaf and has a speech problem is brought to him.  Deafness and the ability to speak clearly go hand-in-hand.  A person’s inability to hear language makes speech less than perfect.  From this incident we may learn the beautiful method of healing that Jesus used over and over again.  He took the deaf man away from the crowd so that the interaction could be between just two people.  The tender consideration of Jesus for human beings is a secondary lesson here.  Deaf people are often embarrassed by their deafness.  That is as true today with our emphasis on sounds, music, words, and hearing.  The perfect “body-beautiful culture” tends to make those who are told they are imperfect go off in a corner and hide away.  Jesus knew that and he knew the man’s embarrassment and shame.  He had been told time and time again that his sins or the sins of his parents caused his deafness.  Jesus took him aside, away from the stares of those who could physically hear, and he spoke in a sign language of eyes, expression, and love.  He looked up to heaven, gave a deep sigh (from the Greek word that also means “to shudder or shiver”), knew the indwelling Holy Spirit, and said, “Be opened.” 

     That is the second lesson we may learn.  Genuine healing is spiritual in nature.  This is surely a story about the physical healing of deaf ears that also caused a speech problem.  It is also far more than that.  Notice what Jesus said to the man.  “Be opened.”  If this were a physical healing only Jesus would have said in the proverbial words of the Verizon commercial, “Can you hear me now?”  The disciples, and those of us along for the trip, were to learn that this man suffering from total deafness and speech problems is healed totally.  It begins with a spiritual awareness.

     This incident is meant to teach those who would learn about the transformation that can come in our lives when Jesus the Christ enters it as Master, Savior, and Lord.  Here Jesus heals deafness by saying, “Be totally open.  Be aware of the voice of God around you.  Listen to the voices of those other hurting and diseased human beings around you.  See the interconnectedness of the physical, mental, and spiritual.”

     I wonder how many of the ills of this world today are due largely to our spiritual deafness.  We seem unable to hear the “still, sad cry of humanity” precisely because we are not listening for the “still, small voice of God.”  We are often deaf to the injustice that comes from establishing full human legitimacy on the basis of something others cannot control.  We fail to hear the thunder of the coming storm that results from the ever-widening gap between the haves and the have-nots.  We fail to hear the greater threat to our democratic principles that comes from disenfranchising potential voters than from supporting candidates from the right or left.

     We need spiritually unstopped ears in this world today as never before.  Only that can lead to greater understanding, tolerance of differences, and genuine sympathy to human suffering.  The man in the Gospel story was cured of a speech problem.  That, too, is a miracle equally suggestive of spiritual wholeness.  Hearing and speech go together physiologically.  Ears and tongue are related spiritually.  Perhaps one of the reasons our church and our culture seems to go unheard in the world today is that too many of those who are supposed to be the Lord’s disciples have a speech problem.  His word, spoken from the spiritually healed life, his word that we are to speak in his behalf in this upside down world does not sound out very clearly to the world about us.  We choose spiritual deafness and thereby have a speech problem.

     It is a moment of profound grace when we come to understand that God want and needs our voice, speaking clearly and plainly, in and to the world about us.

     Finally, God in Christ wants disciples to follow because of who he is and not because of what he does.  The charge to the newly healed man, to the disciples, and others who saw or experienced the transformation to wholeness was that they not say anything about this.  Why?  Jesus the Christ wants people to come to faith in him because of who he is, not because of what he does.  In a “health and wealth” religious culture, based on showmanship and emotional drama, that is a hard sale. 

     Why are some of us lawyers, doctors, teachers, business men and women, housewives, priest, mothers and fathers?  Is it so we may call attention to ourselves?  Is it so we may be important?  I want to suggest to you that the healing touch of Christ that leads to wholeness is so that we may grow to be of maximum benefit and service to God and other human beings.  Others may be led to faith in this one called Jesus the Christ if we point not to ourselves, but to the one who is the Lord of our life.

     So, as we begin the fall schedule for 2006, pray that we may learn the lessons taught by Jesus.  That we may know from whom our power comes, that we may remember that healing is spiritual, and that he is who he is and not what he does.  Then, listen to the life-transforming words that can make life truly worth living---“Be opened!”  Directions will become much clearer and detours will be seen as a fascinating part of this thing we call the Christian journey.  Amen.