As you may or may not know, President Obama intends to address the children on Tuesday in as many schools throughout the country as will allow his live broadcast to be played during school hours.  His intent is to encourage kids to work hard and commit to school.  It is something that both of the Bush Presidents did.  In my 52 years of life, I have never seen a reaction like it.  Here is one sample, and this from the supporting side of what people are saying – and how divided we are. 

“Insurance and pharmaceutical companies and their GOP lackeys, and mentally challenged talk show hosts have been active in stirring the Rabid Right's patriots; a foul deed is about to take place, our children are about to be exposed to a  communicable disease, they will, by next week, be donning their hidden brown shirts, retrieve the secret communication devices provided by the (gasp!) liberals and, after disclosing all of the family's most secret secrets, rise up and slaughter all good and pure conservatives. All because Barack Obama, that uppity terrorist, Muslim, foreign-born, sneaky Son of a Gun told them what to do.  He continues:  Lordy, Lordy, most parents can't get their kids to clean their room but the President has the power to have them take over the world.”   
 
It gets worse on the other side.  The charges range from comparisons to Lenon and Chairman Mao and beyond.  It is frightening to me and disconcerting – this level of vitriol on both sides of his speech, and this is even before anyone has heard it.  The fact that our own diocese felt they needed to issue a policy about the speech tells me how crazy our world of politics has gotten.  How did we get to this point so quickly in our civil discourse?  How are we so quickly trying to turn ourselves into a nation of fearful deaf people who will not even hear the words of a sitting President to judge them on their own merit?   

In many ways, our gospel this weekend is providential, kind of a lifeline that God is dropping down to us all, if we take it to heart.  Because it is a story, among other things, about deafness and hearing and being open to listen to what is being spoken.  And that command, at the heart of the miracle story - Ephphatha, be opened -  might be exactly what is missing in our world these days. 

There is this little detail in the midst of the story that Mark records that is so important.  When the crowds bring the man to Jesus, what does he do?  He leads him away from the crowd.  He takes him away from the visual jumbo that would/could be overwhelming to a person who main ‘input’ comes from his eyes.  There, away from the madness, away from the chaos, Jesus can address him in a way that brings him to hearing.  Touch his tongue and putting fingers in his ears would be physical sensations that would connect the man to Jesus, and let this man who has difficulty communicating know that he was about to do something to his hearing and his speaking.  When Jesus has his full attention, he speaks that simple word of command - Ephphatha – be opened.  Whatever is blocking the communication, what ever is keeping the words both out from the deaf man’s world, and trapped in this mute’s inability to speak – disappears.   

Perhaps that is what is needed, not just in our own spiritual world – to have Jesus open the channels to him that keep us from hearing his invitation to follow him – but in all of our communications with others.  In this recent controversy, we need to step away from the crowded voices of the left and right, sift through the inflammatory rhetoric, so we can hear the message that is spoken.  We may agree with that message.  We may disagree with that message.  But at least we will have been able to evaluate the message based upon the truth contained within and not what people’s fears would have us believe.   

Isn’t that what needs to happen many places – we need to learn to listen to each other.  To stop blocking our ears to what the other has to say to us.  To stop blocking our tongues from speaking, with compassion, the truth we know.  Parents need to hear their teenager’s anguish.  Children need to hear their parents’ fears.  But, like so many in politics, we stand there, fingers in our ears going “ya-ya-ya-ya-ya, I can’t hear you” – and never move closer to understanding. 

Ephphatha – be opened.  It’s a good word for our times, a good word for our family communication, a good word for all the important things we need to say to and hear from each other.  May that word which is at the heart of the story of the healing of the deaf mute today, also be at the heart of our own healing and lives.