Be Opened!

There is a pastor getting a lot of attention these days.  Her name is Nadia Bolz Weber and she is the founding pastor at House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Colorado.  She is a great communicator and blogger and I wanted you to sample a small morsal of her writing.  Actually, I have copied a portion of one of her sermons delivered at the Festival of Homiletics recently.  Her focus was on the meaning of healing and the text was the story of the deaf man with a speech impediment who was brought to Jesus.  If you remember,  in Mark chapter 7, Jesus put his fingers in the poor soul's ears and said to him "Ephaphatha" that is, "be opened."

Here is a portion of Pastor Nadia's sermon:

It’s simply a wonderful statement for healing isn’t it? be opened.
It’s an image that’s stuck with me all week.  This might sound weird but all week I kept picturing Jesus sticking his fingers in each of your ears – in the ears of you pastors and saying “BE OPENED”.  And then in the same daydream, before I could stop it, I pictured Jesus’ Holy and unwashed fingers in my own ears. He touched me, sighed, looked to heaven and said Be Opened.  To which I said “oh. no thanks”.
Because, let’s be honest, it’s usually easier to not change and it’s painful to be open and healing can hurt. Like a frostbite patient … when the blood comes back into the extremities it’s incredibly painful.  It can actually be more comfortable to allow parts of ourselves to die than to feel them have new life.  Because sometimes healing feels more like death and resurrection than it feels like getting a warm cookie and glass of milk.
For me what’s hard is that there’s not much self-determination left when I stand in the stark presence of Christ – as he sees me for who I really am and then sighs, looks to heaven and says Nadia – be open.  But Jesus is like that, taking us away from whatever the THEY thinks about us, getting all up in our business and insisting on our wholeness. And by our wholeness I am talking about our wholeness.  Me, you, and every other person serving God’s people.
Be opened jesus is saying to you.
Be opened to the idea that your value isn’t in working 60 hours a week for people who might not even be paying attention.
Be opened to knowing that your own brokenness doesn’t need to be hidden behind someone else’s brokenness.
Be opened to the idea that you are stronger than you think.
Be opened to the idea that you aren’t as strong as you think.
Be opened to the fact that you may not ever get what you want and that you will actually be ok anyway.
Be opened to this whole Gospel of Jesus Christ thing actually, actually, actually being real. And actually being FOR YOU.
Because maybe that’s what healing really is.

Perhaps being opened is the deeper miracle.  Perhaps being opened is the true beginning of a cure!