St Mary's Goathland

Dear friends,

Here’s a copy of my sermon from this morning. It describes quite a life changing moment on my journey into ministry. I hope you find it useful. Copies of the lectionary readings for today can be downloaded at this link .

I’ll write again later in the week for more news from Middle Esk Moor. In the meantime, go well and take care.

With love and blessings,

Reverend Anthony

Sermon for 8th September Do we take miracles for granted?'

I’d like to focus in on verse 37 of our Gospel reading this week:

"Jesus has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

That verse has quite a lot of resonance for me. You’ll all probably be aware that I have a bit of a stammer - sometimes it’s a lot worse than other times. Just over 14 years ago I had quite a persistent thought that it would be wonderful to be able to read the Bible in church or lead intercessions, but I was too embarrassed because of my stammer being so bad - I thought I wouldn’t be able to get the words out. After embarking on six months of speech therapy at Ilkley Hospital some progress had been made but I was still pretty scared. So, I spoke to Nigel Wright, who was our Priest over in Oxenhope at the time. He encouraged me to have a go at writing and leading intercessions. He said to take it slow and ask the Holy Spirit for help continuously and to read through calmly line by line.

So, I did. Slowly and carefully. And it was quite amazing: I managed to read the whole of the intercessions through perfectly without any stammering at all. The congregation there, knowing me quite well, were absolutely amazed! It was quite an experience, and one of those ones that encouraged me on my journey into ministry.

Well, here I am today. My stammer is still there; it comes out at unexpected times. Usually on words beginning with ‘f’ or ‘g’. But if I remember to ask the Holy Spirit for help then it’s not so big a problem at all. The Holy Spirit reassures me that everything will be fine. And it’s certainly not embarrassing or scary any more.

A miracle? An answer to prayer? A life changing experience? Yes, to all those! But not just one miracle, an ongoing miracle: I need to remember to ask the Holy Spirit for help every time I speak in public.

There are lots of ongoing miracles in our lives aren’t there? The fact that we’re all here today, comprised of 70% water plus various chemicals and molecules, but we all exist in our uniqueness, and we can all participate in our worship of God together – that’s an amazing ongoing miracle! God’s ongoing miracles sustain our lives. But I wonder, do we take that ongoing miracle of our existence for granted? Do we take the way we interact with the world around us for granted? Do we take our five senses for granted? Can we remember what it was like when we were very young, learning to talk, to listen, to touch, to smell, to see and recognise our parents?

God's ongoing miracles extend into our scientific age to help those more permanently physically disabled by loss or degradation of their senses. For example, there are now cochlear implants which allow some deaf people to hear through a series of electronic impulses. And there are possibilities that one day retina implants will enable those blind from birth to see, even if only for a short time: time to see their loved ones' faces and some of the wonders of the world they have only heard about. God's ongoing miracles are all around us: gifts that delight us and guide us towards a greater understanding of God’s creative love. Those ongoing miracles, I think, reassure us. And then that reassurance releases us to become more fully the people God made us to be, whether or not our bodies or minds are physically complete. The reassurance I receive about my stammer has freed me up to get more involved in the Church. I still have the stammer but maybe now I’m a bit more fully the person God made me to be?

During Jesus' ministry the miracles he performed always pointed beyond themselves. At a straightforward level Jesus healed; not just by what he said but by what he did.

Jesus wasn’t afraid to touch people. In our Gospel reading we heard that Jesus put his fingers in the man's ears, touching his tongue with his own spittle. Jesus gives of himself, physically. He gives his time too: his concentration and his energy. As a result, the man discovers the amazing freedom of hearing and speech. But at another level Jesus illustrates his mission to free the hearing and speech of all who listen to him. That’s all people, including us today, whether or not we experience any forms of physical disability. It’s only when we hear Jesus clearly that we can live out his commandments and proclaim the truth of his message. And many people throughout our world find that they’ve been disabled by poverty or persecution or racial discrimination against those we might perceive as outsiders or foreigners, just like the Syrophoenician woman in our reading, who was alien to Jewish culture. But it was this woman who recognised Jesus' true status. When she challenges Jesus with her depth of faith, we’re reminded that Jesus’ ministry was for all people.

Both the Syrophoenician woman and the deaf man were completely open and vulnerable to Jesus. Unlike the cynical, well-informed Pharisees, the Syrophoenician woman and the deaf man did not presume they had the answers to life's questions. And I wonder sometimes whether we’re hampered by the complex knowledge we have; our constant striving to try and understand everything about ourselves and the world around us: that quest for complex knowledge can blind and mute us. True wisdom is, I think, about being conscious of the things we do not know and remaining open to being taught what we need to know by God. And God works hard to clarify our hearing and our sight, our understanding and our insight; with or without perfect physical senses we can still hear God's truth. And we can still play our part in ensuring God's will is done in earth as it is in heaven.

Deafness and blindness are not necessarily physical conditions. The scribes were deaf to the full meaning of Jesus' teaching but they heard his words perfectly. And some of Jesus' disciples were blind to the events unfolding around them, events which might seem obvious to us today with the benefit of the whole story in our Bibles. I wonder if we’re more likely to develop our sense of God, and his working through us, if we can recognise how deaf to his word we can be?

Maybe part of discerning our calling is to do with recognising that we don’t have all the answers, all the complex knowledge? If we believe we have all the answers, a monopoly of the truth, is there a danger that we reinforce our blindness and our inability to hear?

Jesus can only release us, through the work of the Holy Spirit, just as he released the deaf man in our reading; he can only release us when we’re open and vulnerable to God. And Jesus can only release us, through the work of the Holy Spirit, when we recognise that we don’t know everything. Jesus tells us that to love God well we must become like little children; not childish, but childlike. With their ability to trust implicitly, children listen with open ears and see with an unclouded vision.

And when we recognise our poverty, our littleness and our need for God, The Holy Spirit can work in us: to heal us in all our disabilities, to include us despite our differences, to teach us what we need to know so we can continuously listen out and discern our calling in this world. These gifts of discernment are available to all those who ask for them. These gifts are some of those ongoing miracles we see every day. I think this is how the kingdom of God is extended upon the earth - by disciples like us being attentive and listening out for the Holy Spirit to speak to us through all those ongoing miracles.

We just need to ask for help; to ask for that reassurance we need to release us to become more fully the people God made us to be, whether or not our bodies or minds are physically complete or not.

Amen.

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The Reverend Anthony Bennett

middleESKmoor.org Enriching, Sharing, Knowing

Bible passages are from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England (2000-2024). material from which is included in this email, are copyright © The Archbishops’ Council.

These two books, edited by Jane Williams, are continuing to be very helpful with planning my sermon writing:

Williams, J (2009), Ed., ‘Lost for Words, A Sermon Resource for the Anglican Three Year Cycle,’ Redemptorist Publications, Chawton, UK.

Williams, J (2011), Ed., ‘Lectionary Reflections, Years A, B and C.’ Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, UK.

St Mary's Goathland

Do we take miracles for granted?

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