I am a bit of a newshound. What I mean by that, is that I check the national and local news many times each day. Of course I also have to see what's going on in sports and the world at large. I keep my favorite news sites bookmarked and easily accessible. In addition to electronic media, I like to read through the Wall Street Journal each day for additional stories and insightful commentary. I suppose I can blame my father for this near-neurotic reading of the news. From an early age, my dad made a big deal of reading the paper and staying informed about current events. During my time at the seminary, they repeated this lesson over and over again. The thinking was in order to have good preaching, preaching that was relevant to people where they were and to what was happening, you had to know what was going on in the world. There's some truth to this philosophy.
So what is the news from this past week? On a superficial level, the rapper and songwriter Kanye West has indicated that he might run in the next presidential election. Tom Brady has been cleared by a judge to play in the season opener. A number of star Cardinals players are set to come off the injured list. For some people, this might be the extent of their worries and their knowledge of current events. But if we broaden our view, we know that there is incredible human suffering happening all around us. An 11 year old shooting an intruder in his home. Our city’s growing crime rate and the spike in homicides. The senseless murder of a police officer in northern Illinois. 71 Syrian immigrants dying an undignified death in a smugglers truck in Austria. A two-year-old Syrian refugee drowning off the shore of Greece were he and his family were seeking safety. Countless other untold stories of refugees fleeing violence, oppression, and persecution, in particular from ISIS and Islamic terrorists.
It is good to be informed about what is going on in the world and even in our own backyard. It helps us from becoming too isolated and self-centered. But if we spend too much time reading the news, as I know that sometimes I do, we can easily become overwhelmed by the evil and suffering we see. We can become hopeless, bitter, desensitized, and cynical. What we need more than information is hope.
In our first reading, the prophet Isaiah foretells good news for a people that are beat down, discouraged, and oppressed. He speaks words of encouragement that God is coming to heal and liberate and set things right. This saving action, this messiah will perform miracles and it will be like streams of water in the desert. This is amazing news, almost too good to be true if you are someone living in the desert, like Isaiah’s audience was. Then we heard the gospel where Jesus does the very thing Isaiah predicted; He enables a deaf man to hear and speak. Something seemingly too good to be true has become reality. A life of suffering and hardship has been turned into a living testament of God’s power and goodness.
Our city, our nation, our world needs Good news. Something more substantial than a strong stock market, a healthy baseball team, or even a lower crime rate. What we need is the message of Isaiah, the assurance of a savior who can address those problems that seem insurmountable and overwhelming. Even today, thousands of years after Christ walked the earth, there are many people who are deaf to the Gospel of Jesus. Many more are spiritually mute, unable to speak of the ways God has blessed and protected them. Some of those who are spiritually deaf and mute are so by choice, closing their ears and mouth deliberately because of sin and pride. But I think the vast majority of those who are afflicted by these spiritual maladies are so because no one is bothering to help open their ears and show them how to speak the Good News.
We might feel unqualified for this task. How can God possibly think that I could help someone who is spiritually mute or deaf? Isn’t that what the priest is for? The truth is, for millennia, God has been using all sorts of people: sinners and saints, rich and poor, wise and foolish, young and old, men and women, to do the impossible for those who are suffering. Because our world is still broken and sinful, he wants to use you and me to bring his hope to the discouraged, his healing to the sick, and his joy to the sorrowful. He gives us a model for how we are to accomplish this. In the gospel today, Jesus encounters the deaf and mute man and we see that he engages him in personal and dignified way. He doesn’t hurry up and get rid of him. He takes him aside, away from the crowd and gives the man his full attention. Jesus is focused on this man and what he needs and he literally gives of himself to help him.
We can do the same. Like Christ, we must get involved with the people who need us and are unable to help themselves. Sometimes that means we must dirty our hands and give of ourselves and make time for someone else when we weren’t expecting to. We must perform our kindness with the gentleness and consideration Jesus brought to this deaf gentleman. This is how hope is sown, this is how the world begins to change, this is how a life is healed and dignity restored.
I hope you have experienced this compassion and attention from Jesus at some point in your own life. Above all else, I pray that you will allow God to use you as His instrument to bring that hope and healing to others.
