Let's Hear It For The Deaf Man -- that's the title of a detective novel. That could mean, "Do his listening for him." But, for today, let it mean, "Three cheers for the deaf man." The deaf man deserves our first cheers, but before we give him his desserts, let's hear the voice of this Sunday telling us to cheer for some others as well. "Let's hear it for those who have heard and for those who now hear the word of the Lord." Another group deserves cheers: "Let's hear it for those whose tongues are released and who speak plainly, who proclaim the love of the Lord." Another group: "Let's hear it for those who have seen, for those who see, the salvation of the Lord." And finally: "Let's hear it for those who once were lame, those who now leap like the deer, those who have become eager doers of the word."

These are groups which today's lessons single out for praise. We are all members of these groups. The point of all this is that in Christ Jesus we are new creatures. What we have become by God's grace is something to cheer about. The Word has changed us.

Think about the changed life of this man who had been deaf. He was transformed by, literally, a word: Ephphatha, a double word in English: "Be opened." Actually his whole life was changed by the Word-made-flesh. He was changed by the Son of God who had emptied himself, had turned his divinity inside out and become an earthly pedestrian, like us, who was walking from the region of Tyre, going by way of Sidon toward the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. He just happened -- so it might seem -- to be near this deaf man, and he healed him with a word. What a happening! But it was nothing compared to that happy day when God the Son was born for us, lived for us, died for us. What happened to Jesus after that death has also happened to us, in our different situation, of course. He was resurrected. We have been regenerated. By his word in the water of baptism, with his word, we have been given new life. By the word which is continually being spoken to us our ears have been opened, and we have heard, we hear. By his speaking to our hearing we are strengthened and sanctified. God has opened our ears to hear. Let's hear it for all who have heard the word of the Lord!

It is not our hearing alone that has been changed. Our entire being has been transformed. The old nature has been forgiven. The new nature has been created. In his first chapter, James spells it out: "In the fulfillment of his own purpose [the Father of lights] gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures" (James 1:18). The heart, the center of our being, that was the source of things wicked, has been overlaid with a new heart, a clean heart. We have been renewed by God's free Spirit. The mind that was left after the fall, the mind that refused to mind God's law, the mind that mocked God's word and boasted, "Your thoughts are not my thoughts," has been paralleled by a right mind. Now we have the mind of Christ. We live, and yet it is not the old "we" but it is now Christ who lives in us. Let's hear it for the new creature! Let's hear all this as the new creatures we are, and let's cheer our renewed selves.

G. K. Chesterton in his autobiography wrote about the effect of forgiveness, of the absolution. He was referring to the words of absolution spoken by the presiding minister after a confession of sin: "I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Somewhat freely paraphrased, this is what Chesterton said: Forgiven Christians "do truly, by definition, step out again into that dawn of their own beginning ... God has really remade them in his own image. They are now, each one of them, a new experiment as they were when they were really only five years old. They stand in the white light at the worthy beginning of a new life. The accumulations of time [of previous sinning] can no longer terrify. They may be grey and gouty; but they are only five minutes old."1

That is what we are. Phillips translates Paul: "Don't you realize that you yourselves are the temple of God, and that God's Spirit lives in you? ... His temple is holy -- and that is exactly what you are!" (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). Let's hear it for us all, for us who have heard, who hear the word of the Lord.

The man once deaf was also mute. But Jesus did everything well. He enabled this man to hear unheard of things and this speechless man to proclaim the word of the Lord. Let's hear it for those whose tongues proclaim the love of the Lord. This man's tongue was loosed as his ears were opened "and he spoke plainly." "Jesus ordered them to tell no one." The word he wanted spread was that God had come to redeem his people, not that there was a faith healer in the Decapolis. "But the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it." We have been ordered -- more than they were ordered not to -- we have been ordered to proclaim the word of the Lord, to tell the love of God for the world. "Say to those who are of a fearful heart," says Isaiah, "be strong, do not fear! You who were deaf have had your ears unstopped. You whose tongues were speechless can now sing for joy." Today's message instructs us to do what we can do. We can sing for joy, and not merely because we have much to be glad about, but in order to let others hear the good news that they, too, can be glad. Our tongues have been loosed, not for loose talk, but for the words that free. James cautions us about thoughtless talk: "You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak ..." (James 1:19); that is, slow to speak in anger. We could add, slow just to chit chat, to simply pass the time of day, to share the latest news.

Doctors can see that something is wrong with us when they have us stick out our tongues and say, "Ah." God can sadly tell what is wrong with us when what we say reveals selfishness or partiality. James warns against saying to the ones with gold rings and fair clothes, "Have a seat here, please," while we mutter to the poor, "Stand there," or "Sit at my feet" (James 2:2-3). We are not to make free with our freedom of speech. "If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless"Ê(James 1:26). What is our religion, our joy, worth? What these people did against orders we are to do as ordered: "zealously proclaim" the good news that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has enabled us to sing for joy. Let's hear it for him who has loved us, who has released us from our bonds. Let's hear it for those who proclaim the love of the Lord.

This man, who had ears made for hearing, Jesus enabled to hear. To us, who have eyes to see, God has said, "Behold!" Let's hear it for those who have seen, for all of us who see, the works of the Lord, the salvation of our God. Isaiah again: "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened" (Isaiah 35:5). Look at yourself in the mirror to which James refers. He wrote that people who are merely hearers of the word and not doers are like people who see their image in a mirror but do not really realize what they are like. With any degree of honesty, we see ourselves as we have proved ourselves to be -- and there is little beauty that we should pride ourselves. But do we really realize what we have become, what changed persons God has made us to be? Look in the mirror of all the word and works of the Lord given you for years and years. Do you, "going away, immediately forget what you are like"? What you are like! You are now made likeable. God is love, making you lovable, lovely. When you see yourself as the holy Other sees you, do you, are you, seeing that you are freed, that you are now under the perfect law, the law of liberty? In many ways the blind must have others lead them. You see! You see yourself! You yourself see!

Of course, you did not see this deaf man healed. But you are even more blessed because the Spirit has given you faith and understanding from what these first Christians saw. And this healing that announced the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy was only a part of the beginning of the salvation of our God. They saw, and we believe, the ending. The Lord, hanging on the cross, closing his eyes in death as a ransom for us all, that seemed like the ending. Let's hear it for the Lamb of God sacrificed for the sin of the world! But the surprise ending is the guarantee of our salvation. On the third day God raised him from the dead, raised him for our salvation, raised him so that we might be alive in Christ Jesus. Let's hear it for the risen Lord! Let's hear it for all those who have seen by faith the salvation of our God!

One more. Isaiah prophesied that when God would come to save us, "then the lame shall leap like a deer" (Isaiah 35:6). Let's hear it for those who hop to it to be doers of the word. James admonishes: "Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers, who deceive themselves ... The doers who act, they will be blessed in their doing" (James 1:22, 25). We might well wonder what this man did after he could hear and speak. People might have thought of all this after Peter and John healed a man who had been lame from his birth. Peter took him by the hand and raised him up. "Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God" (Acts 3:7-8). Let's hear it for the walking, leaping, praising healed lame man. It is, perhaps, a smaller miracle when we manage to bridle our tongues, when we push aside self-centeredness and "care for orphans and widows in their distress," when we remember who we are, whose we are, and "keep ourselves unstained by the world" (James 1:27).

Let's hear it for us, hearers, proclaimers, beholders, doers!

The crowd said about Jesus, "He has done everything well." Our Lord says of us, "With you I have done fairly well, if I do say so myself." When the day of the Lord comes, when we see him as he is, when we hear him welcome us, when we come walking and leaping and praising God to the table spread with the feast to come, may it be said of us, may the Lord say to us, "Well done, good and faithful servants! You have done everything well, hearing and telling, seeing and doing! Enter into the joy of your Lord!"

Let's hear that!

1. Cited in For All the Saints, Frederick J. Schumacher, editor (Delhi, New York: American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, 1994), p. 48. From Autobiography. Copyright by A. P. Witt, Ltd., 1936, copyright renewed.