As usual, the epistle is a little more graphic than we can quite grasp. Itchy ears: what a concept just in physical terms. Experience it for a minute. You itch, you scratch, you sort of know you shouldn't scratch because it will only make the itch worse. But still you scratch, while wondering how the itch ever got started in the first place. What a concept: itchy ears as a vehicle for spiritual truth.

When we itch, we scratch. We awaken. We know we are not comfortable. We want to be comfortable. This epistle tells us about the itchy ears of the would-be saints. We don't want evil. We want good ... but something itches us. We know things are not as they should be. To get the message of our itch, we need to scratch below the surface of both evil and good and see what is happening down there…