Jarrett McLaughlin
“Say What You Mean to Say”
June 1, 2025
Mark 7:31-37
Cold Open:
As the summer of 1963 drew near, a garage band out of Portland, Oregon calling themselves the Kingsmen took to the studio to record their version of the song “Louie, Louie.” Jack Ely was the singer, and on the recording, it sounds like he doesn’t even know the words to the song.
It sounds like he’s saying “Me thinks of me girl oh so constantly, I may a’ hafa’ a wooowaaaa.”
It sounds like gibberish, but my how folks got up in arms about it.
The governor of Indiana banned the song – and everybody from the PTA to the FBI was trying to figure out the words to that song “Louie, Louie.”
Whatever those kids were saying – They were pretty sure it wasn’t good.
Everyone was asking:
“Should they be saying that on the radio?”
“Isn’t that dirty?”
“Isn’t that…dangerous?”
The truth is that the microphone was set too high in the studio.
Ely had to stand on tippy-toe and crane his neck up to be heard above the instruments.
That he had braces on his teeth didn’t help his enunciation either.
It wasn’t dirty. It wasn’t dangerous – just gibberish.
Our text today says that Jesus had a “gibberish” word of his own – Ephphatha!
Mark is always good to give us translations – Mark tells us that it means ‘be opened.’
Listen for what the Spirit is opening up to us today.
Scripture:
Then [Jesus] returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.
They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him.
He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’
And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.
Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.
Sermon:
Does this script ever play out in your head?
I don’t know if I should say it.
If I don’t say it, what does that say about me?
But if I do say it, what will people say about me?
Who am I to say it, anyway?
If I didn’t say it before, can I really say it now?
You know, I should start by saying what I am not saying because I don’t want people to misunderstand, and I can’t just say it without saying a lot of other things first.
But do I even have time to say the other stuff too?
Maybe I should just wait to say it another day.
Why are we are so obsessed with saying it?
Shouldn’t we live it? Practice it? Believe it?
Besides, saying it just causes more problems.
If I say it too strongly, the people who need to hear it will be upset and not listen.
If I say it too gently, other people will say I didn’t say it strongly enough.
Maybe someone else should say it.
Ooooh – Maybe I could quote someone else saying it.
You know what, Jesus never said it! Not directly.
But Jesus was rejected and killed for saying what he did say.
All the people I respect said something.
I can’t look myself in the mirror if I don’t say something, too.
But what if it’s too late to say something.
There, I said it. Are you happy now?
I don’t know if that script sounds familiar to you.
I don’t know if you have ever felt compelled to say something – to take a stand or speak your mind – and some or all of those thoughts have rushed through your mind until you’re tongue-tied and twisted and unable to say anything at all.
When and How we use our voice as individuals is an important question for each of us to ponder, but today, instead of focusing on our personal voice, I want to think about the Church’s voice.
Next Sunday we will celebrate the Church’s birthday with Pentecost – the moment when the Church of Jesus Christ was called into being with wind and fire – tongues of flame that descended on each and every disciple, giving them the wisdom, courage and authority to speak the truth. That’s next week.
But today Mark tells us about a man who could neither hear nor speak – a man healed by the touch of Jesus – and I want us to think of that man as the Church, tongue-tied and twisted, trying to use our God-given voice – trying to articulate some message that is worth sharing – but utterly incapable of spitting it out.
So – if you will – imagine the scene with me. Imagine that you are this tongue-tied Church:
You stand off on the sidelines of life, unable to hear a thing.
After decades of arguing over everything from carpet color to communion style – “rip-and-dip” Intinction or pass-the-plates with the pre-cut squares;
after shouting at each other about the role of women or…who can marry who – all you can hear is a persistent ringing in those old ears.
Imagine that you are now deaf to the cry of the oppressed;
Heedless of those crushed by poverty;
Unable to hear the rumbling tummies of hungry children;
Incapable of hearing the testimony of refugees desperate for a safe place to call home.
Imagine that you cannot hear the very ones God calls you to serve in the first place.
And when you cannot hear – that usually means you do not speak.
So imagine this Church that is terrified of using its voice-
You painstakingly measure every word – asking ‘if I speak with this much conviction will I get lumped in with the fundamentalists, or even worse, the Christian Nationalists?’
At the same time you are paralyzed by the thought ‘What if I say something stupid and find myself before the circular firing squad of the Woke Police?’
Imagine the church so afraid of being out-of-touch with the times that it says nothing at all – even in the face of obvious evils.
If you can imagine this – then you can see a Church in desperate need of healing.
Now imagine Jesus leading you away from the watching crowds and the rolling cameras.
Jesus lays his hands on your ears and even touches your tongue with his fingertips.
And then he says something – it’s a word…just one word but it’s hard to make it out.
It’s a word that is foreign and yet familiar at the same time
It’s in a language you never learned and yet you understand it immediately.
He says “Ephphatha.”
Be Opened.
At this word – Ephphatha – the English translation says his tongue was released.
The Greek is more vivid. It says “The chain of his tongue was loosened.”
The chain binding his speech, imprisoning his capacity for expression, that chain was broken.
So now imagine with me – everything that shackles the Church’s speech are shaken off in an instant.
All the self-doubt, all the fear of upsetting the powerful, all the compromises made over the years – all of it swept aside with a single word – Ephphatha – ‘be opened.’
You can finally speak out – not with the arrogance of the Always-Right, but with a hard-won humility only known by those who understand themselves to be forgiven and healed.
And your ears…with that single, solitary word from the mouth of Jesus your ears are opened and now you hear – everything.
You hear the quickening breath of the border-crosser.
And you hear the deep sigh of the fifth-generation farmer staring at a foreclosure notice.
You can hear the simmering anger of black America who have learned to fear the police,
And you understand the boulder-sized ball of dread at the heart of the law officer who must daily wrestle with the use of force and the court of public opinion.
In the city you hear urban blight on the march with higher rent, lower wages and more hungry children.
Out in the country you hear the litany of the left behind – factories closing, schools failing, populations shrinking – but still enough opioids to hollow out whoever remains.
Underneath like a steady drum beat is the groaning of all creation – overtaxed by so much human activity. You hear it all.
You begin to comprehend the complex systems that breed so much desperation and so much resentment.
All because Jesus said to you Ephphatha – ‘be opened.’
There are times when you’re not so sure that he did you any favors,
because now you hear more than you wish you did.
Sometimes you long for that old, familiar ringing in your ears.
But those were the former times.
Now you are whole and healed, Church, and there’s no going back.
Jesus said to you “Ephphatha” – “Be Opened.”
And like the words to that song “Louie Louie” – it’s not dirty.
It is dangerous, but not dirty.
Some will want to question it – “Should they be saying that?”
Some may even want to ban you from speaking,
But they can’t because it is Jesus himself who opened your mouth.
So Church – with ears opened and with tongue unchained – what will you say?
By the grace of God, I pray it is not gibberish.