Calendar Date: 3.20.2011
Listen to the sermon here.
He who has been born from the Spirit,
is Spirit.
In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Ephphatha,” that is, be opened. And so the senses are opened up to God.
Jesus spoke, and the man born deaf was healed, he could now physically hear; something was changed in the man, he could now do something that wasn't possible before. It was real, it was powerful. Jesus' Word did this.
So in the Baptismal rite, the pastor speaks Jesus' Word, Ephphatha, that is, be opened, and the senses are opened: not only to the hearing of God's Word, but the seeing and perceiving, the tasting and touching and smelling. We Christians experience God in real things: what used to be ordinary bread and wine, we hear the Words, “this is my Body, this is my Blood”, and so they are, we see how God has taught us to see / by hearing Him. Baptism opens the senses.
