SERMON - "ISN'T IT AMAZING?"

Mark the evangelist, records for us one of Jesus' great miracles which He told them this way.

Jesus was asked to lay hands on "a deaf man who had a speech impediment". Jesus put his fingers in the man's ears and, spitting, touched the man's tongue. Then he looked up to heaven, emitted a groan and said, "Ephphatha! be opened! At once the man's ears were opened; he was freed from the impediment, and began to speak freely." (Mark 7:33-35)

The people who witnessed this miracle were filled with awe and wonder. In the Gospel writer's words, "their amazement went beyond all bounds". (Mark 7:37)

Our "amazement", will soar "beyond all bounds" the day we begin to understand that each one of us is special in God's creative process. Each one of us is one of God's "originals", wonderfully mysterious in our own uniqueness. Like the universe itself, our life is vaast, and in constant motion. Each one of us is necessary! Each one of us belongs! God's plan for the fulfillment of His Creation includes each one of us and indeed needs us all.

As we celebrate at this annual Supreme Council meeting, our 125th Anniversary of Supreme Council, we raise up our prayers and our voices to give thanks to God for all his wonderful blessings bestowed upon us. We are truly amazed beyond all bounds at His love, His compassion, His forgiveness towards us all. We give thanks for His blessings of our great fraternity and for all those, who have gone before us, who in their own day, witnessed their faith in God, country, and our Rite. As we continue to be in Awe and Wonder of God's gracious goodness and love, may we always be thankful to Him by showing in our lives daily, that He is truly our god and we are His people.

I wonder, do we always really appreciate the wonder of who God has made us? Do we appreciated the wonder, for example, of the body that God has given to us? Amazing are our ears that know both sound and silence. Amazing is our bone structure, the clean lines of our arms and legs, though frail they may become-- the dexterity of our hands in movement. Amazing is the flow of the blood through our vessels. Amazing is the journey of a thought through the maze of our brain. Amazing is the way of breath that fans the fire of life within us. Amazing is the way of food as it is transformed into living cells. Amazing is the way of creative life which fashions out its own substance, a new and unique temple for our living soul. Isn't all of this amazing? Isn't God amazing? God is indeed good!

Do you appreciate the wonder of your mind? With your mind you can create beauty, search for truth, dream noble dreams. With your mind you can explore the atom; you can recall the past; you can plan the future. With your mind you can gain dominion over the earth, achieve mastery over yourself. We can fly toward God. Isn't it all amazing?

Do you appreciate the wonder of your own spirit? Do you know that you are one with the living God? You are one with God who fashioned the physical universe around us, the simplest secrets of which our wisest physicists are only now discovering. You are one with the God who, in a living cell, effortlessly creates substance that all our chemists in acres of factories cannot duplicate. You are one with the God who fashioned the human soul and made it so wonderful and strange that even you who possess it cannot see its full meaning.

You are one with the God who made life, and made it so interesting that He himself enjoys the living of it. As the leaves are a part of the tree; as the sands are part of the earth; as the cells of your body are a part of you, so you are part of the spirit of God. Isn't it amazing?

A farmer tells the story of "the miracle tree", an old orange tree on his property, which had been badly damaged during a brushfire. Practically all the leaves were burnt off and, in many places, the flames had seared through the bark. The wounded tree had not borne fruit in several years anyway, so the farmer decided to finish it off. He used a tractor with a large scoop to try to push the tree down. Again and again he banged the tree with the scoop, opening up deep gashes in the trunk. But the old orange tree would not budge. Finally, the farmer quit trying, went back to his regular farm chores and, eventually, forgot about the orange tree.

The following spring, the farmer was amazed to discover that the tree he had given up on was producing, the biggest, juiciest oranges he had ever seen. And for many succeeding years, the miracle tree continued to bear some rich fruit. The farmer explained it all this way: The orange tree's recovery seemed like a miracle. Actually what had happened was part of a natural, ordinary process that had been retarded by the fire and, then, shocked back into action by the tractor's scoop. When the scoop had cut those deep gashes into the trunk, it forced the energizing sap to begin it's natural journey out of the roots and up into the tree. It just kept on going right up through the entire tree, giving it new life. The "natural" process I see and hear on my farm never ceases to amaze me. Every day is a miracle if you are open to what is going on around you. It's amazing!

In the scriptures, from Beginning to End, there is an emphasis upon praise and thanksgiving to the God who reveals Himself to us through the natural order. In the very beginning, when God created this natural world, He, "saw that it was good", the author of Genesis tells us repeatedly. Then through the Prophets and the Psalmists, over and over again, the natural order is celebrated as a sign of the Majesty and the Glory of God:

"The heavens are telling the story of the Glory of God; and the firmament who proclaims His handiwork." (Psalm 19:1)
"For thou didst form my inwards parts. Thou didst knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise Thee, for Thou art fearful and wonderful, wonderful art Thy works!" (Psalm 139:13-14)

All through the scriptures the sacred authors are saying that God reveals His Glory all around us. And as we take this in through our senses, it becomes the catalyst that triggers our awareness of His presence within us. That is what is most important to us. It is not the way we take God in from "out there", that saves us and heals us. It is the way we allow the God who is within us, the Christ Spirit of God, to well up and fill our beings, literally. And when we experience God's presence in this way, like the Prophets and the Psalmists and Saint Paul, the Apostle Paul and the eyewitnesses to the healing power of Christ in the Gospel story today, we can say, "our amazement went beyond all bounds".

"Be open", Jesus commands us. If our ears, and eyes, and minds, and hearts are open to what is going on around us, we will discover that with each day comes a new opportunity to put our life into motion, and to satisfy a need in the divine plan of creation that God has entrusted to us and to no one else. You are needed; God has a need of every one of us. "Do not waste time complaining that your role is not big enough, your importance to this day and hour can never be measured by worldly standards." God has need of you, of everyone. God needs you to allow Him to express His attributes through you. God needs you to allow Him to express through you His tremendous love, for your family, your friends and neighbours, even your enemies. Isn't it just amazing? Isn't God amazing? Isn't God Awesome?