Is there anyone whose heart is not frightened at some time or another? Thus, the Lord’s message in Isaiah is directed to all of us. When we encounter Jesus we will experience vindication and recompense.

Be strong and do not fear, Isaiah’s words ring out. But do the people you will stand before this weekend really believe that God delivers on all the promises the prophet talks about?

Don’t discriminate in your hearts, the great New Testament essayist James warns us. Yet by the time we hear these words most of us have been doing just that for a lifetime. We learn early to prefer the clean boy to the untidy one; the fellow citizen to the foreigner; the well-dressed woman to the one wearing a jacket that’s behind the fashion.

Most of us remember clearly where we were on September 11, 2001. It was a sunny Tuesday, and I was greeting the children as they were entering our school, remarking how much they had grown over the summer. I was told about a bad accident that just happened in New York City.

Jesus cured the deaf man with the speech impediment in today’s gospel by poking him in the ear and spitting in his mouth. Oddly enough that was the common method of treatment among the healers of Jesus’ time.

A few summers ago I was on a team that was running a men’s retreat weekend, and I was on kitchen duty. The setting was rustic and the kitchen primitive. We made meals using a few available utensils and a couple of propane rings to cook on.

Our God has come to save us and bring us strength and courage. With confidence we lift our prayers to God.

Immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed. Mark sees Jesus to be the fulfillment of the prophecies about the Messiah made by Isaiah, who wrote, “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped” (35:5).

If poor people come in . . . make room for them wholeheartedly, O bishop, even if it means that you have to sit on the ground. You must not be a respecter of persons if you want your ministry to be agreeable before God. —The Teachings of the Twelve Apostles (c. 60-100)