More Ready to Hear Than We Are to Pray – The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

Rev. Andrew Brashier / September 8, 2025

This entry is part 46 of 46 in the series A Walk in the Ancient Western Lectionary

O for a thousand tongues to sing

My great Redeemer’s praise.

The glories of my God and King,

The triumphs of his grace!

The Christian walk can be a confusing one. You travel the path less traveled, the one blazed by the Lord Christ, and despite progressing towards the Lord, one can find themselves encountering not only experienced travellers but also newcomers. Out of the thicket and forest overgrowth, a new person walks, stumbles, or even falls onto the narrow way.

Perhaps you are the one recently stumbling upon Christ’s path? You did not know what you were seeking, nor Who was seeking you, and here you are landing onto a path not of your own making. Welcome to the path you were created to walk. You may not even be seeking anything, because the truth is that God is seeking you before you were even born. You are being pursued – not as a predator hunts its prey – but as a lover seeks his beloved.

My gracious Master and my God,

Assist me to proclaim,

To spread thro’ all the earth abroad

The honors of thy name.

Regardless if you are new to Christ’s path or an old traveller who feels lost, we both have much to learn. Oftentimes, we enter the path of Christ and think that we have everything we need. We fall back into the old Adam mindset, which tells us we need to prepare ourselves for the journey ahead and to scavenge along the Way when we find ourselves lacking. Yet the reality is we are always lacking. We are always in need. And our Father knows this, He only desires that we ask of Him and He would provide yet again. The Father who provided the Son for our redemption and the Holy Ghost for our sanctification is always in the business of giving. There is no need to fear that you have asked too much, the Son of God has willingly come down, died, and risen again for our salvation. There is nothing too much to ask for when all has been given.

Yet we need reminding about God’s graciousness. This week we pray to the “Almighty and everlasting God,” whose character is revealed as “always more ready to hear than we are to pray.” (Collect of the Day). We sometimes feel alone along the Way, yet all the while, the Father stands near and walks beside us, yearning and ready to hear us share our griefs, our burdens, and our sorrows – each of which the Son suffered for our sakes so that He bears on our behalf. However, we are far more likely to remain ignorant and mute, stumbling along the Way and failing to simply say the short sentence, “Lord, save me.”

Let us remember the Savior who met us and sent us along His Way. We met the Father through the Son, and if we believe what the Son reveals, then we should heed the character of God revealed in today’s Collect, namely that He “art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve.” (Collect of the Day). It’s a deep, deep love the Father harbors for us, yet will we dry dock and rest in His calm waters? We need His love and assuaging of our fears, yet we turn back towards the world and away from the Maker. He offers us His open arms in a loving embrace, so why do we doubt His goodness and His gracious intentions for us? Do we trust Him or don’t we? We can be such fickle sinners in the Father’s hands. Far too often, we resemble the wandering Israelites, always doubting, testing, and rebelling from our Lord, when all He desires is to “Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy” even “forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid.” (Collect of the Day).

Our Father does not wish to cast down judgment upon our heads; He is offering to forgive us that which we dare not admit nor speak aloud outside the imprisonment of our own souls. His mercy is what hangs above us, ready to quench the darkest doubts and most scandalous sins. Further, He does not merely bind up our wounds, He is ready to give “us those good things which we are not worthy to ask.” (Collect of the Day).

Jesus! the name that charms our fears,

That bids our sorrows cease,

‘Tis music in the sinner’s ears,‘

Tis life, and health, and peace.

We do not have because we do not ask. We would have so much more than we could fathom should we simply trust in the Father as the Son trusts Him all the way to the Cross and beyond. St. Paul tells us, “And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward.” (Epistle lesson, 2 Corinthians 3:4, KJV). This trust is not our own and is not something that one pulls forth from deep within, St. Paul explains, “not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.” (2 Corinthians 3:5, KJV).

The Christian life is full of feeling insufficient; hence, we must remember that God is all-sufficient and His grace abounds. Even St. Paul, an Apostle, reminds us that the glory God is bestowing upon us in the Gospel is incomprehensibly great. He tries to make the glory of God’s grace slightly comprehensible by reminding us that if the old covenant resulted in Moses’s face gloriously glowing in such a manner that the Israelites could not bear to witness, then how much more shall “the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?” (2 Corinthians 3:8, KJV). We serve a glorious Master who shares His glory upon and within His servants. We feast upon God Himself in the Word preached and the Sacrament delivered. God truly dwells within you by virtue of your faith, your baptism, and His communion with you. Do you trust these truths? More importantly, do you trust the One who promises and seals it upon you by His Holy Ghost?

He breaks the power of canceled sin,

He sets the prisoner free;

His blood can make the foulest clean;

His blood availed for me.

St. Paul summarizes his point by comparing the glory of God presented in the old covenant law, whose “letter killeth,” with the further glory of the new covenant, where “the spirit giveth life,” by concluding: “For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.” (2 Corinthians 3:6, 9). Each Sunday when we gather together, we ascend beyond Mount Sinai to the Jerusalem above. We meet Christ in His glory on Mount Zion above, which shall descend to merge heaven and earth someday. We ascend because He ascended, and He descends to us with Himself in the Body and the Blood.

Every sinner who lays their darkest sin at the foot of the Cross basks in this glory. Every deaf, mute, and blind man who gains their hearing, speech, and sight beheld the glory of the Son’s Gospel. Hence, this Gospel lesson selected for today involves Jesus opening the ears and loosening the tongue of a deaf and mute man. (Mark 7:31-37). Our collect is driving home that we need to hear the promises of God’s grace and believe. The deaf man in Mark’s gospel hears for the first time and believes upon the Son. Further, the man also loses his speech impediment, “and he spake plain.” (Mark 7:35).

Shall we, whose spiritual strings of our tongues were loosed, not also speak plain and ask the Father of abundance for more grace? For the deaf and mute man heard the words of the Lord for the first time and used his newly loosed tongue to proclaim and publish far and wide what Jesus had done. (Mark 7:36-37). How much more should we declare the abundant grace of God that pours out far more gracious gifts than we could ever imagine?

He speaks, and listening to his voice,

New life the dead receive;

The mournful, broken hearts rejoice;

The humble poor, believe.

Jesus opens our ears to hear His grace-filled covenant and opens our mouths to pray for the bountiful grace we do not deserve. Shall we not join the chorus of all the formerly blind and deaf sinners who are set apart by the covenant of grace? Shall we not extend a hand to the wanderer who fell upon the path of grace with the hand of welcoming fellowship?

If you ask not, then you shall receive not. So ask, and ye shall receive. (Matthew 7:7). Seek His grace and abiding abundance, and ye shall find. Knock upon the King’s door, and “it shall be opened unto you.” Id.  “For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” (Matthew 7:8, KJV).

The Almighty Creator patiently waits for you to ask. Seek Him now, as His ear is always open to you. Will you open your ears now and receive His Good news? He stands ready to give you more than what you asked for, like Solomon, who sought God’s wisdom and received more than he ever expected. Seek the Father who pours out a flood of mercy, forgiveness, and good gifts to strengthen and sanctify us in the Holy Ghost. Join now the chorus of a thousand tongues and in our triumphant song:

Hear him, ye deaf; his praise, ye dumb,

Your loosened tongues employ;

Ye blind, behold your Savior come;

And leap, ye lame, for joy.