It was seven a.m. on a Saturday morning. Twelve hours later her bed would be made and many of the toys she had thrown around her bedroom would be put away but right now her face was bright red and her legs were almost a blur. For the past fifteen minutes she had been running around the house yelling nonsense words while she moved. Her basic plan had been pretty simple- stay out of the reach of her mother while continuing to make enough noise to be able to say later, to her father, that she honestly hadn't heard any instructions.

She did not want to acknowledge the words that her mother was saying because if she listened she might have to clean up her room. In a quick sprint she disappeared around the corner to her parent's bedroom, dashed into their closet, shut the door and hid behind her mother's clothes.

She was still panting from the effort when her mother opened the closet door, heard the deep breathing coming from behind the cotton dresses and discovered her hiding place. As her mother parted the dresses the metal hangers screeched along the closet pole. The girl jammed her fingers into her ears and bellowed "I can't hear you!" over and over as she watched her mother's lips move silently.

She thought she could see the word "room" being formed as her mother's lips pursed and then stretched out. Her mother's bared teeth followed by a protruding tongue might have been the word "father" being spoken or simply an expression of extreme exasperation. Suddenly she heard, "…and it better be all cleaned up before dinnertime," as her mother pulled a finger out of her ear.

Many of us can see ourselves in this story, or one that sounds very like it. Sometimes we are the one trying to talk about responsibility, interdependence and doing our share. Other times we are the guy or gal with their fingers in their ears trying not to hear some message we'd rather not acknowledge.

But ignoring truths we'd rather not hear doesn't make them go away. Pretending that we are completely independent doesn't make us so. And even if we could be left alone to wallow in the messes we make for ourselves would we really want to remain in those messes forever just to be able to say "I'm in control here"?

The nation of Israel was in such a willful mess when God sent Ezekiel to speak a word to that nation. What was the nature of the mess? They had forgotten to put God first. People were not treating others as they would have preferred to be treated themselves. They were worshipping everything under the sun - and even the sun itself- rather than the God of Abraham, Jacob and Isaac. They were self-assured, impudent and stubborn. Things were so bad that God said to Ezekiel, I am sending you to them as my prophet, and you shall say to them "Thus says the Lord God," but they probably won't listen.

This not listening is a reoccurring theme in Salvation History. Again and again prophets are sent to call us to return. Every day presents shining new opportunities to turn and face God squarely, to turn and listen to words of life. And every day people put their fingers in their ears, turn their backs and then wonder why they feel disconnected and miserable. Or they don't wonder - but that's only because they have no idea how much better the life they might have had could have been.

Even if there were no prophets, Jesus himself said the stones themselves would speak up. Trees sing the glory of God and the sea makes a noise like cymbals while clouds perform liturgical dance from the rising, to the setting, of the sun -every glorious day. Do we see it for what it is? Do we tell others how aching beautiful and glorious life can be when God is in His heaven and we believe it to be true?

We are surrounded by grace on parade in creation and in the lives of people all around us whether we acknowledge it or not. God sets before us life and death every day. Should we not be looking for and choosing life, right now, and again tomorrow morning, and the next day's afternoon - seeking grace every minute until the shadows lengthen and evening falls and the fever of life is over?

Each step - each thing done or left undone - leads us down a road. Our daily decisions and the direction we choose matter. Many of us have GPS navigation devices in our cars. And we are perfectly willing to obey the little digital voce when it tells us we have taken a wrong turn. Perhaps we'd be more prone to listening to the wisdom in Scripture if we thought of the bible as a GPS device. Scripture works with a map that goes beyond the boundaries of the land of the living. Ezekiel, Jesus and Paul have even more important guidance to offer us than Garmin, Magellan or Tom-tom. Our Gospel Positioning System can lead us to green pastures, still water and life abundant. This red letter edition GPS steers us toward the many rooms in our Father's house not just the residence of a friend in distant city. The Bible holds the words of life and the signs of the Creator are stamped onto creation waiting to be encountered and perceived in back roads and mountains and tiny seeds if we will only let ourselves be led.

Last time I preached I spoke about perceptual blindness. Sometimes that blindness happens because of inattention, other times people are blinded by their own expectations. Remember the experiments in which a gorilla walks undetected across a basketball court? Sometimes we're blind to things happening right in front of us. Even major changes can go unnoticed if a person doesn't expect to see, or doesn't want to see, something different. The same is true of what we hear. Otherwise healthy people can experience temporary deafness when the nature of the speaker or her words is outside their expectations.

The nation of Israel had hardened their hearts and their hearing in Ezekiel's day. God sent Ezekiel to shake them up with bizarre behavior and startling words. The Israelites needed to be reminded of what really mattered and only something dramatic would get through.

The section we heard from Paul's letter to the Corinthians has a similar tone and purpose. It's Paul's second letter. We don't hear about any second letter to the Ephesians or the even to the Romans. Why does Corinth require 100% more communication than many of the other young churches? Perhaps it is because Corinth is a cosmopolitan port city where everybody comes and seemingly anything goes.

In a place where you're likely to see the best the world has to offer gathered into one worldly marketplace the temptation to comparison shop is high. This is as true about religious affiliation as it is about gold jewelry. Maybe the spiritual teacher down the street is smarter than mine. Who's got the best mountaintop experience story to tell? Wouldn't it serve me best to stand with the strongest leader, or to find the faith community with the wealthiest or most influential patron?

Paul can't resist giving his mystical bona fides in a thinly veiled manner but he gets a grip and relates, "It is not about all that. You're listening to the wrong voices. You're looking at the wrong things. It is all about grace, not the strength that is in us or the power we can gather around us."

This is why illness or injury can be such good teachers. The deeper reality of grace is that the loss of position or possessions can end up being a gift. When a house of cards collapses we are given the opportunity to shuffle the deck. When we embrace our dependence on God and other people we can see and hear grace where before all we perceived was fear or darkness. And gratitude is the result of recognizing grace.

So why don't we walk around feeling grateful every minute? We don't always see or hear what, or who, is right in front of us. Look at Jesus' homecoming. Everyone is so sure who he is that they can't see who he actually is. Yes, that's Mary's son- but also He's also the Son of God. Yes Jesus is a carpenter but He is also the Logos from whom all things that are made were made. Jesus is more than the words He speaks, He is the living Word come down from heaven. But in His hometown they could not hear him with this fuller understanding and thus He could not act with deeds of power.

Can we hear this Jesus as more than a carpenter, more than a teacher, more than we can imagine? Are we open to seeing deeds of power in our own neighborhood? In our souls and bodies?

Jesus gathers those who have eyes to see and ears to listen. He forms them into groups and sends them out into the world to tell the story, to offer healing and to invite others to follow Him. These actions did not cease when the last word of Mark's Gospel was written. Grace still rains down. Disciples still rise up. We are surrounded by a mission field, a sea of persons thirsty for God but consuming everything else under the sun in an attempt to slake their thirst. We know the power of living water for by it we share in Christ's resurrection and through it we were reborn by the Holy Spirit. Let us rise up in gratitude and go out into the world to do as Christ commands. AMEN