October 5, 2008

We start Bible study this Wednesday, repeated on Sundays. The Gospel of Mark, which is our lectionary Gospel, cycle B, beginning in Advent. We have about 40 signed up. There is room for more. Please join us.

Last year we were in Matthew. So as we take our leave from Matthew, I thought I would preach one more Matthew text, which appears also in Mark, but a bit more abbreviated, as our farewell to Matt.

It is a favorite text of mine - for its subtlety, its sensitivity, its surprise. Let's set it up.

Jesus is working hard, long hours, low wages, poor benefits. You've got the drift. Maybe you know someone like him. Furthermore, the crowds are contrary and complaining, the competition is tracking him and trying to trap him, and his own staff is fumbling and failing as they follow him. It's like - is anything going right!

Jesus needs a vacation. It is drive off into the sunset time. Or get thee to Glacier Park. You know what I mean. So he pulls it off. It's how we start our story, as you heard it read. "Jesus left that place (meaning the mess in Galilee) and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon." Tyre and Sidon, along the lovely seacoast of Lebanon. Tyre and Sidon, the Caribbean equivalent in Palestine.

Aaah, some well deserved R&R for our pooped out preacher. Time to sleep in, soak up some sun rays, and catch up on his backlog reading, along the sandy shoreline of Sidon. No wonder I like this text. Jesus basks on the beach, incognito. Or so he intends.

No sooner has he flipped down his shades, flipped off his flip flops, and flopped back on his beach blanket, than a stranger, a woman, a foreign lady, a Canaanite, comes rushing up and cries, "Son of David..." So much for the incognito. "Son of David, have mercy upon me; my daughter is tormented by a demon." So much for the "off duty" sign.

She wants a favor. A mere miracle. Will Jesus heal her daughter? Sayonara vacation before Jesus is able to get through one back issue of Jerusalem News & World Report.

What would you do? Hear the answer to "what would Jesus do?" Or as we see it abbreviated on the bumper stickers, "WWJD?" "What would Jesus do?"

Well, here is what Jesus does. Again, the woman, "Have mercy on me, Lord...my daughter is tormented by a demon." Jesus response, verse 23, "But Jesus did not answer her at all." Oooh, I guess Jesus doesn't like being interrupted on his vacation. "He does not say one word to her." He turns the page, rolls over, and ignores her. Which men have been doing to women ever since.

Is Jesus cold, cruel and calloused? No, not at all. Jesus is proper and polite for his time. He is being politically correct.

Jesus is a good Jewish boy. When you are lying on the beach, even on holiday, you donna speak-a to strange-a women. In fact, in Jesus' day it was improper and impolite to speak to women in public, even if you knew them, let alone to strange ladies in a foreign land in racy places like Sidon.

The disciples, oh, don't you know they would be lurking about, the disciples are also proper. Real proper, ever ready to rescue, albeit wrongly. They admonish Jesus, "Send this woman away, for she is disturbing us and making all this noise." Which men have been saying about women ever since. The disciples are a gutless, nervous lot. The Pharisees, keepers of the Law, might be watching. "Get rid of her," the disciples beg Jesus. "We cannot be cozy with Canaanites. This is not kosher with the commandments."

Jesus, in obedience to the letter of the Law, says to the woman in need, (cowboy accent) "Sorry, ma'am, but I have been sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." In other words, you lose, goat.

The impossibly, impertinent women falls at Jesus' feet and pleads, "Help me, Lord. Have mercy upon me." And without flinching, Jesus again responds, "Lady, I don't know you. I don't owe you. You are not my responsibility. It is not fair to take the chosen children's food and throw it to the dogs, like you."

Well, how does this sound on the lips of the Lord? Which is to say, I guess everybody can have a bad hair day. Even when on vacation, which, actually is a classic time for domestic disputes. If you've ever been there.

But this bothers us about brother, Jesus, doesn't it? For one thing, we are the Gentiles in this story, not the chosen children of Israel.

And it bothers us because even if we behave this way, I mean, on Friday afternoon when I was flurrying around trying to wrap things up to get on with "my day," I had three separate requests for assistance - I said no to all of them - so even when we respond this way, we don't expect Jesus to behave this way, even when on vacation.

It is one thing for the disciples, read as in "you and me," it is one thing for us to: slight a stranger, forget a foreigner, deny someone different, neglect the needy, turn away a turkey.

This is alright for us, for we are busy and people of modest means anyway. But this is not alright for Jesus. Not here in the Bible. He's supposed to set an example.

But here we have it. A woman in need, desperate, her child tormented, her heart breaking, approaches the Lord of life for mercy, and Jesus says without flinching, "I can't help you. Not you. Not today."

Whoa! This could be the end of the story. Should be. I which case we never would have heard of it, for it would not bear repeating. This is a common enough story. Not sacred scripture. Those who are able ignoring those who are in need.

This could be the end. But it is not. For you see, in catching our attention with this bad example, Jesus has set the stage for a good lesson for his disciples, read as in "you and me."

The woman would not be silent. Jesus knew this. The hungry and hurting will not disappear for our convenience. Their suffering is too great and too real.

"Lord help me," the woman begs at Jesus' feet. Jesus explains, as the disciples would like, as the Pharisees would love, and as the chief priest of the Temple would laud, "Lady, it is not right to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs."

Don't worry; she is used to being called a "dog."

"Yes, Lord, yes," continues the Canaanite "canine," not disagreeing with the prevailing social injustices, Lord knows, she knows it, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."

Try and hoard the blessings of the Lord, try and keep for our self, for our family, our kin, our country, our kind, the blessings of the Lord. Try, but we cannot contain and control them all.

The rain falls upon the rich and the poor. Crumbs from our cake will fall upon the ground, despite our greed. God will not deny the different, the distant, the disabled, the diseased or discarded from God's love.

And for them, crumbs from our cake will be sufficient, so great is their need and so receptive their response.

Let me point out to you, it is not the Pharisees, nor the Temple priests, nor even the disciples, who are a dense lot as we will read in Mark, who see Jesus as Lord during his lifetime. No, it is the Canaanite lady, the Roman Centurion, the blind man at Bethsaida, the sinful woman, the demented demoniac, and so forth, who recognize Jesus as Lord, and whose lives are fed, nay,

transformed, by their relationship to the Lord.

Concludes Jesus to the Canaanite woman, "O woman, great is your faith! May it be done for you according to your faith." And the text tells us, "In that very moment her daughter was healed."

Now the message is not in the miracle. Let go of the miracle. I cannot explain it. It is beyond our understanding. Let's get to what we can grasp. It is three-fold, of course. In brief,

1) Jesus is saying to the disciples (did I tell you to read as in "you and me"), and to the Pharisees, and to anyone would dare reduce God's grace and mercy to a set of laws, to tablets of stone, the exclusive right of anyone nation, or the personal property of any one people,

Jesus is saying, if it is "good news" for you, then it is "good news" for everyone. No one is excluded from the Kingdom of God. Or, at least, we do not make the selection.

Jew and Gentile, Greek and Roman, Canaanite & Moabite, black and white, CEO and welfare recipient, suburban dweller and street squatter, gifted student and special ed. child, all God's children.

We may not understand the miracles, but we had better understand this - God's goodness is for everyone. And if we do not understand this, then we very well may be standing in the way of God's love.

2) It does not take much. It does not take much to amplify and magnify God's grace and love.

So great are God's blessings and so hungry are God's children, that a few left overs from our fatted fare, a few crumbs from our cake, can communicate the "good news," carry the gospel lesson to those who have not been as blessed or as fortunate as ourselves.

It does not take much. Five loaves and two fish feed four thousand, which, interestingly enough, is the miracle that follows this story in Matthew.

People everywhere, in every station of life, are most receptive to the gospel message that God loves them, too, and blesses their life, as well. This is a message that is readily and gladly received.

It doesn't take much. Take our Neighbors-in-Need offering, for instance. We are not talking laying down our lives here, as Jesus did for us. We are talking table scraps, a few dollars, which we won't even miss.

What God can do with a few dollars, a few volunteer hours, a little commitment, a little carrying, a bit of faith, a bit of sharing. It is miraculous.

3) Be prepared. Be prepared to meet the Lord. A lot of us lament, "Oh, where is God?" We are looking for the Lord in all the wrong places, or, at least, in some pretty weird places, expecting God to entertain us or coddle us, to come to us in a convincing and incontrovertible way, a fiery pillar by night, a cloud of smoke by day.

We are testing God, playing "hide and seek" and daring God to find us. But our God is so great, our God is such love, that our God is much more present and prevalent. You want to find God? Look into the eyes of the poor, the oppressed, the lonely, the lame, the least of these; look into the hearts of the homeless, the hungry, the hurting, any of these we tend to turn away and ignore, look into their eyes with the love of God in your eyes and in your heart, and you will see the Risen Christ. It is just the amazing way God works. Our "neighbors in need" can open our eyes to new life. And everybody wins. By the grace of God. Oh, lucky us. AMEN.