Setting
Ourselves Straight
Sunday,
August 17, 2008
Rev. Janice Palm
Romans
11:1-2a, 29; Matthew
15:21-28 (& 10-20)
Okay,
I admit I began a couple of mornings last week just a little bleary-eyed
because I started to watch and then couldn't tear myself away
from the Olympic Games competitions. I know it may be politically
incorrect to support the games because of China's record on pollution
and civil rights. Andrew Greeley in his regular Friday commentary
named the Olympics hypocritical: on one hand, he says, a façade
of camaraderie and peace are portrayed on the fields and in gymnasiums
while, the other hand of every day reality, is lived out through
questionable motivations and officiating, invasions into other
countries, and national human rights practices.
But
still I couldn't help myself from waiting for the women's gymnastics
competition to air. I watched Michael Phelps swim as an absolute
powerhouse winning his gold medals and records settings. I also
have been taken in by the US 400 meter freestyle relay team. One
person on that team caught my attention: Cullen Jones. Do you
recognize the name? With all the attention being drawn to Phelps,
it is easy to overlook other male swimmers. In our feeble attempt
to treat everyone as the same when we are not, white folks often
try not to notice ethnic differences in others. Cullen Jones is
an African American; he is in the great minority when it comes
to swimming or just being in the water. Jones says when he learned
that it is much more likely that 'Latins' and African Americans
drown than other folks, his goal became making it easier, more
common for people of color to be seen in the water - swimming.
His winning the Gold medal has given him a sense of authority
so that he might now start out on his movement backed by a Bank
of America $10,000 grant - "The Cullen Jones Diversity Tour."
He wants to travel the nation to talk with and get more ethnic
minorities in the water. Now I call that a great every day real
life result of the Olympic competitions. I call that all around
- on the competitive field and beyond the Olympics - downright
honorable living.
Similar
to the many reacting to the Olympics as hypocritical, our Gospel
reading when I first read it had me spouting off; I think we need
to set Jesus straight. Jesus is just politically incorrect in
this reading; his epithets are even hard to read out loud. This
one of God, our Savior, how could he go around helping only certain
people, how could he go around calling others 'dogs?' Some have
tried to minimize the word by saying he was referring to domestic
puppies, household pets! I don't think there were many of those.
But alas, I have altered my approach as I have stayed with this
scripture and let it seep into my past week's living and praying.
I think rather than Jesus, it is we who need to set ourselves
straight!
Before
we consider our Gospel reading, I think it's important for us
to look at what's immediately previous to our morning's reading.
A theme is brewing in Matthew calling to question who is to be
included in the community, who is to be rejected from the community,
who is to receive mercy, and healing. So Jesus speaks to those
folks who are most concerned about the Law and how to be holy,
pure by following the Law. Jesus is questioned by the Pharisees
and scribes who know their Law about what should be eaten and
how one should eat. And Jesus' followers wanting to know if they
would be included in God's kingdom ask him the same. Jesus responds
that the concern is not so much just following the Law but how
one follows the Law and how one lives one's life. That is, one
is not holy or pure or chosen by God by what and how one takes
in food or follows the rules but rather by what is in one's heart.
Jesus moves the concern from Law to the heart, what is in one's
thoughts: that's what is important. Good and evil arise from the
heart/thoughts not by following a set of rules.
Our
reading from Romans emphasizes this: God doesn't reject you. Paul
says: 'Look at me!'
In
Matthew, Jesus goes away to the region of Tyre and Sidon whereupon
he is met by a woman of that region whose daughter is ill - filled
with a demon. A Canaanite woman: clearly this person is an outsider,
a foreigner, an idol, magic worshipper. This is emphasized by
the fact that the daughter is tormented by a demon. The Canaanite
woman confronts Jesus; he tries to ignore her. Jesus' disciples
try to get him to deal with her. Jesus responds saying I wasn't
sent to deal with such as her whereupon she responds causing Jesus
in the end to heal her daughter.
This
exchange is very unusual for Matthew: it's topsy-turvy from what
we know so far. This is the first woman in Matthew to actually
speak for herself of her need and demand that it be met. Further,
it is not just her retort that turns Jesus around, clearly even
though she is a foreigner one might intuit through the descriptions
given that she really is not as foreign as we are led to believe
but she's a woman of faith (faith in Jesus), she calls out more
than once, referring to Jesus as Lord, Son of David. She kneels
in prayer as if one within the faith community. These all would
impress Jesus as someone other than just a foreigner.
Jesus
response to his disciples that he came for the lost of Israel
doesn't ring true. If he was looking for the lost of Israel, what's
he doing in the Tyre and Sidon regions of Canaan way north of
the Galilean Sea? We know them as a part of Lebanon today. If
he's looking for the lost of Israel he's in the wrong place. Again,
his response that he came only for a certain population doesn't
ring true. Just previous to this scene as I mentioned earlier,
Jesus speaks of how what is in your heart and mind as important
rather than following ritualistic rules. That's how inclusion
not line drawing is offered.
He was opening up the concept of community; community means being
inclusive not building walls of exclusion.
Most
commentators try to indicate and explain how Jesus slipped in
his initial responses to this woman, that somehow he acts out
of his humanity rather than his divinity, and then he changes
his mind offering gracious healing because of this woman's confrontation.
But I wonder if a single writer's comment on this scene isn't
worth considering. Perhaps, this scene isn't so much about how
Jesus acted toward a foreigner, an outsider, but rather this scene
is to cause us to consider how the early church is to be and how
we meet folks who are not like us. This Gospel is about the early
church and how the church is to be. It also confronts us: How
do we respond to someone coming toward us or sits at a nearby
table who is different from us? How do we respond when someone
different offers gifts of service here in this church that we
just don't do? What if the offer comes from someone we feel we
don't know well enough? How well do we need to know the other?
Is not knowing the intention within another's heart enough? Do
we make the effort to know the other?
I
think about how hospitable I am. I experience diversity growing
around me, in my neighborhood. I see folks walking as families
to the synagogue; I see Muslim women wearing head scarves and
long garments. I think about how we meet those who are different
from oneself since 9/11, since changes in immigration laws have
occurred, since ethnic populations are growing, since the question
has been raised as to whether we should or can refer to the U.S.
as a Christian nation.
I
share with you about how three folks in Seattle, Washington respond
meeting folks who are not like them. They include the others.
Rather than building walls of division they extend hospitality
to one another. The three are referred to as Seattle's Three Amigos.
The three ministers: Rabbi Ted Falcon, Pastor Don Mackenzie, and
Sufi Muslim teacher Jamal Rahman have been meeting and in conversation
since 9/11. They have brought their worshiping communities together
in order to worship together on many different occasions. They
have just celebrated their third annual interfaith Passover meal
at the University Congregational Church where there were three
hundred strong. This isn't a gathering of Christians taking ownership
of the feast and doing the Seder rather it is rabbi led. Rabbi
Falcon leads saying the Haggadah takes us all on a spiritual journey
where we learn to be freed from our Pharaohs, travel in the wilderness
and form our dreams of the Promised Land. Not only are all three
different congregations invited to the Seder by Rabbi Falcon but
both Pastor Mackenzie and Brother Rahman are invited to speak.
And Falcon doesn't want generic spirituality talk from them; he
wanted Mackenzie to mention Jesus or Paul and Rahman to refer
to Muhammad and the Qur'an. This kind of interfaith gathering
is increasingly common but there has been a qualitative change
since 9/11 says Kathryn Lohre of Harvard University's Pluralism
Project. "There is a strong interfaith resurgence, driven
especially by the desire of many people, perhaps Christians especially,
to get to know their religious neighbors." I think Christians
have gotten a wake up call and see that there are others beside
themselves in the United States.
What
I find refreshing in what the Three Amigos are doing is that when
they worship together or as each of them leads a gathering of
the three congregations, they are encouraged to speak out of their
own faith tradition rather than watering it down to a common point
for all three religions. They and their congregations are learning
how each is a distinct body and even in their differences they
offer a growing, deepened hospitality toward and understanding
of one another. Not only are they learning of one another's traditions,
and gaining friendships, they also work together on common projects
such as Habitat for Humanity.
I
think about the work of these three when I attend a clergy caucus
group in Albany gathered to make a difference in people's lives
who are released from prison; the clergy caucus group is Christian.
Where are our brothers and sisters in faith?
Kathryn
Lohre says that informal interfaith efforts are growing. I believe
efforts like the three amigos make it easier for us so we are
not stopped in our tracks when someone appears before us unlike
me or you or you. Rather we can extend our hand in genuine care.
More importantly these efforts open our hearts and minds and doors
to more and more diversity.
Pastor
Mackenzie of the Three Amigos shares, 'I think Christians have
misunderstood the Great Commission (that's at the end of Matthew).
When Jesus says, 'Go and make disciples of all nations,' we think
he means go and make Christians of all nations. But he doesn't
say that. To be a disciple of God means to be a disciple of love.
Maybe he means that we are called to help people find the way
of love.'
Perhaps
that's the very message Jesus offers to us today: having found
love in Jesus, we can set ourselves straight, if we help others
- no matter who - experience and find the way of love.
How
very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the head, running down the beard,
on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes.
It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of
Zion. For there the Lord ordained his blessing, life for ever
more.
