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Isaiah 56: 1, 6-8    some foreigners join themselves to the Lord

Romans 11: 1-2a, 29-32   God is merciful  to all

Matthew 15: 10-28  the faith of the Canaanite woman

What If Jesus Would Have Stuck Only To The Party Line?

     Think about this the next time you are in a political or religious discussion: What would have happened if Jesus stuck only to the party line?

     One thing that would have happened is that you and I would be doomed. We’re in the wrong party. We’re not Jewish.

     Jesus did not stick only to the party line or listen to the advice of the party faithful, in this case the disciples.

     Jesus healed and accepted people who were not in the right party, tribe. Do you?

     The Canaanite woman believed in Him. And she was healed. She was included. She was saved. Not because of her tribe but because of her belief in Jesus.

     The foreigner actually taught the disciples in this reading. They wanted her thrown out. But, as the second reading this morning says, God is “merciful to all.”  (Romans 11: 32)

     Isaiah tells us today that “foreigners who bring themselves to the Lord” will be brought by God to “the holy mountain.”  (Isaiah 56: 6,7)

    Maybe our elected officials could learn something from the actions of Jesus in this reading from Matthew.  Sometimes we need to be flexible if we want to see the big picture.

      Did you ever hear the expression, “missing the forest for the trees”?  I think a lot of people fall into that mistake today, whether they be in politics or religion.  Some people get so hung up on a party line that they miss the big picture.   

     And this is an increasing problem. We have more and more people coming into our nation and towns who are not like us, who believe something different.

     Let me ask you a question: if somebody builds a Hindu temple in Denver, what do you think the best way would be to evangelize them and try to get them to understand about the saving power of Jesus?

     Would it be better to picket them and surround their building aggressively, praying against them day and night in fear and hatred disguised as devotion to Our Lord?

     Or would it be better to go and talk with them, talk them a cake, sit down and hear what it is they believe and then share with them, AFTER YOU HAVE LISTENED WITH RESPECT TO THEM, then share with them the story and message of Jesus Christ.

     The latter will open lines of communication and trust and possibly yield to converts.

    The former will create enemies and divide us even further.

     Zealots in the Gospel are never portrayed in a favorable light. They are usually described as vain and self righteous people who think more of themselves than they ought to  when they should be thinking more about Jesus. This Jesus who healed the heathen and reprimanded the party faithful.

     This morning’s  readings  are about foreigners.

     We hear a lot about foreigners these days.  Everyone is on the lookout for terrorists and rightfully so!  Our nation is now in a period of history that began ten years ago at 9/11 which remains unlike any other in which we do not feel as safe as we did before.  We have been asked by our government to be alert for the strong possibility of more terrorist attacks.  We need to be diligent.

     We have become more suspicious of foreigners.  We look twice at people who appear to be different.  In all honesty I can’t really find a problem with this as we do need to be on guard in a way we have never had to be before.

     But somehow, along the way, we have also become more suspicious OF OURSELVES, OF PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE DIFFERENTLY THA N WE DO, CULTURALLY, POLITICALLY AND RELIGIOUSLY.  EVEN PEOPLE WHO WERE BORN AND RAISED IN THIS COUNTRY ARE MISTRUSTED AND VIEWED AS ENEMIES AND DEMONIZED.

     Something has gone kafluey!

     This is not how Jesus wants us to behave.

     It is interesting to see, however, how Jesus, how the Scripture looks at foreigners.  Jesus welcomes all who believe in Him.  In verse 16 in the 17th chapter of the Gospel of Luke , the Samaritan leper gives thanks for being cured.  Samaritans were considered to be unclean foreigners by the Jews in Jesus’ time.  Even healthy Samaritans were considered unclean.  Jesus, however, includes them. He even heals nine people here in this text who do not give thanks.  Christ does not strike the nine down but rather heals them any way because of His vast love.

     And this is the message of the day.  Love for foreigners and for everyone.

“ ....Jesus lamented the fact that only one of the ten expressed his appreciation for the gift of health. To this Samaritan, Jesus declared that faith had saved him (literally, ‘has made you well’).  Full health came in recognition of the one who gives health.

     The story demonstrates Jesus’ concern for the outcasts and afflicted of his day.  His healing not only overcame physical ailment, but reintegrated the outcast into the mainstream of society.  The story also demonstrates that the appropriate response to Jesus is found in one from whom society would least expect it.”

              Exploring The Yearly Lectionary, Series C,  Augsburg Fortress,

              Minneapolis, 1991,  p. 113,  Robert Kysar

     Including foreigners.

     In the fifth chapter of the Book of Second Kings, the Bible tells us about a Syrian general named Naaman who had leprosy and who was cleansed by listening to the prophet Elisha and washing in the Jordan River.  Despite his original stubbornness, he did so and was healed and then believed.

     Many responsible voices have also expressed that at this time we must be careful not to fall victim to prejudice and racism against people who are different from us or who are truly and peacefully Islamic or Arabic simply because we are frustrated and hurt and angry.

     The lesson of Christ is to reach out to all and to include everyone, to allow all an opportunity to believe in Him and to participate together with all of God’s children.

    The Holy Scripture  tells  the story of God’s love for all, or as Romans 11 says this morning, God is “merciful to all”.  Has there ever been a more important time for this message? 

       Exactly how should we react when we find that people from Asia or Eastern Europe or Hispanic countries are working at the Turkey Hill and can hardly speak English.

     Should we regret the loss of the past and hate them? No.

     You know, in the vast scheme of time, it wasn’t long ago that people who are entirely accepted as Americans today were hated and discriminated against by the quote true Americans. Italian Americans and Irish Americans, for example, were hated and considered not really Americans.

Today that would be nonsense. This is how people in fifty years will view the hatred of Asian Americans, Slavic American and Hispanic Americans.

       When I was 8 years old, my Mother put  my twin brother and me on the train in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, by ourselves, and we rode 600 miles to Chicago to see my cousin Jim who had lived near us all of my life until shortly before that time and was like a big brother to me. Travel like that in those days was not unusual or particularly dangerous. It was fun.

     The most frightening part of the whole trip was the baby in the seat next to me who screamed, “My bum hurts! My bum hurts!” at the top of his lungs for 599 of those 600 miles!

     While I was visiting we went to a baseball game to see the Cubs play the Pittsburgh Pirates, my team!  I was a big fan and player in those days.

     There I was, 8 years old sitting on the end of a row in Wrigley Field, Chicago, watching my Pittsburgh Pirates play the Chicago Cubs.  Wow! 

I had my Pirate shirt and hat on and my glove was in my hand ready to go.  Sitting directly across the aisle at the edge of the row right next to me was a boy,  about my age dressed in his Chicago Cub shirt and hat and he had his glove on his hand ready to go.

     Now even though this event happened in 1960, many years ago, there are some things I still remember about it.

      Also of note was the fact that my Buccos won the game 6-0. Can’t forget that.

      And, not unimportantly, that was the same year that the Pirates beat the Yankees in the World Series with Bill Mazeroski hitting the dramatic walk off home run winner in the bottom of the ninth in Pittsburgh!  I’ll never forget that year!

But the thing I remember the most, as a little boy, sitting there surrounded by Cubs fans, in ENEMY  TERRITORY, was that that boy across the aisle from me had no hatred for me nor I for him. We engaged in conversation and even shared some food. I looked at his glove and he took a look at mine as we switched gloves for a while.

     I remember thinking, at the end of the game, that it almost didn’t matter so much who won. I had a good time and much of it was spent with a new friend, a kid I didn’t even know until that day.

     Even though that boy had a different shirt and hat on, we were very much the same. We could talk and see in each other not our differences but our similarities.  This lead to friendship not animosity.

      Jesus reaches out to all. Those who believe in Him are accepted, no matter what else there is about them.

     Perhaps we as disciples can be like the two little boys at the ballgame and understand that our love of the game itself transcends the differences which threaten to divide us.

     When we look at God’s children, let us look not for opportunities to grow apart, but see in all of God’s children people who are just like us, living, working, striving, suffering, enjoying God’s blessings…..people who Jesus came to save just like you and me.

“….for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Thus says the Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.”  (Isaiah 56: 7c-8)

     The party line of Jesus is less like the party line which has everyone lock step in one way only. Jesus’ party line is like the old telephone party line on which everybody spoke at the same time.

     I’m really dating myself here and some of you might not even know what I’m talking about. In the old days when phones were just beginning, often the phone service provided in your area did not have a private line just for your phone. You had to share. When you were talking anybody else who had the line could speak and be heard by everyone else. It’s sort of like our Meet-Me-Line today  here at the church: if someone talks while listening to the service all the other people on the line can hear what they are saying!

     In a way, Jesus calls us to be involved in THAT type of party line.

     It’s  inclusive, a little noisy and annoying at times, but  a place where ALL could speak and where NO ONE was left out.

     That’s the party line where we’ll find the voice of Jesus.

Amen

The LORD Is My Shepherd
A Psalm of David.
1	The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2	He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:          he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3	He restoreth my soul:          he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4	Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,          I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5	Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:          thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6	Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:          and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever

 

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Tears of Saints by Tim Craven  July 30, 2010  Corolla, North Carolina

 

I am at the edge of an ocean

Even its vast power is temporary

Its mistake is its pretense

There is no majesty which supersedes the Lord

 

When we are dead and gone

And God has wiped away all tears

Will the ocean be dry?

Will the stars be tears of saints

Weeping through eternity in waves

Crashing through the darkness

Sweeping death away along its path