August
17, 2008
Proper 15A - RCL
To read
the lessons for the day click here:
http://www.io.com/~kellywp/YearA_RCL/Pentecost/AProp15_RCL.html
Genesis
45:1-15
Psalm
133
Romans
11:1-2a, 29-32
Matthew
15: (10-20), 21-28
[Jesus
called the crowd to him and said to them, "Listen and understand: it is
not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of
the mouth that defiles." Then the disciples approached and said to him,
"Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you
said?" He answered, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not
planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind.
And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit." But
Peter said to him, "Explain this parable to us." Then he said,
"Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever
goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what
comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For
out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft,
false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with
unwashed hands does not defile."]
Jesus
left Gennesaret and went away to the district of Tyre and
Let
us Pray,
God
of our forbears,
as
your chosen servant Abraham
was
given faith to obey your call
and
to go out into the unknown, so may your church be granted such faith
that
we may follow you courageously
now
and forever;
through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
This
week in our Old Testament lesson we have more of the story of Joseph(Or as it
is known in the musical – the story of Joseph and the amazing Technicolor dream
coat!). Last week we heard how his
brothers, who were tired of Joseph being fathers favorite, conspired to kill
him so they wouldn’t have to hear from or about him any more. We heard that, instead of killing him they, after
trapping him, sold him into slavery.
Between last weeks reading and this week a lot has happened to
Joseph. To put this weeks reading in
perspective let me give you the “Cliff-notes version of what took place between
last weeks reading and today’s reading.
He was taken to
We
too are being called to model generosity.
I find it amazing when I hear about, or meet someone, who can forgive so
much while being derided and cast aside.
One of these amazing people is Bishop Robinson. In the forward to Bishop Gene Robinson’s book
“In the eye of the Storm” Bishop Desmond Tutu comments about Bishop Robinson
“Gene Robinson, breathtakingly, says of those opposing him, who have been
vituperative and worse that they are all, including him, destined for
heaven. He has refused to demonize
them. After all the calumny heaped on him he might
have been forgiven for hoping that his adversaries would end up in the warmer
place. Our Lord must smile to have such
a splendid representative in an affair that has been so sordid.” When I met Bishop Robinson I was impressed
with his calm and his genuine care for everyone. It is no wonder the people of his diocese
chose him to lead them. Bishop Robinson
models that wonderful forgiving spirit that we read about in today’s Old
Testament lesson and hear about in other stories of the bible.
Our
gospel reading today could easily be two readings. In fact the first part of the reading is
blocked off as “optional” But to me there is nothing optional about it. [to tell you the truth if I had my choice I
would probably have made the second half ‘optional’ but it isn’t up to me!] In
the first half of today’s Gospel reading Jesus tells the people gathered,
including some of the Pharisees, that it is not what you eat that matters for
being clean or unclean but what you say and do.
In the wonderfully satirical (and perhaps blasphemous!) book by
Christopher Moore called “Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's
Childhood Pal” which satirically recounts the lost years between Jesus birth
and the beginning of his ministry there is a passage where Jesus says in
describing the dietary rules “Its just Bacon” This becomes a running phrase
throughout the book when Jesus does something his childhood friend “Biff” knows
the Pharisees would not approve of he will look at Jesus and ask “It’s just
Bacon?” Jesus follows Jewish custom for
his time but he knows that, although the dietary rules of his day are important
for the Jews, they, as a means to being ritually clean or unclean, are much less
important that the works of our hearts.
For Jesus eating a particular food is not going to make anyone
unclean. But speaking evil and treating
those you do not like or understand with contempt and slander will make you
unclean in the eyes of God.
The Disciples asked Jesus "Do you know that
the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” Once again in our reading Jesus is doing
something that is upsetting to the religiously pure of the day. Its not bad enough that he runs around with
tax collectors and those on the margins of society. But now he is telling the gathered crowds
that strictly keeping the dietary rules will not, in themselves, make one
unclean but speaking evil and doing evil will.
This will not do. Bishop Robinson
in his book says ”We are called to be passionate about the people and the
things that Jesus was passionate about -
the last, the lost, and the least – or Christianity is just some
personal feel-good thing that we’ve got going on in the church. If we are not making trouble and making
waves, then we’d best check to see if we’re preaching the same Gospel that
Jesus was preaching. It got him into
trouble with the religious powers that be, and if we start doing that, we’ll be
in trouble too. We need to make sure
that the characters in our story are pretty much the same characters that were
in Jesus’ story.”
As
I see it that is what we are doing at
Which
brings me to the second half of our Gospel Reading - The healing of the
Canaanite Women. This Story is so not
the story of Jesus that we expect. Jesus
at first ignores the women. In Mathew’s version of story Jesus says that he has
only come to save the lost sheep of the house of
There
are a number of stories in the bible about God, seemingly, changing his mind. One of my favorites is in Genesis where
Abraham argues with God about destroying
In
the story God was convinced by Abraham and spares the city? For some people it is blasphemous to even
think about the omni-present, omniscient - all knowing God to change his
mind. It is just as unthinkable to some
that Jesus truly changed his mind with the healing of the Canaanites woman’s
daughter. Perhaps the stories are meant
to teach us to look beyond the obvious and to go outside our preconceived
notions of what is right and wrong.
The
debate of who is saved and who is not goes on in our day. The debate over the calling of gay, lesbian
and transgender people into committed relationships and into being full members
of the
In
today’s readings I hear wonderful stories of radical faith and forgiveness -
Stories of God’s wonderful healing presence in the world. A presence that does not judge one unworthy
for what they eat, where they come from or who they love. In our world, just as
in Jesus’ world, we are all to ready to segregate people into the savable and
the un-savable - to relegate some people onto the dust heap of history. To become
defiled by what comes out of our hearts. I invite you this week to look around
you and ask yourself “who is society judging unworthy for who or what they are
– and how can we make a difference – both in their lives and in the way society
treats them?” Changing society is
dangerous business. Indeed, it as so dangerous that Jesus ended up on the
cross, but if we are truly to follow
Jesus we too need to try and find ways change society and to forgive the
seemingly un-forgivable – with no strings attached. Amen