Canine Social Theology

11 Pentecost, A p15, August 16, 2020
Isaiah 56:1,6-8  Psalm 67   
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28

Lectionary Link

From today's appointed Gospel, I feel inclined to present a Canine Social Theology.  Sometimes animal metaphors are used to denigrate both humans and animals.  Some politicians refer to perceived enemies as dogs, using the ancient negative connotation of dogs, that derives in part from biblical and holy book traditions, even while in our society, dogs and other pets have achieved near sainthood status.   Our pets love us and are highly dependent upon us to feed them and take care of them and they bring us joy, support and companionship.

Dogs have not always and are not always held in such esteem.  I lived in a Middle Eastern Country for four years.  I witnessed children stoning young stray puppies in the river bed without conscience.  One had to be afraid of packs of wild dogs late at night on the city streets.  They scavenged the garbage left from the day.  I wondered where all of the dogs went in the day; and on a mountain hike above the city, I happened upon an entire pack of sleeping dogs.  Needless to say, I exited quickly, honoring that old cliche, "let sleeping dogs lie."  To curse at one's enemies one would issue a supreme insult, "Your father is a dog."  I guess that at least the female mother dog designation was not used, like it is so often used in our world today.  Can you tell me what is so bad about motherhood, that it is derogatory for a mother dog? Some dogs were prized in the Middle East.  I did find herd dogs when I visited and stayed with a nomadic tribe.  Those dogs were very useful and therefore given better status.

Biblical dogs were generally regarded to be like walking mammal vultures; they were scavengers, more like a pack of wolves rather than domesticated pets.  They, like the pig were designated as unclean and impure, not to be touched or eaten, and certainly that was their only good fortune.  Too unclean to eat.

The fact that dogs could be at a master's table during the time of Jesus, probably means that dogs had attained a semi-domesticated status.  Perhaps, they were good at keeping the rodents and other pesty animals away.  And they could be janitorial vacuum cleaners after a meal to clean up the floor, for scraps and the food that didn't pass the five-second rule.

With our modern day sensitivities and political correctness, we could take offense at the exchange between Jesus and the Canaanite woman.  "Jesus, please help my tormented daughter!"  "Ma'am, you know the the public stereotypes.  You're crossing boundaries.  Your people are regarded to be dogs, outsiders, scavengers  by my people.  Why are you presuming to cross those boundaries?"  "Jesus, as an outsider, a dog, I am happy to scavenge at the table for scraps to get my daughter healed."  "Woman, your faith has torn down the wall of separation and has given you access to health and healing for your daughter."

For the Isaian prophet, the Temple was to be a House of Prayer for all people.  What was the original intention of God the creator?  Each person created in God's image was to be a temple of God.  Each person had within the interior life a holiest of holy, a meeting place with God.  Such an interior temple had to be exteriorize into a Building Temple in Jerusalem within a certain people, as a strategy of the rehabilitation of all humanity, to once again realize each person's as a Temple of the Holy Spirit.

Israel and the Temple became a particular people and sacred building as a strategy for all of humanity to realize that each person could be God's holy nomadic tabernacle and dwelling for God's Spirit.

The early Christian leaders who came the heritage of the Hebrew Scriptures, believed that their Judaism could not become universally accessible as it was being practiced.   As it was being practice, God's message was cloistered within a single group of people living isolated lives from the people of the Roman Empire.

Very few of the dogs were getting scraps from the table.  There were too many outsiders?  Too many dogs who did not have access even to the crumbs of the Torah.  How can a God be known to be universal, if God is not universally accessible?  How can a pathway to God be locked off and not have the majority of the people of the world be invited?

If we appreciate this dilemma, we might understand Jesus of Nazareth and the early Jesus Movement resulted in a great great surprise.  What was the great surprise?  The mystical and spontaneous experience of the Holy Spirit began to happen in ways in which the religious leaders could not contain.  St. Paul, Peter, and the disciples  as Jews, found the Holy Spirit wildfire could not be contained within the existing religious structures of their upbringing.  What did they do?  They went with the flow, the flow of the Spirit.

The faith of Christ broke down boundaries and borders and would not let there be outsiders.  St. Paul wrote that in Christ, there is no Jews, Gentiles, males, females, but a new creation.

The dialogue between Jesus and the Canaanite woman is an origin discourse for the ultimate success of the Jesus Movement beyond the boundaries of Judaism in the Gentile peoples of the Roman Empire.

The Gospel for us is that through faith we can over come boundaries to the experience of God's favor and love.  

The dialogue between Jesus and the Canaanite woman shows us that Jesus is one who pushes us to have faith and stand up with it.  The use of the word "dog" as the pejorative for outsider is revealing.  The Canaanite woman had faith to challenge whether ethnic and religious barriers should keep us from the health and salvation of God.  This story illustrates how bias and bigotry turn people against themselves.  The woman was willing to accept the designation as an "outsider dog" just so that she might have the crumb of the grace of God from the Master's table, from God's table.  Jesus used the stereotypical "dog" word, to cajole the woman to get beyond her own self image as an outsider to God.  And it was her faith which helped her leap over the barrier.

For us, we need to have faith no to let anyone or anything separate us or anyone else from the love of God in Christ and God's salvation for us.  If St. Paul were here today, he would be writing, "In Christ, there is no East or West, North or South, Black, White, Brown, Asian, LGBTQ....we are all one in Christ.  No one can excommunicate anyone else from the equal love of God.  Period.

May the witness to faith in the Gospel, inspire us not to misrepresent God and God's love and access to everyone.  And may we not let the history of our own victimhood, make us think that we have to grovel to another group of people for grace.  And may, we also redeem the use of the metaphor of the word "dog" and the degrading female term for dog that comes so easily to people's mouths today.

If we have come to have regard for animals to be our pets and friends, and there is a gap between the human and animal kingdoms, can we come to appreciate that God invites everyone to be God's favorite pets in the kingdom of heaven.

This is the secret of the Kingdom of heaven.  God is whispering into everyone's ear: "you are my favorite pet human child, and my grace gives you more than crumbs.  My grace is an invitation to the main table.  Amen.

My Parents Said I Was Their Favorite!

11 Pentecost, A p15, August 20, 2017
Isaiah 56:1,6-8  Psalm 67  

Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28

Lectionary Link

How many of us are feeling like some hope and optimism today?  The opening of a Dickens' novel, "It was the best of time and the worst of times" is expressive of the reality of life itself all of the time.  Best and worst are determined by the apparent ways in which the best and the worst impinge our individual and community existence.  The best and worst can be happening to all of us, all of the time, even though the severity of the worst and the intensity of the best often speak the loudest in the immediacy of personal experience.

Though the events in Charlottesville and Barcelona have given us examples of the worst of times this past week, especially for the people who were directly affected, I believe that we are called to make a deliberate effort of faith to express our faith, hope and optimism even in the worst of time.

One of the most optimistic passages in Holy Scriptures is found in Psalm 67.  It is one of the recommended Psalms for Holy Matrimony.  Let us read it together again prayerfully.

1 May God be merciful to us and bless us, *
show us the light of his countenance and come to us.

2 Let your ways be known upon earth, *
your saving health among all nations.

3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.

4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, *
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide all the nations upon earth.

5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.

6 The earth has brought forth her increase; *
may God, our own God, give us his blessing.

7 May God give us his blessing, *
and may all the ends of the earth stand in awe of him.

In this prayer, we ask for God's blessing upon us, but we also asked that there be no restriction for everyone on earth to praise God and be glad and sing for joy.  Let all the peoples praise you, O God.  Just as we ask for God's blessing upon us as we know that God has let us be glad and sing for joy, so too we acknowledge the general invitation for all people to bless God and to experience the blessing of God.

Today's lessons from Scripture helps us to highlight the tension between the general and the particular.  As Charlie Brown cried, "I love mankind, it's people I can't stand."  It is easy to say in general what we believe but it is very hard to put it into practice particularly when a certain person or neighbor vexes us.

The tension between the general and the particular is a basic tension in life.  And this dynamic tension is something we have to learn to live with.

Imagine the proverbial funeral where dear Mom has passed away and her children rise to share their memories.  And first one says, "I have to apologize to my siblings, but Mom told me that I was her favorite."   And to everyone's surprise each of the other siblings rose and said that Mom told them the very same thing.  So, each child was Mom's favorite.  Had Mom been dishonest?  How could each child have been Mom's favorite?  Well, there is no contradiction in that son John was Mom's favorite son John and daughter Helen was Mom's favorite daughter Helen and so on.  Mom found no contradiction by conferring individual esteem to each of her children.  She was both loving in general and loving in particular.

We can in our religious life and in our lives of faith do something similar.  We in our pulpits and religious practice can openly or subtly proclaim, "I have to apologize to other people of faith, but God has told me that we are God's favorite."

And when we try to elevate our particular experience as the general rule, we end up excommunicating many people from God's favor.

The Hebrew Scriptures, in part, are about how the people of Israel understood themselves to be God's favorite.  But the Hebrew Scriptures are also about how everyone can know themselves to be God's favorite.  Is God's Temple in Jerusalem only for the Jews?  According to the Prophet Isaiah, God invited the foreigners to God's communion and the House of Prayer in Jerusalem was to be a House of Prayer for all people.

The House of Prayer for all people was to be a place where people could pray the universal prayer of blessing as is found in Psalm 67.

The Prophets and Jesus came to criticize people when they made their particular faith habits exclusive and dismissive of the vast majority of people.  The temptation is to make our particular faith habits as the general rule of humanity even when our particular faith habits are inaccessible or not natural cultural habits for others.

Jesus criticized the religious folks who had elevated special purity rituals as the guarantee of true hearts of faith.  So Jesus reminded those who legislated hand-washing piety that outer ritual cleanliness did not guarantee inward cleanliness.  As to our inward lives, we are as Freud said, "polymorphously perverse" and no water rituals can cleanse the seat of desire.

In the story dialogue between Jesus and the Canaanite foreigner, Jesus highlighted the fact that everyone can have faith.  Faith in what?  Faith in the health and salvation which God offers to all.

We might ask, "If God loves everyone, then what is worth or value of God loving me?"  The worth comes when we don't elevate the ways in which we experience personal esteem in God's eye as the only way for God to show esteem.

Imagine if after I came down the aisle today and I stopped and started dismissing people from the church because of the way that I observed you behaving.  "You didn't kneel.  You didn't sing.  You didn't make the sign of the cross at the right place in the liturgy.  You said AAAAAAAAAAAAmen instead of Ahmen.  How can you consider yourself a valid Christian if you haven't followed my legislated piety?  Get out!"

If I elevate my particular rules of piety to be the universal standard for guaranteeing God's love and blessing, then I have misrepresented God.

Jesus came to correct misrepresentation of God by letting us know that we can all know the experience of being God's favorite even as we accept that everyone else can also have that same experience of self esteem.  This is the wonderful contradiction of the general and the particular.

St. Paul criticized his background experience of religion as a Jew as being practiced in a way that did not invite Gentiles to the knowledge of God's blessing and favor which could be known through faith.

So what should we do today?  Should we abandon our own personal rituals and pieties that we have found effective faith expressions of our lives?  Not at all; we can accept our particular faith expression even as we accept the faith expressions of others, even if they meet in different places with different religious names and different denominations.

I leave you with this.  A secret:  God has let you know that you are God's favorite child.  A second secret: Jesus has shown us that God has let everyone know that he or she is a favorite child too.  So let us learn to live with this tension between the general and the particular.  Let us accept the Great Love of God to let everyone know themselves to be God's favorite.  Amen.

Sunday School, August 20, 2017 11 Pentecost, A proper 15

Sunday School, August 20, 2017     11 Pentecost, A proper 15

Theme

Rules of the Game

Inviting more people to the Game

What if there is a game, like soccer, that has rules but the rules for the game includes unattainable rules for everyone to participate.  Like, “girls can’t play soccer.”

For a long time, it might have been accepted that “girls can’t play soccer.”  Yet girls can definitely play soccer and many of them played even when they were allowed to have “official teams and girls’ leagues.”  Eventually girls began to complain about not being able to play “official” soccer and they grew in number and influence.  And girls have come to be able to play soccer in their own leagues even though they don’t play with boys who have their own soccer league too.  Boys and girls can love soccer even though they may not always play together in the same game.

The biggest Game of life is knowing and loving God.  Our religious life is like a “God Game we play and we follow rules.”  But what is the most important rule in the great “God Game?”  God is for everyone, God loves everyone and God wants everyone to be involved in a “God Game.”

But sometimes people can think that they “own” the God Game.  They think that they can restrict people from being a part of the “God Game.”   When Jesus came, he saw that some people were not allowed to play the God game.  The rules were too restrictive and many people who wanted to play the God Game were not allowed to play.

Jesus showed us that all of us have a tendency to sin and break rules, but he also showed that God invites us to be a part of the God Game even though we are not perfect and even though we are different in our experience.

Jesus believed that God show loved to the people of Israel so that it could spread to all people in the world.  Not everyone wanted to the share “their God” with all people.

Jesus showed that if everyone can have faith, they can play in the great God Game of life.

Can girls play soccer?  Yes, they can and they should be invited to play as much and as many ways a possible.  Is everyone able to play in the great God Game of life?  Yes, indeed, because everyone has the ability to have faith.

Let us exercise our faith in the God Game of life and let us always invite everyone to do the same.

Sermon

How many of you like play games?  What does every game need?  Every game needs rules, right?

  But have you everr played a game with someone when you didn’t know the rules or when suddenly someone changed the rules.

  When you don’t know the rules or when somebody changes the rules, then you cannot win.  And it is very sad and frustrating when you want to play a game and the rules do not allow you to win.

  Have you ever played the game of tag?  When you run and touch someone, then their It, and they have to run and touch someone else.  And they are only safe when they are “at home base.”

  Well, I remember playing tag with a friend when I was young.  I would run and touch him, and say, “you’re it.”  And he would say, “No, I’m not.”   And I would say why not, I caught you and I tagged you?”  And he would say, “I’m standing on one foot, so that means I’m “on base.”  And I said, “Well, I didn’t know that was a rule; if I had known, I could have used that rule and not gotten tagged.”  And then the next time I tagged my friend, he would have another rule for why he was “not it.”  And so I quit playing the game of tag with him, because there was no way of winning.

  When Jesus came, he found some people who had special rules for playing a religious game.  And because they had special rules about what you had to do to be loved by God, there were many people who did not know the rules, and so they were treated like people who were not loved by God.  And Jesus said this was very wrong.

  What kind of rules did they have?  They had rules about cleanliness.  There were special rules about dishes had to be washed and how you bathed your body and how you prepared your food and what kinds of food you could eat.   And if you didn’t follow these rules, then you were a loser with God and you were a loser according to the rules and you didn’t even know the rules.

  Jesus came correct the rules.  He said that it was not rules about cleanliness that made you a good person.  He said it was the condition of your heart.  Do you have love and faith?  Do you act with faith?  And do you act with love?  That is what the rules of God are.  All of these other rules are the changing rules of men and women.

  So, Jesus said you could not call a person a loser, if he or she was not following some special rules.  A person is a winner in God’s eye when they live with faith and love.  Those are the big and important rules in life.  The little rules often make us disagree with each other and dislike each other.  We can all have some special rules for our lives for our family and our church, but let us remember that Jesus only had the big rules, the rule of love and faith.  Those are the important rules which help us to know that we are winning with God.  And we all want to win with God, don’t we?  And we want everybody to know that with love and faith, they too can win with God. 

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

August 20, 2017: The Eleventh Sunday of Pentecost

Gathering Songs: The Lord Is Present, Hosanna, Ubi Caritas, Awesome God

Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

People: And Blessed be God’s kingdom, now and forever.  Amen.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.

And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.

Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Song:  The Lord Is Present  (Renew!  # 55)

The Lord is present in his sanctuary, let us praise the Lord.  The Lord is present in his people gathered here, let us praise the Lord.  Praise him, praise him, let us praise the Lord.  Praise him, praise him, let us praise Jesus.

The Lord is present in his sanctuary, let us sing to the Lord.  The Lord is present in his people gathered here, let us sing to the Lord.  Sing to him, sing to him!  Let us sing to the Lord.  Sing to him, sing to him!  Let us sing to Jesus.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of his redeeming work, and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Alleluia (chanted)

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Alleluia

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Alleluia

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Alleluia

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Alleluia

A reading from the Letter of Paul to the Romans

I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.

For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 133

Oh, how good and pleasant it is, * when God’s people live together in unity!

It is like fine oil upon the head *  that runs down upon the beard,

Upon the beard of Aaron, * and runs down upon the collar of his robe.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.

   Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

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."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon –   

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.

Since God is so great and we are so small,

We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.

We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.

We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.

And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever.  Amen.

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy. (chanted)

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.

For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.

For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.

For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.

For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.

For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

Liturgist:         The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

People:            And also with you.

Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering

Offertory Song: Hosanna (Renew! # 71)

Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest!  Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in highest!  Lord we lift up your name with hearts full of praise; be exalted, oh Lord my God!  Hosanna in highest!

Glory, Glory, Glory to the King of kings!  Glory, Glory, Glory to King of kings!  Lord we lift up you name with hearts full of praise; Be exalted, oh Lord my God!  Glory to the King of Kings.

Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of heaven.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of our birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.  Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

(All may gather around the altar)

Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;

You have made us in your image

And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:

Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.

And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph

And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.

Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat

 the bread and drink the wine, we can  know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as  

 this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and sanctify us by your Holy so that we may love God and our neighbor.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ.  May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory

 is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,

(Children rejoin their parents and take up their instruments)

Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father who art in heaven:  Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.

Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:       Alleluia.  Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Ubi Caritas (Renew!  # 226)

Ubi caritas et amor, ubi caritas, Deus ibi est.

Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;

We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.

And His Presence has been known to us.

We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers

    and sisters in Christ.

Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the

     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,

As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: Awesome God (Renew!  # 245)

Our God is an awesome God, he reigns from heaven above. 

With wisdom, power and love, our God is an awesome God.

(sing three times)

Dismissal:   

Liturgist:    Let us go forth in the Name of Christ.

People:      Thanks be to God! 

Seeds of Gentile Christianity in the Gospel

10 Pentecost, ap15, August 17, 2014

Genesis 45:1-15  Psalm 67
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28

Lectionary Link

   Was Jesus of Nazareth a rabbi who believed that reforms were needed in the Judaism of his time?  Or was Jesus of Nazareth a self-conscious founder of a new faith community and religion, the one we’ve come to call Christianity?  Or was he a founder of a significant movement within Judaism as another rabbinical school, or a piety group like the Pharisees or Zealots or Sadducees or something like one of the other schools or traditions which have developed within Judaism?

  Sometimes there is a tug of war in the presentation of the significance of Jesus in the four Gospels.  Sometimes, Jesus was presented to be an apocalyptic prophet who proclaimed the end of the world in his generation.  At other times he was seen as a rabbi who was a Torah legalist, even saying that not one jot or tittle of the law shall go violated.  At other times he was regarded as one who reduced the dietary and purity codes and Sabbath rules to secondary status.

  From the Passion narratives which are included in all four Gospels, we assume that Jesus is presented as one who was excommunicated from the synagogue.  Being put on a cross is worse than merely being removed from the religious community and from humanity by death.  One scenario was that Judas betrayed Jesus to the Jews by giving them the clue to get the Roman authorities involved.  Judas perhaps told the religious authorities that the followers of Jesus were calling him a king; Caesar's representatives wouldn't like that so the Roman guards would respond to a any suggestion of insurrection.

   The Pauline churches were followers of Jesus often led by Jews who wanted all of the benefit of their Jewish traditions but who had observed the impact of the message of Jesus upon the lives of non-Jewish people.  They were baffled that so many Gentiles loved Jesus.  They were baffled that so few of their fellow Jews came to follow Jesus in a worshipful way.  Most Jews   continued within the other pieties and traditions of Judaism.

  The Pauline churches consisted of Gentile membership but they held fast to Hebraic/Jewish roots of their faith.  Paul was proud of his Jewishness even as he said the faith of Gentile Christians was consistent with the faith of Abraham who lived before the people of Israel, Moses and the Torah.  The writings of Paul came before the Gospel writings and there was a dilemma.  How did an increasingly Gentile church tell the story of Jesus when the churches were no longer a part of the synagogues?

  The Gospels are presentations of life events and sayings of Jesus as parables for the origin of many things that had come be practiced within the churches.  Paul did not require of Gentile Christians the practice of circumcision, dietary rules of Judaism or ritual purity practices of Judaism or the observation of the Jewish religious calendar.  How could Paul dispense with such practices and fully claim his own Jewish heritage?

  The advent of a Christo-centric Judaism within the Gentile people of the Roman Empire was so significant it had to be noted when presenting the accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus.

  Jesus came from the tradition of the prophet Jonah who was commanded by God to preach repentance to the foreign Ninevites.  Jonah did not want the foreigners of Ninevah to hear the message of the covenant and was upset when they came to repentance. The prophet Elijah healed the Aramaen General Naaman of his leprosy as an indication that the healing of the God of Israel was not limited to the people of Israel.  Jesus came from the prophetic tradition of Isaiah who called the house of God a house of prayer for all people.  It was a place to gather foreigners and outcasts.   Jesus was seen to be a representative of this specific prophetic tradition of reaching beyond the Jewish ethnic community to the foreign communities.

   When the Gospels were written they included the presentation of the life of Jesus as one who was reaching beyond Judaism to other communities of people.

  The Canaanite woman, unnamed with an unnamed daughter in the Gospel text, came to Jesus seeking healing from a disordered inner life; so disordered that they simply called it an unclean spirit or demon.  For the Canaanite woman, health or salvation was to have her daughter receive a “clean interior” life, an interior life rightly ordered.

  The ancient cry of the Psalmist was “Create in me a clean heart O God.  God I don’t want to feel dirty inside anymore.  I want to feel new and fresh and clean.”  Such a hope, expresses the hope of salvation.

  Jesus, probably disappoints our mothers, Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister, by giving every young child the authority of his word not to wash their hands before a meal.  But Jesus was teaching a lesson:  Salvation cleanliness comes from within.  The opposite of not feeling clean is to feel dirty, unclean, unworthy and worthless.  The expressions of feeling unclean mean that the actions we perform are unclean and defiled, harmful to ourselves and others.  Jesus was saying that physical dirt is not that same thing as the defilement of moral and spiritual dirt, or the defilement of being addicted to idols.   Washing one’s hands was not going to clean the heart, even though it was good physical hygienic practice.  Jesus was saying, “Don’t equate the ritual practice of washing one’s hand with the clean heart that comes from the act of Jesus baptizing us with the higher power of the Holy Spirit.”

   This Canaanite woman, an unclean foreigner who had a daughter who had an unclean spirit wanted the salvation of a clean heart for her daughter.

  The Gospel writer presented Jesus engaging in a hyperbolic or exaggerate debate.  This debate provided an example of the dialog that happened and was occurring within the early Christian communities regarding a strain of Judaism which was reaching beyond their ethnic community.  The dialog between Jesus and the Canaanite woman also was an origin parable for what had already happened in Gentile Christianity.  The Gospel writers were trying to show that the roots of Gentile Christianity could be found in the ministry of Jesus, but the dialog also showed that the mission to the Gentiles was very controversial.

  A paraphrase of the words of Jesus might be: “Woman, you are a foreigner.  Don’t you know the common opinion about Jews?  We keep to ourselves.  We are made special by the Torah.  And as a teacher, don’t you see that I’m here to make sure that the lost sheep of Israel are fully brought into the fold of practicing Judaism?   In this role, should I throw the saving food of the Torah, the healing word to one who is as foreign to us as a dog might be at the table of his master?”  And the woman responded, “But Jesus the message is so good that even if we get your left-overs it still would be salvation and healing for us.”

  And the parable is this: The foreigner had faith without pride.  It indicated the controversy of the Gentile mission but it indicated how desperate the Gentiles wanted the message of salvation.  The foreign woman simply wanted to go where she could find that clean and healed heart for her daughter.  The old generation of separation between Jew and Gentile was not be in the next generation of the church, as signified by the healing of the daughter.  So Jesus was saying: the act of faith is its own salvation heritage.  The act of faith is its own Jewishness.  The act of faith is what includes us in the line of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David and the Prophets.

  Having faith in the one who can bring us the experience of a heart made clean by God's mercy and forgiveness: This is what makes us worthy of the biblical tradition.

  Today, we invite everyone into the tradition of Jesus.  It is a tradition of learning to have faith and this is not automatic simply because we are baptized into the Episcopal Church;  it comes with the freedom to learn to turn toward Christ and ask him to create in us clean hearts.  Today we pray: “Create in us, clean hearts and renew a right spirit within us.”  The message to each of us is that we will always be invited to the faith of, by,in, and for God, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.