“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
This sermon is dedicated to my Dad, Rev. Russell Vickers, who died at the end of January 2004. In going through Dad’s sermons, I found one specifically about Hallowe'en, All Hallows and All Saints. The sermon is also dedicated to my mother, Kay Vickers, whose birthday was November 1, All Saints Day.
The sermon grew out of several things. Back in 2004, I saw an item in the news about one family which was not celebrating Hallowe'en because they considered it 'un-Christian' - they claimed dressing up as witches and goblins is a 'pagan' thing, not suitable for Christians. I was a little bemused, but then a couple of days later overheard a conversation at the check-out counter in the grocery store, about the non-Christian aspects of Hallowe'en. Just recently I saw an article about an evangelical church group in the US which is celebrating “Jesus-ween” as an alternative to Hallowe’en. It was clear to me that people simply don’t understand where Hallowe’en even originated - so they try to put Jesus into a festival where Jesus has been for hundreds of years anyway.
So, I have two thoughts to begin with - and of course a few more after that. First, in our scramble to be 'right', without even knowing the background of where our holidays come from, we can surely suck a lot of the joy out of life. To me, life would be flat and stale without at least one witch on a broomstick, or a ghost or small-sized devil out collecting plunder at the door! A couple of years ago one of my grandchildren was a firefighter, one was Xena, the Warrior Princess, and one was a knight. They had a wonderful time, and so did their Grandma.
Second, Hallowe'en is as Christian a celebration as any of the other observations. Christmas and Easter also incorporate elements of what we call "pagan" faiths. The Advent wreath was originally a huge wagon wheel hung from the ceiling of a meeting hall, decorated with evergreens and lit with candles. The egg at Easter is a pagan symbol, yes, but it denotes rebirth and new life. The early missionaries to what is now the British Isles used existing celebrations extensively. and drew parallels with Christianity.
Hallowe'en's origins go back to the ancient Celtic tribes of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany. For the Celts, November 1 marked the beginning of a new year and the coming of winter. The night before the new year, they celebrated the festival of Samhain (Saween), in which the god of the earth died, to be reborn in the spring when new life returned. At the spring solstice, Beltane, the god rose again, the days lengthened, and life returned.
With the rise of Christianity, Samhain was changed to Hallowmas, or All Saints, to commemorate the souls of the blessed dead who had been canonized that year, so the night before became known as All Hallows Eve, or Hollantide. November 2nd became All Souls Day, when prayers were to be offered to the souls of all departed and those who were waiting in Purgatory for entry into Heaven. Throughout the centuries, pagan and Christian beliefs intertwine in celebrations from Oct 31st through November 5th. - but in the end Hallowe’en - or All Hallows and All Saints, became Christian celebrations.
During this festival of Samhain, the Celts believed that the barriers between this world and the other were at their most thin, hence the souls of the dead could return to mingle with the living. Christians at the time also believed this. Candles were placed in windows, to light the way for the spirits to return to their homes. An extra place was set at the table in case the spirit came. And in order to scare away any evil spirits, people wore masks and costumes, lit bonfires, carved out turnips and rutabagas, then put a light inside.
When the Romans conquered the Celts, they added their own touches to the Samhain festival; they made centerpieces out of apples and nuts for Pomona, the Roman goddess of the orchards. They also bobbed for apples and drank cider. Sound familiar?
Let's jump back a little in our Christian history. In 835, Pope Gregory IV decided to move the celebration for all the martyrs (later all the saints) from May 13 to November 1. The name “All Hallows Even” or 'all holy evening’ was contracted into our more modern word Hallowe’en. It coincided perfectly with the Celtic celebration of Samhain and the Roman festival of Pomona - and the similarities of the coming of the dark, and the rise of the light in the spring, were not lost on the early missionaries.
On November 2, the Church celebrates All Souls Day. These were feast days in the church, and their purpose was to remember those who have died, whether they were officially recognized by the Church as saints or not. It is a celebration of the 'communion of saints,' which reminds us that the Church is not bound by space or time. But while the church creatively substituted its own celebration, it did also incorporate some elements of the pagan faith, but elements which fit in with the superstitions of the time. Bear in mind that in the early church, witches and warlocks, imps, goblins, and evil souls were all part of the lore. Dressing up
in costume to scare these 'evil' things became a part of the whole, from the Christian perspective as well.
The modern view of death derives in part from Pre-Hispanic times, notably the Aztecs, who believed that after a person died, his/her soul would pass through nine levels prior to their final destination, Mictlan - the place of the dead. They also believed that a person's destiny was founded at birth and that the soul of that person was dependent on the type of death rather than the type of life led by that person. How a person died would also determine what region they would go to. Once they arrived in their specific region a person's soul would either await
transformation or linger, awaiting the next destiny. The tenth month of the Aztec calendar included a great feast for dead adults. The Spanish Conquest of 1521 brought about the fusion of Catholic attitudes and indigenous beliefs. The Day of the Dead, or All Souls Day, is a result of amalgamation of Pre-Spanish Indian ritual beliefs and the imposed ritual and dogma of the Catholic church.
So the three days - Hallowe'en, All Saints and All Souls - are just enough of a mishmash of different pieces of history and elements of, that to eliminate any one of them is a foolish and useless exercise. We cannot separate our Christian faith and its non-Christian roots.
But we can look at the Christian meaning that was once given to Hallowe'en - that we are an imperishable community from all across the ages. Hallowe'en in its Christian meaning is a source of courage and strength. Do we find it hard to stand up for justice, fair treatment, truth? Let's not forget that we are not the first generation of people to face such issues. Others have walked this same road in some way, in another time, and with the grace of God have come through it.
In the mid twentieth century, there was a great revolution in Hungary. Crowds gathered in the square named for the poet Sandov Petofi, who in 1848 launched the revolution against the Hapsburg monarch. A voice in the crowd shouted out "we vow we can never be slaves" - a line from one of his poems. Two hundred thousand marched to the statue of Josef Bem, hero of 1848 who fought for freedom. Surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, they found courage.
In my mind, there is even a parallel between a belief in a God of the earth who dies in the fall, only to rise again in the spring. Yes, we believe Jesus rose on the third day - but once again, the parallels were not lost on the early missionaries either. They creatively found a way to use existing practices in the new country, to explain Christianity and make new converts.
Finally, I want to tell a story of a little boy named Linus, from the Peanuts comic strip. Linus believes in a strange hybrid of a jack-o-lantern, Santa Claus and prophetic saintly God-character named "The Great Pumpkin." Linus believes the Great Pumpkin will arise from the most sincere Pumpkin Patch on Halloween night and deliver toys to all the true believing children. Of course, Linus actually wants to be in the garden when the benevolent giver of Halloween toys rises from
among the pumpkins. What's important, I think, is that Linus believes. He's never seen the Pumpkin, yet he believes that this saintly and benevolent character exists - he goes into the Pumpkin Patch every year, hopeful - and never gives up.
We have those saints who have gone before, to dispel the darkness and light the way - call them Great Pumpkins if you like - they light the way and they help us to keep in our sight the light of the world, the author and perfecter of our faith, Jesus Christ. By understanding the origins of Hallowe'en, we find ourselves invited into the grandeur of the community of the cloud of witnesses which will never perish and which is never touched by death.
The early Christians, first dispersed by fear and the loss of Jesus, soon found themselves coming together again, a community of living saints bound by faith and a vision - a light in the darkness, the light of faith and commitment. When we come together as a community - yes, to celebrate Hallowe'en or All Hallows, and All Saints, we remember that we are surrounded here in this community, in this church, by the witness of those who have gone before, who support us unseen.
And let’s enjoy the fun and frolic of Hallowe’en, the little faces at the door, the funny costumes - and the joy children get from it. Let’s not try to put meanings into it which were never there, except perhaps in Hollywood movies. Let’s not take the fun out of life, and out of our faith, because we are afraid of something which really holds no threat at all. ... and remember when you carve and light your pumpkins, that they are there to light the way and dispel the darkness, banish fears and give courage and faith.
Sources:
1. “Hallowe’en and the Saints” a sermon by Rev. Russell K. Vickers
2. “Great Pumpkins! Hallowe’en and the Church” (or How to Take All the Fun out of Life). A sermon by Rev. Fran Ota, October 2004.
Original paper published in the book “Treat or Trick: Hallowe’en in a Globalising World” , Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
“Living Commandments” a sermon based on Matthew 22:34-40 October 23, 2011 Humber United Church
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
*****************************************************************
In his sermon “Final Jeopardy”. Rev. Randy Quinn talks about all the commandments listed in the scriptures - all 613 of them. Someone had too much time on their hands. Someone – some unknown person centuries ago – carefully examined the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers Deuteronomy and determined that there were exactly 613 different commands God gave the people of Israel.
Well, clearly they didn’t have enough to do, if they had time to tabulate all the commandments! Nevertheless, there were clearly plenty of laws. How would one decide which was the greatest?
This week’s story from Matthew picks up on last week. The Sadducees and the Herodians, if you remember, tried to trap Jesus by posing him a question they thought he could not answer - and Jesus of course, not only answered it, but turned the tables and showed them to be hypocrites. So now the Pharisees get into it. They get an expert in the law to pose a question they are absolutely sure will stump him. After all, there *are* 613 commandments......and once again, they fail miserably.
Let’s try something else. Of all the things Jesus said, what do you think is the most important? Here’s a few....
I am way, truth, life (Jn. 14:6).
God so loved the world (Jn. 3:16)
Love one another (Jn. 13:34).
Let the children come (Mk. 10:14).
Seek first the Kingdom of God (Mt. 7:7)
Jesus makes it sound so simple, to go through the commandments and pull out just two, one from Deuteronomy, one Leviticus.
How about these quotes?
Human beings do not live by bread alone (Dt. 8:3; Mt. 4:4).
The poor will be with you always (Dt. 15:11; Mt. 26:11).
Love your neighbor as yourself (Lev. 19:18; Mt. 22:39).
Three quotes, two from Deuteronomy and one from Leviticus - he is not only familiar with scripture, he is just as familiar with the law as the expert Pharisee.
Is it possible that Jesus really hit on something - he always was able to take older scriptures and repeat them in a way that made them sound new and different.
In a sense we are talking about the right thing, the main thing. So I’m asking you, “what is the main thing?”
Is it to have a full sanctuary on Sunday morning?
Is it to be excellent preachers?
Is it mission?
Is it to equip the laity to be effective in their individual ministries?
Is it to provide food to the hungry?
Is it to gather in prayer for one another?
What is the purpose of this church? Of all the things we consider are part of church, what is the one thing we are called to do and be as a congregation?
Jesus has given us a conundrum......we can’t love God without loving our neighbour and we cannot love our neighbour without loving God.
Perhaps the best example of putting those two aspects of the Christian faith together is Jesus himself, who clearly loved God and just as clearly loved the people he met. He spent time alone with God and he spent time with his disciples as well as the multitudes. Loving God led to and was reflected in his love for people.
So who is our neighbour?
We come to church on Sunday morning, and sit in the same place every week. Sometimes we come and sit so far away from everyone else, that when we sing our voice sounds so weak we swallow it. How radical it would be for everyone to sit with everyone else, and sing as if we really meant it.
Or we come and sit with the people we know, and don’t make a move to the people we don’t. We always sit with the same people. It’s strange how congregations do that - people we have attended church with for years - and yet act as if we are strangers when we come to the gathered community.
How about outside the church? A few weeks ago, at lunch at Harbour Grounds, I sat and spoke with a family who didn’t know there was a church up here. Are we good neighbours to the people who are right around us? How do they know we are here?
What would happen if someone who was a known pedophile came to church? Or someone who walks in off the street, dirty and smelly, reeking of alcohol.....would we escort them gently out the door? How about a family who came here as refugees? And are waiting for a hearing?
Just as the Prayer of Jesus is the most radical prayer we have, and we should not repeat it by rote, but think carefully about it - Jesus quotes two commandments which have been in the law for centuries, yet the religious leaders have not lived them out. And it seems to me the Prayer of Jesus goes hand in hand with the commandments - doesn’t it?
So once again the religious leaders try to trip him up and he turns the tables - they are caught. Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind; and love your neighbour the same way you love yourself. On these two hang ALL the law, and ALL the prophets.
This is not gentle Jesus, meek and mild. This is quintessential Jesus, tired of them trying to find a way to discredit him, Jesus at his very harshest. There is a challenge here - to them, and to us. Do we LIVE the commandments? Do we really LIVE them?
Rev. Thom Shuman wrote a poem for this week:
Seems easy to love our neighbor when she is the grandmother across the street,
who always seems to make 'too many chocolate chip cookies'
and brings a plate full over to our house;
it's never hard to love our neighbor when he is the retired gent right next door
who is willing to share his tools, and when we don't have the know-how,
patiently shows us one-more-time how to unstop a drain,
change the oil in our car, get the mower started
without pulling our arms out;
it is so simple to love our neighbor when it is the kids who come by each fall
selling Christmas wreaths for their scout troops,
and each spring offering popcorn and candy to support the drama club;
but what if Moammar Gahdafi had moved in down the street;
if the single mom whom we admire so much turns out to be a parolee;
if the local Muslim population petitions the school board
to allow time for Dhuhr?
what then?
Sources:
1. Howell, David B., editor. Lectionary Homiletics. October 1999 (Vol. X, No. 11) and October 2002 (Vol. XIII, No. 11).
2. Quinn, Randy L. “Daring to Ask.” Sermon preached October 24, 1993 at Allen Blanchard; based on Matthew 22:34-46.
3. Final Jeopardy, a sermon based on Matthew 22:34-40, Rev. Randy Quinn
4. It’s So Easy, a poem by Rev. Thom Shuman, 2011.
*****************************************************************
In his sermon “Final Jeopardy”. Rev. Randy Quinn talks about all the commandments listed in the scriptures - all 613 of them. Someone had too much time on their hands. Someone – some unknown person centuries ago – carefully examined the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers Deuteronomy and determined that there were exactly 613 different commands God gave the people of Israel.
Well, clearly they didn’t have enough to do, if they had time to tabulate all the commandments! Nevertheless, there were clearly plenty of laws. How would one decide which was the greatest?
This week’s story from Matthew picks up on last week. The Sadducees and the Herodians, if you remember, tried to trap Jesus by posing him a question they thought he could not answer - and Jesus of course, not only answered it, but turned the tables and showed them to be hypocrites. So now the Pharisees get into it. They get an expert in the law to pose a question they are absolutely sure will stump him. After all, there *are* 613 commandments......and once again, they fail miserably.
Let’s try something else. Of all the things Jesus said, what do you think is the most important? Here’s a few....
I am way, truth, life (Jn. 14:6).
God so loved the world (Jn. 3:16)
Love one another (Jn. 13:34).
Let the children come (Mk. 10:14).
Seek first the Kingdom of God (Mt. 7:7)
Jesus makes it sound so simple, to go through the commandments and pull out just two, one from Deuteronomy, one Leviticus.
How about these quotes?
Human beings do not live by bread alone (Dt. 8:3; Mt. 4:4).
The poor will be with you always (Dt. 15:11; Mt. 26:11).
Love your neighbor as yourself (Lev. 19:18; Mt. 22:39).
Three quotes, two from Deuteronomy and one from Leviticus - he is not only familiar with scripture, he is just as familiar with the law as the expert Pharisee.
Is it possible that Jesus really hit on something - he always was able to take older scriptures and repeat them in a way that made them sound new and different.
In a sense we are talking about the right thing, the main thing. So I’m asking you, “what is the main thing?”
Is it to have a full sanctuary on Sunday morning?
Is it to be excellent preachers?
Is it mission?
Is it to equip the laity to be effective in their individual ministries?
Is it to provide food to the hungry?
Is it to gather in prayer for one another?
What is the purpose of this church? Of all the things we consider are part of church, what is the one thing we are called to do and be as a congregation?
Jesus has given us a conundrum......we can’t love God without loving our neighbour and we cannot love our neighbour without loving God.
Perhaps the best example of putting those two aspects of the Christian faith together is Jesus himself, who clearly loved God and just as clearly loved the people he met. He spent time alone with God and he spent time with his disciples as well as the multitudes. Loving God led to and was reflected in his love for people.
So who is our neighbour?
We come to church on Sunday morning, and sit in the same place every week. Sometimes we come and sit so far away from everyone else, that when we sing our voice sounds so weak we swallow it. How radical it would be for everyone to sit with everyone else, and sing as if we really meant it.
Or we come and sit with the people we know, and don’t make a move to the people we don’t. We always sit with the same people. It’s strange how congregations do that - people we have attended church with for years - and yet act as if we are strangers when we come to the gathered community.
How about outside the church? A few weeks ago, at lunch at Harbour Grounds, I sat and spoke with a family who didn’t know there was a church up here. Are we good neighbours to the people who are right around us? How do they know we are here?
What would happen if someone who was a known pedophile came to church? Or someone who walks in off the street, dirty and smelly, reeking of alcohol.....would we escort them gently out the door? How about a family who came here as refugees? And are waiting for a hearing?
Just as the Prayer of Jesus is the most radical prayer we have, and we should not repeat it by rote, but think carefully about it - Jesus quotes two commandments which have been in the law for centuries, yet the religious leaders have not lived them out. And it seems to me the Prayer of Jesus goes hand in hand with the commandments - doesn’t it?
So once again the religious leaders try to trip him up and he turns the tables - they are caught. Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind; and love your neighbour the same way you love yourself. On these two hang ALL the law, and ALL the prophets.
This is not gentle Jesus, meek and mild. This is quintessential Jesus, tired of them trying to find a way to discredit him, Jesus at his very harshest. There is a challenge here - to them, and to us. Do we LIVE the commandments? Do we really LIVE them?
Rev. Thom Shuman wrote a poem for this week:
Seems easy to love our neighbor when she is the grandmother across the street,
who always seems to make 'too many chocolate chip cookies'
and brings a plate full over to our house;
it's never hard to love our neighbor when he is the retired gent right next door
who is willing to share his tools, and when we don't have the know-how,
patiently shows us one-more-time how to unstop a drain,
change the oil in our car, get the mower started
without pulling our arms out;
it is so simple to love our neighbor when it is the kids who come by each fall
selling Christmas wreaths for their scout troops,
and each spring offering popcorn and candy to support the drama club;
but what if Moammar Gahdafi had moved in down the street;
if the single mom whom we admire so much turns out to be a parolee;
if the local Muslim population petitions the school board
to allow time for Dhuhr?
what then?
Sources:
1. Howell, David B., editor. Lectionary Homiletics. October 1999 (Vol. X, No. 11) and October 2002 (Vol. XIII, No. 11).
2. Quinn, Randy L. “Daring to Ask.” Sermon preached October 24, 1993 at Allen Blanchard; based on Matthew 22:34-46.
3. Final Jeopardy, a sermon based on Matthew 22:34-40, Rev. Randy Quinn
4. It’s So Easy, a poem by Rev. Thom Shuman, 2011.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
"Caesar's or God's?" World Food Day October 16, 2011 Matthew 22:15-22 Humber United Church, Corner Brook, Newfoundland
Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax[a] to Caesar or not?” But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
(Imperial tax - levied on subject peoples, not the Romans.)
******************************************************************************
I love the plot in this story, really. It’s all the more humourous because it’s supposedly written by Matthew, one of the temple tax collectors. Now, we all know that the one thing we like to gripe about more than the taxes we pay, is the collector who takes the taxes from us. Some things haven’t changed in all these thousands of years.
The Pharisees are most concerned about the affairs of the temple. They have an understanding with the Romans, that as long as they remain docile, they can worship in their own traditions. While they resent the Roman thumb of authority, they are willing to pay to keep peace and have freedom to operate as they wish. In other words they have a vested interest in the status quo.
The other group, the Herodians, are more concerned about the state of political affairs. They, too, have an understanding with the Romans that as long as there is a sense of peace within the territory, Herod’s family can rule by proxy and they retain their prominent political positions of power. They also have a vested interest in the status quo.
Together, Pharisees and Herodians feign approval of Jesus’ ministry. Now, everyone and their Aunt Petunia knows that Pharisees and Herodians simply don’t hang out with each other on a usual day. No one is fooled by this ploy, least of all Jesus. He sees right through them.
So they have come together with a trick, they think (rubbing hands in glee.) They ask “Is it lawful to pay taxes”. ...and here’s the trap: if Jesus says ‘no’, he clearly opposes Rome and they can have him arrested. If he says ‘yes’, he then is agreeing to the oppression of Rome, and will lose support in the opinion polls.
In Jesus' time, at least three languages were spoken: Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, just for starters. Nor was there just one legal tender or currency, but at least three different groups which struck coins. There was the Roman silver denarius, equal to ten weights of "as", the principal silver coin of the Empire. There was the Greek silver drachma, equal in value to one denarius; and there was the Jewish silver shekel, equal in amount to 4 drachmas or 4 denarii; but unlike the other coins, the shekel was used exclusively by the Jews.
This was essentially a multi-cultural society with a variety of currencies. But in order for the Jews to do business with others they had to exchange their own Jewish currency into the other's and vice versa. Hence, there were the money changers in the temple courtyard.
And there were at least two taxes: one for the temple, one for the King. The temple tax was paid by one of the twelve tribes of Israel on a rotating basis, so that each tribe paid the expenses for one month a year. The same system was set up for the house of David.
As well, the Romans had their own taxes; one was the “head tax”, a “per capita” tax on each person living in the land. The larger the family, the larger the tax. The Romans collected their taxes through mercenary tax collectors who were allowed to set their own profit margins; but since by this time the tribes of Israel were no longer distinguishable, a “worship tax” was instituted for each worshiping family in Israel, but the “temple tax” was also required of those who lived in far away lands. It was a religious obligation put upon the people in addition to the scriptural mandates.
Now, here’s where the fun started. The Roman tax could only be paid with Roman coins, and the temple tax could only be paid with the Jewish shekel. The shekel was a silver coin, but with no engraved image on it, because the Israelites had a very clear commandment given about graven images. There were only symbols on it, like candles or grain. The graven image commandment was used to interpret the first chapter of Genesis - the statement that we were created in the image of God. That is why murder was wrong in Jewish law - destroying or defacing the image of God.
In contrast, the Roman denarius bore the image of Tiberius Caesar, with the inscription “Son of a God”. To use Roman coins in the temple would have been blasphemy; if they were to use Roman coin, they would have been saying that their oppressor was God.
Naturally the Pharisees were particularly disturbed by the attribution of divinity to Caesar. The coin would be seen by the Torah as idolatrous; this coin and all Roman and Greek coins would have been repugnant to the Pharisees; even having the coin would break Jewish law.
Yet, the Romans occupied the Jewish territories. In Jerusalem, the temple and the Roman garrison were literally across the street from each other. The Romans could look into the temple and see what was going on - and likely they could hear a good deal. The Jews were allowed to continue their own religious worship practices, so long as they gave the taxes Caesar demanded. Herod was allowed to rule - sort of - so long as he upheld the Roman laws, including the paying of taxes. They were between a roack and a hard place, because anything which looked remotely like rejection of Roman authority would mean loss of some freedoms, if not loss of life, for the Israelites.
Jesus, of course, has been fairly consistent in calling out both the Herodians and Pharisees, and drawing attention to their show of religious piety and adherence to law. So they cook up a plan to challenge Jesus on a question which they hope he cannot answer without incriminating himself in some way. “Is it lawful to pay taxes?” Seems simple enough on the surface, but maybe we can sense how much of an indictment it would be for anyone in that crowd to bring out a coin with Caesar’s image on it.
Jesus, however, puts the religious leaders on the spot. He says “Show me the coin.” and what happens? Oops. The religious leaders themselves are in possession of the Roman coins with the image of a man who claims to be son of a God - and Jesus has none.
Then he says give to Caesar those things which rightfully belong to Caesar, and to God those things which rightfully belong to God. The religious leaders are now in the position of defending their own actions, and whether or not they actually follow their own religious teaching. Yet he hasn’t actually accused them of anything, nor committed a crime; even so, all the people standing around also hear and understand - give to Caesar what is rightfully Caesar’s, give to God what is rightfully God’s. Jesus is not saying don’t pay the taxes, he is telling people to make a judgment about the taxes, the coins, the wealth, and what they do with them.
Take a coin out of your pocket, or a folded bill. We have long since accepted the images without thinking of the Ten Commandments; but the Commandments haven’t changed, only our understanding of them. We no longer see these images as idols.
Who really is our God? Who makes the decisions in your life, God or money? How many of us have savings accounts? How many of us have pension funds? How many of us worry about how the bills are going to be paid this month? How many of us put our trust in the bank? or in the stock market? How many of us believe the church should be run like a business? A good look at our lifestyle says a lot - and the question for us, the questions Jesus asks, is where do we draw the line?
Jesus isn’t talking about the separation of church and state in his answer. He is providing a caustic indictment of the entire system, and pointing out to the religious leaders how they have subverted the law of God to protect their own interests. - and he is saying they have taken the gifts of God and used them for political gain in a political system.
What belongs to God is our life. We were created in the image of God. If the image of Caesar belongs to Caesar, then certainly the image of God belongs to God. Do we carry the name of God written on our hearts, or the name of Caesar? Is it God’s name which motivates our lives, or Caesar’s?
God calls us to have compassion and generosity for all the people of the world. How do we express that in our lives? If we are made in God’s image, how have we lived God’s name? God has given us many gifts, including the gift of income and wealth. After giving to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, what do we give to God? Is that the right order?
Today, World Food Day, we have to look at what is God’s, and what is Caesar’s. Do we give freely, and without reservation? Do we look after all the bills and taxes, and then if there is anything left over we give something? Did God call us to parcel out leftovers? One of the enduring truths in our time is that there is more than enough to go around; the problem is its distribution. We placate Caesar by paying up, take care of ourselves, and then give.
And that’s the hidden question in the answer Jesus gave. Whose are we? God’s or Caesar’s? And where do we go next?
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
(Imperial tax - levied on subject peoples, not the Romans.)
******************************************************************************
I love the plot in this story, really. It’s all the more humourous because it’s supposedly written by Matthew, one of the temple tax collectors. Now, we all know that the one thing we like to gripe about more than the taxes we pay, is the collector who takes the taxes from us. Some things haven’t changed in all these thousands of years.
The Pharisees are most concerned about the affairs of the temple. They have an understanding with the Romans, that as long as they remain docile, they can worship in their own traditions. While they resent the Roman thumb of authority, they are willing to pay to keep peace and have freedom to operate as they wish. In other words they have a vested interest in the status quo.
The other group, the Herodians, are more concerned about the state of political affairs. They, too, have an understanding with the Romans that as long as there is a sense of peace within the territory, Herod’s family can rule by proxy and they retain their prominent political positions of power. They also have a vested interest in the status quo.
Together, Pharisees and Herodians feign approval of Jesus’ ministry. Now, everyone and their Aunt Petunia knows that Pharisees and Herodians simply don’t hang out with each other on a usual day. No one is fooled by this ploy, least of all Jesus. He sees right through them.
So they have come together with a trick, they think (rubbing hands in glee.) They ask “Is it lawful to pay taxes”. ...and here’s the trap: if Jesus says ‘no’, he clearly opposes Rome and they can have him arrested. If he says ‘yes’, he then is agreeing to the oppression of Rome, and will lose support in the opinion polls.
In Jesus' time, at least three languages were spoken: Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, just for starters. Nor was there just one legal tender or currency, but at least three different groups which struck coins. There was the Roman silver denarius, equal to ten weights of "as", the principal silver coin of the Empire. There was the Greek silver drachma, equal in value to one denarius; and there was the Jewish silver shekel, equal in amount to 4 drachmas or 4 denarii; but unlike the other coins, the shekel was used exclusively by the Jews.
This was essentially a multi-cultural society with a variety of currencies. But in order for the Jews to do business with others they had to exchange their own Jewish currency into the other's and vice versa. Hence, there were the money changers in the temple courtyard.
And there were at least two taxes: one for the temple, one for the King. The temple tax was paid by one of the twelve tribes of Israel on a rotating basis, so that each tribe paid the expenses for one month a year. The same system was set up for the house of David.
As well, the Romans had their own taxes; one was the “head tax”, a “per capita” tax on each person living in the land. The larger the family, the larger the tax. The Romans collected their taxes through mercenary tax collectors who were allowed to set their own profit margins; but since by this time the tribes of Israel were no longer distinguishable, a “worship tax” was instituted for each worshiping family in Israel, but the “temple tax” was also required of those who lived in far away lands. It was a religious obligation put upon the people in addition to the scriptural mandates.
Now, here’s where the fun started. The Roman tax could only be paid with Roman coins, and the temple tax could only be paid with the Jewish shekel. The shekel was a silver coin, but with no engraved image on it, because the Israelites had a very clear commandment given about graven images. There were only symbols on it, like candles or grain. The graven image commandment was used to interpret the first chapter of Genesis - the statement that we were created in the image of God. That is why murder was wrong in Jewish law - destroying or defacing the image of God.
In contrast, the Roman denarius bore the image of Tiberius Caesar, with the inscription “Son of a God”. To use Roman coins in the temple would have been blasphemy; if they were to use Roman coin, they would have been saying that their oppressor was God.
Naturally the Pharisees were particularly disturbed by the attribution of divinity to Caesar. The coin would be seen by the Torah as idolatrous; this coin and all Roman and Greek coins would have been repugnant to the Pharisees; even having the coin would break Jewish law.
Yet, the Romans occupied the Jewish territories. In Jerusalem, the temple and the Roman garrison were literally across the street from each other. The Romans could look into the temple and see what was going on - and likely they could hear a good deal. The Jews were allowed to continue their own religious worship practices, so long as they gave the taxes Caesar demanded. Herod was allowed to rule - sort of - so long as he upheld the Roman laws, including the paying of taxes. They were between a roack and a hard place, because anything which looked remotely like rejection of Roman authority would mean loss of some freedoms, if not loss of life, for the Israelites.
Jesus, of course, has been fairly consistent in calling out both the Herodians and Pharisees, and drawing attention to their show of religious piety and adherence to law. So they cook up a plan to challenge Jesus on a question which they hope he cannot answer without incriminating himself in some way. “Is it lawful to pay taxes?” Seems simple enough on the surface, but maybe we can sense how much of an indictment it would be for anyone in that crowd to bring out a coin with Caesar’s image on it.
Jesus, however, puts the religious leaders on the spot. He says “Show me the coin.” and what happens? Oops. The religious leaders themselves are in possession of the Roman coins with the image of a man who claims to be son of a God - and Jesus has none.
Then he says give to Caesar those things which rightfully belong to Caesar, and to God those things which rightfully belong to God. The religious leaders are now in the position of defending their own actions, and whether or not they actually follow their own religious teaching. Yet he hasn’t actually accused them of anything, nor committed a crime; even so, all the people standing around also hear and understand - give to Caesar what is rightfully Caesar’s, give to God what is rightfully God’s. Jesus is not saying don’t pay the taxes, he is telling people to make a judgment about the taxes, the coins, the wealth, and what they do with them.
Take a coin out of your pocket, or a folded bill. We have long since accepted the images without thinking of the Ten Commandments; but the Commandments haven’t changed, only our understanding of them. We no longer see these images as idols.
Who really is our God? Who makes the decisions in your life, God or money? How many of us have savings accounts? How many of us have pension funds? How many of us worry about how the bills are going to be paid this month? How many of us put our trust in the bank? or in the stock market? How many of us believe the church should be run like a business? A good look at our lifestyle says a lot - and the question for us, the questions Jesus asks, is where do we draw the line?
Jesus isn’t talking about the separation of church and state in his answer. He is providing a caustic indictment of the entire system, and pointing out to the religious leaders how they have subverted the law of God to protect their own interests. - and he is saying they have taken the gifts of God and used them for political gain in a political system.
What belongs to God is our life. We were created in the image of God. If the image of Caesar belongs to Caesar, then certainly the image of God belongs to God. Do we carry the name of God written on our hearts, or the name of Caesar? Is it God’s name which motivates our lives, or Caesar’s?
God calls us to have compassion and generosity for all the people of the world. How do we express that in our lives? If we are made in God’s image, how have we lived God’s name? God has given us many gifts, including the gift of income and wealth. After giving to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, what do we give to God? Is that the right order?
Today, World Food Day, we have to look at what is God’s, and what is Caesar’s. Do we give freely, and without reservation? Do we look after all the bills and taxes, and then if there is anything left over we give something? Did God call us to parcel out leftovers? One of the enduring truths in our time is that there is more than enough to go around; the problem is its distribution. We placate Caesar by paying up, take care of ourselves, and then give.
And that’s the hidden question in the answer Jesus gave. Whose are we? God’s or Caesar’s? And where do we go next?
Saturday, October 8, 2011
First Fruits A Sermon for Thanksgiving 2005 22 after Pentecost Year A
Deuteronomy 8:7-18 For God brings you to a good land, with flowing streams, waters in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, olive trees and honey; you eat bread whenever you wish, where you lack nothing. You shall eat and bless the good land. Take care that you do not forget God, or fail to keep God’s laws. When you have eaten, built your homes to live in, and you have all that you need each day, do not exalt yourself, forgetting God, who brought you out from Egypt, from slavery, led you through the terrible wilderness, made water flow, and fed you with manna that your ancestors did not know, to test you, and to do you good. Do not say to yourself, "My own power has got this for me.”
Luke 17:11-19 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus went through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." As they went, they were made clean. One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He bowed at Jesus' feet and thanked him. This one was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
************************************************************************
God was out in the back yard of the summer home, Newfoundland, stretched out on a hammock, a tall cool something in one hand, and enjoying the fruits of creation - trees changing colour, asters and goldenrod blooming, beautiful sky and gently warm sunny afternoon, a bowl of bright red fall apples on the table. Life couldn’t be better, thought God - everything as it should be, and Thanksgiving coming up to boot.
Just as God was dozing off in the warm sunshine, there came a knock on the tree next to the hammock. “Yes?” said God.
“It’s me, God. Joe Scientist. I just wanted to let you know that now that humans can do what you can do, we won’t need you any more. So you can take a permanent holiday.”
“Really?” said God, off-handedly reaching down into the soil, bringing out a handful, and rather absent mindedly shaping it into a human. “So, you can create everything now, too?” said God.
“Sure” said Joe Scientist. “Watch”. - and he leaned down to pick up a handful of soil. “Um, what do you think you’re doing?” said God.
“Why, creating a human, just like you.”, said Joe Scientist.
“I see. Well, then”, said God, “you have to make your own dirt as well.”
************************************************************************
The Feast of Shavuot in the Jewish calendar follows Passover, but comes before Pentecost. On the day after Passover, a sheaf of new wheat or corn is waved over the altar, as a sign of gratitude to God for bestowing blessings. At Pentecost two loaves of leavened bread made from the new wheat are waved over the altar. It is clear that all the first fruits are to be offered to God - the law commands: “You shall bring the first fruits of your land to the house of Hashem, your God.”
When we think of the Exodus story, we usually think of the high points, the ones which bookend the time in the wilderness:
- the crossing of the Sea of Reeds and the defeat of the Egyptian armies.
- the triumph of crossing the Jordan and shouting till the walls of Jericho fell.
We tend to forget that they were in that wilderness for 40 long years. We forget the death by snakebite; the monotony of desert life; we forget that it was so bad at times some wanted to return to slavery, since it was a known quantity, and it was seen as “better than this”. We forget that not all of those people who left Egypt would actually make it to the land of promise, but their children and grandchildren would be the ones to see it. Moses didn’t get there, but died with the promised land within sight.
We forget that while we know how it turned out, they didn’t know. They were living in the uncertainty day to day! Their story was still being lived, and had not yet been written. So, in the establishing of the law, there was a command to bring the first fruits of the harvest, in thanksgiving to God for their very survival.
Leprosy in Jesus’ time was seen as a highly contagious disease, with little likelihood of a cure. Since the names for diseases weren’t known, any skin disorder which did not heal was labelled leprosy. Acne would have been considered leprosy. Lepers were required by law to keep a safe distance from other people, and they were forbidden by law to enter Jerusalem. They were outcasts, considered unclean, as a result of sin.
Ten lepers call to Jesus to have mercy on them. Jesus responds "Go and show yourselves to the priests." Now, that response may strike us as strange, but it was good news for the ten lepers. Since not everyone labeled as leper actually had leprosy, there were occasions when the skin disorder healed. To be healed meant that, once cleared by the priests, they were readmitted to mainstream society. But the way they went rushing off, you would think they had managed to heal themselves, and Jesus had little if anything to do with it.
So we have a group of ten rushing to be named as “acceptable”, and welcome to the temple again. Except that one of them, who is a foreigner and not of their faith, turns back to thank Jesus for the incredible gift of healing. Jesus asks, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" And then he says , "Your faith has made you well." Only one recognised that his body had been healed, but more importantly, his spirit had been healed of its disease. Once again, Jesus holds up the person who is NOT of the common faith as the one who stops and thinks.
In the Konko Church of Japan, at about the same time we celebrate Thanksgiving, a fall harvest festival is celebrated. During the service, all the gifts - food, dance, music, scripture - everything is offered to God - called the Parent of the Universe - in gratitude for the gifts given in this life.
Canadian aboriginal peoples who practice traditional ways have a public thanksgiving ceremony every spring where everyone is invited. This is something done in the presence of the spiritual leaders. The people gather in order to give thanks for the land which produced the “first fruit”, which in the case of Canada is the wild strawberry. Everyone present receives the gift of the strawberry; no one is excluded.
Thanksgiving Day in Canada has only had its own date in the calendar since 1957. Yet long before Martin Frobisher became the first European to celebrate Thanksgiving in the new land in the 16th century, our first nations people celebrated the harvest and thanksgiving. Contrary to what many were raised and taught to believe, we didn’t get our Thanksgiving celebrations from the Puritans who landed at Plymouth Rock in the United States. Thanksgiving gradually became a tradition - at the end of the summer people would give thanks for the harvest which would keep them through what was usually a harsh winter. In Canada, because our fall comes sooner and winter is longer, Thanksgiving comes that much earlier.
Unfortunately, our world tends to reflect more of Joe Scientist, and less of wonder and thanks for who we are. We are led to believe we have control of everything. Genetic sequence mapping, organ transplants, in-vitro fertilisation, cloning, space travel. We know how to do it all, no need to give thanks any more, God isn’t needed.
At the same time we behave this way, we will react in horror at the number of deaths in a nursing home from Legionnaire’s Disease; we are shocked at the numbers killed in earthquakes in Kashmir and Pakistan; SARS, bird flu, cancer; plane crashes, useless wars. At the same time we act as if we are God, as if we can do it all ourselves, we blame God if something goes wrong. We talk about God “letting people die”, or “taking them away” when they die. When something bad happens, we ask why “God would do this”. Do we ask why God does the good things?
I gave you several examples of thanksgiving practices. In virtually every faith, there is a time in the year set aside for offering thanks for blessings. In the story from Luke, it was not a Jew, but someone of another faith, who offered thanks. The nine were preoccupied with themselves and could only think about that; the one saw that his blessings came from God. His faith that God heals also provided him with something that the others didn’t take away - a healing of the leprosy of his soul. It was a blessing he would take with him the rest of his life, and share with others.
We tend to get sentimental at Thanksgiving; sentimentality is not bad sometimes, yet I think we confuse sentimentality with giving thanks. This weekend has become more of a rush to have a big dinner, get everyone together, get to the cottage, whatever - don’t get me wrong: I like the turkey, the food, the family, the grandchildren - and hopefully there is an element of Thanksgiving in these celebrations. I plan to have lots of food and lots of fun. But I wonder if perhaps we’ve forgotten the meaning of the word “holiday”. It doesn’t mean a day off from life, it doesn’t mean time to do all the things we want and forget about our blessings. The word “holiday” literally means a Holy Day - a day to celebrate and give thanks, *precisely* for all the blessings we have.
Thanksgiving literally comes from the words “thanks” and “giving”. In every culture, the thanks is also connected with sharing of the blessings with others. In those ‘thanksgivings’, it is recognised that the fruits of creation are there not only to be used, but to be shared with those who may be considered outcast - the lepers who must always stand at a distance, and who are denied life because of a mistaken perception about them, or a prejudice against them. The fruits of creation are far more than strawberries, grains or bread - the fruits of creation are everything we have. These things are *not* ours alone; we have been given these things from the bounty of the creation we experience, to be shared with the rest of creation from who it has been taken away. When we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, we are literally celebrating a Holy Day in the life of people - not just the life of the church. Because we are the recipients of such generosity in creation, it is required of us to be generous as well, in whatever way we can.
The late American author, Helen Keller, was the first deaf and blind person to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree. She wrote these words:
I, who cannot see, find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch. I feel the delicate symmetry of a leaf. I pass my hands lovingly about the smooth skin of a silver birch, or the rough shaggy bark of a pine.... I feel the delightful, velvety texture of a flower, and discover its remarkable convolutions; and something of the miracle
of Nature is revealed to me.
Occasionally, if I am very fortunate, I place my hand gently on a small tree and feel the happy quiver of a bird in full song.... At times my heart cries out with longing to see these things. If I can get so much pleasure from mere touch, how much more beauty must be revealed by sight.
Yet, those who have eyes apparently see little. The panorama of color and action which fills the world is taken for granted.... It is a great pity that, in the world of light, the gift of sight is used only as a mere convenience rather than as a means of adding fullness to life.
We often do not know what have - or we take what we have as our right, our entitlement. We forget that much of what we have is an accident of where we were born, and has come to us through the work of many hands, and the lives of many before us - who in their struggles learned to be thankful for the smallest of things.
May we learn how to give thanks, not only today, but throughout all our lives.
Sources:
1. Responding Abundantly to Abundance, a sermon by Rev. Beth Johnston October 9, 2011
2. First Fruits, a sermon by Rev. Fran Ota, October 2005.
Luke 17:11-19 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus went through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." As they went, they were made clean. One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He bowed at Jesus' feet and thanked him. This one was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
************************************************************************
God was out in the back yard of the summer home, Newfoundland, stretched out on a hammock, a tall cool something in one hand, and enjoying the fruits of creation - trees changing colour, asters and goldenrod blooming, beautiful sky and gently warm sunny afternoon, a bowl of bright red fall apples on the table. Life couldn’t be better, thought God - everything as it should be, and Thanksgiving coming up to boot.
Just as God was dozing off in the warm sunshine, there came a knock on the tree next to the hammock. “Yes?” said God.
“It’s me, God. Joe Scientist. I just wanted to let you know that now that humans can do what you can do, we won’t need you any more. So you can take a permanent holiday.”
“Really?” said God, off-handedly reaching down into the soil, bringing out a handful, and rather absent mindedly shaping it into a human. “So, you can create everything now, too?” said God.
“Sure” said Joe Scientist. “Watch”. - and he leaned down to pick up a handful of soil. “Um, what do you think you’re doing?” said God.
“Why, creating a human, just like you.”, said Joe Scientist.
“I see. Well, then”, said God, “you have to make your own dirt as well.”
************************************************************************
The Feast of Shavuot in the Jewish calendar follows Passover, but comes before Pentecost. On the day after Passover, a sheaf of new wheat or corn is waved over the altar, as a sign of gratitude to God for bestowing blessings. At Pentecost two loaves of leavened bread made from the new wheat are waved over the altar. It is clear that all the first fruits are to be offered to God - the law commands: “You shall bring the first fruits of your land to the house of Hashem, your God.”
When we think of the Exodus story, we usually think of the high points, the ones which bookend the time in the wilderness:
- the crossing of the Sea of Reeds and the defeat of the Egyptian armies.
- the triumph of crossing the Jordan and shouting till the walls of Jericho fell.
We tend to forget that they were in that wilderness for 40 long years. We forget the death by snakebite; the monotony of desert life; we forget that it was so bad at times some wanted to return to slavery, since it was a known quantity, and it was seen as “better than this”. We forget that not all of those people who left Egypt would actually make it to the land of promise, but their children and grandchildren would be the ones to see it. Moses didn’t get there, but died with the promised land within sight.
We forget that while we know how it turned out, they didn’t know. They were living in the uncertainty day to day! Their story was still being lived, and had not yet been written. So, in the establishing of the law, there was a command to bring the first fruits of the harvest, in thanksgiving to God for their very survival.
Leprosy in Jesus’ time was seen as a highly contagious disease, with little likelihood of a cure. Since the names for diseases weren’t known, any skin disorder which did not heal was labelled leprosy. Acne would have been considered leprosy. Lepers were required by law to keep a safe distance from other people, and they were forbidden by law to enter Jerusalem. They were outcasts, considered unclean, as a result of sin.
Ten lepers call to Jesus to have mercy on them. Jesus responds "Go and show yourselves to the priests." Now, that response may strike us as strange, but it was good news for the ten lepers. Since not everyone labeled as leper actually had leprosy, there were occasions when the skin disorder healed. To be healed meant that, once cleared by the priests, they were readmitted to mainstream society. But the way they went rushing off, you would think they had managed to heal themselves, and Jesus had little if anything to do with it.
So we have a group of ten rushing to be named as “acceptable”, and welcome to the temple again. Except that one of them, who is a foreigner and not of their faith, turns back to thank Jesus for the incredible gift of healing. Jesus asks, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" And then he says , "Your faith has made you well." Only one recognised that his body had been healed, but more importantly, his spirit had been healed of its disease. Once again, Jesus holds up the person who is NOT of the common faith as the one who stops and thinks.
In the Konko Church of Japan, at about the same time we celebrate Thanksgiving, a fall harvest festival is celebrated. During the service, all the gifts - food, dance, music, scripture - everything is offered to God - called the Parent of the Universe - in gratitude for the gifts given in this life.
Canadian aboriginal peoples who practice traditional ways have a public thanksgiving ceremony every spring where everyone is invited. This is something done in the presence of the spiritual leaders. The people gather in order to give thanks for the land which produced the “first fruit”, which in the case of Canada is the wild strawberry. Everyone present receives the gift of the strawberry; no one is excluded.
Thanksgiving Day in Canada has only had its own date in the calendar since 1957. Yet long before Martin Frobisher became the first European to celebrate Thanksgiving in the new land in the 16th century, our first nations people celebrated the harvest and thanksgiving. Contrary to what many were raised and taught to believe, we didn’t get our Thanksgiving celebrations from the Puritans who landed at Plymouth Rock in the United States. Thanksgiving gradually became a tradition - at the end of the summer people would give thanks for the harvest which would keep them through what was usually a harsh winter. In Canada, because our fall comes sooner and winter is longer, Thanksgiving comes that much earlier.
Unfortunately, our world tends to reflect more of Joe Scientist, and less of wonder and thanks for who we are. We are led to believe we have control of everything. Genetic sequence mapping, organ transplants, in-vitro fertilisation, cloning, space travel. We know how to do it all, no need to give thanks any more, God isn’t needed.
At the same time we behave this way, we will react in horror at the number of deaths in a nursing home from Legionnaire’s Disease; we are shocked at the numbers killed in earthquakes in Kashmir and Pakistan; SARS, bird flu, cancer; plane crashes, useless wars. At the same time we act as if we are God, as if we can do it all ourselves, we blame God if something goes wrong. We talk about God “letting people die”, or “taking them away” when they die. When something bad happens, we ask why “God would do this”. Do we ask why God does the good things?
I gave you several examples of thanksgiving practices. In virtually every faith, there is a time in the year set aside for offering thanks for blessings. In the story from Luke, it was not a Jew, but someone of another faith, who offered thanks. The nine were preoccupied with themselves and could only think about that; the one saw that his blessings came from God. His faith that God heals also provided him with something that the others didn’t take away - a healing of the leprosy of his soul. It was a blessing he would take with him the rest of his life, and share with others.
We tend to get sentimental at Thanksgiving; sentimentality is not bad sometimes, yet I think we confuse sentimentality with giving thanks. This weekend has become more of a rush to have a big dinner, get everyone together, get to the cottage, whatever - don’t get me wrong: I like the turkey, the food, the family, the grandchildren - and hopefully there is an element of Thanksgiving in these celebrations. I plan to have lots of food and lots of fun. But I wonder if perhaps we’ve forgotten the meaning of the word “holiday”. It doesn’t mean a day off from life, it doesn’t mean time to do all the things we want and forget about our blessings. The word “holiday” literally means a Holy Day - a day to celebrate and give thanks, *precisely* for all the blessings we have.
Thanksgiving literally comes from the words “thanks” and “giving”. In every culture, the thanks is also connected with sharing of the blessings with others. In those ‘thanksgivings’, it is recognised that the fruits of creation are there not only to be used, but to be shared with those who may be considered outcast - the lepers who must always stand at a distance, and who are denied life because of a mistaken perception about them, or a prejudice against them. The fruits of creation are far more than strawberries, grains or bread - the fruits of creation are everything we have. These things are *not* ours alone; we have been given these things from the bounty of the creation we experience, to be shared with the rest of creation from who it has been taken away. When we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, we are literally celebrating a Holy Day in the life of people - not just the life of the church. Because we are the recipients of such generosity in creation, it is required of us to be generous as well, in whatever way we can.
The late American author, Helen Keller, was the first deaf and blind person to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree. She wrote these words:
I, who cannot see, find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch. I feel the delicate symmetry of a leaf. I pass my hands lovingly about the smooth skin of a silver birch, or the rough shaggy bark of a pine.... I feel the delightful, velvety texture of a flower, and discover its remarkable convolutions; and something of the miracle
of Nature is revealed to me.
Occasionally, if I am very fortunate, I place my hand gently on a small tree and feel the happy quiver of a bird in full song.... At times my heart cries out with longing to see these things. If I can get so much pleasure from mere touch, how much more beauty must be revealed by sight.
Yet, those who have eyes apparently see little. The panorama of color and action which fills the world is taken for granted.... It is a great pity that, in the world of light, the gift of sight is used only as a mere convenience rather than as a means of adding fullness to life.
We often do not know what have - or we take what we have as our right, our entitlement. We forget that much of what we have is an accident of where we were born, and has come to us through the work of many hands, and the lives of many before us - who in their struggles learned to be thankful for the smallest of things.
May we learn how to give thanks, not only today, but throughout all our lives.
Sources:
1. Responding Abundantly to Abundance, a sermon by Rev. Beth Johnston October 9, 2011
2. First Fruits, a sermon by Rev. Fran Ota, October 2005.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
“ Fair Wage for Fair Labour???” September 18, 2011 Exodus 16:2-15, Matthew 20:1-16 Humber United Church, Corner Brook.
"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into the vineyard. When he went out at nine o'clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; he said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went. When he went out again at noon, and at three o'clock, he did the same. Around five o'clock he went out and found others standing around; and said to them, 'Why are you standing here idle all day?' They replied, 'Because no one has hired us.' So he said, 'You also go into the vineyard.' When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, 'Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.' When those hired at five o'clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. So when the first to be hired came, they expected to receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. When they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, 'These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.' He answered one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?'
So the last will be first, and the first will be last.
***********************************************************************
There is a story of a man who sang in the church choir, who was embarrassed by the fact that his elderly father kept falling asleep during the sermon. He called his son, and asked him to give “gramps” a nudge every time he nodded off, and paid him $1.
Sunday came, the sermon started, and right on cue “gramps” nodded off. The little boy did nothing, just sat there.
After the service was finished, the father came down, and asked his son why he didn’t wake up “gramps”.
“That’s easy” said the boy, as he pulled out a five-dollar bill. “Gramps pays better!”
I remember when my kids were small - and I’d bake a cake or some dessert for dinner - measure each piece exactly, right down to the millimetre, and for sure one of them would say “He got a bigger piece than I did!!” No amount of showing and measuring would prove it different. I can still see the teary face and temper of my eldest son, accusing me of loving all the other three more than I loved him.
In the Exodus reading, we find the Israelites grumbling at Moses and Aaron, questioning God, claiming that they were better off as slaves back in Egypt than wandering along after Moses. They awake in the morning to find quail and a crystal edible substance on the sand which they called manna. While we now know that there are natural explanations for these things, for the Israelites, unfamiliar with desert life and the plants which did grow in the Sinai, it would surely seem like a miracle.
Read a little further in the story. When when the people went out to pick up the quail and manna, some greedy ones tried to squeeze extra into their baskets, somehow thinking they deserved more, and not thinking about whether or not any of the others would be cut short. And yet, when they sat down to eat, everyone had no more and no less than was needed, and they were not able to hold it over till the next day. They were given only enough for each day, all that they needed.
Imagine for a moment that we are some of those labourers in Jesus’ story, who didn’t get picked in the first call, or even the second or third. We are standing there, waiting, as person after person is picked for various jobs throughout the morning. The sun beats down on us, noon approaches, we take out our meager food, if we even have some. Every once in a while someone else gets picked, but as the day wears on, three o’clock comes, and we begin to think that we are going to have to return home tonight empty handed, to families who were depending on us. It’s a stubborn few that the landowner finds standing around at the hiring location at 5pm. And then, to our amazement we suddenly find ourselves being led to the landowner’s field with a promise of a wage. Hey, by this point, we are just happy to get anything, so we gladly set to work alongside those we haven’t seen since dawn. After an hour’s labor we are led to the person in charge of paying us our wages. Wait a minute, there must be some mistake. Did you get what I just got? A denarius? You too? Yes! But we all got the same thing. Is that fair?
Maybe we’ve experienced something like this at our own places of work. We’ve worked hard for our company for 15 or 20 years and have finally gotten a “decent” salary. Then suddenly, our employers decide to raise the starting salary for new hires; now, people who are just starting out in our department are making what we’ve worked years to achieve. When I started in ministry, I was earning almost a much as my father was earning as a minister when he retired. I remember Dad laughing about it - but it made me feel uncomfortable. ...and yet, if I am honest, I look at the salaries newcomers to ministry receive, or designated lay ministers - and I know they don’t have as much training as I have, or experience - and there is a part of me which feels it really isn’t fair.
Think about it. Every single one of the laborers waiting to be hired *needed* that denarius to support their families for the day. Without it children would have gone to bed hungry, necessities could not be bought, and worse, spirits would have been crushed. The landowner saw this and acted generously. The day laborers who had been working all day should have understood; without the grace of the landowner choosing them early in the day, they would have been in the same situation. Everyone got what they NEEDED. It was only the attitudes of the disgruntled workers that marred this occasion; they wanted more than they needed; so even though their needs were provided for, they were still comparing and insisting they should have got more.
What this parable calls out is our attitude to those who are poor, disenfranchised, less fortunate than we are. On my clergy discussion list, someone commented that people should just take responsibility for their own lives, rather than governments giving money for the poor. The question then is, how do the dirt-poor hillbillies in Kentucky or Tennessee “take responsibility” for their own lives - if their own federal government doesn’t know they exist, if they have no education, no way of providing for themselves. The poor black families in and around the outskirts of New Orleans - how are they supposed to take responsibility for themselves? How do those in the outport communities here, the small fishing communities, make ends meet? They are trying to be responsible.
Last December, outside the Royal Bank here in Corner Brook, I met a man who needed money. He had moved back here from Toronto, he said, hoping to find work - because finding work which paid enough in Toronto for someone like him was almost impossible. He had a place to live here in Corner Brook, but didn’t have enough money to get food. He was going to every single job training placement he was given, but there were no jobs. Here was a man *trying* to be responsible for his life, and almost beaten before he even started.
In this parable today, Jesus compares the realm of God to this man hiring labourers. Is this parable about what’s fair in our eyes, or about how God sees justice. Those people, particularly the ones who were hired last, were probably the ones nobody wanted. Maybe they seemed a little weaker, unable to do a full day’s work. Maybe some of them were physically disabled or mentally challenged. Being part of the realm of God means we might not get what’s “fair” in our eyes, but God gives us what we *need*.
We, in our arrogance, assume that we have all the things we have because we’ve worked our butts off; we develop a sense that we are entitled to have more than others, simply because we work hard. It also gives us that sense that if we were able to do it, others should be able to as well. Why should we offer them our help? Someone will pop up and say “God helps those who help themselves”. In fact, that statement isn’t even in the Bible at all; it originated in Aesop’s Fables. The Bible says the opposite - that God’s justice and mercy are *for* the helpless and poor. Remember the old notion of pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps, as if all it takes is determination and hard work, and the doors will open.
Two years ago, on a cruise, I got into a discussion with some Americans about socialised medicine - the kind of health care we have here in Canada. Most of the people at the table were in the health care system, and felt the changes were needed in for Americans. But there were two at the table who were against the new changes. People should be able to buy their own, or go without. When asked what they did for a living, they replied they had recently retired from the military. “Oh’, said one of the others “then you already *have* socialised medicine, paid for by the Government.” Needless to say the air was a little tense for awhile.
God does not give us what we want. God doesn’t give us what we expect. And thank goodness, God doesn’t make decisions based on what other people think is right. We must be reminded of the few words of the prayer of Jesus; Give us *this* day our bread, give us enough for today, forgive our bad behaviour, help us in times of trial. To this I would add the words of Hosea the prophet - God requires us to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.
Today we have stories of God's complete, utter and total generosity to everyone. It is a perfect example of what we humans would call foolishness, and God calls reality. It is the kind of generosity that turns things on their head. It is the kind of justice and gratitude we are called to do and be, because that's what God shows us. Jesus is pointing out to us that as his followers, we are called to model and emulate the characteristics God models and emulates for us in the example of Jesus. The good news is that God is there with us along the way.
So the last will be first, and the first will be last.
***********************************************************************
There is a story of a man who sang in the church choir, who was embarrassed by the fact that his elderly father kept falling asleep during the sermon. He called his son, and asked him to give “gramps” a nudge every time he nodded off, and paid him $1.
Sunday came, the sermon started, and right on cue “gramps” nodded off. The little boy did nothing, just sat there.
After the service was finished, the father came down, and asked his son why he didn’t wake up “gramps”.
“That’s easy” said the boy, as he pulled out a five-dollar bill. “Gramps pays better!”
I remember when my kids were small - and I’d bake a cake or some dessert for dinner - measure each piece exactly, right down to the millimetre, and for sure one of them would say “He got a bigger piece than I did!!” No amount of showing and measuring would prove it different. I can still see the teary face and temper of my eldest son, accusing me of loving all the other three more than I loved him.
In the Exodus reading, we find the Israelites grumbling at Moses and Aaron, questioning God, claiming that they were better off as slaves back in Egypt than wandering along after Moses. They awake in the morning to find quail and a crystal edible substance on the sand which they called manna. While we now know that there are natural explanations for these things, for the Israelites, unfamiliar with desert life and the plants which did grow in the Sinai, it would surely seem like a miracle.
Read a little further in the story. When when the people went out to pick up the quail and manna, some greedy ones tried to squeeze extra into their baskets, somehow thinking they deserved more, and not thinking about whether or not any of the others would be cut short. And yet, when they sat down to eat, everyone had no more and no less than was needed, and they were not able to hold it over till the next day. They were given only enough for each day, all that they needed.
Imagine for a moment that we are some of those labourers in Jesus’ story, who didn’t get picked in the first call, or even the second or third. We are standing there, waiting, as person after person is picked for various jobs throughout the morning. The sun beats down on us, noon approaches, we take out our meager food, if we even have some. Every once in a while someone else gets picked, but as the day wears on, three o’clock comes, and we begin to think that we are going to have to return home tonight empty handed, to families who were depending on us. It’s a stubborn few that the landowner finds standing around at the hiring location at 5pm. And then, to our amazement we suddenly find ourselves being led to the landowner’s field with a promise of a wage. Hey, by this point, we are just happy to get anything, so we gladly set to work alongside those we haven’t seen since dawn. After an hour’s labor we are led to the person in charge of paying us our wages. Wait a minute, there must be some mistake. Did you get what I just got? A denarius? You too? Yes! But we all got the same thing. Is that fair?
Maybe we’ve experienced something like this at our own places of work. We’ve worked hard for our company for 15 or 20 years and have finally gotten a “decent” salary. Then suddenly, our employers decide to raise the starting salary for new hires; now, people who are just starting out in our department are making what we’ve worked years to achieve. When I started in ministry, I was earning almost a much as my father was earning as a minister when he retired. I remember Dad laughing about it - but it made me feel uncomfortable. ...and yet, if I am honest, I look at the salaries newcomers to ministry receive, or designated lay ministers - and I know they don’t have as much training as I have, or experience - and there is a part of me which feels it really isn’t fair.
Think about it. Every single one of the laborers waiting to be hired *needed* that denarius to support their families for the day. Without it children would have gone to bed hungry, necessities could not be bought, and worse, spirits would have been crushed. The landowner saw this and acted generously. The day laborers who had been working all day should have understood; without the grace of the landowner choosing them early in the day, they would have been in the same situation. Everyone got what they NEEDED. It was only the attitudes of the disgruntled workers that marred this occasion; they wanted more than they needed; so even though their needs were provided for, they were still comparing and insisting they should have got more.
What this parable calls out is our attitude to those who are poor, disenfranchised, less fortunate than we are. On my clergy discussion list, someone commented that people should just take responsibility for their own lives, rather than governments giving money for the poor. The question then is, how do the dirt-poor hillbillies in Kentucky or Tennessee “take responsibility” for their own lives - if their own federal government doesn’t know they exist, if they have no education, no way of providing for themselves. The poor black families in and around the outskirts of New Orleans - how are they supposed to take responsibility for themselves? How do those in the outport communities here, the small fishing communities, make ends meet? They are trying to be responsible.
Last December, outside the Royal Bank here in Corner Brook, I met a man who needed money. He had moved back here from Toronto, he said, hoping to find work - because finding work which paid enough in Toronto for someone like him was almost impossible. He had a place to live here in Corner Brook, but didn’t have enough money to get food. He was going to every single job training placement he was given, but there were no jobs. Here was a man *trying* to be responsible for his life, and almost beaten before he even started.
In this parable today, Jesus compares the realm of God to this man hiring labourers. Is this parable about what’s fair in our eyes, or about how God sees justice. Those people, particularly the ones who were hired last, were probably the ones nobody wanted. Maybe they seemed a little weaker, unable to do a full day’s work. Maybe some of them were physically disabled or mentally challenged. Being part of the realm of God means we might not get what’s “fair” in our eyes, but God gives us what we *need*.
We, in our arrogance, assume that we have all the things we have because we’ve worked our butts off; we develop a sense that we are entitled to have more than others, simply because we work hard. It also gives us that sense that if we were able to do it, others should be able to as well. Why should we offer them our help? Someone will pop up and say “God helps those who help themselves”. In fact, that statement isn’t even in the Bible at all; it originated in Aesop’s Fables. The Bible says the opposite - that God’s justice and mercy are *for* the helpless and poor. Remember the old notion of pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps, as if all it takes is determination and hard work, and the doors will open.
Two years ago, on a cruise, I got into a discussion with some Americans about socialised medicine - the kind of health care we have here in Canada. Most of the people at the table were in the health care system, and felt the changes were needed in for Americans. But there were two at the table who were against the new changes. People should be able to buy their own, or go without. When asked what they did for a living, they replied they had recently retired from the military. “Oh’, said one of the others “then you already *have* socialised medicine, paid for by the Government.” Needless to say the air was a little tense for awhile.
God does not give us what we want. God doesn’t give us what we expect. And thank goodness, God doesn’t make decisions based on what other people think is right. We must be reminded of the few words of the prayer of Jesus; Give us *this* day our bread, give us enough for today, forgive our bad behaviour, help us in times of trial. To this I would add the words of Hosea the prophet - God requires us to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.
Today we have stories of God's complete, utter and total generosity to everyone. It is a perfect example of what we humans would call foolishness, and God calls reality. It is the kind of generosity that turns things on their head. It is the kind of justice and gratitude we are called to do and be, because that's what God shows us. Jesus is pointing out to us that as his followers, we are called to model and emulate the characteristics God models and emulates for us in the example of Jesus. The good news is that God is there with us along the way.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
"GentileDogs" a sermon based on Matthew 15:10-28 Humber United Church August14, 2011
Then he called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth."
The disciples said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?"Jesus answered, "Every plant that God has not planted will be uprooted. Let the Pharisees alone; they are blind, leading the blind. If one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit." Peter said to him, "Explain this parable to us." Jesus 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? 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 make a person unclean; to eat with unwashed hands does not male someone unclean."
Jesus left there and went to the district of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that region came up and spoke to him - "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon." He did not answer her at all. His disciples urged him, saying, "Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us."Jesus said to her "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she knelt in before him, saying, "Lord, help me."
Jesus answered, "It is not fair to take the food for the children, and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Jesus said to her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instantly.
*************************************************************************
Yesterday evening, once again, the marvellous movie “Sister Act” was on TV. While this is mostly a movie about church revitalisation, it is also a movie about how people get stuck in particular ways of thinking, and make judgments about those they deem to be “other”. Mother Superior, played by Maggie Smith, is fearful of everything. Her major worry is that the lounge singer, Deloris Van Cartier played by Whoopi Goldberg, is corrupting the other sisters and making them too secular and worldly. She makes a judgment before she knows Deloris, and that judgment colours virtually every reaction she has to every event.
In the reading of today’s story, it is critical to remember that Jesus was born into a society heavily governed by religious rules, and we know that he values its tradition and practices. We also know that he sees the leadership as corrupt, and ingrown. So he sets out to initiate reform, in the tradition of the prophets like Jeremiah and Isaiah. He tries to help people remember what their faith and practices are to be. Against the misdirection and mismanagement of the community by the traditional leaders, he begins to gather and empower new ministers and leaders from among the overlooked lay folk. But it isn’t going quite the way he would like it to, and there is a lot of resistance.
In the first part of the reading, he tries to define for the disciples some of the flaws in the rules of purity and cleanliness - that what goes into the body through the mouth simply comes out again. What comes out of the mouth is what defines a person. Whether or not one’s hands are clean is less important than the things one says.
Then Jesus takes a break. He is probably tired and discouraged, so he goes to the region of Tyre, maybe for a bit of a retreat by the seashore, trying to escape notice and find some time for himself. He doesn’t want to be dealing with people. Here the story starts to sound familiar, much like other parables and stories about Jesus and miracles. Even on retreat, in Tyre, he is found - by a Gentile woman who would be considered “unclean” by the Jewish community. She is a mother, with a sick child. She gets right up to Jesus, past all the others. It is curious that apparently no one stops her. But all she does is ask Jesus for help.
In reading this text, we tend to miss, or overlook, or not even understand, the enormity both of what the woman does, and what Jesus does and says. She is a Canaanite, considered “unclean” by the Jews, under their strict laws about ritual purity. She is a foreigner, a complete outsider, not of the same religious society or community. Above all, the sheer nerve of a woman, approaching him and asking for help. This may seem like nothing to us today - but in Jesus’ time this was jaw-dropping behaviour. Women did not speak to men in public, and to do so could have one branded as a prostitute. The disciples want her sent away, because she keeps asking for help, and she is irritating them.
You can almost feel the indrawn breath of the people around, and see Jesus just sitting there with his mouth hanging open, trying to think of some response to get rid of her. Ignoring her doesn’t work. When he finally does respond, it is a rude, and frankly racist remark. He says that it is not fair to feed the dogs before the children. On the surface, for us, it would seem like not much more than a cryptic statement. That’s because we can’t read the original language. What Jesus really says is “My work and words are strictly for the children of Israel - of the one true God - not for Gentile dogs.” He tells her she is not worthy of the teachings he offers, and he uses a racist epithet common among the Jews.
A Gentile woman, unclean according to Jewish law, unclean by her circumstance of birth, dares to approach Jesus. Surely she had to make her way through the disciples to do this. She knows that she is considered unclean. She is painfully aware of the meaning of the word ‘dogs’. Dirty mutts would be a better translation. She has a sick child, and ignoring all conventions, still she cries out “Lord, help me, help my child. Have mercy!” She would go anywhere, cross any boundary, for the well being of her child - even into a place where she knows she will be unwelcome, treated with disdain, and insulted.
It is almost possible to hear Jesus’ voice, see him turn to her and say those words. And from the woman,"But sir, even the meanest mutts under the table get to eat the children's crumbs." In other words, "I know I`m not much and am certainly not special nor deserving, but surely there must be a little bit - which is more than enough, for people even like me and my daughter." You can almost hear the penny drop, see Jesus’ eyes widen, his posture change as he realises that this outsider in so many ways has grasped something important, and has brought his attention to something important. There is a long moment of silence. I have a vision of Jesus sitting there completely speechless, unable to think of a thing to say. With this simple statement, she puts Jesus in the position of having to re-think his judgment, and his sense of call to ministry.
Feminist theologian Mary Ann Tolbert suggests that it is the shameful request of the woman (it should be coming from a male, not her), and the totally unconventional behaviour, which makes Jesus attempt to dismiss her with such disdain. Then Jesus is faced with the fact that a Gentile woman has just hammered home to him, albeit gently and with grace, the very point he had been trying to teach his own disciples - social conventions are meaningless when there are people in need - and what comes OUT of the mouth is much more important than what goes in.
One of the questions I want to ask all of you today, is where do we locate ourselves in this story? Are we the leaders, Jesus, the disciples, or the woman?
In a sense it’s hard for us to do this - after all, we were born here, are and have been members of the community. We are the church, we know the traditions, we know the practices. But no matter how good a community is, the original vision and sense of mission can be lost. It's possible for what used to be a joy and a source of grace to become a burden and a chore. Look back at the example from the movie - the call to ministry is lost in judgments about the people around, and in fear of the unknown and the different.
And that happens when we let entitlement rather than grace become our reason for being here. It happens when we speak of this place as "our church" more than we speak of it as "God's church." It happens when we forget that *we* are the mutts who receive crumbs dropped from the table.
During discussion of the passage this week, many of the clergy passed on stories of people being dismissed from the church. One pastor reported that a new woman came to their congregation, only to be told by one of the regulars that she wasn’t dressed appropriately for church. Needless to say, that person never returned. In my first pastoral charge, there was a long-time member who would approach new people who came through the door and begin to explain to them how things were done in that congregation. They never returned. It was fascinating to hear people complaining that young families didn’t come to church any more, and then watch them chastise the young families if the children made any noise at all.
In the church, we try to set the table in a place that makes it accessible everyone. Yet we tend to think of the table as “ours”, and not God’s. We put the pulpit above it, as though the minister is somehow that far above error and no longer needing to be submissive to a will and a word from beyond.
Let’s be blunt - we in the church today are as Gentile as that woman. We are part of that large foreign community that has no natural connection to the children of Abraham at all. We are only made part of God's family by grace. Parentage, history, longevity in the community, personality, personal charisma all mean very little in this regard. Far from being entitled, we are all here all the time only by the gracious invitation of God, through Jesus and the stirring of the Spirit within us.
Anna Murdock, a lay leader of Broad Street United Methodist Church in North Carolina, tells this story: ‘It was almost a year ago; our Senior Pastor was on vacation. We would be having Communion on that particular Sunday, and the Associate Pastor had invited a seminary buddy to assist him with Communion. I noticed, after all had received Communion, that the visiting minister bent down on his way back to the pulpit and picked up a large crumb on the floor.
I didn't think anything about it. I just thought he might be a neat freak like the Associate Pastor! After the worship service, I witnessed the most beautiful moment. I saw our Associate Pastor's friend on his hands and knees near the altar rail, picking up crumbs that had dropped to the floor.
I told him that we would clean that up... he didn't have to do it. He smiled and said, "Even I have been made worthy to pick up the crumbs from under the table. This is part of my worship."
My response was, "and so have I been." And with a whispered "Thanks be to God", he invited me to pick up crumbs as well ... and to worship with him.’ Here is the lesson that woman taught to Jesus - grace trumps everything else. By grace all are made worthy, and by God’s grace alone. Even Jesus had to learn that lesson in a real way - that when real people are involved, other things simply don’t count.
We are not acceptable through attendance, or through long membership, or through the size of our contributions, or our history in the community. It is in those words “Help me....” that we come to God. Everyone who comes through the door of the church, searching, is made welcome and worthy by the Spirit of God. Will they find what they need?
Sources:
1. “Crumbs from the Table” by Rev. Brian Donst, Fifty United Church, Winona, Ontario
2. “Lord, Help Me. Crumbs Under the Table” by Anna Murdock, Broad Street UMC, Statesville, N Carolina
3. “Feasting on the Word”, Year B Volume 4.
4. “Crossing Boundaries” by Rev. Fran Ota, 2007, Glen Ayr United Church, Scarborough, ON
The disciples said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?"Jesus answered, "Every plant that God has not planted will be uprooted. Let the Pharisees alone; they are blind, leading the blind. If one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit." Peter said to him, "Explain this parable to us." Jesus 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? 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 make a person unclean; to eat with unwashed hands does not male someone unclean."
Jesus left there and went to the district of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that region came up and spoke to him - "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon." He did not answer her at all. His disciples urged him, saying, "Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us."Jesus said to her "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she knelt in before him, saying, "Lord, help me."
Jesus answered, "It is not fair to take the food for the children, and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Jesus said to her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instantly.
*************************************************************************
Yesterday evening, once again, the marvellous movie “Sister Act” was on TV. While this is mostly a movie about church revitalisation, it is also a movie about how people get stuck in particular ways of thinking, and make judgments about those they deem to be “other”. Mother Superior, played by Maggie Smith, is fearful of everything. Her major worry is that the lounge singer, Deloris Van Cartier played by Whoopi Goldberg, is corrupting the other sisters and making them too secular and worldly. She makes a judgment before she knows Deloris, and that judgment colours virtually every reaction she has to every event.
In the reading of today’s story, it is critical to remember that Jesus was born into a society heavily governed by religious rules, and we know that he values its tradition and practices. We also know that he sees the leadership as corrupt, and ingrown. So he sets out to initiate reform, in the tradition of the prophets like Jeremiah and Isaiah. He tries to help people remember what their faith and practices are to be. Against the misdirection and mismanagement of the community by the traditional leaders, he begins to gather and empower new ministers and leaders from among the overlooked lay folk. But it isn’t going quite the way he would like it to, and there is a lot of resistance.
In the first part of the reading, he tries to define for the disciples some of the flaws in the rules of purity and cleanliness - that what goes into the body through the mouth simply comes out again. What comes out of the mouth is what defines a person. Whether or not one’s hands are clean is less important than the things one says.
Then Jesus takes a break. He is probably tired and discouraged, so he goes to the region of Tyre, maybe for a bit of a retreat by the seashore, trying to escape notice and find some time for himself. He doesn’t want to be dealing with people. Here the story starts to sound familiar, much like other parables and stories about Jesus and miracles. Even on retreat, in Tyre, he is found - by a Gentile woman who would be considered “unclean” by the Jewish community. She is a mother, with a sick child. She gets right up to Jesus, past all the others. It is curious that apparently no one stops her. But all she does is ask Jesus for help.
In reading this text, we tend to miss, or overlook, or not even understand, the enormity both of what the woman does, and what Jesus does and says. She is a Canaanite, considered “unclean” by the Jews, under their strict laws about ritual purity. She is a foreigner, a complete outsider, not of the same religious society or community. Above all, the sheer nerve of a woman, approaching him and asking for help. This may seem like nothing to us today - but in Jesus’ time this was jaw-dropping behaviour. Women did not speak to men in public, and to do so could have one branded as a prostitute. The disciples want her sent away, because she keeps asking for help, and she is irritating them.
You can almost feel the indrawn breath of the people around, and see Jesus just sitting there with his mouth hanging open, trying to think of some response to get rid of her. Ignoring her doesn’t work. When he finally does respond, it is a rude, and frankly racist remark. He says that it is not fair to feed the dogs before the children. On the surface, for us, it would seem like not much more than a cryptic statement. That’s because we can’t read the original language. What Jesus really says is “My work and words are strictly for the children of Israel - of the one true God - not for Gentile dogs.” He tells her she is not worthy of the teachings he offers, and he uses a racist epithet common among the Jews.
A Gentile woman, unclean according to Jewish law, unclean by her circumstance of birth, dares to approach Jesus. Surely she had to make her way through the disciples to do this. She knows that she is considered unclean. She is painfully aware of the meaning of the word ‘dogs’. Dirty mutts would be a better translation. She has a sick child, and ignoring all conventions, still she cries out “Lord, help me, help my child. Have mercy!” She would go anywhere, cross any boundary, for the well being of her child - even into a place where she knows she will be unwelcome, treated with disdain, and insulted.
It is almost possible to hear Jesus’ voice, see him turn to her and say those words. And from the woman,"But sir, even the meanest mutts under the table get to eat the children's crumbs." In other words, "I know I`m not much and am certainly not special nor deserving, but surely there must be a little bit - which is more than enough, for people even like me and my daughter." You can almost hear the penny drop, see Jesus’ eyes widen, his posture change as he realises that this outsider in so many ways has grasped something important, and has brought his attention to something important. There is a long moment of silence. I have a vision of Jesus sitting there completely speechless, unable to think of a thing to say. With this simple statement, she puts Jesus in the position of having to re-think his judgment, and his sense of call to ministry.
Feminist theologian Mary Ann Tolbert suggests that it is the shameful request of the woman (it should be coming from a male, not her), and the totally unconventional behaviour, which makes Jesus attempt to dismiss her with such disdain. Then Jesus is faced with the fact that a Gentile woman has just hammered home to him, albeit gently and with grace, the very point he had been trying to teach his own disciples - social conventions are meaningless when there are people in need - and what comes OUT of the mouth is much more important than what goes in.
One of the questions I want to ask all of you today, is where do we locate ourselves in this story? Are we the leaders, Jesus, the disciples, or the woman?
In a sense it’s hard for us to do this - after all, we were born here, are and have been members of the community. We are the church, we know the traditions, we know the practices. But no matter how good a community is, the original vision and sense of mission can be lost. It's possible for what used to be a joy and a source of grace to become a burden and a chore. Look back at the example from the movie - the call to ministry is lost in judgments about the people around, and in fear of the unknown and the different.
And that happens when we let entitlement rather than grace become our reason for being here. It happens when we speak of this place as "our church" more than we speak of it as "God's church." It happens when we forget that *we* are the mutts who receive crumbs dropped from the table.
During discussion of the passage this week, many of the clergy passed on stories of people being dismissed from the church. One pastor reported that a new woman came to their congregation, only to be told by one of the regulars that she wasn’t dressed appropriately for church. Needless to say, that person never returned. In my first pastoral charge, there was a long-time member who would approach new people who came through the door and begin to explain to them how things were done in that congregation. They never returned. It was fascinating to hear people complaining that young families didn’t come to church any more, and then watch them chastise the young families if the children made any noise at all.
In the church, we try to set the table in a place that makes it accessible everyone. Yet we tend to think of the table as “ours”, and not God’s. We put the pulpit above it, as though the minister is somehow that far above error and no longer needing to be submissive to a will and a word from beyond.
Let’s be blunt - we in the church today are as Gentile as that woman. We are part of that large foreign community that has no natural connection to the children of Abraham at all. We are only made part of God's family by grace. Parentage, history, longevity in the community, personality, personal charisma all mean very little in this regard. Far from being entitled, we are all here all the time only by the gracious invitation of God, through Jesus and the stirring of the Spirit within us.
Anna Murdock, a lay leader of Broad Street United Methodist Church in North Carolina, tells this story: ‘It was almost a year ago; our Senior Pastor was on vacation. We would be having Communion on that particular Sunday, and the Associate Pastor had invited a seminary buddy to assist him with Communion. I noticed, after all had received Communion, that the visiting minister bent down on his way back to the pulpit and picked up a large crumb on the floor.
I didn't think anything about it. I just thought he might be a neat freak like the Associate Pastor! After the worship service, I witnessed the most beautiful moment. I saw our Associate Pastor's friend on his hands and knees near the altar rail, picking up crumbs that had dropped to the floor.
I told him that we would clean that up... he didn't have to do it. He smiled and said, "Even I have been made worthy to pick up the crumbs from under the table. This is part of my worship."
My response was, "and so have I been." And with a whispered "Thanks be to God", he invited me to pick up crumbs as well ... and to worship with him.’ Here is the lesson that woman taught to Jesus - grace trumps everything else. By grace all are made worthy, and by God’s grace alone. Even Jesus had to learn that lesson in a real way - that when real people are involved, other things simply don’t count.
We are not acceptable through attendance, or through long membership, or through the size of our contributions, or our history in the community. It is in those words “Help me....” that we come to God. Everyone who comes through the door of the church, searching, is made welcome and worthy by the Spirit of God. Will they find what they need?
Sources:
1. “Crumbs from the Table” by Rev. Brian Donst, Fifty United Church, Winona, Ontario
2. “Lord, Help Me. Crumbs Under the Table” by Anna Murdock, Broad Street UMC, Statesville, N Carolina
3. “Feasting on the Word”, Year B Volume 4.
4. “Crossing Boundaries” by Rev. Fran Ota, 2007, Glen Ayr United Church, Scarborough, ON
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Clarification
I am off for a few weeks, and not posting. However, I did want to note a change in the most recent sermon title. My friend Rav Roy Tanenbaum commented that the word "terrible" did not really apply to the text, and gave it an inappropriate slant. Since these texts are first and foremost Hebrew, I felt he was right in his note. Hence the title has been changed to "Challenging Texts".
I took the original idea from a book by Phyllis Tribble, about women in the Bible, called "Texts of Terror". Clearly, using the word "terrible" here didn't work! Thanks Roy, for all your assistance in this sermon.
Fran
I took the original idea from a book by Phyllis Tribble, about women in the Bible, called "Texts of Terror". Clearly, using the word "terrible" here didn't work! Thanks Roy, for all your assistance in this sermon.
Fran
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