sermon excerpts: the Re-United Church

Jesus demonstrates that our boundaries are to be overcome. Everything that would separate us from our fellow human is meant to be cast aside, whether it is the divide between rich and poor, woman or man, Gentile or Jew, disabled or not, Jesus was able to see the true human spirit within each person.

The setting for first part of the scriptures is Tyre and Sidon, in Lebanon. Tragically, the relationship between Israel and Lebanon today is similar to then. Jews considered the region to be in the wildest of wilds, where savages roam. The disciples would have been nervous and on edge, but Jesus was trying to get away from the crowds. So he trots off to a place where few would dare to tread. He was on the wrong side of the tracks and he knew it.

Did it make a difference to him? Apparently not, and he dragged his disciples along with him. Like so many other times, Jesus was taking them out of their comfort zone. In his quest for some peace and quiet, some down time, he would leave no stone unturned. Of course, he instead found himself tracked down by someone in need.

We hear the story of a woman how comes to him begging for help. We hear that Jesus out and out calls her a “dog”. There is a word in common use right now, that isn’t polite or complimentary, you know, the word for “female dog”. Not to say that Jesus told this to the Syrophoenician woman, but the effect would have been the same.

His complaint was that he was only human, that he could only do so much with the time and energy he had. His focus was on his own people, he didn’t have time for every little side project that came along.

You know what? I’ve done what Jesus has done. People approach me for weddings or funerals or baptisms and I am unclear about their connection they have to the church (which is a polite way of me saying, I have no idea who they are). So I’m always glad to extend welcome and make use of the opportunity to make a connection and offer whatever kind of spiritual help or presence that the occasion warrants.

Yet, if I’m being totally honest, part of my deep down gut reaction is a reluctance that is based on the fact that my time that could be spent working with the children of the church, making visits, planning for worship, doing things that directly impact those faithful who are here Sunday after Sunday or who I know are strongly connected to the church.

We save up the best for those who are most important. Jesus, as a Jew, as the Messiah, naturally was there for the chosen people of God, the ritually pure, the Hebrews. It seems, for this moment, the broader scope of all humanity was put aside and we Gentiles would have to fend for ourselves. We would only receive the scraps, the leftovers.

... this sounds like a common complaint among the husbands of the congregation whenever the UCW has a bake sale, all these goodies are reserved to someone else, they don’t get to have any. We spend our lives trying to figure out how we’re going to get enough.

And again, we are reminded of God’s abundance, that mere crumbs of grace are enough to offer healing and wholeness, redemption and hope to a desperate family. Now this family, this woman and her daughter, could reconnect with their friends and neighbours. They would have been abandoned or left alone, no one wanting to catch whatever demon the daughter had. At the very best, people would treat them with tentative politeness, always keeping a safe distance.

The daughter and mother would have been living in a social quarantine, isolated from others. Not any more, they could interact again with friends. The daughter could play, laugh, get into petty fights with her friends, all the things kids are supposed to do. The mother would no longer spend every hour day and night worrying and tending to her daughter’s needs in an intensive and exhausting fashion. Jesus gave them a new lease on life.

The same for the deaf man of the Decapolis. How alone was he? Unable to hear what others were saying, to understand the latest story about his friends, his neighbourhood; they couldn’t write notes to each other; he was someone else alone. But was he? He had a group of caring and concerned people bring him to Jesus.
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Jesus is bringing people back into the flock. Sometimes when we think of the image of lost sheep being restored to the care of the shepherd, or maybe the flock as the heavenly assemblage of saints and angels. Here the focus is on bringing sheep back to be with other sheep.

We are part of a community whether we recognize it or not; we discover the health of the whole group affects our own lives, that we are united as a global family. As part of this common humanity, everyone is entitled to God’s powerful love, and even it only amounts to a crumb or two, we know that is more than enough.