Sermon - September 8, 2024 - 16th Sunday after Pentecost

The words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight

and alert our strength and our redeemer.

Amen.

Good morning.

It's so good to be back here with you all after much-needed three months

sabbatical lesson.

Some of you with name tags on, which is great.

I'm probably going to need to wear one.

So all you need people who's up here, but it's really great to be back in the pulpit again

as I attempt to articulate the power of God's Word in our lives.

And just reminded what an awesome and humbling responsibility that we preachers have

when we get up here to proclaim God's truth.

So please join me in praying that God's Word only be spoken and God's Word only be heard.

And in a world that's inundated with all kinds of voices, from all kinds of places, from

all kinds of people, it's hard to hear God's voice, to hear God's truth.

Even the church, the institution that's supposed to know God's truth can have a hard time

hearing and proclaiming that eternal Word.

In case you haven't noticed, the church doesn't always get it right.

We preachers don't always get it right.

Lord have mercy.

Help us hear.

I believe a part of what hinders our ability to hear and proclaim God's truth is that we live

in a world that's constantly presenting us with false dichotomies.

We live in a binary world, either this or that.

We live in a world that's constantly asking us to choose between this or that.

We are being stretched thin by questions that wonder, are you a Republican or a Democrat?

Are you an Alabama or an urban fan?

Do you watch Fox News or CNN?

Are you pro-life or pro-choice?

Is gun violence a mental health issue or a gun control issue?

Our society tells us that we need to pick one or the other.

And your identity is writing on the answer.

There's really little room for nuance.

Similarly, we've created a world that doesn't allow a lot of room for common ground.

Instead we dig trenches.

We hide behind them and lob grenades over to the other side when we feel threatened.

We are drawing lines in the sand.

It makes us feel good and powerful.

Jesus on the other hand is trying to draw a bigger circle.

Today's lesson from Mark, Mark's, the gradual expansion of Jesus' circle and those who

belong to the kingdom.

The expansion of this circle doesn't come without controversy, though, whenever something

is growing or changing, there's going to be some kind of controversy.

That's not surprising.

But what is surprising is the one who's the cause of the controversy.

Jesus, the one who's supposed to be the answer to all of our questions about healing and salvation

appears to get it wrong.

And today's lesson.

Instead of drawing a larger circle, it looks like he's drawing a deeper line.

The very least he might be drawing a circle for the outsiders, just as long as they know

that they're less than.

It's not nice to call someone a dog.

That's not nice.

Regardless, the end result of this passage is the expansion of Jesus' mission to the Gentiles

or the nine Jews, those outside the traditional circle.

As we consider the implications of today's lesson, we shouldn't be too quick to pick

one single interpretation.

We shouldn't feel pressure to pick this way of looking at it or that way of looking

at it.

Because there are multiple.

This isn't an either or lesson.

Most of them aren't.

This is a both-and kind of teaching from a Lord and Savior whose wisdom is beyond our understanding.

So using broad strokes, I'll define two ways that we can look at this passage.

Is Jesus taking this woman to school or is this woman taking Jesus to school?

Who is the teacher?

Who is the student?

In Mark's Gospel, this is the only lesson where Jesus loses a debate.

So it seems.

One interpretation of this passage suggests that Jesus doesn't actually think the Gentiles

or non-Jews or dogs.

In this interpretation, Jesus is the teacher and he's using hyperbole to wake you up, to

get you stop drooling on your desk.

And when he uses shocking language to get you to do that, he got my attention when he

said it's not fair to feed the dogs before the children.

Others take this passage a little bit more literally.

They're those who claim that this woman actually has to remind the son of God what he's

supposed to be doing.

The woman is the teacher and has to remind Jesus that even the Gentiles are a part of God's

plan.

God's leftovers are more than enough.

And being the humble teacher that he is, Jesus concedes the point, how can our Lord and

save your model how to be wrong if he's always getting it right?

Now both interpretations have their pros and cons.

However, both contain an element of truth that we need to pay attention to.

To ignore or discard one or the other is to ignore or discard the whole truth.

And James talks about this a little bit in his lesson.

My experience half truths are more dangerous than lies because half truths can be harder

to detect.

I don't think I'm alone in this, but I have a really hard time watching network news,

just news in general.

Not because I think I'm being flat out lied to, but it's really more like I feel like I'm

being manipulated by half truths.

As you know, these networks tend to focus on the facts that support their agenda while ignoring

those that don't.

To be fair, you don't have to be in the news business to pick and choose which rules

are important and which are not.

We all do that.

When we stick to half truth, we're drawing more lines in the sand.

There's really no, this is really no different than preachers or anyone else who use the

Bible to support their agenda while ignoring those verses that don't.

See what happens when you ask someone who takes the Bible literally why they don't

drink grape juice at communion.

Which each news network or church, church, determination for that matter, has the unique

point of emphasis that highlights their narrative.

Let's say there are 20 facts to any given story in those 20 facts add up to the truth.

However, most of what we're watching is only given us four or five facts.

And as much as I love the Episcopal Church, we don't have the corner on truth either.

We have four or five facts.

So we must never stop learning from other churches, other religious institutions, from

culture itself.

During this election season, I challenge you, avid news, watchers and social media

bangers out there to click the other channel or page.

Don't just click over for ammunition for later, but to gain better understanding of

the other, to see the bigger picture.

And maybe just maybe you'll see our common humanity.

James reminds us many of our problems arise when we judge others for sinning differently

than we do.

One of the greatest lessons in today's Gospel lesson is that God is in a phrase to use

outsiders to speak truth.

God often uses those voices who sin differently than we do to speak that truth.

God uses voices that we don't always hear in order to open our eyes and ears to his word.

This is a thing that is far back as the Old Testament and continues today in the church.

All institutions, especially the church, can get tunnel vision and grow insolent.

But we need outside voices to expand our vision of what God is up to.

A church planner from England when he was here this spring said that by its very nature,

the church is exclusive, even the best churches are exclusive.

He went on to say, and Jesus by his very nature is inclusive.

Mike's answer to the tension was that the church should seek out and establish relationships

with those who have been excluded.

He went on to say that it's not enough to invite them onto our turf with our terms.

We must meet them on their turf with their terms.

Jesus after all was constantly meeting people where they were.

In some cases, Jesus went out of his way.

He crossed lines to get to the excluded.

This past Wednesday we had someone come by the church for assistance with her rent.

I'll call this person Pat.

She comes frequently for help.

Early in the day, she had asked for, finally, early in the day, Emily had told me that

she had been by a few times a summer.

I'd sort of prepare myself to say, no, we can't help you right now because more money

is not fixing the problem.

When she walked in the four-year I was all prepared to say, I'd probably said no, 10 times,

but she would not be denied.

She literally got down on her hands and knees and started begging for help and tears were

running down her face.

I just couldn't say no anymore.

I was reminded that the church exists for people like Pat.

Former Archbishop William Temple said it like this, the church is the only institution

that exists primarily for the benefit of those who are not its members.

Using the words of a clergy colleague, the church is for women in slaves.

What she means by that is that the church is for whom society tends to deem less than or

forgets about altogether.

I'm convinced that God is using Pat's to remind you the bats of this world to remind

you and me that one of our most important jobs as followers of Jesus is to pay attention

to care for and lift up those whom this world has torn down.

The church would do well to take the lead of the Sirefination Woman.

The church is called to be a voice for the voiceless people like Pat.

We aren't trying to make news headlines for our own sake, but for the sake of the gospel,

for the sake of the gospel that has the power to save us all, rich and poor and everyone

in between.

So if we were to follow Mike Moenia, the Gafferman-England's advice, if we were to follow

Jesus' advice, how can we meet the bats of the world on their turf and on their terms?

To give you a hand-essential offer us a few ways to do this through some of our outreach

programs.

We get a first-light monthly to serve dinner to the women and children there.

We go to the Abby every Thursday to hand out sack lunches.

Some of you have participated in Cairoes where you literally go into a prison for a weekend

to minister to the inmates.

Yes, there might be an element of danger in getting outside of our bubble, but nothing comes

close to the kind of danger Jesus and his followers face all those years ago.

Before we can live for God, we must die to self, the ultimate act of humility.

In his book, Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster talks about how service to others

is the discipline where we can truly find humility.

He says humility is one of those virtues that can never be gained by seeking it.

He goes on to say, when we set out on a consciously chosen course of action that accents

the good of others, a deep change occurs in our spirits.

When we consciously choose a course of action that lifts up the other, we are in the business

of turning those lines in the sand into circles.

We might not be able to make one big circle, but maybe we can create a few overlapping

circles.

And where those circles overlap, we are given a vision of what is possible with God.

A vision of the hope that is to come when Jesus comes again to judge the living in the

dead, when Jesus comes together, all people from all nations around one throne and one

God.

With those of us who know the hope, this hope with the gospel, we can start to see those

lines in the sand a little differently.

They are not trenches to throw grenades over or to die in.

They are not fixed in stone.

Those lines in the sand are ready to be refashioned into circles by the one who died

for us all.

The one who died for Republicans and Democrats, Alabama and Auburn fans, pro-lifers and

pro-choicers, mental health and gun control advocates, politicians and preachers.

And the list goes on.

So regardless of your earthly identity, regardless of how you answer these questions, you

are beloved child of God.

And so were they.

We can all stop judging others for sinning differently than we do and start living on the

common ground that Jesus is creating, or that God is creating through his compassion.

And now that is the truth that we all long to hear.

A truth that comes alive when we live alive with Jesus at our center.

Amen.