Access to What? Finding Grace When We Fall Short

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, who is our strength and our redeemer.

Peace be seen.

Well, I had a beginning for this sermon, and then suddenly it came to me it's the wrong beginning.

And can someone go to my office and grab my sermon?

I'm just kidding.

It's here.

But I will start with this.

There was a flight in Australia fully loaded with passengers, and yet the engines wouldn't start.

Air conditioners never seem to be working.

You're just sitting there boiling.

And, you know, sometimes it's for five minutes, which seems like 555 minutes, or sometimes it's for 50 minutes, and it feels like you have just been sentenced to hell.

But this particular day, they are sitting in the plane in Sydney, Australia, and there's a special passenger on board.

It is a woman who is blind.

And she has her psych dog with her on the plane.

And it's everyone's grumbling and griping about having to sit on the plane, so they decide to disembark the plane.

Spend too much money at a shop inside the airport that costs too much.

But the woman says, you know what?

I'm good.

I'm just going to sit here.

Because it's way too much ruckus to try and get me out of the plane and then get me back in the plane.

I'm just going to sit here.

Is that okay?

Why, yes, ma'am, it's totally okay.

Time goes on, and the 50 minutes that they're anticipating goes past that, and now it's going to probably be a couple hours.

And so they go back to a woman and they say, ma'am, I'm sorry it's going to take a little longer than we expected.

How about would you like to disembark the plane?

And she said, no, but I would really like for my dog to be able to go out and believe it.

So, as it is FAA regulations, a pilot cannot leave the plane while it's on.

They can't turn the plane off while she's on the plane.

And so the pilot decides to turn the plane off for just a minute.

Because he's the only other person on the plane.

And so people are getting this really grumpy about the delay of this flight.

I know maybe none of you have ever experienced that.

But they want to change planes maybe.

Or maybe you can go to a different carrier so they can make their next flight.

But never more so than when the pilot stepped off the gateway for the seat of Ibn.

You know, as a young man, I heard this saying more often than either my parents or I ever wanted.

You're cruising for a bruising.

Or your mouth is about to overload your riches.

Or your backside, depending on the parent who is saying.

The second one is unfortunately similar to the gospel that we hear from Jesus today, Lord.

We all have been in that place where what we have said perhaps we wish we could take back.

The hurtful things said in anger, the things said that we are frustrated or overwhelmed.

Those things happen all the time in our lives, right?

Unfortunately, today Jesus decides to take it a step further.

He says that it's not just about having bacon for breakfast that makes you unclean.

It's what you do and what you say that does.

It matters.

The disciples were good followers of the law of Moses, so this seems in contradiction to what they know and have understood for generations.

That's why they go to the springs of Siloam to ritually bathe so that they can clean themselves after doing something perhaps that they shouldn't.

However, Jesus literally says that when we eat, whatever we eat goes where?

Into the sewer.

He doesn't give any ands or buts about it.

He says it exactly as it is.

And that might be bad enough, but then he says what comes from the heart.

From the heart, that's what really matters.

It is where we really get ourselves into unclean places, is it not?

Some of those places Jesus decided to tell us about today.

You know, the places like murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, and slander to name a few.

You know, these are the ones in the top ten lists of doves.

Or maybe I should rephrase it as you will remember it from the decalogue at Lent.

Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, and thou shalt not bear false witness.

Jesus is showing us that to keep these laws, as also the Decalogue reminds us, that we have to write all of these laws in our hearts.

If we do that, then we will be clean and deep.

He finishes this teaching and then is confronted with his own test of this very thing.

The Canaanite woman appears crying for mercy for her daughter and is tormented by a demon who wouldn't go crying out for care for their child, right?

And in an uncharacteristic way, he essentially ignores her.

Wait, this is not the Jesus that we know and that we love.

He hears our prayers, he responds to our needs.

He then goes on further to shatter our pastoral image of Jesus and tells her, he's not for her.

What?

That's true, he's not for us.

I don't know if you wore your yamaker today, but we're not in the synagogue.

He tells you that he's come for the Jewish people.

And then he uses a passage that is found in a prayer that was composed by Thomas Kramer during the English Reformation.

It'll first appear in the Order of Communion in 1548.

And will later be found in the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549, for you at the Book of Common Prayer, prayer scholars.

The prayer is a combination of stories, and it's based on two passages from the New Testament.

Actually three, excuse me.

One is in Matthew 8.

When the centurion replies to the Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed.

These words I know and love, for as a former Roman Catholic, I recited them every Sunday before receiving the great gift of Christ's most precious body and blood at communion.

For I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the words, and I shall be healed.

The other is found in Matthew 15, which we heard today, right?

And then also in Mark 7.

It is a reply from a woman who is speaking to Jesus regarding her unworthiness in both cases.

And who said, essentially, but even the dogs under the table get to eat the crowns.

Beloved, we know this prayer as one of my absolute favorites in all prayer book, the prayer of humble access.

And you'll find it on page 337 of the Book of Common Prayer in Rite 1, and is reserved only to write one, unless you're me who says it right before receiving communion.

Lovely, will you turn with me in the Book of Common Prayer to page 377?

Oh, 337, I'm sorry.

If you'll humor me, I'd like us to say these words together.

We do not presume to come to this type table.

But it's not all that.

We don't have to have a problem.

But the four property is always the half parts.

So that's the Jesus Christ.

And cover more and keep it.

Do those words provide comfort to you?

For those who grew up in the 1928 prayer book, I don't think there's anyone in here who grew up in the 1549.

Is there?

These are words of consolation.

This morning Jesus does what Jesus does.

He turns things upside down.

He said that her faith for scraps was rain.

And that's what we are saying in this prayer when we say it.

That we know that we're not worthy for the scraps.

What had come from her heart was love and faith.

No, yeah, and the world around her had.

Nor did she care.

For she knew what she needed.

And where she needed to be.

And that was to Jesus.

For he could bring healing and wholes.

We too, beloved, know where we need to go.

And I'm not talking about going more at church today because I'm too much.

If we feel that we are not where we need to be in our lives, beloved, then I invite you to go where you will find the grace and help in your time of need.

For a while, the prayer of humble access and a speak of our unworthiness.

And spend to break more time on God's handful than mercies.

There's an old saying, beloved, that we are what we eat.

And when we are partakers of Christ's body and blood, we are made living members of Christ's body.

His own body.

And we will dwell in him.

And he will be in us, as the prayer says.

But unfortunately, we're in danger of defiling ourselves in thought, word, and deed.

So my brothers and sisters in cross, all you are heavy laden, as the old gospel now says, come and die.

The master's talk, come and die.

They all who are hungry for more than food, but for righteousness.

Come to this idea.