Scripture: Mark 7:24-37
Every so often at work we have to go through a period of time to retrain. During this time every one of the employees must sit, listen to a lecture, and answer questions. During this time every employee groans because once a year they have to redo everything, and at the same time get all the work they are required to do finished.
If you work for a company or have ever worked for a corporation you have probably had to do something like this. But there is one course that seems to really irritate many, the training on harassment. It is not that employees want to harass people or be harassed, but the irritation comes because after this you feel as if you cannot even speak to anyone without the potential of losing your job, or facing prosecution.
Harassment, diversity, and political correctness have been hot topics over the past few years. In most case these topics should be approached with great caution. We do not want to cause unnecessary harm to those around us. The problem is that it is nearly impossible to create an environment that is totally free from all forms of harassment or political incorrectness. It is possible to create an environment that is manageable thought. The difference between an environment trying to be free from all harassment and a manageable environment is balance. A harassment free environment is a place that can become just as hostile as one with little concern for political correctness. I have actually been in this sort of environment, one where everyone sits in total silence while eating lunch because they are afraid of being reported to management for harassment.
I am saying this not because I support an environment of harassment but because to create a manageable requires time and open communication. There must be a place that people feel free to speak without great threat. There must also be a space of time for people to adjust to a new way of thinking.
Jesus lived in a time and place that was full of racism, nationalism, patriotism, and religious bigotry. If we feel that these issues are bad today you would be surprised at how bad these issues were in ancient times. Even in the religious community, the community that we base our Christian ethic on was one of the most discriminating groups in the ancient world. Just think for a moment the greatest temple in the ancient world was built to honor the Hebrew God. Its beauty and greatness was spoken of by not only by Hebrews, but also the Romans. It was considered one of the greatest buildings in the entire known world. As a house of worship there was not a rival, yet it was a place reserved for only one group of people. Only the Jews could enter into this place of worship, if you were not Jewish, you could only marvel at its greatness from the outside and imagine what the beauty was on the interior. To distill this down to the most basic elements the temple was a house of racism. It is hard for me to even say that because history has treated the Hebrew culture very harshly. Religion, the religion that focused on the one true God was racist. Or was it?
In ancient Israel the racism was so dense that many would completely avoid certain areas of geography because the people that lived there were not of pure ethnic ancestry. It was not the fault of the Samaritans that their ancestors intermarried with the invaders of the past. They believed and worshiped the same God as those in Jerusalem, but they did not do it the same way. So not only were they discriminated over their race, but also religion.
There were other areas avoided. Three great ancient empires defeated Israel before they returned to their land. The Assyrians defeated the northern kingdom; the Babylonians defeated the southern kingdom. Some were taken to Babylon while others were left in the area. Many of those left behind were the ancestors of the Samaritans, while those taken into exile became what we know as the Jews, but the third empire then over threw the Babylonians and now they were under the rule of the Persians. It was the Persians that allowed the Jews to return to their land. The Jews rebuilt the temple and the walls of Jerusalem. The Samaritans worshiped in another area, and they still worship there today. Then even the great Persian Empire fell to the Greeks lead by Alexander the Great.
This fourth empire, the one that colonized Israel after they returned to their land, set up cities throughout the conquered lands, and in these cities they taught the Hellenistic worldviews. The Hellenistic people would move into these cities, and now Greeks live among the Jews. Tyre is one of these areas. Jesus goes to this city. He tries to go in secret but word gets out. If you can imagine this would be pretty big news. The religious community was exclusive. Adherers to this religion did not mix socially with the outsiders, and a rabbi to visit their city was nearly unheard of. Jesus faced this culture. This culture was weighed heavily by discriminating ideas, yet in the center of all of this was one woman who was unconcerned with what was politically correct, the only thing on her mind was the wellbeing of her daughter.
Jesus and this woman lived in the center of a culture war. They spoke, acted, and lived in solidarity with the world around them. The woman takes a chance and enters into this room to the presence of Jesus, surrounded by people that hate her. They hated her because of her ethnic background, her religious background, and her gender. What does she actually expect? She falls down at the feet of this great rabbi, the rabbi that taught about God in a way different than the others. The rabbi that could cast out demons and heal various diseases. To this woman there was an opportunity, to release her daughter from bondage. She braves the ridicule of the culture, because the goal was more important than anything else. And she asks a question.
Imagine the scene before we continue. Imagine every group of people that rubs you the wrong way. Imagine those individuals covered in tattoos, people with piercing, the single mother with children of mixed ethnicity, or maybe someone holding hands with someone of the same gender. Imagine these people openly, what are you seeing? Are you seeing a person or a stereotype? Are you willing to speak with this person respecting them as they are? I ask this because this is what everyone in this room with Jesus is going through. This woman challenges every aspect of their religion as she comes into the room, and they must deal with their prejudices.
She is there on Jesus’ feet begging for him to heal her daughter. Jesus knows the tension weighing down in the environment, but his response is somewhat disturbing. “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” After two thousand years we may not notice how politically incorrect this statement is. Not only is he calling her and her family and culture dogs he is stating to her that the Jewish culture is better. It is a statement that is hostile, harassment in any way that you look at it. Yet it is open and manageable. The culture is what it is. Neither group can artificially or force change. So Jesus speaks into the current culture, He does not judge, condemn, or support any aspect of that culture but he meets them all where they are. It is at that point that one can start to change the culture. Meeting and speaking to the community where they currently are, teaching them the truth and starting them on a journey into the Light of God.
I am reminded of the vision of Isaiah when he saw of the glory of God and says, “I am undone, I am a man of unclean lips from a people of unclean lips.” Jesus left His place in heaven, to live among mankind. He came to bring reconciliation between God and Mankind. To reconcile, to bring real lasting peace among enemies you must first enter into a conversation, in honesty and respect, accepting them for who they currently are and encouraging growth. Jesus came to bring the kingdom of God, to spread the influence and reign of God throughout humanity. Jesus is sitting in this room of prejudiced people on both sides and says, “you don’t take the food from kids and give it to the dogs.” Jesus is saying in this statement, that redemption comes through the Jewish people. They were the people through which God was revealed. They by default would be the first in line, for no other reason than that they were waiting.
God is not only for the people of Israel. When the nation first came into the Promised Land an inn owner named Rehab was accepted into the community because she believed in the God of the Hebrews. A Moabite named Ruth was accepted into the community saying that her mother-in-law’s people would be her people and their God her God. Even the great lawgiver, Moses, married not one but two non-Hebrew women. It is odd that I mention women and not men, but in the Hebrew tradition true Jewish heritage is based not on the father but the mother. It is the mother that carries the child and gives birth, and before paternity tests were invented the mother was the only parent that could be proven without doubt. So in each of these cases the children resulting from these marriages should not have been accepted as pure, yet they were. God in the Old Testament was a God for all people.
The woman and all present knew of this history. Even the Pharisees taught that Gentiles could become part of the community. The woman replies to Jesus, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” She knew that through the imperfect eyes of humanity she would never be seen as equal, but she hoped that God would provide grace. Both spoke in parable, in a figurative way using common language and visualizations to express their faith. We have all seen dogs or other pets eat the things that are dropped from the table, it is the same food as on the table. She spoke great theological knowledge in an almost flippant way. The grace of God, the bread of life is the same food that nourishes all people, if it is found on the table or down in the dirt. Jesus, I am sure enjoyed this meeting of wits. And in this conversation both spoke to the heart of prejudice. To God all people are equal; there are not slaves nor free, Jews or Greeks, men or women. Though we may have prejudices God does not. Though we may see dogs not worthy of God’s grace, God sees something totally different.
I speak of prejudice, harassment, racism, and bigotry, among other really dark words that remind us of our darker history as humans. I speak of these because Christ came to set us free from all bondage. If we do not see the humanity of another we are living in bondage, and when we judge and condemn we may actually keep others from experiencing the grace of God.
Paul says, “Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived? Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers – none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”
This is who we were. This is the lifestyle that each of us struggles to walk away from on our journeys to God. We may be a few steps closer but we are not totally free from the threat of bondage. The only way to be free is to build peace with God and mankind. Those we imagined just a few moments ago are broken and hurting people loved by God, people for whom Christ died for to provide the way of salvation. They hunger and thirst for many things both physical and spiritual. The forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil bind them and they are in need of someone to point them to their redeemer.
As we enter into this time of open worship I ask us each to consider what we would do if someone like this woman came into our meeting. Would we help them along the journey of faith in Christ or would we toss them out to the dogs? It is a hard question but one we must answer if we truly want to be a community Loving God, Embracing the Holy Spirit, and Living Christ’s Love with others.
Scripture: Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
Are you rich, poor, middle-class, or somewhere in between? I am not wanting to get political but I’m sure everyone is going to go that direction. What I want us to reflect on is the second verse in this passage. “The rich and poor have this in common: the Lord is the maker of them all.”
Of course, you say, we know this God made the heavens, the earth, and everything that fills them. But do we really KNOW this? I ask in total honesty not to condemn or judge, but to actually try to encourage each of us to think deeper on this. Do we treat those around us as equals in humanity? Just saying this is causing some of you to squirm a bit, not because you are racist but because politically speaking, I’m sounding a bit liberal. Which is good because we should squirm a bit. Humanly speaking we are all equal, maybe not financially but we are all human. That means there is no room for the “ism” of society when we are dealing with people.
I grew up in a Quaker family, one of our greatest testimonies is equality. Those of African ancestory are human and loved by God. This is evident to the very beginning of the Friends movement, when George Fox ministered to the American Indians, he did not treat them as “heathens” but as equals. You can read about this in his journal. Women were also treated equally, again from the start women were recorded as ministers among Friends. This equality message was taught to me from an early age. I have female grandparents that were recorded, and some of the most influential people in my journey of faith have been women. Friends opposed slavery and worked to stop the trade, and we continue to promote the rights of various Indian tribes. There are several examples that you can look up on your own.
Living our lives honoring the humanity of those around us should cause us to stop and think of how we are treating them. How are we treating those that have come into America “illegally,” how are we treating those of different faiths, or even economic class. Are we honoring them as equals under God or are we expecting them to honor us? When we travel over seas do we attempt to speak their language or do we expect them to honor ours? How are we treating the people that provides the various services we enjoy?
Honor humanity by treating them with dignanty. Do not belittle them because they do not have what we have but treat them with respect. Enjoy the different perspective of life. We may just find out that those people we thought we had little in common with, may become our greatest friends.
As you pray today, pray that we will be more open to honorng all people.
Scripture: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
What it is all about? Why do we actually come here nearly every Sunday to worship and praise God? At times each of us wonders about this, especially when we are irritated by someone else. One of the greatest issues that people have against the church is that those inside the church are a bunch of hypocrites. You know what, they are right. The church is filled with people that say one thing and live a totally different way. I would even venture to say that some of us are just as guilty of these actions. I can confess to each of you that even I have been hypocritical at times. I would like to think that I am not but if we are to become more like Christ the first step is to confess where we are wrong.
The second largest issue to many is that they are not good enough to be in the church. I am actually face with this issue more often. This second group is probably the group that you have more conversations with also. The first group is tense and argumentative. They do not want to listen but instead they want to accuse. Which means we probably avoid them as much as possible. Individuals in the first group in most cases have been injured in some way by the church and they want you to take responsibility. The second group is slightly different. They too have been harmed in some way by the church, in most cases they made choices in their life that has caused them to turn from the church. The main difference is that this group is more open. They are not as argumentative and are willing to be loved.
The two greatest issues keeping people from the church have a common problem. A community that is supposed to love has wounded both. These communities have often caused these wounds by the rules that have been applied.
I know at this point you might be nervous as to what might come out of my mouth right now. The rules we live by are important to our community. The rules set us apart from other communities and cultures. These ideas we believe are based on scripture. There are certain things that our culture has found as being beneficial. We have applied these rules to our lives and the lives of others because when applied life seems to work better.
I am not saying that rules are not good. We must have rules. Without rules a classroom would not be a place of education but chaos. Without rules or order we would not be able to have a discussion, debate, meeting, or even this meeting of worship. Rules are necessary, so necessary that people have written books expressing the importance of rules. Most of these rules that we apply to our lives are not law, but manners. When I mention manners, where does your mind go? For some your mind immediately goes to places around the table, why, because this is a place that manners become important to us. Our parents did not want us to embarrass them in public, so words like no elbows on the table became engrained in our mind. In a classroom it is just good manners to raise your hand, wait for the teacher to acknowledge you, and then speak. Manners however are not the same as a law. If someone does not raise their hand in class the world will not end. It may make the situation a little more difficult, but let’s be honest if a child does not raise their hand school will still be in session tomorrow.
Manners are different everywhere you go. Every teacher at a school has a different set of manners that was the rule of their classroom. Every household has a different set of manners or rules that allow their home to function. We as humans are amazing creatures we adapt quickly to these rules of mannerisms. In some cases the manners are similar to what we are used so we adjust quickly. There are other times where the manners are foreign to our way of thinking. For example if I were to invite everyone here to a fine art opening in a downtown gallery, most of you would be introduced to something completely foreign. For one you many not know how to dress, or how to act. If you showed up dressed in an incorrect manner most of us would feel uncomfortable probably wanting to leave immediately. If you received some insider knowledge and was dressed accordingly then many of you would still be uncomfortable, but eventually you would begin to mingle in some way, eventually someone would engage you, and draw you into the community.
I bring this up because there is a difference in law and manners. A law is something important. If a law were not observed it would run the risk of breaking the entire community apart. Laws are mainly based on respecting others bodies or property. Often communities lift manners up as equal status as a law; this is where emotional trauma occurs. For those that committed the offenses as well as those that have been offended.
In this passage, we are faced with this sort of activity. The Pharisees are getting worked up about what? Washing of hands? Now I will grant that this rule has some very important social benefits, but whom are they really harming? In our society we know all about germs so we can answer my question by saying that they could be transmitting potentially harmful diseases. As a whole most of us have not been mortally wounded from someone forgetting to wash before they eat, in fact the greatest harm is actually to their own bodies.
We read this passage from Christian eyes and we can quickly pass judgment on this community. They were willing to cast out of the community all of Jesus’ disciples because they failed to wash their hands before they ate. I agree that it is kind of gross, but is it really that important? We almost laugh at the entire situation. Of all the problems in their community like the constant threat of bandits in the county side, or the political tension between the Jewish and Roman world, these people are going to draw the line at washing hands. We laugh but I ask; did you wash your hands before you came to worship? What do I mean by that questions, have you obeyed all the manners and customs of this Meeting before you came in?
The Christian community has over 500 denominations based on manners. These manners are keeping some people away from our community because they do not know what to expect, or in some cases another community were so focused on the manners that they actually drove spiritually hungry people out of their community because they failed to conform to the manners. There is a term for this legalism. It is a community based on adhering to the rules of order instead of focusing on the deeper meanings of life.
I like to think that our denomination has been freed from this, but we too are a denomination. We broke off from our parent church because the values that we held, the manners we wanted to live by, differed from theirs. We had good reasons to develop our traditions of worship, but the basic beliefs are the same as our spiritual ancestors. The largest protestant denomination in the United States is the Baptist church; this church also has the greatest number of sub-denominations that are based on manners. The Catholic Church is the largest denomination in the world, but they too broke off from the rest of the ancient Christian community because they had a different view of manners.
Manners are important within a community but they are not the law. Most everyone here has come out of a different faith tradition. If we were to ask everyone to recite their spiritual journey we would find that manners and the misuse of manners are probably a large part of why we left one community and found a home here. Manners can divide. If you do not conform to manners you become unwelcome in a community. Legal action can actually be taken against people that continuously refuse to conform to the manners of a community.
The divisiveness of manners is what Jesus is calling out in the community that he was speaking with. What defiles a man? What makes someone unclean? We tend to look at the outward expression, the manners. These are not the most important things. We can teach manners over time. The lack of manners actually point to a much deeper problem, the problem of sin. To treat manners only, is like giving antibiotics to a person with a viral infection, you are not helping anything and could be making the problem worse.
Jesus said that it is from the human heart where evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice (or greed), wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, and folly. These things go deeper than manners. These dip into lack of respect and love for another person and God. Greed is not love and will never be. It is taking unfair advantage of another. Teaching manners will not change greed, it will only teach a greedy person to be nice as they over charge a customer.
Sinful people are selfish people. They do not care about others. If you approach them with a band-aid of manners they resent you, because manners do not satisfy unless there is personal gain. They do not understand the reason behind the manners unless they are shown a different way. This is what Jesus was getting at. These people were honoring God with their mouths but they did not love. They embrace the manners of the culture but fail to observe the command of love.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians, “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”
The Law of God is Love. Love God with all your heart, with all your strength, and with all your mind. And the second command is to Love your neighbor as yourself. Sin is cured by love. It is easy to say, “I love the sinner but hate the sin,” but to actually love the sinner is difficult. To spend time with them, patiently answering their questions. To not take offense when they ridicule our faith and to in turn answer with kindness is almost more than we can handle. Yet that is what we are asked to do. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
The sinner does not need us to preach them a sermon telling them that they are going to hell. They already know it. They need us to love them. They need us to break their hearts of greed by our generosity. They need us to show them acceptance without taking advantage of their bodies. They need us to combat their pride with tactful honesty. When we live our lives loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit, and Living Christ’s love with others; we do not have to have the best arguments to win the debate. We only have to say God loves you and wants you to have a life filled with love.
Am I just being idealistic? Maybe, but I have seen people that have been living lives of sin, slowly turn. I have seen people living in adulterous lifestyles say that they are engaged, when just a few weeks prior they were opposed to marriage. All that I spoke to them about was the incredible mystery of marriage and how that union to me is more then just a physical activity but an act of worship. They looked at me with their eyebrows twisted because they know who I am and what I do. They expected me to condemn their lifestyle but instead they received love.
We can change the world around us. A world caught in the bondage of sin. But that change comes from the heart. It comes through each of us who have been loved by God sharing that love with someone else. It comes with us leaving our comfort zones and engaging those people, caught in bondage, where they are and walking with them into the light of life that is only found through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Change comes from us living lives of Love.
As we enter this time of Holy expectancy let us ask some questions of ourselves. Are we too focused on ourselves to love? Are we too focused on our manners to love? And finally do you love?