Scripture: Mark 8:27-38
This week yet again our nation was in mourning. It seems that over the past few months the flag that flies over our government buildings and homes seems to have been at half mast more often than it has been fully raised. The past week we remember a dark day a day where religious fervor and cultures clashed. On the very day of remembrance yet again there was a clash of two cultures and our hearts weigh heavy in our chests.
We do not understand why people would act the way they do to our nation. We have such great respect and pride in our heritage. A heritage that was earned by blood, sweat, and tears carved out of virgin ground to be lifted up into a place of honor. We question why anyone would disrespect the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Yet our embassies are burned and our countrymen threatened, harmed, or killed. We sit in a state of shock because everything we hold collectively sacred is threatened. Our very lifestyle is challenged.
What would drive a person to such fervor? Why would they risk so much for something so seemingly small in our definition? It really is not so difficult to consider if we were to just contemplate it for a bit. Religions around the world have been acting out in similar ways from the dawn of time. Even our spiritual heritage as Christians has shared in this sort of religious fervor several times in our 2000-year history.
The first century Palestine region, the region we know as Israel, but to the government of that day up until the 1940’s this region was Palestine, was a place of unrest. It was a place of clashing ideals in many areas but the greatest was in the area of religion. Many things could spark a religious fire that would threaten to burn across the nation faster than fire can spread across the wind blown prairie. If the flag of the United States of America would have even entered the city of Jerusalem in that day riots would have broken out which would have been endured till the last person breathed their last. Every day an outside force threatened the shared values and religion of the Judean culture. Some in the culture opposed everything about the Latin and Greek influence, others embraced the potential wealth this vast empire offered.
They lived in a constant state of flux. The common people, the middle class so to speak, were caught between opposing views. One that wanted to keep the religion and culture pure to the letter of the law, while the other strove to adapt to the changing times. It is a story that is not all that different in our own world today. We often speak about liberal and conservative values the right and the left. On both hold strong and often times correct views of religion, and both are equally wrong.
Right in the middle of this crazy and often hostile environment we find a group of disciples led by a rabbi not trained by either of the opposing sides. This rabbi took a route not held by the others, not that it was a wrong or opposite route. It was a unique route. They sat in a city built in honor of an emperor. A city built by a king wishing to gain favor and wealth through flattery. Sitting in this city Jesus, this unique rabbi asks a question. “Who do people say that I am?”
This seems like an odd question, but Jesus was unique. Because of this people were talking. He did not teach, or preach as the other rabbis taught. He did not act as others acted. They had a history of unique teachers, they where honored by some and despised by others. These teachers were known as the prophets. Who do people say I am? The question comes because people did not quite know what to make of this unique teacher. He was similar to the contemporary rabbis, similar to the prophets of old, yet unlike both.
Some say John the Baptist. This man was one that taught strict religion, going above and beyond the letter of the law. He baptized not only the God fearers, but also the hereditary Jews. By doing so he was saying that all people are equally wrong in the eyes of God, that none is pure. And that because of this none is worthy to enter into the temple of the one true Living God, not even the high priest.
Others say Elijah. This is a unique man that spoke in the face of a culture at odds with God. They no longer worshiped the true God but embraced the sensual erotic religions of the world. They thought that the ways of their ancestors were old fashioned and out of date and wanted something new and exciting. Yet this prophet called fire from heaven to embarrass the priest for Baal and prove which god was true. He then beheaded those false teachers and ran for his life into the wilderness.
Or one of the other prophets. Each of the prophets had a specific message one that called judgment. They used images unique in their own ways. One was called to marry a wife that sold herself for profit instead of remaining faithful to her husband. One was called to lie on his side for a number of days, some faced lions and exile. Each spoke of judgment to come if people did not turn to God. Some boldly proclaimed that it was mercy not sacrifice that God desired.
The people that spoke about Jesus focusing on a different aspect of His ministry, and each were unique. It differed from the contemporary teachers just as much as it did the prophets. They could not fully explain or describe Jesus.
So Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?” The answer to this question changes everything. Who is Jesus? How we answer this question determines how we live our lives. Is he a great teacher, a prophet, a king, or something more?
Jesus goes on to teach about the days to come, how He will be rejected and killed. This surprises his disciples. You see they answered his question by saying, “You are the Messiah.” This statement to them held a very deep meaning. The Messiah was the one that they were waiting for, a king that was to restore Israel to a place of honor among the nations. This figure was to unite the tribes yet again and cause the nations to tremble at the name of their God. This man was to lead the charge against all others, to reject and kill, not to be rejected and killed by them. The disciples would proclaim and serve this man with all their life could give. He was their king. They had in their minds a vision of who and what the Messiah was to be, but in their religious fervor they were wrong.
Peter pulls Jesus off to the side and rebukes him. Peter willing to give his life for his rabbi and king. Not for this man to be killed. He followed so that he could lead the armies of Israel, yet Jesus said that he would be rejected by the nation. Jesus then says to him, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
Get behind me, Satan. Get back adversary, you enemy of God. The religious around the world are gearing up for a fight for their god. They defend the honor of their prophet; they defend the honor of their God. I ask a question, does God need a defense? Do we honor God by screaming and protesting? Do we honor God by declaring war on those that hold a different opinion than ours? Do we honor God? Many sit worried about a threat from another religion, yes they may kill the body but do they hold power over the soul? Jesus says GET BEHIND ME SATAN.
People across the ocean are protesting because some man made a movie that questioned a religion. Some of those protesters brought deadly force. Who are they defending? Do they defend their God or their political control over people? In our own country we are not much better. We drag God into the courts of law, but whom are we defending? We believe that we are defending our rights and expanding the kingdom, but do we need to fight for God or can God defend Himself? Enemies surrounded Elisha and his disciple on all sides, they were a remnant of people faithful to God, and now they were about to meet their doom. The disciple was scared and questioned his teacher; Elisha prayed a simple prayer that God would open the young man’s eyes. And suddenly he saw an army of heavenly hosts surrounding them both, God does not need us to defend him. He has an entire army poised to defend Him. Yet he does call us to do something.
Jesus says, “to be my follower you must take up your cross and follow him.” Take up a cross, not take up arms, not to take up lawsuits, but a cross. The cross is a symbol of suffering and oppression, not of strength. The cross is a symbol of opposing the status quo and receiving the judgment for it. He is calling us to stop thinking of our own ideas and selfish ambitions and to put others first. To follow Jesus we are to strive to live life according to His ways not our own. Peter was called Satan because he was in pursuit of his personal idea of messiah and not God’s idea. What would Jesus be saying to us?
This is why the Quaker business meeting is set up the way it is. We do not just take a vote and let the majority rule. Instead we strive to find a sense of the meeting. This gives voice to all people. Sure at times the majority does rule, but there are also times where the minority rule. If done correctly we are to seek the Spirit in our decisions as a group, believing that if we all seek God’s will that He will provide the direction we need. He will lead us to love Him with all our hearts, all our strength and will all our minds, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
We are called to love. Love people that seem to hate everything we stand for. We are called to love the people that oppose our God. Jesus says that we should love our enemies and do good to those that persecute us. This is the opposite of the ways of the world. To love is to take up the cross, to love is to take up the cause of the oppressed and lift them into God’s grace. How should we respond to radical Islam, with fear, anger, or despair? No we should respond with love. Is this hard to do? You bet it is. When I heard of the embassy fire I was furious. But we cannot let anger and fear rule our lives, we cannot let hatred control our actions. We must love the one that persecutes us. If you say anything other than that you are not a true follower of Jesus. Do not get me wrong I am not saying they are right. They are wrong; they are following a god that is opposed to ours. They follow a false god. We should not hate them because of their ignorance but love them for being made in the image of God and love by God. Jesus came for them just as much as us.
Who do you say Jesus is? Does your response and actions reflect your answer? Are we seeking the true God and responding in His love or are we letting the world around us dictate who our god is? To be a disciple of Christ is not an easy thing. It requires us to completely give our ambitions, our hopes, our dreams, and ourselves to God. It is a scary proposition, but in God all things will be made new. If we let the dreams we have in ourselves die with Christ on that cross, He will give us new dreams. If we let our hopes die with Christ on that cross, He will give us a new restored hope. These are things built not by worldly standards but on the supernatural power of God who humbled Himself to become man for us. He took on the shame of our sin, and died on a cross that was meant to place fear and hopelessness into the lives of those who saw it. He was buried in a tomb meant to separate the dead from the living, but after three days He rose from that grave to bring a new restored hope to all who believe and follow him. Death and fear no longer rule us but we have been raised with Christ, we no longer fear those that can kill the body, but cling fast to the one that preserves the soul.
As we enter into this time of holy expectancy let us ask ourselves are we is Christ, and who are we with Him? The next question is how are you living your answer?
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.