"'Me Too!' "Me Too'!" Pentecost 11A

Saint Luke 1:26-38

Saint Matthew 15:21-28

This morning I would like to talk with you about two women – two very strong women. Perhaps you might call them the original members of the “Me Too” movement for they stood up for what they believed in, called others to account, and made everyone they came in contact with live up to their higher selves.

The first is Mary, the Mother Our Lord.  

Our Roman Catholic sisters and brothers in the faith -- whom I hold in high regard and for whom I have a deep affinity -- celebrated her feast day yesterday. It is called the Assumption of the Virgin Mary because it is taught that on that day Mary was bodily taken up into heaven.  It is regarded as her heavenly birthday.

If you look at the Lutheran liturgical calendar (which I am sure you check every morning) yesterday was designated in her honour simply as Mary, Mother of Our Lord.  

Perhaps this is because we don’t really know what to do with Mary and that, as Harvard’s chaplain Dr. Peter Gomes once pointed out, “many of us suspect that she is a Catholic.”  In a sermon preached before his death  Dr. Gomes observed that those of us who are “‘pathologically protestant’ “don’t have much room in our spiritual household for Mary.”1

Perhaps we should because she is the subject of more paintings and statues than any other figure in Christendom. More churches are named for her than any other person in Scripture and, through the centuries, she has been the object of much popular piety and devotion.

We do not know the name of the other strong woman I want to draw your attention to.  Unlike Mary, there are no churches named for her.  And she is not a favourite among artists or sculptures.  Yet, today she is taking her place along side of Mary as one of the women of the bible whose stories have been passed down to us to remind us that women are not to be taken lightly.  Mary and the unnamed woman in today’s gospel can remind us not only of the power of faith but the tenacity of faith. 

Mary, the Mother of Our Lord, is often portrayed as a pushover. Perhaps that is because she is young but more likely it is because she was a girl.  

When she is depicted it is often as a serene figure, with loving eyes and a tender heart – sugar and spice and everything nice.  She is gentle Mary, meek and mild.  This picture couldn’t be further from the truth as her little encounter with the angel in today’s first reading shows. 

Who knows what Gabriel was thinking when he approached this young member of the peasant class with what he might have thought was the offer of a lifetime.  He is offering her a chance to be famous. He is offering her  a chance to play a huge part in history.  He is offering her nothing less than the honour of being the Mother of the Son of God.  Who could refuse such an offer? Mary could!

At first it looks like she is going to.  She has a huge question to ask of her heavenly messenger before she accepts the offer being put forth.  I have the feeling it probably stopped Gabriel in his tracks. As it has been paraphrased “Mary asked the angel, “‘But how can I have a baby? I am a virgin.’”2

Mary is joining the “Me Too” movement with a question mark.  She is not sure that the offer being put before her is a good one.  In fact, it is a offer that has the potential for ruining her entire life.  

She was betrothed to Joseph in an arrangement most likely made by their fathers.  To announce that she was “with child now” and that the child was of “unknown origin” would end the arrangement and bring shame to both families. It would also result in her estrangement from the community.  Before she gives all this up the angel has some explaining to do.

Writing for Time Magazine many years ago novelist Reynold’s Price described the encounter this way.

When she hesitated, assuming that this was some evil joke, the voice spoke again: “You’re free to refuse, and I’m free to tell you that should you accept...”3

 People always forget that Mary could have said “no.” She could have said, “Listen my fine winged friend I have Joseph and my whole life ahead of me and you’ve got the wrong person. I don’t have time for this! I don’t need this!  So, don’t let the door hit you in the wings on your way out!”

Nobody could accuse Mary of not being smart and direct.  She knows that there is something missing from the angel’s proposition. If she is going to have a baby she is going to need something she has not yet had.

If she is going to accept this offer she is going to have to do so on faith.  After what seems like an eternity she accepts.  She could have said “no” but instead she says of her own free will: “‘Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”4

The baby born to Mary and Joseph grew to be a man.  He challenged those in authority.   He healed the sick, fed the hungry, and reached across boundaries of race, and class, and creed.  He was living out the words his mother prophesied about him when she sang to her cousin Elizabeth, “My soul proclaims your greatness, O Lord, and my sprit rejoices in you. You have cast the mighty down from their thrones, and uplifted the humble of heart. You have filled the hungry with wondrous things, and left the wealthy no part.”

Apparently however, by the time today’s gospel rolls around Jesus had forgotten the words of his mother’s song.  In his encounter with the unknown, unnamed Canaanite woman, he seems to be doing just the opposite of what his mother sang about. He is not doing wondrous things for those who hunger for healing.  In fact, he is having no part of them.  

The woman, this outsider is yelling “Me Too!” with an exclamation point.  She comes to him not just shouting but the Greek word is screaming for mercy for he tormented daughter.  There is no question mark here! She willing to risk crossing the boundaries of  social, religious, and cultural norms to receive healing for her daughter and Jesus seems to be giving into those norms. 

Lance Pape, Professor of Preaching at Texas Christian University wrote splendidly of today’s gospel.

This passage, read aloud in Christian worship, is a scandal. In fact, this text might be a good test of who is paying attention during the Gospel reading. (Hint: The people with worried looks were actually listening.) It is not often that we catch Jesus with his compassion down, so to speak. This is not the Jesus we think we know.5

 First he tries to ignore her and then, when that doesn’t work,  he insults her. 

“It is not right, you know,” Jesus replied, “to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”6 

Did Jesus just say that?  Did Jesus just compare this woman’s daughter to a dog?  

Fortunately for us this woman is not one to be ignored because she is convinced that her daughter deserves healing and Jesus is the one to do it.  In fact, he had better do it because not only her daughter’s future but the future of his ministry depended on it.  

In one sentence she reminds him that he is his mother’s son and if he is going to be what his mother thought he was going to be he had better listen and honour her goals for his life.  “Yes, Lord, I know, but even the dogs live on the scraps that fall from their master’s table!”7

She has him!  She has Jesus right where she wants him.  This rabbi who has done verbal battle with the best and brightest minds in all Jerusalem has been verbally bested by this strong woman who reminded him that he was the son of another strong woman whose high hopes for him are about to go unfulfilled.

In the moments between his hearing her response and his granting her wish you can almost hear his mother’s voice running through his head.  What was it that she taught him about justice and fairness?  What was it that she said about his needing to always be on the side of the outcast and downtrodden?  Hadn’t he, because of the rumours around his conception, been an outsider too?  Hadn’t his mother bourn the brunt gossip about him just like this mother was bearing weight of worry over her daughter’s illness?

Jesus was now faced with the central question of his ministry.  Was it for everybody or not?  Was he sent to only a few or was he was sent for everybody?  He had to decide. If he wasn’t on the side of this woman and her daughter than his ministry would be just as limiting, just as exclusionary, as all the other teachers and preachers around him.

Not to act would not only betray the central question of his ministry it would deny his mother’s dreams for him. He would just be another who sent the hungry away empty.

This persistent woman is reminding Jesus that his ministry was not just for a few chosen people but for her, her daughter, everybody.  By shouting “Me too!” in his face she is reminding him of his true calling. She is reminding him of the dreams God and his mother had for him.  She was reminding him that the salvation he offered was to be for all people.

These two women – Mary whose name everybody knows and the outsider whose name nobody knows – have a message for these divided times.  It is a message of inclusion not exclusion.  It is a message that is as counter-cultural as Mary predicted.  It is a message which says that God’s “Me Too” includes everybody.

As The Rev’d Courtney Allen Crump reminded me recently in a masterful sermon:

 As followers of Jesus in this time and place this is our call. This means we have to do more than just know that there are no dividing lines or boundaries when it comes to God’s all-encompassing love. We have to live and love and show up and speak out and advocate for just and equitable ways of living together—for we belong to God and we belong to each other.8

May we be as outspoken as Mary, the Mother of our Lord, was with this message and as brave, and persistent, and fierce as the woman was for her daughter in proclaiming that God’s “Me Too” includes everybody. 

That is our message! That is our charge!  May we all say “me too” to playing our part in making this so.  Amen.

____________

1. “Religions - Christianity: The Assumption of Mary,” BBC (BBC, July 21, 2011), https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/beliefs/assumption.shtml.

2.  Saint Luke 1:34. (TLB) [TLB=The Living Bible. (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers Inc., 1971)

3. Reynolds Price, “Jesus Of Nazareth,” Time (Time Inc., November 28, 1999), http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,35079-3,00.html.

4. St. Luke 1:38. (NRSV) [NRSV=The New Revised Standard Version]

5. Lance Pape, “Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28,” Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Teaching 3 (Louisville: KY: Westminister|John Knox Press, 2020): pp. 242-244.

6. St. Matthew 15:26. (PHILLIPS) [PHILLIPS=J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English (London: HarperCollins, 2000).

7. St. Matthew 15:27. (PHILLIPS)

8. Courtney Allen Crump, “On Changing One's Mind,” A Sermon For Every Sunday, August 10, 2020, https://asermonforeverysunday.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Courtney-Allen-Crump-Canaanite-Woman.pdf.

"Stormy Weather" - Pentecost 10A

The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Our Saviour Lutheran Church

Saint Matthew 14:22-33

“Stormy Weather”

Every great once and awhile I decide to scroll through television programs I have recorded to see which ones are worth savings and which ones can easily be deleted.  What always amazes me is the number of programs I actually have watched but, for some reason, believe I will watch again.

Take for example the recording of the New York New Year’s Eve Celebration from Time Square with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen.  I think I recorded it in fear that I would not be awake to watch the celebration at midnight on the east coast. And, the team of the off-the-wall Cohen and the old, sobersides Cooper always make me laugh especially as the evening wears on and Anderson gets a little tipsy.

So, in the midst of the heatwave, I watched New Year’s Eve in New York once again.  It was sad and strange

to see the hopefulness with which 2020 was greeted.

I pondered the age-old question: What if we knew then what we know now.

Would there be the same kind of joy among the revellers who knew nothing of the term “social distancing”?  Would the hugs, kisses, and even handshakes from friends and acquaintances be greeted with the same terror they are now.

Would the crowd watch the giant Tiffany orb slowly descend with glee or would they be yelling, “No! Go back! Go back!”

Would their faces be all smiles, as they were that night, or would they look more like Evard Munch’s painting “The Scream”?  

No, 2020 did not live up to its billing.  In the hope department it may even be considered to be a spectacular underachiever. It certainly did not live up to the hype of that night when December turned to January and expectations were high.

This year feels like we have been hit by one storm after another. It’s been like a never ending hurricane. You know how those work, we saw it again this week on the east coast.  

First there the winds increase and the skies darken. Then the rains come. Pounding rains that are so heavy that you literally cannot see. Then trees are uprooted and powerlines are down and everything becomes pitch black.  Then there is the storm surge where water rushes in with a mighty force. 

This year is like being in a never ending siege of stormy weather.

First, the pandemic.  Can you believe that it was only 20 days into the new year, January 20th to be exact, that a 35 year old man from Snohomish County in Washington State, became the first patient to be diagnosed. “As of Monday, [February 4] there were 11 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the U.S., including six in California, two in Illinois – among a husband and wife – and one each in Massachusetts, Arizona and Washington. A total of 260 people were being monitored for infection in 36 states.” 1

This shower turned into a hurricane of mammoth proportions.

As of Thursday evening, more than 4,879,200 people in the United States have been infected with the coronavirus and at least 159,500 have died, according to a New York Times database.2

Then the senseless death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police office brought Black Lives Matter movement into the national consciousness with the storm of unrest that came with it.  When protests are met with backlash we are sure to be in for a bout of stormy weather.

In light of all that we are facing the idea of Jesus walking on the water in the midst of a storm can not only be quaint but convey an image of God who is above it all, completely unaffected by the storms of every day life.  That’s the Sunday School image of a “drip dry Jesus” out for a stroll on the deep blue sea untroubled by the winds and waves.

That was not an image the first century church needed and it is not helpful for the twenty-first century church either.

 While we are facing a crises that has inextricably altered all of our lives the audience Matthew was writing for was “caught in the turmoil of a persecuted existence because of their belief in Jesus, and the reality of this fear is a reflection of the fear of the disciples.”3 Matthew emphasizes this by when he describes the boat as being battered which in the original Greek means: harassed, distressed, tortured.  Matthew isn’t talking about the boat he’s talking about the passengers!

Not only was the storm the disciples found themselves in torturous it had a very real potential for ending their earthly existence.  Experienced seafarers or not, no matter how hard they tried they were making no progress against the gale.

Isn’t that us?  For some our lives are being threatened which is why we have been staying home, keeping away from large crowds, social distancing, wearing our masks, washing our hands and it still seems like we not getting anywhere.  We fear that we might even be going backwards in this struggle the likes of which we have never seen before.   Many of us are rowing while others are partying.

While the disciples are paddling Jesus is away somewhere praying. 

By four o’clock in the morning they are cold, wet, exhausted, and afraid for their lives. By four in the morning they have had about all they can take. They are wearied, battered, and seasick from the rough waves. There hands are blistered from the struggle against the storm. It looks like it is curtains for them.

Just then one of the disciples looks up, and amidst the sea mist and clouds ... sees a figure coming closer on the dark waves.  As if the storm wasn’t scary enough, now they are all terrified by what looks like ghost walking on the whitecaps.4

 Most preachers and teachers give the disciples tons of grief for misidentifying Jesus as if they could have done better. Nobody I have read on this subject had ever experienced what the disciples were experiencing. We’ve had two thousand years to get used to this scene.  Had we been there in a small boat, in a storm, in the darkness, who knows what we might have said.  At least, “It’s a ghost!” is repeatable in mixed company.

Peter too doesn’t escape criticism of the arm chair quarterbacks who have had over two centuries to review the tape.  They are all fairly certain that the last thing they would have done was want to get out of the boat.  Most are convinced they would have been begging Jesus to hurry and join them so that he could do something about the stormy weather.

To understand what Peter did “you have to have understand a little about the background of Jesus’ world.” Peter was a disciple and back then

A disciple wanted to do what his teacher did. A disciple wanted to talk like his teacher talked. A disciple wanted to walk like his teacher walked. A disciple devoted his entire life to being just like his teacher. 

So Peter is just being a good disciple when he asks to walk on water with Jesus. He wants to do what his rabbi is doing.5

 The first amazing thing for me in this encounter is that Jesus says, in effect, “give it a try.”  Jesus doesn’t say, “No Peter! You’ll sink like a stone and drown!” Jesus says, “Alright!  If you want to. Give it a whirl!

After Peter has taken a few steps he begins to sink and here is where the traditional interpretation of this story leaves me cold.

In this picture  Jesus seems absolutely fine, unfazed by that is happening.  Notice that his hair is still perfectly quaffed, his clothes are not even damp, as he gently, ever so gently, reaches out to an adoring Peter.

My brothers and sisters, that is not the way it went down!  That is why I have fallen in love with the painting by Yongsome Kim called “The Hand of God”.  It is from Peter’s perspective!  It is the perspective of a drowning man searching the surface and looking for help.  Kim shows us  Jesus reaching down for Peter even looking a bit bemused at his friend’s predicament.

Much as I love that picture even it probably gets what really happened all bullocks up.  I say this not from years of studying theology but from my time as a lifeguard and a water-safety instructor.

I know that if you are going to save someone in heavy seas you are going to have to throw yourself in after them and I believe that is exactly what Jesus did.  I believe that Jesus dove in after Peter and grabbed him. In good Red Cross fashion I believe he managed to get one arm around Peter’s chest, placed his free hand in the small of the disciple’s back, and pushed him to the surface.  Once that was accomplished, I believe, he dragged him back to the boat, and with the help of the other disciples hoisted himself and Peter back on board.

I also believe that when he asked, “Why did you doubt?” They both were dripping wet and breathing heavily.  “Why did you doubt?” Jesus sputtered.  “What got into you?” 

Then after another gasping breath, “Didn’t you believe I would get you, save you?”  Then with chest heaving, “Didn’t you have faith enough in me to know that I would never let you drown?”

What happened to Peter, with his mixture of faith and doubt, is what has been happening to all of us through this very difficult.  

Many of the hopes and dreams of those New Year’s Eve revellers have been drown out by the reality of having to face a global pandemic that nobody in the crowd that night could have predicted.  We have spent most of the year that dawned with such hope just hoping to survive.

What people remember most about this story is that Jesus walked on water and when Peter tried it he sank like a stone.  But this is really a story about Jesus who not only saved Peter but got into the boat with the rest of the disciples and gave them the faith to sail on.

Jesus is present with us just as surely as he was with the disciples. In this “stormy weather” he is with us in our boat.  

That is our hope! In the midst of pandemic, economic downturns, and social strife Jesus is with us.  In the midst of any adversity while we are looking up through raging water and raging times afraid for our lives he is not just reaching out but diving in after us to bring us to safety.

In The Living Bible Matthew concludes this miracle story which has become a story for our times with the words: “And when they had climbed back into the boat, the wind stopped.  The others sat there, awestruck. ‘You really are the Son of God!’ they exclaimed.”6  And they worshipped him.

Only Jesus, the Son of God, who is willing to ride out our stormy weather with us is worthy of our praise, and worship, and devotion.  Only Jesus, who promises to be with us in our  New Year’s Eve celebrations is and during the darkest days of our year can be counted on to in fair weather and foul.

Only Jesus is worthy of this kind of praise.

____________

1. Gaby Galvin, “First U.S. Coronavirus Patient Released From Hospital,” U.S. News & World Report, February 4, 2020), https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2020-02-04/first-us-coronavirus-patient-released-from-hospital.

2. “Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count,” The New York Times, March 3, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html.

3.  Gennifer Benjamin Brooks, Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Teaching, (Louisville, KY: John Knox|Westminister Press 2020), pp. 222-234.

4.  William H. Willimon, “Just Like Jesus,” Pulpit Resource 36, no. 3 (2008): pp. 25-28.

5. ibid.

6. St. Matthew 14:32-33. (TLB) [TLB= The Living Bible. (Carol Stream, IL:  Tyndale House Publishing, 1971)]

 

"Compassion Enough for Everyone" - Pentecost 9A

Isaiah 55:1-15

Saint Matthew 14:13–21

You can tell a great deal about a person by watching them react to a crisis.  

Do they fly off the handle and yell at everybody for everything?

Do they try to deflect the blame?  This is particularly unhealthy especially if they are in any position of leadership from being a parent to the most powerful person in the world.

Do they sit quietly and analyse like Sherlock Holmes closing their eyes and leaning back in a chair almost looking like they are asleep but going over every angle, every possible solution, in their mind?

Do they spring into action?  The minute a problem confronts they are in a motion, going full throttle, to take it on and solve it.

Or, and we all know people like this, are they always in a constant crisis?  It is almost as if anything, even something as small as low tire pressure can raise their blood pressure.  No matter what is happening it is all cause for alarm.  

During real crises, like the ones our nation is facing now, I worry about most about people like that, because their life on the edge always seems to be teetering just a little too much for my comfort level, and perhaps theirs.

Then there are people who are constantly creating crises.  My tendency is to avoid these unhappy humans at all costs.  They always remind me of how Sir Winston Churchill described John Foster Dulles, the Secretary of State under President Eisenhower, as ''the only bull I know who carries his china closet with him.”1

It may be hard for you to believe but this story, this old friend whose words we know by heart, came at a huge crisis point in Jesus life.  It is there is the parenthetical words inserted into today’s reading: “Now when Jesus heard [about the beheading of John the Baptist], he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself."2

This must have been devastating news.  Every death brings a moment of devastation.  The deaths of monumental people like John Lewis, even though we knew it was coming, still bring us up short.  

Surprise deaths, like that of Regis Philbin, who probably would be mortified if he knew that I mentioned him in the same breath as a social change icon, remind us how our lives can be touched even through the laughter evoked by a good story.  

The 150,000 pandemic deaths in our nation remind us that government and leaders often fall short and miss the mark.

The death Jesus was morning was an act of pure cruelty combined with a little palace “hanky-panky.”  

Herod had been sleeping with his brother’s wife.  The Baptist called him on it and, “the tetrarch’s lavish birthday banquet [takes] a macabre turn with John the Baptist’s severed head served up on a platter.”3  

This is what was going on in Jesus’ mind and heart and like any who was facing such a devastating and senseless loss his deepest desire was to be alone.  A boat is a good place to do that but the only problem is that sooner or later you have to come ashore and when he did there was another crowd waiting for him.  

Wouldn’t you just have hated that?

But instead of hate, or anger, or sadness, or disappointment or any other of the myriads of  human emotions Jesus could have had we are told he had “compassion on them.”  

Every bible, every paraphrase, every commentary I looked at this week used the same word for how Jesus felt toward that crowd who just would not leave him alone.  He had compassion for them.

The Greek word used is even stronger than compassion but we don’t have an equivalent in English.  It means he reacted with a “deep-seated, gut level sympathy for them, especially for the infirm who had walked or been carried all this way seeking healing.”4  So, throughout the day his compassion extended to them as he healed their sick.

When evening came something so important happened that all four gospel writers included it.  I think it is there not so much to tell us about Jesus wonder-working power with loaves and fishes but to teach us how Jesus related to people in a crisis even when he was in a crisis.

He doesn’t order them around, nor does he judge them, he shows compassion toward them.

Jesus doesn't see the crowd as being an ignorant bunch of fools who need proper teaching about the Bible or about the church or about the kingdom. Jesus sees the crowd as people with problems, people with illnesses, people who are hungry.

The disciples don't actually present to Jesus the need of the crowd, but their solution: "Send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves." It seems like a reasonable request.5

While they may not be sure that the local restaurateurs in the surrounding villages will have enough space or supplies to accommodate such a large number of people they are positive that they do not.

This story may reveal to us that God is compassionate and has the ability to heal hungry people.

But that’s not all this story reveals. It also reminds us that Jesus did not act alone. Jesus did not gather the loaves, multiply the loaves, and distribute the food to all those people by himself. He asked his disciples to bring what they could find. He took what the disciples found and brought to him, and Jesus blessed, broke, and gave it back to them. Christ’s disciples gave the food to the crowds – enough to satisfy everyone, and even more. Perhaps Jesus could have done all of that by himself . . . but that isn’t what he wanted. Jesus chose to perform this miracle with his disciples’ help.6

He could have done everything by himself but he didn’t. He put the disciples to the tasks of . . . well . . . being disciples.  

There certainly could have been other ways of feeding the hungry that didn't involve so much work by the disciples. Jesus could have miraculously made the people's hunger pains disappear but he wanted everyone in his entourage to help out.

Sometimes, for divine miracles to occur, disciples may have to do a lot of work. Perhaps that is a difference between disciples and the crowds. While all received the benefit of the miracle; the disciples were asked to work and work hard to make it happen -- and then to clean up the mess -- each had one of the twelve baskets to fill up.7

This miracle took more work, real work, on the part of the disciples than it did for Jesus.  But you still got to love the expansiveness of Jesus who shouts with Isaiah long before him in The Living Bible paraphrase:

Say there! Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink—even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine and milk—it’s all free! Why spend your money on food that doesn’t give you strength? Why pay for groceries that do you no good? Listen and I’ll tell you where to get good food that fattens up the soul!8

You gotta love God who,  Isaiah and Jesus tell us, “flings wide the doors to the banquet house, tops off the children’s milk glasses, splashes around the chardonnay, and extends the terms of [God’s] deal with humanity’ that everyone is included it its embrace.”9

And make no mistake about it, this compassion is for everyone.

Nowhere does either Jesus or his disciples’ question who the five thousand people were or might be. Nowhere does either Jesus or his disciple eliminate, segregate, or exclude. Jesus doesn’t ask the disciples to sort the five thousand by socioeconomic status or by test scores or by academic degree achieved or by strength of their individual faith—or by any faith, for that matter—or by culture or by ethnicity or by gender or by age. This table was open to all, not because of whom they were, but because of their intent in reaching to seek it.10

Jesus’ table is a table for everyone, yes everyone.  That is our miracle for today! 

Whenever there is a festival Sunday or an occasion when I know there will be visitors in church – baptisms or funerals – for as long as I can remember I always use this invitation to the Communion table which comes from the Iona Community in Scotland.  

It could have been spoken to Isaiah’s people. It could have been spoken to that hungry crowd. It certainly is spoken to us with its all-inclusive compassion for our needs.

This is the table, not of the Church but of Jesus Christ.

It is made ready for those who love God and who want to love God more.

So come, you who have much faith and you who have little,

You who have been here often and you who have not been for a long time or ever before,

You who have tried to follow and you who have failed.

Come, not because the Church invites you;

It is Christ who invites you to be known and fed here.11

Just as Isaiah and Jesus invited all to come and eat so we are invited to come and feel God’s compassion and grace. For it is here when we come and receive bread and wine freely given to us we discover that everyone is included in God’s eternal embrace. 

Everybody?  Yes, everybody.  Even you.  Even me.  Everybody.

__________

1. Mark Russell, “Dull, Duller, Dulles,” The New York Times, July 13, 1986, https://www.nytimes.com/1986/07/13/books/dull-duller-dulles.html.

2. Saint Matthew 14:13. (NRSV) [NRSV=The New Revised Standard Version]

3. F. Scott Spencer, “Matthew 14:13-21. Commentary 1: Connecting the Reading with Scripture,” Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Teaching 3 (Louisville, KY: Westminister|John Knox Press, 2020): pp. 205-207.

4.    Ibid.

5.    Brian Stoffregen, “Matthew 14.13-21 Proper 13 - Year A,” Matthew 14.13-21 (Crossmarks), accessed July 31, 2020, http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/matt14x13.html

6.    Carla Pratt Keyes, “Enough for Everyone,” A Sermon for Every Sunday. July 28, 2020, https://asermonforeverysunday.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Carla-Pratt-Keyes-Feeding-5000.pdf.

7.    Stoffregen, loc.cit.

8.    Isaiah 55:1-2. (TLB) [TLB=The Living Bible. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers Inc., 1971)

9.    Jana Childers,"Matthew 13:13-21. Commentary 2: Connecting the Reading with the World. Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Teaching 3 (Louisville, KY: Westminister|John Knox Press, 2020): pp. 194-19.

10.   Mark Eldred, “God in My Pocket"  Sermon 4 P.M. Worship,  Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago. (July 26, 2015).

11.   Steve Pankey, August 23, 2016, “The Invitation to the Table” at “Draughting Theology” blog. https://draughtingtheology.wordpress.com/2016/08/23/the-invitation-to-table-fellowship/.

"New and Old Wisdom" Pentecost 8A

1 Kings 3:5-12

Saint Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

On election night 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt went to his New York townhouse. The incumbent, Herbert Hoover, had just conceded defeat.  His son James helped into bed and kissed him good night. His father looked up and said, “You know, Jimmy, all my life I have been afraid of one thing – fire. Tonight, I think I’m afraid of something else.” 

James asked him what he was afraid of. 

“I’m just afraid that I may not have the strength to do this job.” 

As Jimmy left the room, his father said to him, “After you leave me tonight, Jimmy, I’m going to pray. I’m going to pray that God will help me, that He will give me the strength and the guidance to do this job and do it right. I hope you will pray for me too, Jimmy.1

I find this quiet, personal, moment to be such a contrast to the usual way we think of President Roosevelt.  We remember those pictures of him in motorcades with a broad smile on his face and a cigarette held at a jaunty angle.  We think of his powerful words in his addresses to congress and his personal approach to his listeners during his fireside chats.  

There is even a great image in Jon Meacham’s book, Franklin and Winston, of him sitting at a specially made bar to accommodate his disability, mixing drinks and entertaining  friends making sure that everyone’s glass was full and that a good time was being had by all.

This is the Roosevelt we think of not the man doubting that he is going to be up to the task of being President and asking for prayer. 

In this day we might wonder if that isn’t the best place, the only place, for someone who wished to govern a great nation to start.  Maybe we would be a lot better off with leaders who were so acutely aware of their shortcomings that they knew they needed to turn to a higher power other than their own.

That is where King Solomon began and he became legendary for his wisdom.

I  love that Solomon starts with a little humility.  He knows that his father, David, was a dearly beloved king despite his shortcomings.  When he left office David had, what we would call, a very high approval rating.

Like Roosevelt,  Solomon may have been afraid that he would not measure up and that his leadership abilities might fall short. 

So, when the LORD comes to him and asks what is the deepest desire of his heart he doesn’t ask to be immortalized with his face on the side of a mountain; he doesn’t ask for a statue; he doesn’t ask for a bronze bust in a prominent place in the state house; he doesn’t even ask for a Post Office to be named after him.  He asks for wisdom.

Here is what he replied to the LORD who is acting like a genie from a bottle and offering to grant him his best wish.

“Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties.  Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number.  So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.”2

What would we do if a candidate said that?  The spin-doctors would be apoplectic. The opponents would have a field day while their supporters might be trying to explain away the “little child” part and emphasize that their candidate didn’t need an understanding heart to know what was right and wrong. They would tell us that he or she had, without a doubt, the most understanding heart in the world and that they already knew what was right and wrong.

Solomon was having none of that!  He knew what he needed and he knew where to get it.  If he was going to be able to lead his people, he would need one thing: an understanding heart that came from his relationship with the LORD.

Biblical Scholar, Jana Childers noted: “An ideal king – and by extension an ideal nation – would be one that operates with a certain levelness or steadiness of focus and a certain humility.”3

Focus, humility and wisdom may be the grace that breaks into our might-makes-right and our loudest voices win systems.  President Eisenhower may have said it best for our age: “Anger cannot win. It cannot even think clearly.”4

Solomon seemed to know that it was the little things like humility and a kind heart that would make him a good king.  

Jesus is talking today about little things as well.

Here he is teaching us “that the kingdom of heaven is qualitatively different from our kingdoms.  Our kingdoms have great, impressive palaces, fortresses, big parades, grand victory celebrations, impressive architecture and impressive human achievements.”5  God’s kingdom is so small it creeps up on you.

Preachers always get drawn to the mustard seed and it is a great example but you’ve heard it a thousand times.  I’m intrigued instead by the woman with the yeast making bread.  For there is wisdom in her efforts.

Today we have countless ways to make bread.  There are bread making machines that do almost everything for you and your bread but butter it.  We can buy packets of yeast at the grocery story for next to nothing.  Bread and yeast are something we take for granted.  

In Jesus’ day the people of that time and place were seldom privileged to have pure yeast.  Instead, they had to remember, be wise enough, to keep a lump of leavened dough from the last batch to leaven the next batch.  Think of it as the starter for sourdough bread.  It required tending.  My preaching professor used to claim that he and his wife hired babysitters for their sourdough bread starters.  

If cared for wisely there is a  lasting quality to bread as well. 

According to the British Museum.  “In AD 79, a baker put a loaf of bread into the oven, just like any other day in the town of Herculaneum. Nearly 2,000 years later it was discovered carbonised, still inside the oven, during excavations at the archaeological site in 1930.”6

They tested the bread and had a London baker recreate the recipe. It turned out tasting a lot like, every day, modern, bread. 

There was also a tradition among bakers back then that they would stamp, or brand their bread, it could be their initials or the first century equivalent of a logo but it identified who made the bread because they were proud of their work.

That’s the church’s job to be proud of our work as the leaven in the loaf of society.  We are no longer the place to be, with the biggest building in town packing people in our pews.  We no longer have lines down the block waiting to get in every time we open our doors.  In these days of a pandemic we even have to limit our numbers but I think the church has never been better suited to remind people of what is important.  We have been entrusted with words of wisdom that, even though they have lasted through the ages, are new every day. 

If this crisis has taught us anything it is that we need leaders with the wisdom of Solomon.  Men and women who know their limitations but who can also bring out the best in us, helping us to rise above our current circumstances and work for a better tomorrow.

We need the teachings of Jesus to remind us that everything is not always as it appears to be at first glance. 

We need to be the levin in societies loaf living out the words of the recently passed representative John Lewis who reminded us:

"Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopefule optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble."5

Be humble, as was wise King Solomon.  Look for leaders who, like Roosevelt, were not too proud to pray.  Remember that anger can never think clearly. And finally, get in some good, necessary trouble. 

And out of that, Jesus final words for today tell us wisdom’s treasure will bring  both something old and something new.

May God help us as we try to make this so,

____________

1      John Dickerson, “Pray for Me” in The Hardest Job in the World: the American Presidency (New York: Random House, 2020), p. ix-x.

2, I Kings 3:7-9 (NIV) [NIV=The New International Version]

3. Jana Childers, “Commentary 2: Connecting the Reading with the World,” Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Teaching 3 (2020): pp. 175-177.

4. S. E. Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier and President (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1990), 65.

5 William H. Willimon, “Small Is Beautiful,” Pulpit Resource 42, no. 3 (2014): pp. 17-20.

6. “Making 2,000-Year-Old Roman Bread,” Making 2,000-Year-Old Roman Bread (blog) (The British Museum, July 23, 2020), https://blog.britishmuseum.org/making-2000-year-old-roman-bread/.

7. Joshua Bote, “'Get in Good Trouble, Necessary Trouble': Rep. John Lewis in His Own Words,” USA Today, July 18, 2020, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/18/rep-john-lewis-most-memorable-quotes-get-good-trouble/5464148002/.

“No Dopamine” - Pentecost 7A

Romans 7:15–25a

Saint Matthew 13:1-9 & 18-23

It was hard for me to imagine why John Dickerson in his very fine book about the American Presidency, The Hardest Job in the World, would devote an entire chapter to Dopamine which has been described as is known as “the feel-good neurotransmitter.”

Dopamine is the binding agent that locks us to  . . .  consumption – it’s the little jolt of pleasure that humans associate with beneficial actions. The reward comes after each affirmation either in the form of a “like” on Facebook, a little heart on Instagram, or delivery of information that confirms our world view when we turn to Twitter.  Studies show that we will chase the reward of that neurotransmitter dopamine with the passion of a gambling addict or a smoker. 

When there is no immediate reward, we keep hunting. Disappointment makes us more fervent. Like poison ivy, dopamine creates a fever.  Each time we scratch, the desire to scratch grows. 

The cycle saps our ability to concentrate, which invites us to speed up the search-for-reward cycle. Deliver us please from that itchy feeling of being insufficiently entertained.1

Dickerson wryly observes: “Who can remember, much of the time, what they were looking for when they first started that Google search. Studies show that we check our phones about every twelve minutes.”2

This frenzy, not just in the world of politics but the whole of life, got me to thinking about the difference between our addiction to immediate gratification and the patience of the “sower who went out to sow” who, by modern standards, wouldn’t even make a very good farmer.

Two falls ago Lowell arranged for me to take a ride in his brother-in-law’s combine at his farm in northwest Iowa and I’ll never forget the first words out of Gerald’s mouth when I climbed aboard.  “Don’t touch anything!” he said.

I kept my hands in my lap and my mouth shut for fear of demonstrating my agricultural ignorance as we harvested corn in this marvel of modern machinery.

It had a steering wheel but was guided by the aid of GPS that told it to turn when the end of a row was reached.  Next to the steering wheel was a joystick that controlled much of what else went on in the giant machine.  And next to the joystick was a computer monitor that continually kept track of not only how much seed had been planted or crops harvested but the soil conditions for both seedtime and harvest. At planting, seeds would be placed in perfect rows at just the right distance apart for an optimum yield. 

It was amazing!  

I have been pondering that experience this week in light of the carefree sower in Jesus parable who just took some seed and let it fly. This guy didn’t need dopamine, because he was  extremely enthusiastic about his job.  He turned his task into a party by just flinging seeds this way and that apparently caring little about where the seed landed or the condition of the soil.  Instead of riding in a machine that carefully calibrates the placement of a seed to a fraction of an inch this dude is walking around throwing handfuls of seed into the air.

Some of it falls on the road where the birds come along and eat it up, but really, what would you expect when you throw seed on the road? And some of it falls on gravel where it sprouts after the first good rain but then withers and dies because it doesn’t have any dirt to put its roots down into. What would you expect? Some of it falls among the weeds and thorns where it gets choked out by the competition, but again, what would you expect? The only surprise in this story, really, is that this reckless sower  manages to get some of the seed onto good soil where it produces a miraculous yield of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much grain.3

Because we tend to make things all about us want to make Jesus’ pithy little teaching all about us.  We see ourselves as the seed. 

There are people, we know them and tend to avoid them at all cost, who have no doubt that they are good seed.  They’ve got this faith thing all figured out and, not only that, their life is a perfect balance of faith and works.  There is no doubt in their mind that they are good seed and, if asked or even if not, they will be happy to tell you just how good they are.

Most of us see ourselves as the other kind of seeds.

Sometimes we fall and fail on the road of life and it’s like we are just being eaten alive. Sometime, when the road gets rocky, we begin to feel ourselves withering. Sometimes it just feels like the weeds of life are just going to choke the life out of us. 

We can almost hear ourselves saying with Saint Paul.  “No matter which way I turn I can’t make myself do right. I want to but I can’t.  When I want to do good, I don’t; and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway."4

In thinking only about himself, Saint Paul is focused on his own troubles, his own failings.  In thinking of ourselves as just the seed we will be trampled down by the anxiety of this age.

Even though he had no idea he was doing it Saint Paul gives us the key to understanding Jesus’ little story.  “Who will rescue me?” he asks. And then it dawns on him, “I thank God,” he says, “there is a way out through Jesus Christ our Lord.”5

Jesus is the sower!  He is the one who is foolishly casting seeds. 

Some of it will fall in places where it gets a good start but doesn’t last. Some of it will fall in places where it gets choked out by competing interests. But some of it will fine finds good soil, and grow, and produces a bumper crop. 

That is where we come in.

Our temptation, that dopamine that has taken such hold of us, is we want to control the reward cycle.  We want to know exactly what kinds of seed to plant in exactly the right places and us want to know where and when to plant it.  We want to take over Jesus’ seed sowing business and get it down the science of a modern day farmer.  

But Jesus keeps telling us that since you can’t predict just how or where the seed is going to fall, or when or if it is going to produce, you scatter it wherever you can and hope for the best. 

That’s the good news moment amid the cares and anxieties of our world. 

Now there is one less thing for us to have to worry about to decreasing our dopamine levels. 

Unless you are a farmer whose livelihood depends on bumper crops of seeds well planted and carefully harvested, don’t waste time counting the seeds or trying to figure out what kind of seed you are.  

Understand that this parable is about God who, revealed in Jesus, is wastefully gracious.  God just wants us to scatter that grace all over the place and he wants us to help.  He wants us to toss God’s grace around.

He wants us to fling it, throw it with a mighty arm. Cast God’s grace freely, far and wide.  Help others and ourselves discover the real dopamine rush that comes when we realize that God’s love is abundant, it never runs out, and there is always more than enough.

Thanks be to God who tells us for certain that this is so.  Amen. 

__________

1. John Dickerson, The Hardest Job in the World: the American Presidency (New York, NY: Random House, 2020), p. 336-337.

2.     ibid.

3. James Sommerville, “The Reckless Sower,” A Sermon For Every Sunday, July 7, 2020, https://asermonforeverysunday.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Jim-Somerville-The-Reckless-Sower.

4. Romans 7:18b-19. (TLB) [TLB= The Living Bible. (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndall House, 1971)]

5. Romans 7:25. (PHILLIPS) [PHILLIPS=J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English: a Translation (London: William Collins Sons & Co., 1960)]