Sermons for the Month
The Challenge of Doing All Well
DATE: September 10th, 2006
SERVICE: 14th Sunday After Pentecost
TEXT: Mark 7:24-37“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
Wouldn't' it be great if people's response to us was like their response to Jesus at the close of today's Gospel lesson? How wonderful it would be if others were astounded beyond measure at us and said, " _______ has done everything well." Of course, the challenge with that is to keep living up to that standard. Even Jesus had that problem. In fact, in the two stories we heard today it's probably true that while one stirred amazement, the other probably created concern, and that's putting it mildly. Let's begin with the second story first. To know a man who is deaf and has difficulty speaking, and suddenly is able to hear and speak plainly, would cause people to talk. It would be difficult to keep it quiet. Even though Jesus took the man away from the crowd, in an attempt to maintain secrecy, no sooner was his tongue untied than the word began to spread. You can imagine how it went: "Hey, listen to this. That man who always begged in the market, you know who I mean, the one whose voice was so loud and grating that it made your skin crawl, well he can talk now as clearly as you or I. Can you believe it? And, he can hear too. Micah told me that he heard from Jacob that the man's sisters took him to the Jewish teacher Jesus. (What a good Jew would be doing in this territory, don't ask me; maybe he's not a good Jew.) "Anyway, the women were desperate and had heard things about this Jesus that seemed too astounding to be true, but…what did they have to lose? Well, this Jesus took their brother into an ally and performed a ritual using his own spit. Just then there was a commotion in the street when two carts collided, and, that beggar's eyes lit up because he heard the donkey's braying and the men swearing. Then he untangled his tongue and spoke. No, I don't know what he said. But, his voice was clear and strong, actually sweet the sisters said, but they are a bunch of women, so what can you expect? All I can say is there must be something to this rumor that this Jesus is the Messiah." So far that sounds good, doesn't it? But there is the matter of living up to the standard of doing everything well, and there were, no doubt, those who would not have described what happened in the first account as fitting that description. Perhaps that conversation sounded like this: "What do you mean, he's the Messiah? HA! What would the Messiah be doing in Tyre? He was there, you know, and no good Jew would show up there. It's the very den of iniquity, of unbelievers, of sin. Of course he's not the Messiah. I heard that while he was there he actually spoke to a Gentile woman who groveled before him, asking that her daughter be healed. "Isn't that just like those Gentiles; didn't she realize she had no right to approach a Jewish man, let alone speak to him. I'm told that at first it seemed as if he was putting her in her place, although he should have ignored her or kicked her out of the way. He called her a dog. HA! He reminded her that we, the Chosen People, are the ones who deserve God's favor. "And the wench had the audacity to counter him, saying that even the ungodly deserve a morsel of God's blessing. It was heresy, I tell you! And what did that teacher do? Did he bring the wrath of God down upon her? No, he did not. He commended her brashness and told her that her daughter was healed.
"Oh, no, he's not the Messiah. What's that? Was she healed? Well, yes … I heard she was … but that's beside the point."
As far as many people were concerned the reason that Jesus did not do everything well is that he just plain went too far. By even showing up in Gentile territory he expands the scope of his ministry beyond that which was conceivable for the Messiah. Just as he opened the deaf man's ears and loosed his tongue, he opened the door of salvation, and loosed the bondage of tradition, so that all people could see themselves as God's chosen ones. This is a radical thing - not just was a radical thing - but is a radical thing. Today we gather together as a family of Faith, celebrating our community of believers and the beginning of another school year. We come together from a variety of backgrounds and live varied lives. Although the diversity among us is not great, we still struggle at times to see one another as sisters and brothers. And, if that struggle exists in this small picture, it is even more of a reality in the bigger picture of our community, our country and our world. To see people with the eyes of Jesus, to be open our hearts to them and accept them as fellow children of God, can be a struggle. I'm sure that many of you read the letter in Dear Abby that caught my eye this week. It was about a young man and his divorced mother who had moved into a new neighborhood. The neighbors were worried because the first time they saw the young man they saw a guy with shoulder length hair dressed all in black, including black fingernail polish and eye liner. Everyone thought the worst. Then, a few months later they saw the same young man in ragged jeans and a flannel shirt, his head shaved. They thought he had turned from a devil worshippers to a skin head. The writer later learned that the young man had been dressed in black for a costume party, and that his head was shaved because he grows out his hair to donate to "Locks of Love" to make wigs for cancer patients who have lost their hair. He or she was relieved to report that this individual spends his summer working with groups going to underprivileged countries to teach children how to read and write, and volunteers in other humanitarian efforts. The moral of the story was not to make judgments based on appearance. That's good advice. But Jesus would take it a step further, and that's what made people in the first century, and what makes us, REALLY uncomfortable. Jesus would say that even if the kid always dressed in black complete with finger nail polish and eye liner it would be up to us to welcome him into the family of believers. In fact, Jesus wants us to do more than just welcome, he wants us to invite. Into our family, I think not?!? Yet, it would be our "job" to convey the love and acceptance of God in Jesus Christ. And that's SO hard to do, because we are always inclined to put limitations on it. In order to remain comfortable we want to say, "As long as this person does this or that …, we'll do what Jesus asks of us." It's so much more difficult to work together so that everyone in this family, and their needs, are honored. It's enough to make us take back our assessment that Jesus did everything well. And yet … he did …. A woman who had no value in anyone eyes received her daughter back whole, and a man who had been ostracized by his disability had a new life opened up to him. That's just the beginning of what Jesus managed to set into motion. So, we take a deep breath and say to ourselves, "If he can do everything well in their lives, then he can do so for us - and through us - too."
AMEN