Of the Faithful, For the Faithful

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday August 14, 2011, the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Podcast of "Of the Faithful, For the Faithful (MP3)

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Genesis 45:1-15

Psalm 133

Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32

Matthew 15:21-28

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

Covenant, the tie that binds. Covenants are different from contracts. Both are legal agreements, both are between two parties; and that’s where the similarities end. In contracts both parties have obligations to one another. In contracts both parties have to bring something to the table. In contracts both parties can be penalized for failure to honor the agreement. Not so in a covenant. A contract is a legal agreement between two parties but a covenant is an agreement, a promise, one party makes to another.

Covenants are promises made by taking a solemn oath. A couple of weeks ago, our Old Testament reading was what’s known as “Jacob’s Ladder,” the dream containing God’s covenant with Jacob.[1] Jacob receives this promise, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”[2]

There is a formula to covenant.[3] It began with a solemn promise made binding by an oath. The promise in Jacob’s Ladder was made in verbally. Such an action or formula is recognized by both parties as a formal act which binds the one who makes the promise to fulfill it. In this instance the Lord uses words to make the promise. Jacob recognizes the promise setting a stone as a pillar and pouring oil over it. This is when he names that place Bethel, Hebrew for House of God.

Genesis 37 contains another covenant promise, this one made to Joseph. The promises made to Joseph are symbolic, not verbal. Where Jacob’s promises are declared in plain speech, the promises made to Joseph come in his dreams. Receiving the same promise twice, once represented by the wheat in the field and then again by the stars in the skies, God’s covenant that Joseph will have dominion over his brothers is established and confirmed.

Our Genesis reading from last week seems to erect a detour to this covenant. Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers and taken to Egypt. It would be logical to assume with your brother sold into slavery you would never have to bow down before him. As the old joke goes: Men plan, God laughs. Today, we read how Joseph’s dreams come true, how the Lord’s covenant is fulfilled.

In our Genesis reading today, we see not only how God’s covenant is fulfilled, but what it means for the promises made to Jacob. In verse five of our reading, we learn how even the brother’s betrayal cannot stop the Lord from keeping his covenant with Joseph. “Do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.” The covenant with Jacob was fulfilled through the covenant with Joseph.

What confidence we can have when we know and trust the Lord because of a personal covenant. Joseph could bear years of slavery knowing that it was all a part of God’s plan. He even tells his brothers “It was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.” Yes, Joseph bore pain and indignity of slavery. He was falsely accused and imprisoned, but he knew his place. He knew and trusted God would keep covenant. Joseph lived in faith and trust. By these two covenants working in accord the nation of Israel would grow large and strong in the land of Goshen while the rest of the world languished in famine.

Our reading from Matthew ties its roots back to an even older covenant, a covenant made by God to Abram in Genesis 12, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”[4] This is the root of the saying “salvation comes from the Jews.” The Lord promises Abram not only that he will be made a great nation, but that he and his nation will be a blessing to all the families of the earth.

This blessing is highlighted in Matthew 10 when Jesus sends his disciples out to the world saying, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’”[5] The blessing of the Lord and from the Lord is sent first to the Jews.

This is why Jesus tells the Canaanite woman “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

I think I’ve done a pretty good job of explaining where Jesus was coming from so far. I like to think I’m pretty good at explaining things. One of my favorite pastors was an explainer and listening to his sermons for over five years influenced my preaching style tremendously. One of the things he taught me was if you don’t understand it, don’t try to explain it.

Let me share this with you: I have no idea how to “explain” how and why Jesus responds to Canaanite woman like he did. It rubs me the wrong way to see Jesus so callus, so cavalier to someone who is desperately in need, a need that extends beyond her daughter’s demon possession. She is not a member of the twelve tribes; she is a gentile, a foreigner. There doesn’t seem to be a husband or son to care of the family business. In this society, being what would appear to be a single mother, is another big strike against her and her daughter.

She doesn’t appear to have any money or other goods to trade. Evidently the healing arts of the time were unable to help, assuming the healers of the time would have anything to do with her or her tormented daughter in the first place. She is at her wits end and this is when she sees Jesus on the road.

How did she know he was Jesus of Nazareth? Scripture doesn’t say. Surely she didn’t see his picture in the paper or on the news. He wasn’t wearing a name tag, but she knew him when she saw him. She also knew about him. She called him the Lord and the Son of David, both titles belonging to the Jewish Messiah. She knew he was a healer. She knew he was compassionate. She saw him, she came to him, and she cried her plea, “Have mercy.”

His first response is simply ignoring her. Whether he just kept walking or took a seat and turned his back scripture doesn’t say. Neither would have been comforting. After her second cry, Jesus explains why he denies her with the authoritative answer “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” This answer doesn’t help a lick even though it’s the covenant answer, the “correct” answer. Frankly this answer has all the pastoral sensitivity of nails on a chalkboard. She cries out again and finally after rejecting her twice, he insults her and her entire race. This is my opinion, and I believe many would agree with me; this seems harsh.

Nevertheless it’s his answer and even though it’s the right answer it doesn’t help. Jesus knew his mission and this may sound like a restrictive way to describe God Incarnate, but Jesus knew his place and his place began with the children if Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jesus tells her that the blessing she seeks is not for her, but she points out that the dogs get to lick the floor and pick up the spills. The dogs get to share in the blessings of the master even if they were not intended to receive them.

I can’t explain his words, but this I do know, the blessing of the Lord is overflowing, and even if this woman and her daughter aren’t intended to receive this blessing, they still receive the remains. You see, this Canaanite woman knew her place in Jewish society, a place that didn’t exist. She didn’t count on her status or her power to be entitled to a blessing, but she had faith, faith that God’s overflowing love would be enough for her family.

Last week we heard Peter test Jesus. We heard Peter say “Lord, if it is you tell me to come to you on the water.”[6] Peter wasn’t up to trusting, so he tested. The Canaanite woman does no such thing. She doesn’t say “If you are the Lord” or “If you are the Son of David.” She knows, she believes, and she trusts.

Her faith is greater than Peter’s. That’s right, at this moment the faith of an impoverished Gentile single mother is greater than the faith of the Rock upon which the Church will be built. She is faithful. Jesus declares her faith is great. She cries out.

So what is her faith? Her faith is that Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord, the Son of David is enough. Christ the Messiah is enough for her, her life, and her needs. She’s not entitled to his blessing, yet she has faith. Her faith has nothing to do with deserving his blessing, but that he will bless her even though she doesn’t deserve it. Romans 5:8 says it this way, “But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”

This is her faith. She hoped, prayed, and she had faith that while she didn’t deserve what she cried for; it might still be granted. She knew that even though he owed her nothing she had faith that there might be a leftover crumb and that crumb would be enough.

Jesus knows his path, Jesus knows his vocation is first to the nation of Israel, but he also knows that when the cup of his bounty overflows, others will be blessed from the font of many blessings. Jesus is faithful to Israel, and by her faith he is faithful to the Canaanite woman healing her daughter. Saved by grace through faith, this is the foundation of our faith.

God has a plan for salvation. We see its beginnings in Genesis. We see it in the covenant with Abram. We see it in the covenant with Jacob. We see it in the covenant with Joseph. Today we read how Joseph’s covenant plays out and provides for the covenant with Jacob.

God has a plan for salvation which begins with the Jews, and through the Jews all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

If there is something important for us to take from this story, it begins with the fact that God’s love is gracious. It is undeserved. And it is overflowing. Flowing like a great flood, the grace of God in Christ will not be contained. God promised by the faithfulness of Israel the world will be blessed, and the gospel gives the world its first indication of that all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

It is also important for us to know that this new blessing will not come without controversy. This narrative must have been scandalous when it was first shared with the nation that this Canaanite woman is blessed by the Lord. The truth is that when blessings overflow to the feet of outsiders, insiders will not be comfortable. It is up to us to know that what God is doing is not meant to make us comfortable, it is meant to save us.

In Genesis, the Lord established what he will do. In Matthew, the Lord established he will do that and more. God will not be limited, not by culture or even by death. God doesn’t change, but the world does; and God saves the world and all that is in it.

I can’t explain why Jesus said what he said, and especially not how he said it. But I believe to a certain degree I can explain why Jesus did what he did. Jesus is faithful and responds to the faithful. What Matthew shows us is the first time this gracious response touched the gentiles.

---

[1] Genesis 28:10-22

[2] Genesis 28: 13b-15

[3] “Covenant,” Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible.

[4] Genesis 12:1b-3

[5] Matthew 10:5b-6

[6] Matthew 14:28

Steadfast, not Inflexible

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday August 17, 2008, the 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

Genesis 45:1-15
Psalm 133
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
Matthew 15:21-28

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

A recent Harris poll[1] asked Americans to name their favorite book. Number one on that list was “The Holy Bible.” This is what the article had to say about scripture:

The most popular and best-selling book of all time is The Holy Bible. No book has had more influence on the world. Its pages tell the story of the creation, fall, and redemption of mankind. Relive the story of creation and the fall of man in Genesis. Cross the wilderness with Moses in Exodus. Welcome the coming of Jesus Christ in the Gospels. The Holy Bible contains epic stories of history, heroism, and hope.

Somehow, I don’t think today’s reading from Matthew’s gospel was the first story that came to the minds of readers who picked The Holy Bible as their favorite book.

There are a lot of things that are troublesome with this reading. Jesus keeps on while a woman begs and pleads for mercy. After the disciples try to shoo her away, she pleads directly to the Rabbi who tells her he tells he was not sent for her or her people. Then in a none too subtle allusion, he calls her and her entire people dogs. I know I get cranky when dinner gets interrupted; still, my activities aren’t read and interpreted in worship. Thank God.

Troublesome is one way to describe Jesus’ behavior. How can we as the disciples of Jesus rationalize this abominable behavior? It isn’t up to us to sugar coat any of it, but it is up to us to try to understand it a little better.

To understand this, we need a little bit of history. As I have said before, the book of Matthew was written by Jewish followers of Jesus for Jewish followers of Jesus. It wasn’t even written as a way to bring new Jewish believers into the community.[2] It was written to instruct the Jewish Christian community in their own faith and clarify it so there would be fewer misunderstandings.

So if we want to say that this reading in particular or the gospel of Matthew in general confuses us; that’s all right because it wasn’t meant for us. Furthermore, our Christian reading set 2,000 years later is a recipe for misunderstanding.

I bring this up to draw your attention to verse 24 as Jesus responds to the Canaanite woman saying, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” Given the first audience of this gospel, this verse was an important endorsement of the covenant between the Lord and Abram.
Genesis 17 begins:

The LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous. This is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.”[3]

Now this is a promise Abraham and those who follow him could sink their teeth into. The Lord would be their God and they would be God’s people. This is the promise which the Jews of Matthew’s day had been waiting to have fulfilled for generations. The kingdom that was foretold here becomes realized first in the Kingdom of David. Jesus as the Son of David brings the Kingdom into the days of Matthew.

This is the promise that was saved when Pharaoh’s right hand man, Zaphenath-paneah saves, the family of Jacob from a seven year drought through Canaan and Egypt. This Egyptian name means “the god speaks and the one who bears the name lives,”[4] and it is a fitting name for a child of the covenant, the great grandson of Abraham, Joseph.

As Joseph meets his brothers in our reading from Genesis, revealing his identity to them, he tells them not to be grieved or angry with themselves. Joseph tells his brothers that God sent him before them to preserve life for the children of Abraham in Egypt. Joseph’s place in Egypt was the work of the Lord God saving the covenant from devastation, not the work of jealous brothers.

In the past I have told you that I am not comfortable with such a fatalistic cause-and-effect outlook on life. I find the Lord too utterly different to ascribe what I think are God’s motivations to earthly actions. I just don’t have the mind of God. My capacities are far too limited compared to the mind of God.

But just because this is my take, it doesn’t mean it was the opinion of those who wrote and edited and copied the wonderful five books of Moses. In fact, their world view and mind set were perfectly able to make those connections without my modern concern. It was a part of the ancient Hebrew view of creation, so this sort of cause and effect was common in the first five books of the Old Testament.

In the same way, the view of Matthew’s community of Jewish Christians knew the truth that the Son of David was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. Matthew’s audience knew this to be true.

Paul’s letter to the Romans reminded the church of Jesus Christ and the nation of Israel of the same thing as he said, “God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.”

But this is where the view of Matthew’s community of Jewish Christians became challenged by their Messiah. Jesus challenges his people to remember not just God’s covenant with Abram, but also Abram’s call from Genesis 12, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing… and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”[5] Yes, Jesus was their savior, sent only to the lost sheep of Israel, but the Lord’s steadfast love was always a promise that extends beyond his first people and on to all of creation.

Paul’s letter to the Romans reminded the church of Jesus Christ and the nation of Israel of the same thing as he said, “for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”

As Jesus told the woman of his people, the children of Abraham, she spoke to his full call, to be a blessing by whom all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Jesus knew his first love, the people of Israel. He also knew the grand scope of his vocation and his mission, to be a blessing to all the families of the earth, spoken by the most unlikely of people.

A woman who has no standing; of the people of Canaan which has no standing; for a little girl who is demon possessed whose youth, gender, race, and ailment cause her to have no standing four times; it is she whose faith overwhelms her place in society to call upon the Lord.

Her faith was demonstrated when she argued with Jesus in the same way one Rabbi argues with another. Her faith was called great when she said “even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Her faith was called great when she showed that she knew the call of the people of Abraham and the Son of David was called to be a blessing to all the earth.

Oh yes, she had a lot of gumption to come to the Lord. Her bravery, the bravery of a she-bear protecting her cub, took her to the Lord. But it was not her bravery that caused Jesus to, if you’ll pardon the modern cliché, cause him to stop in his tracks, it was her faith. And by her faith, the Lord showed that his love for all creation was steadfast, but not inflexible.

There is always a chicken-and-egg question that pops up here. Did Jesus respond to the woman because she bested him in a debate or did Jesus respond to the woman when she gave the answer he knew to be correct all along? I say this question, as provocative as it is, lacks real importance. It is her faith which Jesus rewards; not her William Jennings Bryant quality oratory skills, not her fine rabbinical debate style, not even a system of didactic reward and punishment. It is by her faith that Jesus responds faithfully.

This is the promise to all the earth. This is promise given in the call to Abram. This is the promise Paul reminds the world in Romans. The people of Abram, the children of the covenant, the children of the Son of David will be a blessing to all the earth. By our faith we participate in this gift. By our faith we receive the steadfast love of the glorious eternal triune God.

Mogopa, a village to the west of Johannesburg, was to be demolished and its inhabitants forcibly removed at gunpoint to a homeland in apartheid’s forced population-removal schemes. On the eve of their departure, a vigil with church leaders from all over South Africa was held in Mogopa. The village clinics, shops, schools and churches had already been demolished. At about midnight, an elder of the doomed village got up to pray, and he prayed, “God, thank you for loving us so much.” Several years later, apartheid died and the people of Mogopa have returned to their village, which they are rebuilding.[6]

It is by faith that in the demolition and pending forced relocation of a city, a people can give thanks to God for the Lord’s steadfast love. It would be all too tempting to believe God is unfaithful or at least silent during such a horrible time, in such a horrible situation. Yet still, while their village is about to be scattered to the four winds by the practitioners of apartheid, one village elder remembered to be faithful because in steadfast love, God is faithful first.

God is steadfast, but God is not inflexible. Our Lord Jesus knew his first place was with the people of Israel. And he knew that by Israel being blessed, Israel would be a blessing to the world. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; we are now all children of the covenant. Even in the times when the village is to be scattered, even when the crumbs from the master’s table don’t seem to be enough to fuel our faith, we are still the children of God.

By God’s steadfast love we are saved; saved by grace through faith. Christ’s church was founded on his steadfast love, not bound by our sinfully human views of who is loved by God. Our love can only be partial, but our faith must be not in our love, but in the hope of Jesus Christ. In steadfast hope we can look beyond all partial achievement to the final triumph of God.

[1] “10 Books to Read Before You Die.” Based on the results of a Harris Poll that asked 2,413 U.S. adults to name their favorite books, http://shopping.aol.com/articles/2008/07/08/10-books-to-read-before-you-die/, retrieved August 16, 2008.
[2] The New Interpreters’ Bible. Vol. VIII. Leander Keck, General Editor, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995, page 100
[3] This reading from the New Revised Standard Version has deleted Abram’s responses to the Lord.
[4] Zaphenath-paneah, Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible
[5] Genesis 12:2, 3, NRSV
[6] A Mogopa elder, quoted by Desmond Tutu, “An African Prayer Book.” New York: Doubleday, 1995, page 66. Found at Homiletics.com, http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1218, retrieved August 16, 2008.