Year A
Isaiah 56:1,6-8
Psalm 67
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
Matthew 15:10-28<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Almost all of you know\u2026 that I grew up Jewish\u2026 and I was keenly aware of being in a minority\u2026 televangelists told me that if I didn’t believe\u2026 I’d burn in hell\u2026 a classmate in second grade blamed me for killing Jesus\u2026 and sometimes… we really did go out for Chinese food and a movie on Christmas\u2026 and when Christmas fell on a weekday\u2026 there’d be no school\u2026 but some kind of special arrangements needed to be made so my family could go to synagogue when holidays like Yom Kippur fell on a weekday\u2026 and when I was in tenth grade\u2026 and we went to visit my grandfather in Miami\u2026 while waiting for the hotel elevator\u2026 one of the two men waiting there said to the other\u2026 in an exasperated tone of voice\u2026 I can’t believe how many Jews there are here<\/em>\u2026 and I felt so uncomfortable\u2026 I pretended that I remembered something in my room just so I could get out of there\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire\u2026 Jerry comes to the home where the Divorced Women\u2019s Group is meeting\u2026 his former wife Dorothy is there\u2026 and he enters the living room somewhat sheepishly\u2026 and to get their attention\u2026 he says Hello\u2026 twice\u2026 his eyes meet Dorothy’s\u2026 and he bares his soul\u2026 acknowledges his arrogance\u2026 and shares that on what was supposed to be the happiest night of his career\u2026 he felt incomplete\u2026 he couldn\u2019t share it and laugh about it with his wife\u2026 and looking at her\u2026 he says “I love you. You complete me.” to which Dorothy replied “Shut up. You had me at hello.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n And when I was baptized at thirty-seven\u2026 it wasn’t because I now thought Judaism was somehow wrong\u2026 and Christianity was somehow right\u2026 it was because God had me at incarnation\u2026 at God wanting to be in relationship with us so much that God came to be one of us\u2026 it was because Jesus came to affirm that God’s inner circle was boundless\u2026 and there could no longer be anyone\u2026 for any reason\u2026 on the outside of it\u2026 but there are those\u2026 who firmly believe\u2026 that Christianity replaced Judaism\u2026 there’s a Christian theology called supersessionism\u2026 which claims that the Christian Church has replaced the nation of Israel as God’s covenanted people\u2026 a theology which maintains that the New Covenant through Jesus has replaced the Mosaic covenant which God made with the Jewish people\u2026 that the Christian Church has replaced ancient Israel as God’s True Israel\u2026 and that Christians have replaced the ancient Israelites\u2026 as the People of God\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Episcopal Church’s former Presiding Bishop\u2026 the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori\u2026 said\u2026 For us Christians, Jesus is our doorway to God; but for us to think that God couldn’t possibly act in some other way, is for us humans to put God in a very small box<\/em>\u2026 ] and let’s remember that boxes don’t exist in nature\u2026 they’re our short-sighted human attempt to contain and control\u2026 and Natalie Wigg-Stevenson writes\u2026 that today’s reading from Romans\u2026 tackles supersessionism head-on\u2026 after Paul\u2019s opening remark\u2026 Did God reject his people? By no means!<\/em> \u2026 he affirms that\u2026 God\u2019s gifts and call are irrevocable<\/em>\u2026 but today’s reading jumps from verse 2a\u2026 to verse 29\u2026 and far too many Christians have weaponized many of these missing verses against Jews\u2026 for example\u2026 in v. 6\u2026 the false dichotomy of God\u2019s covenant with Israel being of law<\/em>\u2026 is pitted against the covenant with Christians being by grace<\/em>\u2026 in v. 7\u2026 the terminology of the elect<\/em> is set against the hardened<\/em>\u2026 and when in v. 14\u2026 God uses Gentiles to make Israel jealous<\/em> \u2026 it\u2019s too often presumed that all Jews have stomped off in a huff\u2026 but only a supersessionist reading of this verse would require Jews who want to be included in God\u2019s new covenant\u2026 to exit and reenter through Jesus\u2026 ] but Paul\u2026 however… names no such requirement\u2026 and vv. 17 – 21\u2026 which imply that God might prune Israel’s tree in order to graft on Gentiles\u2026 which Christians have used to condemn Jews\u2026 are also the verses which put Christians in our rightful place\u2026 even warning in v. 21 that we too could be pruned\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just a little bit earlier in Matthew’s Gospel\u2026 after hearing about the death of his cousin John the Baptist\u2026 Jesus needed some down time\u2026 he tried to get away by himself\u2026 but when he saw the crowds\u2026 he had compassion on them\u2026 and cured the sick\u2026 and fed the more than 5,000 men\u2026 women\u2026 and children\u2026 and now he tries to get away again\u2026 and just when he thinks he may get some down time\u2026 just when he thinks he may go unnoticed\u2026 just when he thinks he may be able to pull the covers over his head and leave the world behind\u2026 we can imagine his patience being pulled really thin\u2026 when a Canaanite woman comes and starts shouting at him\u2026 the disciples say\u2026 Send her away\u2026 for she keeps shouting after us<\/em>\u2026 and it may be easy to think\u2026 it was for me… that when Jesus says\u2026 I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel<\/em>\u2026 that he’s speaking to this woman\u2026 but the flow of the text indicates that he’s actually answering the disciples\u2026 but either way\u2026 Jesus is not being compassionate\u2026 he may be having a bad day\u2026 or else he’s just really tired from not getting the rest he’s been trying to get\u2026 and I dare say\u2026 that with these words\u2026 Jesus is being as exclusive about Judaism\u2026 as supersessionists are about Christianity\u2026 but this sassy woman overhears\u2026 something is wrong with her daughter\u2026 and she is confident that Jesus can help\u2026 but she needs Jesus to act NOW\u2026 she is desperate\u2026 and desperate people have nothing to lose\u2026 and so she challenges Jesus’ understanding of his call\u2026 Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters\u2019 table\u2026<\/em> and somehow\u2026 in a way that is shrouded in the pages of mystery\u2026 Jesus comes to himself\u2026 and affirms her faith\u2026 and heals her daughter\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cait and Becky\u2026 baptism is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace\u2026 as he is baptized\u2026 Sutton will be grafted onto the body of Christ\u2026 and you two\u2026 and Ellery\u2026 and the tribes and the communities of which you’re a part\u2026 will do all you can to raise him up with a love of God… a desire to follow Jesus on The Way\u2026 and an eagerness to listen to the Holy Spirit so that what proceeds from his heart will be sweetness in his mouth\u2026 and you will remind him\u2026 as we remind each other\u2026 that the boundless inner circle which Jesus came to affirm\u2026 includes each and every one of us\u2026 no matter what kind of day we’re having\u2026 or how tired we are\u2026 or how we seek the Mystery from which we come\u2026 ] and that we\u2026 like this gutsy Canaanite woman\u2026 whose words of desperation arose out of the love for her child\u2026 even we\u2026 like the prophets of old\u2026 may occasionally seek to hold God accountable for the promises God has made to us\u2026 even as we hold ourselves accountable to doing all that is needed\u2026 to help those promises take shape\u2026 and be realized\u2026 and come to fruition\u2026 Holy God\u2026 make it so\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year A Isaiah 56:1,6-8 Psalm 67 Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 Matthew 15:10-28 May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 Almost all of you know\u2026 that I grew up Jewish\u2026 and I was keenly aware of being in a minority\u2026 televangelists told me that if I didn’t believe\u2026 I’d burn in hell\u2026 a classmate in second grade blamed me for killing Jesus\u2026 and sometimes… we really did go out for Chinese food and a movie on Christmas\u2026 and when Christmas fell on a weekday\u2026 there’d be no school\u2026 but some kind of special arrangements needed to be made so my family could go to synagogue when holidays like Yom Kippur fell on a weekday\u2026 and when I was in tenth grade\u2026 and we went to visit my grandfather in Miami\u2026 while waiting for the hotel elevator\u2026 one of the two men waiting there said to the other\u2026 in an exasperated tone of voice\u2026 I can’t believe how many Jews there are here\u2026 and I felt so uncomfortable\u2026 I pretended that I remembered something in my room just so I could get out of there\u2026 In the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire\u2026 Jerry comes to the home where the Divorced Women\u2019s Group is meeting\u2026 his former wife Dorothy is there\u2026 and he enters the living room somewhat sheepishly\u2026 and to get their attention\u2026 he says Hello\u2026 twice\u2026 his eyes meet Dorothy’s\u2026 and he bares his soul\u2026 acknowledges his arrogance\u2026 and shares that on what was supposed to be the happiest night of his career\u2026 he felt incomplete\u2026 he couldn\u2019t share it and laugh about it with his wife\u2026 and looking at her\u2026 he says “I love you. You complete me.” to which Dorothy replied “Shut up. You had me at hello.” And when I was baptized at thirty-seven\u2026 it wasn’t because I now thought Judaism was somehow wrong\u2026 and Christianity was somehow right\u2026 it was because God had me at incarnation\u2026 at God wanting to be in relationship with us so much that God came to be one of us\u2026 it was because Jesus came to affirm that God’s inner circle was boundless\u2026 and there could no longer be anyone\u2026 for any reason\u2026 on the outside of it\u2026 but there are those\u2026 who firmly believe\u2026 that Christianity replaced Judaism\u2026 there’s a Christian theology called supersessionism\u2026 which claims that the Christian Church has replaced the nation of Israel as God’s covenanted people\u2026 a theology which maintains that the New Covenant through Jesus has replaced the Mosaic covenant which God made with the Jewish people\u2026 that the Christian Church has replaced ancient Israel as God’s True Israel\u2026 and that Christians have replaced the ancient Israelites\u2026 as the People of God\u2026 The Episcopal Church’s former Presiding Bishop\u2026 the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori\u2026 said\u2026 For us Christians, Jesus is our doorway to God; but for us to think that God couldn’t possibly act in some other way, is for us humans to put God in a very small box\u2026 ] and let’s remember that boxes don’t exist in nature\u2026 they’re our short-sighted human attempt to contain and control\u2026 and Natalie Wigg-Stevenson writes\u2026 that today’s reading from Romans\u2026 tackles supersessionism head-on\u2026 after Paul\u2019s opening remark\u2026 Did God reject his people? By no means! \u2026 he affirms that\u2026 God\u2019s gifts and call are irrevocable\u2026 but today’s reading jumps from verse 2a\u2026 to verse 29\u2026 and far too many Christians have weaponized many of these missing verses against Jews\u2026 for example\u2026 in v. 6\u2026 the false dichotomy of God\u2019s covenant with Israel being of law\u2026 is pitted against the covenant with Christians being by grace\u2026 in v. 7\u2026 the terminology of the elect is set against the hardened\u2026 and when in v. 14\u2026 God uses Gentiles to make Israel jealous \u2026 it\u2019s too often presumed that all Jews have stomped off in a huff\u2026 but only a supersessionist reading of this verse would require Jews who want to be included in God\u2019s new covenant\u2026 to exit and reenter through Jesus\u2026 ] but Paul\u2026 however… names no such requirement\u2026 and vv. 17 – 21\u2026 which imply that God might prune Israel’s tree in order to graft on Gentiles\u2026 which Christians have used to condemn Jews\u2026 are also the verses which put Christians in our rightful place\u2026 even warning in v. 21 that we too could be pruned\u2026 Just a little bit earlier in Matthew’s Gospel\u2026 after hearing about the death of his cousin John the Baptist\u2026 Jesus needed some down time\u2026 he tried to get away by himself\u2026 but when he saw the crowds\u2026 he had compassion on them\u2026 and cured the sick\u2026 and fed the more than 5,000 men\u2026 women\u2026 and children\u2026 and now he tries to get away again\u2026 and just when he thinks he may get some down time\u2026 just when he thinks he may go unnoticed\u2026 just when he thinks he may be able to pull the covers over his head and leave the world behind\u2026 we can imagine his patience being pulled really thin\u2026 when a Canaanite woman comes and starts shouting at him\u2026 the disciples say\u2026 Send her away\u2026 for she keeps shouting after us\u2026 and it may be easy to think\u2026 it was for me… that when Jesus says\u2026 I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel\u2026 that he’s speaking to this woman\u2026 but the flow of the text indicates that he’s actually answering the disciples\u2026 but either way\u2026 Jesus is not being compassionate\u2026 he may be having a bad day\u2026 or else he’s just really tired from not getting the rest he’s been trying to get\u2026 and I dare say\u2026 that with these words\u2026 Jesus is being as exclusive about Judaism\u2026 as supersessionists are about Christianity\u2026 but this sassy woman overhears\u2026 something is wrong with her daughter\u2026 and she is confident that Jesus can help\u2026 but she needs Jesus to act NOW\u2026 she is desperate\u2026 and desperate people have nothing to lose\u2026 and so she challenges Jesus’ understanding of his call\u2026 Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2171,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[272,271,255],"class_list":["post-2169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermons","tag-gods-promises","tag-matthew-1510-28","tag-time-after-pentecost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/crumby-dog-2a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2172,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2169\/revisions\/2172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}