{"id":1267,"date":"2011-08-16T14:13:03","date_gmt":"2011-08-16T14:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=729"},"modified":"2017-08-26T15:26:28","modified_gmt":"2017-08-26T19:26:28","slug":"listen-and-understand-audred-neufeldt-aug-14-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/?p=1267","title":{"rendered":"Listen and Understand – Audred Neufeldt – Aug. 14, 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

View Archives Sermons<\/font><\/a><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

Listen to this Sermon\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

Listen and Understand<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

Texts: Isaiah 56:1, 6-8; Matthew 15:10-28<\/font><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

I have seen the wind<\/em>, our framing metaphor for sermons this summer, <\/em>gives opportunity to reflect on some of the surprising ways in which God speaks to us.\u00a0 As I\u2019ve meditated on today\u2019s sermon over the past month or so, there have been a number of instances where it wasn\u2019t difficult to sense the Spirit\u2019s presence.\u00a0 One was at Mennonite Church Canada\u2019s Annual Assembly.\u00a0 Marilyn spoke of this in her sermon of 10 July.\u00a0 Another was a week or so later when Erna and I drove the Banff \u2013 Jasper icefields highway, seeing with eyes anew God\u2019s handiwork, and reminiscing about previous travels through that glorious part of earth.\u00a0 No doubt you, too, have experienced a sense of wonder when encountering nature. \u00a0 Both the Assembly and time spent in the grandeur of nature lent themselves to a powerfully positive feeling of God\u2019s presence. Yet, there wasn\u2019t a strong resonance with today\u2019s readings.<\/font><\/p>\n

A very different experience has been the storm gripping much of the world these past few weeks \u2013 a storm marked by wildly fluctuating stock markets, riots laying waste to parts of cities, and dysfunctional political responses.\u00a0 Here one senses that God has been all but forgotten, and that there is a need for a \u2018spritual reset\u2019.\u00a0 Indeed, when issues of this kind occur, or others closer to home where deep seated differences of view exist, one senses that God is prompting us to think again about what it is that is worthy.\u00a0 It is this question \u2013 what is aligned with God\u2019s mission; and, who worthy of God\u2019s mercy and love that captured my attention.<\/font><\/p>\n

Let me begin by telling you the end of todays lesson. God\u2019s mercy and love is available to all of us \u2013 to anyone else who seeks it.\u00a0 We are<\/strong> beloved daughters and sons of God.\u00a0 That which was said of Jesus, is said of you \u2013 I \u2013 we \u2013 all of us (see passages in Jeremian, Isaiah, Romans and Ephesians, amongst others).1<\/sup>\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

One of the enormous spiritual tasks we have is to claim that understanding \u2013 to internalize it \u2013 and to live a life based on that knowledge \u2013 to align ourselves accordingly.\u00a0 And that is not very easy. In part, it\u2019s not easy because we humans are prone to doing things that undermine our relationship with God.\u00a0 And, in part, it\u2019s not easy because we fall into the trap of thinking we know better than others what it takes to be godly.\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Lectionary readings reflect something of that difficulty.\u00a0 The Isaiah reading speaks to the Lord\u2019s intent to maintain justice and do what is right \u2013 AND then makes it clear that \u2018God\u2019s chosen people\u2019, the Israelites, aren\u2019t the only ones he will gather to His house of prayer.\u00a0 Those \u2018foreigners\u2019, those unclean people who join themselves to the Lord will also be amongst those invited.\u00a0 The mercy of God is for everyone aligned with God\u2019s mission, is the message.<\/font><\/p>\n

This theme is elaborated on in the two-part reading from Matthew 15. In the first, verses 10-20, Jesus seems frustrated and annoyed.\u00a0 \u201cListen and understand\u2026\u201d <\/em>he begins. That\u2019s a rather startling opening to a talk.\u00a0 Jesus seems more than a little impatient with the dull witted bunch around him.\u00a0 \u2018Don\u2019t you guys get it?\u2019 Then he proceeds to instruct them in blunt language as to what defiles human relationship with God.\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

In the second part, verses 21\u201328, the lesson is put to the test.\u00a0 Jesus has an intense encounter with a woman who, by every criterion of the day, would have been considered unclean and defiled \u2013 not worthy of God\u2019s mercy. Jesus\u2019 first response seems just plain mean, if not arrogant.\u00a0 He dismisses the woman as not worthy of mercy.\u00a0 But, then, Jesus makes a surprising reversal.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

Part I<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

Before getting into the text, let\u2019s think a little about the context.\u00a0 Jesus has been ministering for some time in areas around the Sea of Galilea \u2013 traveling from one place to another, speaking at synagogues and on mountain sides, turning water into wine, healing the sick and disabled, even feeding a crowd of 5000 from a few loaves and fishes.\u00a0 Word of his teaching has reached Jerusalem.\u00a0 Immediately before today\u2019s reading, Jesus\u2019 patience has been tested by a group of Pharisees and scribes who\u2019ve come to check him out.\u00a0 \u00a0 The topic of conversation was about washing your hands before eating, something Pharisees were careful to do.\u00a0 The Pharisees challenge Jesus with: “Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

To our way thinking, this \u2018washing hands\u2019 issue seems a little silly. It\u2019s the sort of argument that has given Pharisees a bad name amongst Christians over the years. Yet, if you pardon the pun, it would be a mistake to dismiss their concern out of hand. \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

As best as I can tell, as a group, the Pharisees were a lot like you and I \u2013 some good, even followers of Jesus; some bad, interested primarily in their own status or wealth or power; most probably somewhere in between \u2013 all were people caught up in the traditions and conventions of their time.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

Every society, ours included, lives by social conventions \u2013 they\u2019re important, giving predictability and order to our lives. They are time-tested codes of behaviour for living rightly with our families and neighbours.\u00a0 We have conventions on how to be courteous in talking to one other, in what it means to be clean, on which public bathroom to use, on how to eat in public so we don\u2019t offend our neighbors, and so on. These are learned early in life, and are carried with us until we die. They\u2019re not written down.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t necessarily a right and wrong.\u00a0 They haven\u2019t been explicitly discussed and agreed upon.\u00a0 But, cross a social convention, and others are bound to be upset because these codes are embedded in our most deeply held sense of what is true and right and just.\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

The problem with social convent
\nions, of course, is that they are also, by definition, conservative, closed, static, and unimaginative; and not progressive, open, dynamic, or creative.\u00a0 So while they maintain the distilled wisdom from past experience, they also inevitably collide with the on-going creativity of God. Or as Isaiah puts it, social conventions are human wisdom and not God’s wisdom.<\/font><\/p>\n

For the Pharisees of Jesus day the question on washing hands before eating was not about hygiene. They had no knowledge of bacteria.\u00a0 It was a social convention. To them hand washing was a behavioural way of saying grace before a meal \u2013 it was part of a ritual preparation that outwardly expressed inner reverence and respect for the Creator of the Universe who provided the food about to be eaten.\u00a0 So, when the Pharisees publicly challenge Jesus and question why his disciples are not washing their hands before eating (Verses 1-2), they are really saying “You and your disciples cannot be holy men because you are not behaving in holy ways.”<\/font><\/p>\n

As usual, Jesus does not directly address their challenge. Instead of talking about handwashing, he changes the topic to what goes into and comes out of our mouths. He\u2019s trying to get his disciples to see through external social conventions to the inner reality of what God desires for individuals and communities.\u00a0 His response is about how what is in our hearts leads to what comes out of our mouths. And, without saying so directly, he implies that what has just come out of the mouths of the Pharisees has shown their inward evil thoughts. \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

And to the disciples he says: \u201cAre you also still without understanding? Do you not see that what goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles?\u201d<\/em> \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

The language Jesus uses to describe what comes from the heart is blunt and direct. Out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander.\u00a0 <\/em>In constrast, eating without washing your hands is nothing, he says.<\/font><\/p>\n

These words could as well be addressed to us \u2013 a useful reminder that what comes out of our mouths is not always pure or without self-interest or coloured by one social agenda or another. \u00a0 Further, like the Pharisees, the social agendas we choose to pursue aren\u2019t always as pure as we think them to be.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

Part II<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

Then, Jesus retires to to the district of Tyre and Sidon where the lesson he has just taught is put to the test. A Canaanite woman appears and cries out to Jeus to heal her daughter.\u00a0 Matthew presents an intricately woven account of what happens, presenting a very human Jesus and a very specific picture of this woman.\u00a0 She is called a Canaanite woman, though it should be noted that the region of Canaan had long since disappeared.\u00a0 What is clear is she is not one of Jesus\u2019 people.\u00a0 And, by definition, she\u2019s \u2018unclean\u2019. \u00a0 If we hold on to the message that what comes out of our mouths is what makes clean or unclean, then we can hear this story in a new light. \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

Matthew presents the story in a dramatic way.\u00a0 It could be an opera.\u00a0 Jesus stands middle stage.\u00a0 On the one side is one woman, all alone, trying to get his attention, calling for help.\u00a0 She\u2019s obviously not welcome.\u00a0 On the other, we have the disciples.\u00a0 They\u2019re the bouncers.\u00a0 They bristle with indignation, on guard lest the mercies of God are wasted on the unworthy.<\/font><\/p>\n

On this side the woman cries out: \u201cHave mercy on me\u2026\u201d \u2013 kyrie eleison<\/em>!\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

On that, the disciples respond: \u201cGet rid of her?\u201d<\/font><\/p>\n

And, what does Jesus do, this messenger of good news?\u00a0 At first he joins the \u2018bouncers\u2019 \u2013 adding a few choice phrases himself: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”\u00a0<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

She\u2019s persistent \u2013 again, another kyrie<\/em>: \u201cLord, help me<\/em>\u201d she says.<\/font><\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 response is unsympathetic, even arrogant: \u201cIt is not fair to take the children\u2019s food and throw it to the dogs.\u201d<\/em> If there ever was doubt of Jesus\u2019 humanness, this should put it to rest.<\/font><\/p>\n

But, she doesn\u2019t back down \u2013 the life of her daughter is at stake.\u00a0 She picks up his words and throws them back: \u201cYes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” <\/em>It seems she knows about the feeding of the 5000, and the baskets of crumbs picked up at the end.<\/font><\/p>\n

And then, Jesus makes a U-turn in the face of this wondrously-strange and persistent faith that stands its ground against all opposition.\u00a0 Jesus seems converted to a larger vision, a fuller revelation of God in the voice and face of this woman: “<\/span>Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”\u00a0<\/em> And, her daughter was healed.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

I began with the question: \u201cwhat is aligned with God\u2019s mission and who is worthy of God\u2019s mercy and love?\u201d\u00a0 This combination of passages, Verses 10 \u2013 20 and 21 \u2013 28, illustrate all too well struggles we face as communities of faith in addressing this question. \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

The \u2018who is worthy part\u2019 is easy.\u00a0 This story, like the Isaiah passage, challenges a too narrow tradition that would restrict God\u2019s mercies to a chosen few. God\u2019s mercy and love is available to all of us \u2013 to anyone who seeks it.\u00a0 We ARE beloved daughters and sons of God. We were beloved before we were born.\u00a0 We are beloved after we die.\u00a0 In between our calling is to live our lives as one of the beloved.<\/font><\/p>\n

But, to claim that heritage we have to internalize it \u2013 to live a life based on that knowledge \u2013 to be imitators of God as Paul says to the church in Ephasus. The \u2018aligning with God\u2019s mission\u2019 part \u2013 that is not easy. \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

Few of us are strangers to compromised personal motivation \u2013 where what comes out of our mouths needs to be received with a measure of grace.\u00a0 Whether the issues we struggle with are intensely personal, or within our families or neighbourhood, or within our community of faith, we inevitably are caught u
\np in the knowledge and social conventions of our time \u2013 even as we seek to discern God\u2019s wisdom. If even Jesus could be trapped in a socially conventional way of thinking about who was \u2018clean\u2019 or \u2018unclean\u2019, how can we expect to do better? \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

Yet, it is this very story that gives hope. By linking these two encounters of Jesus \u2013 first with the Pharisees, then with the Canaanite woman \u2013 Matthew makes it clear that pursuit of justice, claiming one\u2019s birthright as beloved of God, with persistence, will eventually reap results.\u00a0 It is the persistent faith of the Canaanite woman, in the face of immense resistance premised on human wisdom, not God\u2019s, that makes the difference.\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

The good news is that, following on this encounter with the Canaanite woman, Jesus began ministering beyond Galilee to feed those who had not yet been fed.\u00a0 This legacy is ours to claim. \u00a0\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a01. <\/span>\u201cI have loved you with an everlasting love\u2026\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>(Jer. 31:3); \u201cI have written your name on the palms of my hand<\/em>\u201d (Isaiah 49:16); \u201cTo all that be in Rome beloved of God called to be saints\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/em> (Romans 1:7; <\/em>\u201cTherefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us\u2026<\/em> (Ephesians 5:1, 2a).<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

View Archives Sermons Listen to this Sermon\u00a0 Listen and Understand Texts: Isaiah 56:1, 6-8; Matthew 15:10-28 \u00a0 I have seen the wind, our framing metaphor for sermons this summer, gives opportunity to reflect on some of the surprising ways in which God speaks to us.\u00a0 As I\u2019ve meditated on today\u2019s sermon over the past month or so, there have been a number of instances where it wasn\u2019t difficult to sense the Spirit\u2019s presence.\u00a0 One was at Mennonite Church Canada\u2019s Annual…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-a-worship-audio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3967,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267\/revisions\/3967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}