Pentecost 15B
Sept. 9, 2012
James 2:1-17
Mark 7:24-37
Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
“God’s
love is better than ice cream.” It’s a cute Rally Day theme, right? There’s a
Sarah McLachlan song by a similar name – “[Your Love Is Better Than] Ice Cream” –
and if I recall I had just listened to it on the way to a meeting in which we
were discussing Rally Day, and so when the question about a possible theme for
Rally Day came up, I threw it out there, and here we are today, our mouths
watering for the ice cream the follows today’s worship service, and ready to
hear about God’s love.
Sure,
I said, and I’ll talk about God’s love in the sermon! We’ll make a whole day of
it! I mean, we pretty much always talk about God’s love in church anyway, don’t
we? The pastor who preceded my dad at his first parish was mocked by one
parishioner as having preached every week, 52 weeks a year, on love. But I
guess you could say that about any gospel-based sermon, because the gospel is a
testament to how much God loves us. “For God so loved the world,” and all that.
So I figured, even without looking at the texts assigned for today, I could
probably squeeze a sermon on God’s love out of them, whatever they are.
When
I first read these texts for today, I saw that there would be no need for
squeezing anything out of them. How rich they are, how saturated with displays
of the vastness of God’s love! And yet, how very challenging they are. Isaiah
reflects on the power and zest God has to free the oppressed. “God will come
and save you!” he bellows. Because that’s what a God who is love does! The
Psalmist sings the praises of a God who gives justice to those who are
oppressed, and food to those who hunger. Salvation! Justice for the oppressed!
Feeding the hungry! These are all words we Christians love to hear and strive
to live!
But
then… while the following two texts are no less about the boundlessness of
God’s love, they are a little more difficult for us to hear. James might as
well be talking about a 21st century church. He challenges his
readers: if a person comes into church one Sunday wearing nice clothes,
well-appointed accessories, and has a fresh haircut, and someone else comes in
with torn jeans, unkempt hair, and maybe a hint of alcohol on his or her
breath, which one will you try to make the newest member of your church? Which
one will you escort to the best seat in the house, and which will you silently
hope will go away? Well, of course I hope that this congregation would gladly
accept both of these children of God, and I believe that we would. But as you
listen to these two scenarios, it’s hard to escape those feelings of favoritism
and partiality that James urges us to avoid, isn’t it?
I
think we can agree that Christ calls us to love both of these neighbors as
ourselves, and we see proof of that in the Gospel reading, though it is also
one of the most difficult passages in the Bible. Jesus has gone to Tyre, far
away from Galilee where he has made a big ruckus. He is approached there by a
woman, a Gentile woman, a Syrophoenician woman. That’s three strikes, folks –
three reasons for her to be untouchable: her gender, her lack of Jewish faith,
and her ethnicity. Jesus did have every reason to avoid her – that is what his
culture and the theology of his faith told him to do, three times over. And
yet, although he appears to first reject her, he does heal the woman’s daughter
in the end. Not only that, but he bestows on her a great compliment: he
commends her faith, her persistence, her dedication to her daughter.
Could
we do it? I don’t mean could we heal and cast out demons. But would we be able
to show the abundant love of God, even to someone who has as many as three big
strikes against them? If God’s love is in us, and enacted through us, how far
are we willing to go to show that love?
Will
Campbell was a white, Baptist preacher, born in Mississippi, and was deeply
involved in the civil rights movement as an activist and agitator on the side
of the African Americans. He served as director for religious life at Ole Miss
for a couple years, but had to leave because his controversial views on race
attracted death threats. He then did a stint for the National Council of
Churches, working with most of the civil rights big shots. In 1957, Campbell
was one of four people who escorted the nine black students who integrated
Little Rock's Central High School; and he was the only white person to attend
the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference by the
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. While we can look back on this, 50 years
later, and admire his work on behalf of the oppressed, and lift him up as a
model of gutsy faith, he wasn’t as popular back then – the hate mail from the
white right poured in.
As
Campbell grew older and more mature, he had an uneasy feeling that he hated the
redneck bigots who hated. How much easier it was to support and defend those he
loved, while hating and oppressing the oppressors. Strange, he thought, how he
enjoyed thinking that God hated all the same people that he hated. He realized
that he had created God in his own image, and after his own personal and
political likeness. He tried to fit the boundlessness of God’s love not for the
1% or the 99%, but for the 100% - all people without conditions, limits, or
exceptions – into his own narrow capabilities.
In
response, Will Campbell did something remarkable. He befriended many prominent
members of the KuKluxKlan, even did some of their weddings and funerals. When
they were sick, he emptied their bedpans. And then you know what happened? The
hate mail flooded in – this time from liberal left.
It’s
not easy to love the outsider – especially when it makes the other insiders
dislike you or question your integrity. It’s not easy to love the hater, when
you disagree with everything about them. But if God loves indiscriminately
without playing favorites, and we are made in God’s image (not vice versa!),
then striving for that boundless love is certainly our call as Christians!
James preaches this in his letter. Christ shows us this in our Gospel lesson,
when he heals the daughter of an outcast woman with three strikes against her,
and when he touches a deaf man with a speech impediment and says, “Be opened.”
“Be
opened.” Perhaps this command is the one we can take with us this day. Be
opened to the possibility that every person here and every person out there is
a person worthy of being loved – by God, and by you. Be opened to the hope that
boundless love brings to our lives. Be opened to the chance that your heart could
be transformed as a result of an encounter from an outsider. Be opened to
learning something about yourself from a stranger. Be opened to opportunities
to serve those who have not had the privilege that many of us have had in our
lives, but also be opened to the possibility that those children of God might
also serve you.
And
one more for today: be opened to the movement of the Spirit in your life, which
may move you toward a service or a practice of faith you had not previously
considered. In a moment, we will have a chance to let that Spirit move in us,
and share some new ways that this community of faithful disciples can share
God’s boundless, impartial, 100% love with each other and with those outside
our walls, in the areas of worship, study and prayer, mission, and youth,
family and community. Let us be opened to hearing the Word of God in our
hearts, pushing us always toward loving and serving our neighbors, both the
insiders and the outsiders, the oppressed and the oppressor, the Democrats and the
Republicans, the well-dressed and the dirty, the spiritual and the religious –
for all of us are a part of the 100% that God loves.
In
the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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