Pentecost

Proper 16A: The Keys to the Kingdom

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Old KeysOLD TESTAMENT: Exodus 1: 8-2:10

To read the Old Testament Lectionary passage, click here

By the end of the Genesis story, Joseph and the rest of those with him had risen far in the Egyptian society. They were immigrants and yet they were accepted and had even achieved status and power. In fact, Joseph was second in command to Pharaoh. But things change. A new king was installed over Egypt who did not know Joseph and who actually feared the status and power that Joseph and the Israelites had gained. So very quickly Joseph and the Israelites moved from being accepted and welcomed guests to being suspect aliens that were feared by the Egyptian citizens. The new Pharaoh successfully characterized the Israelites as a threat to Egypt’s economy and way of life and with that fear instilled in them, the Egyptian society rallied behind their new leader.

So, to keep the Israelites “in their place” and control them a little bit more, the Egyptians created a forced labor program and put the immigrant Israelites to work rebuilding their infrastructure. But the Israelite population kept growing in multitudes and the Egyptians became more and more fearful of these immigrants taking over in their society. So, in an effort to counter this problem, the new Pharaoh ordered that when a Hebrew woman gives birth, the midwife who is assisting her, should kill the child if it is a boy. Well, keep in mind that a midwife is a medical person of the time. It was not in their nature to take a life. So when Pharaoh asked why there were still Israelite boys who were allowed to live, the midwife simply told him that the Hebrew woman gave birth too fast for them to get there and take the child. (Apparently, Pharaoh does not see the females as a threat. Sure…you just go ahead and think that Pharaoh!). Pharaoh’s next order is to take the Hebrew male babies and throw them into the Nile. (What a bizarre thought…to throw dead babies into your main source of water and irrigation!)

During this time, a man from the Tribe of Levi married and the woman had a male child. Rather than risk the wrath of Pharaoh against her child, she hid him and then eventually placed him in the river. Ironically, it was Pharaoh’s daughter that found the child and adopted him. And, even more ironically, it was the child’s mother who then received wages for being a nursemaid for the child. The child grew up as Pharaoh’s grandson. He was named Moses, which means “I drew him out of the water.” He would become the central figure in the Exodus story, the central figure in the way that God shapes Israel’s future. Israel’s future has been preserved. Even from oppression, comes survival. God can use this.

Perhaps our message is one of sort faithful subversion. Perhaps we are called not to just follow in blind obedience but to respond with compassion and grace. Perhaps true loyalty (true patriotism, if you will) is not blind faith but rather a faithful response at every turn of whether or not our society and our world truly look like they are called to look. Sadly, parts of this commentary sound like they came from yesterday’s New York Times rather than a 3,500-year old Biblical text. Are we called to preserve our world and our society or are we called to transform it into something else?

All through history, the world has gone through out and out paradigm shifts. Old ideas and archaic notions were given questions and did not have an answer to provide. So, things changed. Painfully, sometimes, things changed. Here, a life is brought into oppression and terror and creates life itself. Moses would lead the people out of their enslavement and to freedom. But they would never be the same again. It happened again 1,500 years later. A life was brought into oppression and terror and creates life itself. Jesus would lead the people out of their enslavement and to freedom. But we would never be the same again. So, why is it so important for us to preserve our society the way it is? Why do we fear those who are different? Maybe in this time of wars and airstrikes and uncertainty; of arguments over budgets and debt ceilings and insurance and who is actually “American”; of the juxtaposition of natural drought and human oppression as it creates a moral and physical crisis around the globe; of fears over terrorists and loss of life as we know it—maybe now is the time when we are called to look anew at what God may be calling us to do. Maybe a newfound freedom waits just over the horizon. But we will never be the same again. Thanks be to God!

Years ago when I was traveling in Israel, I met a Jew from Chicago who had dedicated his life to the Zionist cause and whose home was a kibbutz in the desert. When his passion and militancy in that armed camp were questioned, he told a midrash on Moses at the Red Sea. He described for us Moses leading the people homeward only to suddenly be confronted ahead by the deep sea waters and behind him by the fierce armies of Pharaoh. Moses is poised between the devil and the deep blue sea. “It was,” he says, “when Moses’ big toe touches the water that the sea parts and slavery is left behind. The moral or teaching of the tale,” he told us, “was do not stand on the river bank praying for miracles.” Like Jesus, intent upon abundant life for his followers, the call is to step over old boundaries, risk the unknown, and to brave the darkness for the sake of new life….The ultimate challenge to us, however, as it was for those who accompanied Moses to the sea, may be finally to step into the deep water and brave the darkness in search of that person we are waiting to become rather than cursing the shadows and clinging sadly to what was. (Excerpt from “An Invitation to Find Ourselves”, a sermon by Rev. Dr. William L. Dols, available at http://day1.org/555-an_invitation_to_find_ourselves, accessed 10 August, 2011.)

 

  1. What is your response to this passage?
  2. What image of God does this story depict?
  3. What about this story mirrors our own society?
  4. What things do we clutch and try to preserve that may be getting in the way of what God is calling us to be?

 

 

NEW TESTAMENT: Romans 12: 1-8

To read the Lectionary Epistle passage, click here

Continuing with Paul’s Letter to the Romans, he now focuses not so much on whether or not Israel figures into this salvation formula, but on the newly-formed congregations themselves. These are more than likely “house churches”, small congregations of a few families and individuals that are finding that they are a lot more diverse than they thought.

So Paul begins by calling the congregations to see themselves and all they are as a sacrifice to God. For Paul, submitting to God means letting go of the allegiances of this world, those things that get in the way of who one is being called to be before God. It is a call to renewal of one’s whole self before God. Paul then turns to a warning to people not to think too highly of themselves or their spirituality, not to see themselves as better or more spiritual or more gifted than others. It is a calling to a spiritual maturity that will move one past the need to validate oneself. Paul repeats the image that he used in the Corinthian letter of the church as a body, composed of everyone’s diverse gifts. And together as a body, the church can be the church. Everyone’s gifts that they bring to the table are important and necessary for the Body of Christ to BE the Body of Christ.

Paul challenges us to see ourselves as the embodiment of Christ in the world, not primarily as individuals but as local communities, yet belonging also to a larger whole. Difference is acknowledged. People are not all the same. They do not all have the same abilities. The common life is nothing other than the life of Christ, the life of the Spirit. This remains the constant. We are not asked as individuals to be Christ or Christs, let alone saviours of the world, although many suffer from this misconception and the burn out it produces. We are asked to be members of a body, of Christ, and to play our part – not more, not less. It is essentially a discussion about stewardship, about using what God has given you and infused into your life to build up and bring in the fullness of the Kingdom of God.

The truth is, spirituality is not something that is generally measurable. I mean, really, what does it mean for one person to be more “spiritual” than another. Living into God’s calling means surrendering to God; it means getting oneself out of the way. Instead of figuring out what we need to do for God, we are called to listen to what God is calling us to do for the world. C.S. Lewis once said that “all genuine religious conversions are blessed defeats.” So, are we trying to be spiritual or are we trying to listen to what God is calling us to be?

 

  1. What meaning does this passage hold for you?
  2. In what ways do gifts contribute to or deflect from the unity of Christ’s Body?
  3. What, then, does this say about what the Body of Christ is or what it should be?
  4. What does it mean to surrender to God in terms of our spiritual life?
  5. How well do we use everyone’s gifts to be the Body of Christ?

 

 

GOSPEL: Matthew 16: 13-20

http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=274779886

This Scripture also appears in the Gospel version written by the writer who we know as Mark but Peter comes out looking a little different. There, Peter fails to understand who Jesus is and is all but characterized as one who is not with Jesus or some sort of outsider. But here, Peter comes out looking pretty good. He depicts the true disciple who understands who Jesus is and the significance of Jesus in the broader picture.

This interaction between Jesus and the disciples is probably the writer’s way of trying to clarify understandings of Jesus and his work and perhaps clear out some of the “misunderstandings”. Keep in mind that in 1st century Judaism, the name “Mashiah” (Messiah) had several different meanings. It essentially means “anointed”, or “one who is anointed” for a specific purpose and vocation. That could mean a prophet, a king, a warrior, or a savior. From that standpoint, the “Messiah” probably meant to each person whatever it was that would fulfill the needs and fears of that person. Also keep in mind that this version of the Gospel was probably written after the destruction of the temple and the devastation of Jerusalem. There were real fears present. There were real questions. OK, then, who IS the Messiah? Who is going to help us now? And what does that mean? Some people saw Messianic qualities in John the Baptist; others in Elijah; others in Jeremiah or others. They saw in those people the answer to their questions, the answers to their own unique array of issues, problems, and fears. But those people were gone. (And, at the point of this writing, so was Jesus!) And yet Jesus, as Messiah, lives as God’s Spirit moves and works through the community of faith building the kingdom of God. The meaning was not one that could be “nailed down”; instead it has to be lived out in one’s life.

This passage also characterizes an understanding of what the church itself is supposed to be. The word “church” is seldom used in the Gospel accounts. In fact Matthew uses it only here and in the 18th chapter of Matthew. The church is not merely an institution. This is not meant to be the beginning the Christian church as we know it. Rather, church here is referring to the foundation that spawns the continuing work of Jesus Christ in the world. It is a foundation that is so strong that nothing else can overcome it—not even death itself. The work of Christ has begun and nothing can stop it. The “key” image in rabbinic thought primarily refers to authority that is given to Peter (and to the church) to BE the church. This really has nothing to do with apostolic succession or “church authority” as we know it today. (That will come MUCH later after many arguments over who God is and who the church should be!) It has nothing to do with building great big congregations; it has to do with being swept into the Kingdom of God and being a part of ushering it into its fullness. Mark Allan Powell makes that point that “the church has the authority to declare God’s will not because it exhibits more insight or greater faithfulness to God than others but because Jesus Christ, God’s Son, has chosen to be present in the church and to exercise his authority on earth through this community.” (From Feasting on the Word, by Mitchell G. Reddish, p. 385)

The passage ends with Jesus’ directive to keep what is called the “Messianic Secret”. Why? One would think that he would want it shouted from the rooftops. And yet, the truth is not revealed until well after the Resurrection. It, again, has to be lived into. This writing is pointing to what is to come. As the story continues, Jesus’ earthly life will come to an abrupt and painful end. And, yet, the story continues, bound in heaven and hear on earth. You just have to live into it to get the full meaning and realize that God’s creative power is always and forever loose in the world. There are lots of understandings of God in this world. (Actually, who are we kidding? There are several understandings among those who are reading this right now!) Some understandings resonate with us; some challenge us; some make us uncomfortable; and, frankly, others probably just get in the way. This is not a God to be explained but one to follow. So, then, who do you say Jesus is? Jesus is not a model of the way we should be; rather, Jesus lives through us. So how does that change the answer to the question?

 

  1. What meaning does this passage hold for you?
  2. What does the notion of “Messiah” mean for you?
  3. What would our church look like if we truly understand this notion of the “church” represented here?
  4. What makes you realize that “creative power of God” in our world today?

 

Some Quotes for Further Reflection:

 

The future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens.   (Rainer Maria Rilke)

 

What we are looking for on earth and in earth and in our lives is the process that can unlock for us the mystery of meaningfulness in our daily lives. It has been the best-kept secret down through the ages because it is so simple. Truly, the last place it would ever occur to most of us to find the sacred would be in the commonplace of our everyday lives and all about us in nature and in simple things. (Alice O. Howell, The Dove in the Stone)

 

Meaning does not come to us in finished form, ready-made; it must be found, created, received, constructed. We grow our way toward it. (Ann Bedford Ulanov)

 

Closing

O God, you have prepared in peace the path I must follow today. Help me to walk straight on that path. If I speak, remove lies from my lips. If I am hungry, take away from me all complaint. If I have plenty, destroy pride in me. May I go through the day calling on you, you, O Lord, who know no other Lord. Amen. (Galla, Ethiopia, from An African Prayer Book, Desmond Tutu, ed., 119)

Proper 15A: Erring on the Side of Grace

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W.592.43aOLD TESTAMENT: Genesis 45: 1-15

To read the Old Testament Lectionary passage, click here

This is sort of a climactic point in the relationship of Joseph and his brothers. Joseph sits in a position to do with his brothers as he pleases. Yet he makes no effort to hold their feet to the fire; there is no evidence of anger or irritation. This passage contains high drama. It is a part of the continuing saga of Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his brothers over jealousy and hatred. He is taken into slavery in Egypt, where he rises to the highest of places in the Egyptian government because he provides a service to Pharaoh. So Joseph is chosen as prime minister in charge of both the palace and the country, second only in command to Pharaoh. This comes about 13 years after his enslavement.

Joseph and his wife have two sons—Ephraim (“Prospered”) and Manasseh (“Preserved”), named in recognition of God’s involvement. When the years of famine come, Egypt, like the surrounding nations, is affected but they are the only ones that have stores of grain. Joseph’s wisdom enables Egypt to become the “bread basket for the world.”

The chapter that we read this week is sort of the climax to the story. Standing alone with his brothers, he reveals his identity. (It is interesting that Joseph sort of dismissed everyone. It was as if this was a private family affair. Perhaps he did not want to see his brothers embarrassed. Perhaps he knew he could not contain his own emotions.) All of the brothers are alive. The silence that ensues is the point at which reconciliation is questionable. He asks them to come closer to him, implying that it was alright for them to cross the official barrier. He does not scold them or blame them and doesn’t make them feel guilty. In essence, Joseph has picked up on the theme of “preserving life”.

His conclusion is that in spite of their past history, all will be well because what has happened corresponds to God’s purposes. He invites them to view the past in a positive manner. He instructs his brothers to return to Canaan and bring their father and their families back to Egypt, with the assurance that they will have no worries about possessions. (Historically, pharaohs were generous to Semitic peoples in time of famine.)

Now, thinking back, the reading demonstrates the fulfillment of Joseph’s earlier dreams and the salvific role played by God and Joseph. I don’t really think that God planned for the brothers to do evil and get rid of Joseph. They are fully accountable. But God, in God’s sovereignty and providence, is able to use the situation to bring life and reconciliation into this family of Jacob. God, in typical God-fashion, has done yet another reversal of human plans and human circumstance. It could be said that this passage describes a moment of self-revelation (for both Joseph as well as his brothers). This passage brings us to understand our own soul, our own humanity. It brings about a moment of truth. Twenty-two years after Joseph’s enslavement, it is now a time of reconciliation. It is a story of forgiveness. Perhaps it is also a story of one who sees that things are different now—that the context and the surroundings are different. There is no use carrying grudges or expecting some sort of recompense for what went on before. It is time to move on.

And even beyond that, Joseph has married an Egyptian. He has taken an Egyptian name (Zaphenath-paneah). His children, representing two of the Tribes of Israel, are half Egyptian. No longer is this a story centered only on a family. This culture and this religion has been bridged into another. Joseph didn’t plan to be a bridge. He probably didn’t see it coming at all. But somewhere along the way, the context has changed. And so has Joseph. I do not think that God has made all of this horrible stuff happen to get Joseph to this place. I’m not a big proponent of a micro-managing God that has some unchangeable plan through which we are forced to walk. After all, what happened to that free will thing? God just walked him through it to the other side. And Joseph is different simply because of the journey.

Walter Brueggemann writes that “Joseph, man of faith, takes a second hard look at his life. He is willing to host the hidden, inscrutable, unresolved purpose of God for his life that is beyond his control….he is willing to trust a purpose for his life that is larger than his own horizon” (“Taking a Second, Painful Look” in The Threat of Life: Sermons on Pain, Power, and Weakness). Maybe that’s the whole point. We know that God is bigger than we often view God to be; maybe our life is the same way.

Personally, my first thought would have been to ask God, “Wasn’t there an easier way?” Couldn’t we have just postponed the famine? Or, have Joseph send his resume to Pharaoh after he had his troubling dreams? Did it really take all of that?

Any yet, what the story of Joseph exemplifies is the notion that God does not promise to take away all possibility of pain and discomfort–but rather God promises to be with us through it all. God promises to make great things happen, but not all great things come easily.

Some great things come in a manger. Some great things happen after hasty trips to Egypt. Some terribly wonderful things happen on an old rugged cross.

Our culture always seems to highlight the quick, the easy, the painless. Just pop this pill. Just exercise 10 minutes a day. Just eat grapefruit–lots of grapefruit. Just go to this particular school. Just apply on this website. Just like us on Facebook. But, the biblical view of life is that God doesn’t always look for the path of least resistance. Sometimes God asks us to walk through fiery furnaces or bear a cross. But, on the other side of the valley of the shadow of death we are always presented with the reality that God had never left us. And life is now able to bloom, in the most beautiful and holiest of ways. (From “When God Sends You”, a blog by Rick Morley available at http://www.rickmorley.com/archives/693, accessed 8 August, 2011.)

  1. What is your response to this passage?
  2. What is inherent in Joseph’s understanding of God?
  3. Where do you find yourself in this story?
  4. What can this say to our world today?

 

NEW TESTAMENT: Romans 11: 1-2a, 29-32

To read the Lectionary Epistle Passage, click here

This is the third time that we deal with Paul’s struggle over whether or not the Gospel betrays his Jewish heritage and his Jewish nation. Paul is quick to dispute the idea that the Jewish people, God’s Chosen, have just been abandoned. There still remains a remnant of those people. But then what is unsettling to Paul is the possibility that the rest of us might be abandoned. But this leads him to the idea of the “grafting on” of those “non-Jewish” persons. It is a remnant that rather than being “chosen by birth” are “chosen by grace.”

What drives the whole thing is not that Paul needs to show a God who is in control but, rather, one who is compassionate toward all of God’s children. So, essentially, Paul is warning the Gentile followers to not be so arrogant about their beliefs. Israel’s present failure to respond to God does not seal their fate because it is God who deals in compassion. Very cool…an image of a God of compassion rather than a God of rules. When are we going to really get that?

Our Christian proclamation has always included the notion of God’s judgment. Do you think that God is really putting us into piles of “the saved” and “the damned” even as we speak? And, pray tell, how comfortable are we REALLY with that picture? What happened to compassion? What happened to grace? Maybe God is judging us all and saving us all. Is that so hard to fathom, that this God of all Creation, all grace, all beauty might have a plan for us all? Some would claim that to be a sort of “universal salvation”. I don’t think of it like that, necessarily. Somewhere along the way all of us are somehow compelled to move toward God, to respond to God’s calling and God’s love and grace. But if we are proclaiming that this is the God of all and for all, who are we to start siphoning people out into the “damned” pile? Are you really that sure of your own belief to start going there? Are you really that sure what pile you’d be in? Bonhoeffer was right: Grace is not cheap. But it’s free. Free for the taking.

The Garden of Gethsemane (February, 2010, Shelli)
The Garden of Gethsemane (February, 2010, Shelli)

In the Garden of Gethsemene, there is an orchard of olive trees. Olive trees are fascinating. They can live for as long as 900 years. But when they die, they do not just rot away. Their roots give way to new growth, to new shoots. So, even though the tree has died, it lives on in a new tree. Here’s one that I took a picture of last year. The oldest tree is on the bottom left. It’s at least 2,000 years old (which means it was alive that night when Jesus came here with the disciples!). The trunk that is leaning against it is probably about 900 years old. The trunk springing from that is probably 200 years old. And the young tree on the right is probably just a few years old. It is the new shoot. But it does not exist alone. It is growing from the roots of centuries of growth. What a great image! New shoots, new thoughts, new ideas do not replace the old. They grow from it.

Maybe I’m wrong, but at least you can say I erred on the side of grace.

 

  1. What meaning does this passage hold for you?
  2. What does “chosen by grace” mean for you personally?
  3. Why is it so difficult for most people to exist with those who believe differently? Why do so many of us have to be right?

 

 

GOSPEL: Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28

To read the Lectionary Gospel Passage, click here

In the previous verses, Jesus has had to spend time arguing with the church leaders over what is appropriate behavior for those that are religious. This has gone on and on (and on) and he has even had to tell parables and then re-explain them with little or no success. These people just don’t get it. So he leaves that place.

He leaves and travels to a place that is near the border of what is actually Gentile territory. So, first he spends all this time arguing and then he has to travel some distance to an unfamiliar place. In Jesus’ defense, he has to be tired. He has to be craving some time alone to regroup and reflect on his mission. Then, all of a sudden, this woman comes up and she’s shouting at him with some foreign accent—not just a loud shout but one that is incessant and wailing and very annoying. She is begging him to heal her daughter. But what could Jesus really do? After all, his mission as he understood it was at that time to the Jews and here was this Gentile (and a Canaanite to boot) wanting Jesus’ time.

In the Old Testament, there were stories about the “evil” religion of the Canaanites who occupied the Promised Land—a religion of false idols, child sacrifices, and intermarriage. The writer we know as Matthew underscores this. From this point of view, the woman was “scum.” If anyone was the wrong religion, if anyone wasn’t saved, if anyone was damned, she was. In fact, this woman had everything working against her—gender, race, religion, class, and nationalism. In the first century, she was the “outcast of the outcasts”.

Put yourself in Jesus’ place. “Perhaps if I ignore her, she will go away.” But, then, the disciples get involved. “Good grief,” he probably thought, “if they would only be quiet.” And the woman keeps on—shouting and wailing like some sort of banshee. What do you do with a pushy Canaanite woman who won’t shut up? “Don’t you understand…I am not here for you…I must first attend to the Jews…the chosen ones…the children of God…the people to which I was promised…it would not be right to abandon their mission for another.” (I will tell you, the reference to “dogs” is not a nice one. Without offense to the dog-lovers among us, in Jewish society, dogs were looked upon as unclean, as scavengers. To compare someone to a dog was to lower them to the bottom of society.)

But the woman responds, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the masters table…Even I, the Gentile, knows that you are Lord.” All of a sudden Jesus’ tune changes. This woman has a faith that will not quit. This woman DOES get it! The mission is indeed to the Jews. But this woman’s faith has brought her to Jesus as a sign of what is to come. This moment is, in effect, a sort of turning point for Jesus’ whole mission. In fact, at the risk of overstepping, you could almost say this was a sort of “conversion point” for Jesus. You also have to consider that this turning point is the reason we’re sitting here. We are not the “children of Israel” but rather those to whom Jesus’ mission was broadened to include.

I think we should be grateful that the writer of Matthew didn’t clean up the story. After all, perhaps it doesn’t reflect well on the Son of God. And yet, there is a powerful statement regarding Jesus’ humanness here, his searching, his exploring, and his changing. In this moment, Jesus saw a broader vision of God than even he had had before. And if you’re uncomfortable with the whole idea of Jesus getting something wrong, try this: What if this whole thing was a test, giving voice to what Jesus may have considered an archaic closed-minded theology? What if the disciples had failed the test? And what would our score have been?

 

Jesus was converted that day to a larger vision of the commonwealth of God. Jesus saw and heard a fuller revelation of God in the voice and in the face of the Canaanite woman. The woman’s truth is evident in the way Matthew tells this story. At the end of this chapter there is another feeding story. This time 4000 men are fed — besides women and children — and there were seven baskets left over. Seven is the number of wholeness, completeness, a number encompassing the nations. Matthew has placed the story of Jesus and the Canaanite woman between these two feeding stories. The Canaanite woman taught Jesus that she and her daughter deserve more than crumbs. After this encounter Jesus went on to feed those who had not yet been fed.

            If Jesus could be changed, can we? Every generation sees some people as “other” and puts them under the table. We could make a long list of people we see as different – different race, different customs, different religion. Two summers ago at one of the raucous town meetings, a white woman who looked a bit like me spoke through her tears, “What happened to my America? I want my America back.”  I guess she meant an America where people look like her and me. Over the past ten years, many in the United States have come to see Muslims as the other. They are the Canaanites – not only in this country but in Europe and Scandinavia. In protests against a proposed Muslim Cultural Center in lower Manhattan, people carried signs that read: “All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11.” Really? What if someone protested outside the church I attend with a sign saying: “All I need to know about Christianity I learned from Rev. Terry Jones.” Muslims have become Canaanites to many in our country. One candidate in the presidential primary race has called for a ban on building mosques in the U.S. Three states have enacted statutes against Shariah, though there is no evidence that Muslims have proposed Islamic law for this nation. (Andrea Elliott, New York Times, July 30, 2011)

This week I went to get coffee at the deli across the street from Union seminary. “I’m a little dizzy,” said the kind man who always works in the afternoon. “You know it’s Ramadan,” he said, “and I haven’t eaten all day.” I realized that I had never asked him his name. Perhaps we will behave like the disciples: “Send the Muslims away for they are ruining our country!” Or maybe we will be as willing to learn as Jesus was. Maybe in this month of Ramadan we will catch a larger vision of the commonwealth of God. (From “Teaching Jesus”, by Barbara Lundblad, available at http://odysseynetworks.org/on-scripture-matthew-15-21-28, accessed 8 August, 2012)

 

 

  1. What meaning does this passage hold for you?
  2. How would our society and our church fare on that issue?
  3. What does the fact that the woman “fired back” at Jesus say about her faith?
  4. What is so difficult about this passage for us?

 

Some Quotes for Further Reflection:

 Remind me that I don’t need to carry the heavy burden of defending You, or religion, or tradition. The best witness I can make is to communicate the joy of knowing You uplifting, carrying power. Keep me from being a person with a heavy attitude others feel must be carried or dragged along. When I allow You to meet my deepest needs, I don’t have to transfer to others the responsibility of making me happy. You do that so well with Your faithful supply of love and encouragement. (Lloyd John Ogilvie)

 Every way of seeing is a way of not seeing. (Alfred North Whitehead)

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. (Marcel Proust)

Closing

For the healing of the nations, Lord we pray with one accord; for a just and equal sharing of the things that earth affords; to a life of love in action help us rise and pledge our word.

Lead us forward into freedom; from despair your world release, that, redeemed from war and hatred, all may come and go in peace. Show us how through care and goodness fear will die and hope increase.

All that kills abundant living let it from the earth be banned; pride of status, race, or schooling, dogmas that obscure your plan. In our common quest for justice may we hallow life’s brief span.

You, Creator God, have written your great name on human kind; for our growing in your likeness bring the life of Christ to mind, that by our response and service earth its destiny may find. Amen. (“For the Healing of the Nations”, words by Fred Kaan, UMH # 428)