Mark 9:30-37; James 3:16-4:6
Most people want to live a good life, wouldn't you say? A good life might be described by what we have and what we do. We value a well-kept home and nice car, a fulfilling job and a close family; we desire to take care of our health and our minds; we volunteer at our churches and schools, donate to charities, save for our children's education, and help our neighbors. We obey the rules, pay our taxes, provide for our families, pick up after ourselves, and purpose to be productive citizens. We put a good deal of effort into having and doing these things. We live a good life.
Living the good life is a good thing, so relax. We are not about to be upbraided for having what we have and doing what we do. The purpose of scripture, I believe, is not to beat us to a pulp; the purpose of the scripture is to tell us good news, and the good news from scripture today is that God wants us to live more than a good life: God wants us to live a GREAT life.
The quibbling point is, what we consider the “great life” to be and what God defines the “great life” to be lead to two very different destinies.
In this passage from Mark, Jesus does not rebuke the disciples for their debate about greatness; he teaches the disciples what true greatness is. If you want to be great, he says, then become like one of these [children]. Embrace them.
We love stories about Jesus and the children. Many a Christian has heard many a sermon and sung many a hymn about the little children coming to Jesus: “Little ones to him belong; they are weak but he is strong...” We become very sentimental when we think of Jesus with the children; we love to sing “Jesus Loves Me,” one of the most beloved hymns in all of Christendom. By the way, did you know that...
In 1943 in the Solomon Islands, John F. Kennedy's PT-109 was rammed and sunk. Islanders Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, who found Kennedy and the survivors, remember that when they rode on PT boats to retrieve the survivors, the Marines sang this song with the natives, who learned it from missionaries.
This hymn was titled "China" in some hymnals of the 19th century, and it was the inspiration for the name of the town of China, Maine.1
When Jesus called the child to him and told his disciples that they must become like “one of these” if they wanted to be great, what was he really saying? Nothing sweet and sentimental, that's for sure.
First-century children were extraordinarily vulnerable, not only physically but also culturally, due to
their low status in family and society. Most first-century children were not even expected to survive until adulthood, so it was only when they grew up that they became “real people.” Children had nothing to give and the only things they “took” were orders from adults. They really were WEAK.
So imagine disciples' confusion when they wanted to know who was the greatest, and Jesus showed them the weakest: “26 inches tall, limited in vocabulary, unemployed, zero net worth, [a] nobody.”2
In our present economical circumstances in this country, there are many adults who are now unemployed, have a low or zero net worth, and often feel like nobodies. The good life is disappearing for so many with no good news in sight. Once confident, productive and strong adults now feel powerless, weak, because the good life has been stolen from them. As one man said to me this week, “Where's my bailout?” He used to have a good life: he had a good job, a good apartment, a good car. Then he lost his job and now he's living in his van and he is hungry everyday. Even if he had food, it's very difficult to cook food in a van.
Imagine how excruciatingly difficult it is to ask for help in the first place when one is used to being self-sufficient and sheltered, strong and satisfied. Grown men have come here and wept for the sense of failure and devaluation they experience under the economical circumstances we face today. They feel defenseless, and they are powerless (weak) in contention with our culture.
Is Jesus teaching us that we must become powerless and weak? Yes. And so we find ourselves much as the disciples must have been, perplexed, disconcerted and disconnected, and certainly provoked. As I said, however, this is not a sermon to chastise us. In God's kingdom, if we want to find our “way to the top, we must lay claim to the last and lowest place.”3
You see, what Jesus is saying is that God's kingdom belongs to those to whom the world says nothing belongs. Does this mean we all give up our jobs, our 401ks, and live in our cars? Absolutely not. No one would choose to do such things. What Jesus wants us to choose is the lifestyle not of greatness but of gratitude; to have a heart for God's righteousness, not a mind for self-righteousness.
To be great in God's economy, we evaluate every system, every power, every choice based on what it will do for the most vulnerable, not those closest to us.”4 We are called to be “great” for those who experience prejudice, intolerance, and discrimination simply for desiring to have the same rights and privileges we all expect. We will be voting in November on this very thing. How will each of us vote, out of the good life or out of the great life?
Why does God want us to live this great life? So that those who are considered least in our society may be encouraged, empowered, and most of all, embraced. Jesus calls us to reflect God's extravagant welcome; hear it with your own ears; say it with me, with your own lips: “No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here” ...and not only welcomed, but embraced.
Jesus taught his disciples, and so he teaches us. Let there be no confusion. The message for us today is to live not just a good life, but the greatest life by welcoming the least, for when we welcome the least, we welcome Jesus, and not [just] Jesus, but the One who sent Jesus. Let's begin our new year with this call to greatness...and await what the Lord has in store for us, this Church, and the community God has placed us here to serve and to embrace. Amen.
September 20, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise
September 19, 2009
September 06, 2009
CRUMBS
Isaiah 35;4-7a; James 2:1-10, (11-13), 14-17; Mark 7:24-37
“Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.”
Today we are going to spend a little time under the table before we gather “at the table.” Under the table one can find such treasures as food scraps, spilled milk, dropped shoes or silverware, used paper napkins, toys, dogs, cats, maybe ants and who knows what else. If you look at the floor around the table after dinner, you can always tell where the youngest children were sitting—you can tell what was on the menu just by looking under there. You should see what's on the floor after a church supper!
Yet, the real jaw dropper in today's message is the under-the-table zinger exchange between Jesus and the Syro-Phoenician woman. Lots of folks have a hard time swallowing the idea that Jesus could say something so rude, especially to a despondent parent who has come to him looking for compassion and healing. His calling the woman a dog just doesn't compute. That's not the Jesus we know and love!
The desperate woman who has come out to find Jesus who is just as desperately trying not to be found.
Haven't we all been in that position now and again, when we just want some alone time? Time to think a complete thought; remember our names, retreat from the pressures of everyday life and experience a little quiet? Jesus needed that kind of time, too. Leaving Galilee and Capernaum behind and traveling into Gentile territory of Tyre and Sidon was a little like Jesus crawling under the table to get away from it all and stay out of sight of all the people who wanted to get something from him.
But...the syro-phoenician woman must have heard about the power of this Jesus; and rumor had it that the healer was in town. For the sake of her daughter, she went out looking for him, not particularly because she believed that he was Messiah, the Son of God, or anything like that. She was a woman desperate to save the life of her child. She would have done anything, gone anywhere, promised everything to anyone who could exorcise the demon that possessed her daughter.
She did not know, nor did she really care at the time, that the man whom she sought was not only able to set her daughter free from a demon, but that he was also the one who had come to set all people free from the demons of sin and death. She was focused on one thing only. All the woman wanted was a few crumbs of his time; she wasn't looking for a complementary ticket to the banquet. And when she catches up with Jesus, what does she get for her trouble?
“Let the children first be fed, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.”
The Syro-Phoenician woman, however, does not miss a beat in the exchange. Nothing can dissuade her from her appointed errand—her child's life is at stake. “Yes, Lord," she replies, "yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.” What does that mean? How about, “I may be a 'dog' but even dogs need to eat.” Why does Jesus seem to change his mind and grant her daughter's healing?
Notice: the woman does not slink away; she doesn't give up on Jesus. She hangs on as long as there is even just one crumb of hope, and it is her tenacity and quick comeback that endears her to Jesus. “For saying this you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” Compassion at last.
When the woman returned home, she found her daughter healed. Jesus had not come near the girl. He did not touch her, put spittle on her, say a magic word or anything else. The daughter was healed from a distance because her mother had the courage to come near to the Lord, stay near the Lord and put her complEte trust--her whole self--in him.
You see, just like in our passage from Isaiah, the Lord's presence turns the tables upside down, everything goes through a great reversal--deserts bloom, roads are made straight, hearts change, the blind are made to see, the deaf to hear and the lame to leap like deer.
And the mastery of this whole episode teaches us a few lessons.
1. Tenacity in faith is essential.
2. God is merciful.
3. The Lord loves a good debate.
4. And most of all--
Even the “crumbs” are enough to bring healing and wholeness, miracles and mysteries, to each one of us. We don't need the whole loaf to get the big benefit. A single crumb will do
When we come out from under the table of thinking we might not deserve what God has to give, we find ourselves standing AT the table. The complete banquet of love and salvation is before us.Have you ever wondered why everybody gets just a small piece of the loaf? We don't need to eat the whole loaf, we don't have to grab a fistful to get all the Christ we need; we simply take is one small piece. Even the crumbs that fall from the loaf as we pull one piece carries within it the entire promise of God to each of his children—wayward or demon- possessed, obedient or rebellious, passive or aggressive, astute or simple or any other combination you can think of--the great sacrifice made for the salvation of all God's children.
The Good News is that there's enough love and healing, mercy and hope in one little crumb from the loaf to feed the whole world with Christ's love. So he calls us to come out from "under our table" where our hurts and failings, disappointments and demons hide, and stand before his table: take and eat for this bread is Christ's body broken for us; take and drink for this is his cup of blessing poured out for us. Christ feeds us with his love, so eat your fill and "Be opened." Let Christ open our ears, release our tongues and speak plainly of the most amazing love the world has ever known. "Ephphatha!" Amen.
September 6, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
“Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.”
Today we are going to spend a little time under the table before we gather “at the table.” Under the table one can find such treasures as food scraps, spilled milk, dropped shoes or silverware, used paper napkins, toys, dogs, cats, maybe ants and who knows what else. If you look at the floor around the table after dinner, you can always tell where the youngest children were sitting—you can tell what was on the menu just by looking under there. You should see what's on the floor after a church supper!
Yet, the real jaw dropper in today's message is the under-the-table zinger exchange between Jesus and the Syro-Phoenician woman. Lots of folks have a hard time swallowing the idea that Jesus could say something so rude, especially to a despondent parent who has come to him looking for compassion and healing. His calling the woman a dog just doesn't compute. That's not the Jesus we know and love!
The desperate woman who has come out to find Jesus who is just as desperately trying not to be found.
Haven't we all been in that position now and again, when we just want some alone time? Time to think a complete thought; remember our names, retreat from the pressures of everyday life and experience a little quiet? Jesus needed that kind of time, too. Leaving Galilee and Capernaum behind and traveling into Gentile territory of Tyre and Sidon was a little like Jesus crawling under the table to get away from it all and stay out of sight of all the people who wanted to get something from him.
But...the syro-phoenician woman must have heard about the power of this Jesus; and rumor had it that the healer was in town. For the sake of her daughter, she went out looking for him, not particularly because she believed that he was Messiah, the Son of God, or anything like that. She was a woman desperate to save the life of her child. She would have done anything, gone anywhere, promised everything to anyone who could exorcise the demon that possessed her daughter.
She did not know, nor did she really care at the time, that the man whom she sought was not only able to set her daughter free from a demon, but that he was also the one who had come to set all people free from the demons of sin and death. She was focused on one thing only. All the woman wanted was a few crumbs of his time; she wasn't looking for a complementary ticket to the banquet. And when she catches up with Jesus, what does she get for her trouble?
“Let the children first be fed, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.”
The Syro-Phoenician woman, however, does not miss a beat in the exchange. Nothing can dissuade her from her appointed errand—her child's life is at stake. “Yes, Lord," she replies, "yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.” What does that mean? How about, “I may be a 'dog' but even dogs need to eat.” Why does Jesus seem to change his mind and grant her daughter's healing?
Notice: the woman does not slink away; she doesn't give up on Jesus. She hangs on as long as there is even just one crumb of hope, and it is her tenacity and quick comeback that endears her to Jesus. “For saying this you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” Compassion at last.
When the woman returned home, she found her daughter healed. Jesus had not come near the girl. He did not touch her, put spittle on her, say a magic word or anything else. The daughter was healed from a distance because her mother had the courage to come near to the Lord, stay near the Lord and put her complEte trust--her whole self--in him.
You see, just like in our passage from Isaiah, the Lord's presence turns the tables upside down, everything goes through a great reversal--deserts bloom, roads are made straight, hearts change, the blind are made to see, the deaf to hear and the lame to leap like deer.
And the mastery of this whole episode teaches us a few lessons.
1. Tenacity in faith is essential.
2. God is merciful.
3. The Lord loves a good debate.
4. And most of all--
Even the “crumbs” are enough to bring healing and wholeness, miracles and mysteries, to each one of us. We don't need the whole loaf to get the big benefit. A single crumb will do
When we come out from under the table of thinking we might not deserve what God has to give, we find ourselves standing AT the table. The complete banquet of love and salvation is before us.Have you ever wondered why everybody gets just a small piece of the loaf? We don't need to eat the whole loaf, we don't have to grab a fistful to get all the Christ we need; we simply take is one small piece. Even the crumbs that fall from the loaf as we pull one piece carries within it the entire promise of God to each of his children—wayward or demon- possessed, obedient or rebellious, passive or aggressive, astute or simple or any other combination you can think of--the great sacrifice made for the salvation of all God's children.
The Good News is that there's enough love and healing, mercy and hope in one little crumb from the loaf to feed the whole world with Christ's love. So he calls us to come out from "under our table" where our hurts and failings, disappointments and demons hide, and stand before his table: take and eat for this bread is Christ's body broken for us; take and drink for this is his cup of blessing poured out for us. Christ feeds us with his love, so eat your fill and "Be opened." Let Christ open our ears, release our tongues and speak plainly of the most amazing love the world has ever known. "Ephphatha!" Amen.
September 6, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
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