Even the Dogs

Sermon – Matthew 15:10-28

Even the Dogs

Pr. Paul F. Cannon

Grace and Peace to all of you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,

Even the dogs…even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.  It gives you chills doesn’t it? Here’s a woman seeking help for her daughter, a Canaanite woman – a woman from the wrong side of the tracks – a woman whom Jews weren’t supposed to even talk to – perhaps catches Jesus a little bit off guard with her declaration that even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the master’s table.

Of course, we are all taken a little bit aback by Jesus initial words to this Canaanite, “It is not fair” he declared the woman, “To take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” 

Wait...Is Jesus calling this woman by a derogatory term?  Is he being mean?  Is he being unwelcoming?  My most honest answer is that I don’t know, but...I don't think so.

Some have pointed out that the term Jesus uses here for a dog, really means a little household pet dog.  Growing up, we had a miniature poodle named Nibbles – he was a yippee little ball of energy that did indeed lick up all the crumbs dropped to the floor.

But the truth is that no matter how you parse it, Jesus isn’t being particularly complimentary here.  He’s not being “Minnesota Nice” as they say in the Twin Cities. 

These harsh words from Jesus don’t seem to jive with the Jesus we all know and love. But Martin Luther said that scripture interprets itself – or in other words, if you get hung up on something you don’t understand, turn to the parts that you do.

The parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the Good Samaritan, and the sending of the disciples out into the world all testify to a man who cared deeply about outsiders. 

So when Jesus said, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs,”   I have to imagine that the he had a knowing smile forming at the corners of his mouth. He said this not to mock – not to demean the woman – but to draw out her faith for the world to witness.

With wit and grace, the Canaanite woman responded to Jesus saying, “Yes, Lord.  Yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

Even the dogs.  That’s a startling admission.  Is that how she thinks of herself?  It’s no stretch to imagine that she must have been on her last hope for her – a woman of Cana – to turn to a Jewish man for help. 

 

A few weeks ago, we encountered a woman who may have felt the same way.  We were on a mission trip with 9 of our kids and one other chaperone in Benton Harbor, MI to join with churches from across the country to be servants to the community there.

If you don’t know anything about Benton Harbor, it’s truly a tale of two cities.  On the west side of river lies the city of St. Joseph, and on the east side of the river lies Benton Harbor. 

In St. Joseph, there’s a bustling downtown area with artisan shops and street fairs, and in Benton Harbor there’s abandoned factories and 40% unemployment.  On one side of the river there’s well-manicured lawns in well-maintained homes and on the other side there are rusty fences and boarded up windows.

Our group was assigned to the home of a woman named Rhonda.  Her home had been vandalized weeks ago.  The vandals broke all the windows.  They spray-painted profanity and smeared food across her white walls.  They even broke into her home, tipping over the fridge and furniture.

I don’t think I’d be putting words in her mouth by saying that, like the Canaanite woman, she too may have felt like a dog at the master’s table. 

The 11 of us got to work, painting, mowing the lawn, trimming back the bushes, picking up broken pieces of glass, and weeding along the garden.  I hope some of you got an opportunity to see the before and after pictures of Rhonda’s home on Bethany’s facebook page (if not, you should “like” our page and look it up!), because by the end of the week, it looked like an entirely new building.

 

I remember looking at the finished product on Thursday afternoon – clean white walls, with freshly painted gray trim around the windows and door, a weeded flower garden, and two hanging flower baskets which we had given her as a gift.  Standing next to Rhonda looking at the finished product, she said “A few weeks ago, I wouldn’t have even said this was my house.  But today, it’s MY house.” 

It was awesome to see the joy and pride in her face, as tears filled her eyes.  The 11 of us had come alongside her to serve, and together we experienced God in a very real and tangible way.

I expect this was the Canaanite’s woman’s reaction as well.  Her response to Jesus was that she was merely a dog before the master’s table, and yet Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith.  Let it be done for you as you wish.”  And then her daughter was healed.

There is a temptation here, to think that we are the children that sit at God’s table.  Especially on mission trips like we went on, it’s easy to feel a little bit like we belong at God’s table as we toss down scraps of help those beneath us.

But all of us on the trip would tell you the opposite – that in fact, it was through Rhonda that we encountered God.  Unprompted one afternoon, she went out and bought the entire group pizza – an act of generosity that was not unlike the parable of the woman who donated her last coin.

The truth is, we all come before God as dogs at the master’s table.  The scraps of bread that fall to us are pieces of grace that we have neither earned nor do we deserve. 

When we encounter God in this way, we are all transformed. For the Canaanite woman, a sick daughter was healed. And all of us on the trip experienced it as well.  Shame turned into joy, pride became humility, and tears turned into laughter.

We all come before God as dogs at the master’s table.  I say this not to demean any of you, but to recognize the brokenness in all of us.  As the Apostle Paul said, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” 

Yes, Lord.  Yet even the dogs eat the crumbs of grace that fall from the master’s table.

Thanks be to God. 

Amen.

Eureka! Sunday, January 9th, 2014

Sermon – Jan. 9, 2014

Peter’s Eureka Moment

Grace and Peace Bethany Lutheran Church!

Today is Baptism of our Lord Sunday, the day we remember Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist.  It’s sort of the Eureka moment for John the Baptist and the rest of the world, because it’s the moment where they discover who Jesus is.  A Dove descends on Jesus as a voice from heaven cries out “This is my son, with him I am well pleased.” 

But there’s actually another Eureka moment that I’m more interested in talking about, and it comes today from our second reading in the book of Acts.  But before I get into that, let me back up a second.

You all know what I mean by Eureka right? A Eureka moment, is simply that flash of inspiration that you get when something suddenly makes sense for the first time. 

Eureka describes that lightning quick instant in time where an idea comes to you in a flash.  You could be working on trying to fix a leaky faucet for months and months, not knowing exactly how to fix it, and then one day you’re on a bus riding to work, and the solution comes to you– duct tape!

(I’m not sure why duct tape keeps cropping up in my sermons…it must be a God thing)…

The word “eureka” actually comes to us from the world of science, but it’s really just the Greek word that means, “I have found it!”  I have found it.  I have found what I have been looking for!  It makes sense now! 

The word was made popular because of a story of a Roman scientist who lived a few centuries before Jesus was born.

According to the story, his name was Archimedes, and he worked for King Hiero II.  Hiero had commissioned a golden crown shaped like leaves to be made in honor of the gods who had helped him achieve victory in battle. 

The goldsmith made a beautiful golden crown, but rumors began to surface that he had cheated the King by mixing in silver with the gold.  Being a fair king, Hiero needed proof, and so he gave Archimedes the task of discovering if the crown was truly made of pure gold like the blacksmith had promised – or if he had actually mixed it with silver.

The problem, was that he wasn’t allowed to damage the crown in any way.  Archimedes agonized over how to find out the truth about the crown for a long time, until one day, when he was getting into the bathtub, he had his Eureka moment!

Water! (Stay with me here as a Pastor tries to explain some science) He could determine the density of the crown by comparing how much water it displaced compared with gold and silver of the same weight.  If any other material had been added to the crown, it would displace more water than if it were made entirely of Gold.

It was a stroke of genius, but remember, Archimedes was about to take a bath, and he was so excited about his breakthrough idea, that he got up out of his bath and ran through the streets – in nothing but his birthday suit – shouting “Eureka! Eureka!” I have found it!  I have found it! 

Which I’m sure, many people took out of context.  Regardless he carries out the experiment and discovers the crown is indeed made with silver.  That’s the story of how Eureka became a word we still use today.

I don’t think Lutherans ever get quite that excited – a fact that I am grateful for. But our story today from Acts is about a Eureka moment as well. It’s about Peter discovering for the first time, something new about God.

But to understand his inspiration, I need to explain the context.

Some of you might already know this, but the book of Acts, is really the second half of the book of Luke.  The same author wrote it and the two stories were meant to be read together. 

At the very end of the book of Luke, the risen Jesus tells his disciples that this message of forgiveness of sins was to be spread to all nations – which I think Peter and the other disciples initially interprets as “Jews in all nations.”

And that’s how the book of Acts begins  – Peter and the disciples travel (mostly) to Jewish temples all around the Mediterranean to tell people about Jesus.

Now, Peter is in a very tricky situation, because Jewish law tells him that he really isn’t supposed to be hanging around all these Greek gentiles who are ritually unclean - they don’t eat kosher food, they aren’t circumcised, they don’t observe the Sabbath, and as we learned from Archimedes, they’re a little too comfortable with themselves, etc. etc.

It’s about this time that God comes to Peter in a dream.  He’s sleeping one night, and he has a vision where all these unclean animals – birds, reptiles, and other creatures Jews were not supposed to eat – were coming down from heaven.  And in his dream, a voice tells Peter to eat them.

Peter objects to this because as a Jew, he knows he’s not supposed to eat that food – he knows it’s against the law – But the voice speaks to him again and says “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”  What God has made clean, you must not call unclean.

And Peter doesn’t really know what to make of this weird dream until he gets invited over the house of a devout Roman Christian – a captain of the Roman army named Cornelius.  Cornelius isn’t a Jew.  He doesn’t eat kosher food.  He isn’t circumcised, he doesn’t observe the Sabbath.  And so Cornelius, according to Jewish law, is unclean. 

And right then, as Peter is standing in the doorway of this guy’s house, the light bulb comes on.  He has his Eureka moment – his flash of inspiration – and he realizes for maybe the first time, that being clean didn’t mean following the law, that being clean comes through faith Christ.  Maybe we become clean, when God washes us in the waters of Baptism.

Jesus had come for all nations and all people – for the clean and the unclean. Cornelius, baptized child of God, was indeed clean in the sight of God. Eureka!

And that’s when Peter gives his speech which we heard in the second reading today, which he begins by saying, “I truly understand now, that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” 

I hope you hear how radical a thing it is for a Jew to be saying to a Roman soldier – a member of the army that conquered Jerusalem, “God’s grace and forgiveness isn’t just meant for us (Jews).  It’s meant for you, and it’s meant for all people.” 

The surprise in this story – the eureka moment – is that the Gospel doesn’t belong to whom Peter thought it belonged to.  It belongs to the unclean – the sinners – the people who don’t have it all together. 

And thank God, because as hard as we try – no matter good we think we are, no matter how perfect our worship seems to be, no matter how sparkling our reputations  – we will never be perfect people.  You will never be perfect.  You cannot escape sin, except by the grace of God.

Brothers and Sisters in Christ – truly, our Eureka moment happens when we realize that God’s grace does not come to us through our own achievements.  It’s when we realize that in our own weakness, sinfulness and imperfections, we find the grace of God through Christ on the cross.

And more than that, it is only as we join with Christ, through the waters of baptism – as our newly baptized are soon to find out – that we can ever truly be made clean. 

Eureka!  We have found it.  Thanks be to God. Amen.

Third Sunday of Easter: April 22, 2012

THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER: April 22, 2012

Rogation Day, Earth Day, New Member Sunday

Luke 24:36-48

Preacher: Pastor Carrie B. Smith

Alleluia, Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed, alleluia!

As I prepared to preach this week, I was reminded of a V.I.P. –a Very Important Pastor—who had a huge impact on my life. Pastor Bob (*not his real name) was the campus chaplain for the United Ministry Center at Oklahoma State University, a joint ministry of Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and the UCC. I got to know Pastor Bob because my church had given me scholarship money to be the “Peace and Justice Intern” at the United Ministry Center…and I took it the money, even though I was most definitely planning to be a world-famous concert pianist. Or, if that didn’t work out, maybe a doctor. Definitely NOT a pastor.

The internship was a great experience, except for one thing: Pastor Bob liked to push my buttons.

It was Pastor Bob who told me that Mary Magdalene was the first apostle, being the first witness to the resurrection and all. I scoffed at this, because I had been going to church my whole life and never once in Sunday school did Mary Magdalene show up on a list of apostles! Later, however, it was this conversation that made me consider a vocation as a pastor myself.

Pastor Bob also gave me a book about icons and spirituality which talked about them as “windows into heaven”. I secretly loved this book! I devoured it…and then vowed never to show it to my grandmother. She, and most other Lutherans I knew, would have considered icons to be far “too Catholic”.  (If you want to see how I feel about icons today, you are invited into my office after worship for a little art show.)

And it was Pastor Bob who told me about some early Christians—well, heretics really, called Gnostics or docetists—who believed that Jesus didn’t really have a physical body, because bodies were matter and matter…was considered to be inherently evil. But if Jesus didn’t have a body, then he couldn’t have died. And if he couldn’t die, he most definitely could never have been resurrected. Yes, there were eyewitness accounts from his disciples and others, but these guys theorized that Jesus only appeared to walk among us. In reality, he just skimmed the surface—not quite touching, but levitating a hair off the ground. Jesus was, in their view, a sort of ancient Criss Angel or David Blaine, performing illusions for the disciples and the crowds. It was all merely figurative: “The Word made flesh”; “This is my body” and, especially, the resurrection.

I don’t remember what prompted this conversation with Pastor Bob about Gnosticism, docetism and heretical views of the resurrection. But I do remember that it made me reconsider what I believed about Easter. I started to read the Bible more carefully. Suddenly, I noticed all the places in Scripture where Jesus seemed less like a superhero or an icon with a halo, and more like a flesh and blood man. This is especially striking in the scenes after the resurrection.

Take the Gospel lesson for this morning, for example. Jesus appears to the disciples once again after being raised. And the disciples, like the Gnostics several centuries later, were having a really hard time believing he could be alive. And who could blame them? It was an unbelievable situation. But Jesus, standing among them, says:

"Don't be upset, and don't let all these doubting questions take over. Look at my hands; look at my feet - it's really me. Touch me. Look me over from head to toe. A ghost doesn't have muscle and bone like this." As he said this, he showed them his hands and feet. They still couldn't believe what they were seeing. It was too much; it seemed too good to be true. They gave him a piece of leftover fish they had cooked. He took it and ate it right before their eyes. (Luke 24, The Message Version)

Jesus, proving that he was truly flesh and blood (rumbling stomach and all!) ate a piece of fish right before their eyes, so that they would be witnesses to his resurrection.

Alleluia, Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed, alleluia!

We proclaim Christ crucified and risen—and this matters. It matters that we believe Jesus was really, truly raised.  It matters that Jesus walked with real feet on the real earth, both before and after the resurrection.

It matters because Jesus didn’t treat the earth as a dead end, no-stoplight town: a good place to be from but nowhere you’d want to go back to.

It matters because Jesus wasn’t looking for an escape plan from this planet, and neither should we.

The resurrection matters because in the beginning, God made the earth and the sky and the trees and the animals and the people and then she said “It is good!” Amen?

And the real, bodily, earthly resurrection matters on this day, April 22, as the world celebrates Earth Day. There are, of course, many good reasons to care for the earth and all its creatures. We enjoy clean air and water, for one thing. And we might like to live here for a few thousand years longer, too!

But as Christians who proclaim the resurrection of Jesus Christ, every day is Earth Day. Every day is Earth Day for Christians because Jesus Christ was born of an earthly mother, ate food grown from the earth, knelt and prayed on the earth, got his feet dirty with dust from the earth, and suffered and died on a cross that was planted in the earth.

Above all, every day is Earth Day for Christians because Jesus Christ, son of God, wholly divine and worthy of praise, was raised from the dead to walk the earth again. The resurrection of Jesus sanctifies the earth and makes all of creation undeniably holy and worthy of our care and protection.

Alleluia, Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed, alleluia!

What does the earthly resurrection of Jesus mean for us today?

It means we are committed to being witnesses of the bodily, earthly resurrection of Jesus.

We are witnesses to the Good News that all matter is good. The earth is good, animals are good, trees are good, and all bodies are good and holy! Amen!

We are witnesses by committing to prayerful care of the earth, from recycling to carpooling to church to choosing electronic church newsletters in lieu of paper. Amen!

We are witnesses when we are good stewards of the resources given to us: sharing our building space with Scouts and PADS and the community choir and HeadStart. We are witnesses when we share land, labor and love to grow food in the Fruits of Faith Garden for the hungry. Amen!

We are witnesses when together with our denomination, the ELCA, we ensure that the whole earth is a safe and healthy place for all people—making malaria history, diggingwells for safe drinking water, walking with the Haitians as they rebuild their country, and resisting violence and oppression wherever it occurs. Amen!

Sisters and brothers, we proclaim Christ, crucified and risen. He’s not a ghost! He’s no illusionist! He is alive…and thus it was written, that the Messiah was to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to the whole earth. You are witnesses of all these things. Amen!