Sermon Cloud

Mark 7: 24-30

James 2: 1-10, 14-17                                                                                9-6-09

Who Gets the Leftovers?

How far does God’s mercy extend?  It was the big question for Jews from the day they set foot in the Promised Land.  It puzzles Christians to this day.

We’re taught that Jesus is both divine and human—God and man—but don’t we tend to get stuck on the divine part?  Here, we can be sure Jesus is fully human!  He’s tired and grumpy, testy after being tested over and over again by people who oppose him, protective of his energy and of the powers he uses to help his people—his people. 

 He goes to Tyre, a Gentile country, to escape the crowds, the questions, the demands—but he’s backed into a corner by someone he doesn’t want to bother with.  “No,” he said.  “I can’t do anything for you.  You’re not one of us.  I have to save the good stuff for my own folks.”   Harsh words—judgmental and uncompassionate.  Not what we want to hear from “sweet Jesus.” 

But I’m glad Mark reports this.  It reminds me that Jesus was a human being—as much human as he was God, and that he was still learning God’s will for him--still growing in his understanding of his mission. 

I’m glad, because I see myself in his first response to the Gentile woman, as I toss into the box for Good Shepherd Kitchen my leftovers--the cans of tuna I didn’t want, because I bought the wrong brand by mistake; as I take to Goodwill the blouse that didn’t look good on me—another leftover; as I avoid making eye contact with the man on the corner holding up a sign declaring his homelessness, hunger, and poor health—one of society’s left-out and left-over people. 

I’m glad this passage is in the Bible, so I can see Jesus open his heart to the woman—open his ministry to all people, even foreigners—pagans—women—the mentally ill—and especially children.  And so, perhaps there’s hope for the rest of us to grow and learn from him.

 In the verses just before this passage, Jesus shocked his antagonists when they demanded he and his disciples abide by the ritual purity laws requiring faithful Jews to have clean hands, clean dishes, clean foods.  “That’s surface cleanliness,” he responded.  “It’s what’s inside that counts.” 

 Now he has to consider applying the same principle to people.  When he does, the irrepressible power of God’s love flows through him.  He reaches out, beyond the nation of Jews, beyond the religious, beyond the law-abiding, beyond the proper, and preaches love your neighbor as yourself.  He extends “loving neighbor” to include love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Matt. 5:44)—to include tax collectors and even the despised Samaritans—to include us, no matter our sins or our failings.  No one is a leftover in God’s eyes.  Everyone is loved.  Everyone is special.  We’re all chosen people.  Jesus carries forward the promise God made again and again: to take care of the needy, no matter who they are or what their need is, for all are children of God, and Jesus does love all of us.

 Later this morning, we’ll sing, “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy.”  It’s true.  Yet,  though we can sing the words with our lips, I daresay, they’re not always lodged in our hearts or acted out in our day-to-day lives, toward people we consider unsuitable, people we’d just as soon leave out of our lives.  Who are they?  Are there any you hope won’t come to Springwood—not want to sit beside in a movie theatre—not offer the same health care or education or job opportunities you have?  …..

 And why?

          Is it because we’ve not really thrown out the laws of purity, and think that someone who’s different or who’s broken some civil or moral law will somehow corrupt the church, or us—or God?

          Are we afraid others might get some of what we expect to get from God—and somehow, we’ll get short shrift?

 I saw an awful bumper sticker recently: “Jesus loves you--but I’m his favorite”?  It reminds me that, in his book, How Good Do We Have To Be?, Rabbi Harold Kushner speculates that the “original sin” is not Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit.  Instead, it’s believing there’s not enough love to go around. 

The fear of being left out is manifest through sibling rivalry in the Cain and Abel story.   When God—the Parent above all parents—liked Abel’s offering more than Cain’s, Cain got rid of the competition.  Did he think God would love him better if he were the only one--if Abel weren’t around to siphon off God’s love?

Genesis is full of such stories: Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, Jacob and Esau, Rachel and Leah, Joseph and his brothers.  In each pair, one is favored.  The one who’s not—the one who gets the leftovers, or who’s considered to be a leftover—gets hurt feelings and tries to hurt the favored one.

 But no one’s a “leftover” as far as God’s concerned.  Consider what happened to the leftovers I named.  God put a mark of protection on Cain, who went on to have a family and build a city.  Abraham banished his first son, Ishmael, and Hagar, Ishmael’s mother, after Sarah gave birth to Isaac; but God took care of them and made Ishmael, like Abraham himself, the father of a nation.  Esau prospered in Israel and eventually was reunited with Jacob.  Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah, but God blessed Leah with more children.  Joseph, exiled to Egypt, gained power and saved his family from starvation—and reconciled with the brothers who tried to kill him.  There really was enough to go around.

 The Bible begins with a liturgy of abundance.  Genesis 1 is a song of praise for God’s generosity.  It tells how well the world is ordered, and keeps repeating “It is good—it is good—it is very good.”

Israel celebrated God’s abundance.  In Psalm 104, the psalmist praises God for the heavens and earth and streams and trees and wine and oil and bread and creatures, and then affirms God’s generosity, declaring, You give all of them their food in due season—you feed everyone.

While slaves in Egypt, the Hebrew people multiplied abundantly to outnumber the Egyptians.

In the wilderness, God fed the thousands of people trekking toward the Promised Land.

God commanded that grain, fruit, and other produce be left for the poor in every field after harvest.

Jesus fed multitudes with just 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread, and ended the day with 12 baskets of food left over.

And Jesus healed--abundantly.  He healed the deaf, the blind, the sick, the lame, the lepers, the demon-possessed.  And he commissioned his disciples to heal in his name, teaching us that God desires health in abundance for us, too.

 God has plenty—plenty of love and plenty of material resources.  Surely, God doesn’t intend it to be wasted.  Who, then, gets the leftovers?  Usually, those who already feel left-over and left out.  So, is there a way to share, so that no one’s left out and no one has to take leftovers?

This seems to be the question for Christians at the heart of the debate over a plan to ensure that everyone in the US has equal access to health care.  We’ve watched town hall meetings on tv as angry participants seem to claim that if you can’t afford to pay for it, you don’t deserve health care—even though insurance and hospital costs go up for those who do pay to cover the cost of those who can’t.  The passage from James warns us not to favor the rich over the poor and implies that, although we must not show partiality, God does show partiality: to the poor, the needy, the sick, the sorrowing.  In Proverbs (22: 2), we read the reason for this: the rich and the poor have this in common: the Lord is the maker of them all.  Therefore, Proverbs continues, those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor (22:9), and oppressing the poor in order to enrich oneself, and giving to the rich, will lead only to loss. (22:16)  God’s partiality for the poor is stated as a moral imperative throughout the Hebrew scriptures, especially in the prophets, the psalms, and the proverbs, as well as in the gospels.

 The real miracle in this story is not the healing of a child, but the healing of prejudice and the removal of boundaries that separate God’s people from one another.  Because of Abraham’s faith, God showered blessings on him and his descendants so they could bless others—all the way through the generations to us.    Because of the Gentile woman’s faith, Jesus healed her daughter and reached out to  Gentiles.  Gentiles: that’s us--leftovers, until Jesus included us. 

 I am glad this passage is part of our scriptural heritage, even if it shakes our thinking about Jesus.  His humanity gives us hope that our own humanity can rise to the level of his—that we can learn God’s will and grow in understanding and in the ability to surrender to God’s will—that what we are today is only a beginning for what we can become.  In these ways, God’s realm will keep expanding, through us, just as God’s mercy keeps extending out and out and out, so that none are left out or left-over, except those who choose not to come in. 

“There’s a wideness in God’s mercy” for us all.  Thanks be to God!