THE TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
Year A, Lectionary 20
August 17, 2014
Isaiah 56:1, 6-8
Psalm 67
Matthew 15:21-28
Pastor David
Tryggestad
Concordia Evangelical Lutheran Church
Concordia Evangelical Lutheran Church
Duluth, Minnesota
Today we are challenged on at least three fronts: First, God
speaks through the prophet Isaiah: “. . . for my house shall be called a house
of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:7b); second by the song of our psalmist:
“. . . let all the peoples praise you. .
. . for you judge the peoples with equity . . .” (Psalm 67:5-6); and finally
by a woman, a Canaanite, a foreigner, an outsider, with a
little girl, challenging the boundaries.
Our First Reading from our prophet Isaiah is set around the
time after the Exile in Babylon, when God’s people are returning to Israel,
determined that such a catastrophe never happen to their people again. Some
insisted on racial and religious purity, maintaining strict boundaries, while
others preached inclusion. Which way to go? Purity and exclusion, or opening
the doors of God’s sanctuary?
God speaks through the prophet: “My house shall be a house
of prayer for all people!”
“Thus says the Lord:
Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and my
deliverance be revealed. . . . for my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:1, 7b).
for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:1, 7b).
Next, our psalmist sings how all the earth shares the blessings of God:
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you judge the peoples with
equity
and guide all the nations on
earth. (Psalm 67:5-6)
Finally, Jesus and his disciples are accosted by a desperate
mother. Never mess with a desperate mother. We are shocked and confused by
Jesus’ response: first he ignores her, then he says, “I was sent only to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel”
(meaning, only to Jews); finally he insults her: “It is not fair to take the
children’s bread and to give it to the dogs.”
In her persistence, even acknowledging the insult: “Yes, but
even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table,” Jesus is
astonished at her faith, and assigns even greater faith to this foreign woman
than to his own disciples. It seems the woman has opened up for Jesus a mission
to the outsider, to the world.
In the late 1970s, Lynn and I and our children were blessed
by the arrival of strangers from the other side of the world when a family of “boat
people” from Vietman arrived at our doorstep: a family of five children and
their parents. They had nothing. They were fleeing political oppression, and
our congregation in Eau Claire
was sponsoring them through Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. They
stayed in our home the better part of a week while their apartment was being
prepared.
We wanted to feed them a substantial, “typical American
meal” for their first dinner in their new home of Eau Claire, so I grilled pork
chops, a family favorite, on the Weber. We gathered them all around our table:
the seven Vietnamese and Lynn and I and our (then) two children, and presented
a platter with a dozen thick and juicy porkchops before them. As I served a
pork chop to each of them, their eyes popped out of their heads. I wondered if
they had ever seen such abundance on one table at one time.
Weeks later, when we were guests in their home at dinner, we
experienced being satisfied with the equivalent of one pork chop for all eleven
of us, the meat being served with lots of rice and vegetables. We were thrilled
to see the children acclimate quickly to their new country, though we were sad
to see them move to a more hospitable climate after a year or so.
Last Sunday’s Parade
magazine featured a story about another Vietnamese family. The author is
pictured in a photo as the smallest and youngest of eight children, along with
their mother, their father not pictured. He writes:
In the summer of 1979 my family and
I lay half-dead in a derelict fishing boat lost in the South
China Sea. There were 83 other refugees aboard, all of us fleeing Vietnam, and
after five days without food and water, some of the mothers began to consider
the unthinkable: binding their babies’ arms with strips of cloth and slipping
them into the sea.[1]
The author goes on:
Then, on our sixth day at sea, a
miracle happened: We were spotted by a World Vision aid ship. The crew brought
us to a refugee camp in Singapore,
and a few months later, a Lutheran church in Fort Smith,
Ark., sponsored my family’s move to the United States.
We arrived with nothing, unable to
speak a word of English. . . .
About his siblings, he writes: “Together we hold six
doctorates and five master’s degrees, from schools such as Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, the University
of Pennsylvania, and
NYU.”
Our
psalmist for today sings, “The earth has brought forth its increase; God, our
own God, has blessed us” (Psalm 67:6).
According to an online article by Forbes, 40% of the largest U.S. companies have been founded by immigrants or their children.[2]
The motivation for opening our doors is not self-interest,
not because of the economic stimulus that results. Rather the motivation is
embracing God’s vision and desire that all people share in the abundance God
provides: “. . . for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all
peoples.”
Our psalm for today, Psalm 67, has long been one of my
favorites. When our only daughter, Maia, was baptized, I wanted to express my
gratitude for such a blessing by setting Psalm 67 to music: Lynn and I were the
vocal soloists, while Lynn’s
sister, Lisa, played the flute and my sister, Mary, played French horn. At the
time, we could not have imagined the profound struggles that this little bundle
of joy would bring into the world, the struggles of mental illness and
attendant behaviors and addictions. Her life has opened us to the struggles of
so many of God’s people.
We have all been shaken and deeply grieved by the tragic
suicide of Robin Williams, who has been open and transparent about his
struggles. His willingness to share his struggles, which so many others bear in
secret and in silence, has brought blessing to millions. After his death, his
struggles with the onset of Parkinson’s disease has been made public. His wife
has spoken on behalf of his family: “It is our hope in the wake of Robin’s
tragic passing, that others will find the strength to seek the care and support
they need to treat whatever battles they are facing so they may feel less
afraid.”
“Have mercy on me, Lord, for my daughter is tormented by a
demon.”
When the Canaanite woman approaches Jesus and his disciples,
the disciples urge: “Send her away for she keeps shouting after us!”
“Send them away for they keep knocking at our borders!”
“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
“It is not fair to take the children’s bread and to throw it
to the dogs.”
“Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from
their master’s table.”
In the story of the Feeding of the 5000, not long before
Jesus encounter with this woman, we read: “And all ate and were satisfied; and
they took up what was leftover of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.”
The world is filled with many broken pieces, many broken
vessels, many broken hearts, longing to be brought in—brought into God’s heart,
brought into our hearts. God’s vision of the world is incomplete without the
presence of the broken pieces.
This past Wednesday 18 people gathered to view and discuss a
video presentation, “The Three Most Rebellios Things Jesus Ever Did,” by Barbara
Rossing, a teacher of New Testament from the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago. She told a story
of a man who laments: “I pray that Jesus will come into my heart, but the
problem is that, when Jesus comes into my heart, he brings all of his friends
with him!”
The Canaanite woman becomes one of Jesus’ friends. The boat
people from Vietnam
are Jesus’ friends. The refugees from the wars in Syria
and Iraq
are Jesus’ friends, even if they don’t call his name. The children at our
borders are Jesus’ friends.
“I pray that Jesus will come into my heart, but the problem
is that, when Jesus comes into my heart, he brings all of his friends with
him!”
Thanks be to God!
