11TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST Lessons & Meditation

FIRST READING:  Isaiah 56:1, 6-8

Most Biblical scholars divide the Book of Isaiah into either two or three major divisions. The first part, Chapters 1-39, is often called “The Book of Judgment” and contains announcements of God’s anger and approaching punishment – given by the prophet Isaiah – if God’s unfaithful nation, the southern kingdom of Judah, refuses to repent and turn back to God. Some Biblical scholars call the rest of the book, Chapters 40-66, “The Book of Comfort”, for it announces – either through the prophet Isaiah looking 150-200 years into the future or through an anonymous prophet or prophetic “school of Isaiah” seeking to follow in Isaiah’s footsteps – future deliverance from exile, a return to the homeland, and the restoration as a nation and faith community of an Israel that has been judged and punished by God,  that is feeling defeated and scattered and at the edge of despair during that exile in Babylon. But there are also some Biblical scholars who designate Chapters 40-55 as “Second Isaiah” – with the same characteristics of comfort and hope and promised return as described above – and Chapters 56-66 as “Third Isaiah” – which addresses the frustrations and pessimism of the exiled community that has already returned home and is trying to rebuild a devastated nation. The message of “Third Isaiah” to dejected returnees is clear in today’s reading: Israel’s future is assured, but it still lies in the future. As they await the fulfillment of God’s promised faithfulness to the covenant, justice and righteousness are still required. 

And there is something else emphasized here, something that was introduced in “Second Isaiah” [See Isaiah 42:1-4; 45:14-25; 49:1-6]. It is radical inclusiveness. Foreigners are invited, outcasts are included in God’s new community! In the past, the Law excluded foreigners [See Deuteronomy 23:1-7] and eunuchs (someone “whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off”). But in the restored Jerusalem, EVERY PERSON WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE GATHERED TO GOD’S HOLY MOUNTAIN… WILL BE GATHERED INTO GOD’S HOUSE OF PRAYER… IS WELCOME! Note that some of today’s skipped verses speak of eunuchs being invited and included, permanently memorialized and remembered in the Temple though they will have no descendants to carry on their names. Note that God is not waiting for foreigners, eunuchs, and other “outcasts” and “undesirables” to find their way to the Temple. Rather, God will take the initiative, God “will bring” as many as are humble and willing. Humble faith, righteousness, and obedience define who belongs to the faith community of Israel – not race, nationality, or any other category.

What the Jewish faith community and the Christian faith community have sometimes lost the heart of – and the corresponding commitment to practice – is the wideness of God’s mercy, the reach of God’s welcome, the inclusivity of God’s community, the extent of God’s expanding circle of love.

How do you seek in your life to “maintain justice” and “do what is right” (verse 1)?

• Would you describe your church as a gathering place for sinners, or as a fortress to protect those “inside” from those “outside”?
• Do you think that even today, Sunday mornings remain “the most segregated hour of the week” for most American Christians, in the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?

SECOND READING:  Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32

In Romans, Chapters 9-11 Paul – a man with a deeply rooted Jewish heritage (both by birth or “flesh” and also by his previous faith or “law”) who has been converted to Christianity – considers the issue of the relationship between Jews and Gentiles in the plan of God. Paul’s solution to the problem of Israel’s unbelief is set forth in Romans, Chapter 11; one must read the whole chapter to grasp his thinking. Briefly, Paul says that, in the mysterious plan of God, Israel’s present unbelief has led to the Gentile mission (11:11-12); Israel’s rejection of Christ happened in order that Christ might be offered to the Gentiles. But after the time of the Gentiles is complete, all Israel will be saved (11:25-26). Paul’s conviction about Israel’s eventual inclusion rests on his trust in God’s irrevocable covenant (11:29). Paul steadfastly believes that that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ – the Anointed One – God has fulfilled the promise made to Israel and expanded that promise to include all believers.

Earlier in Romans, Paul has said that both Jews and Gentiles are saved not by good works but by God’s gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, grace that is freely received by faith. Here he repeats his thought that both Jews and Gentiles have been disobedient to God… and that God is “merciful to all” (11:32). So all of us are embraced by grace, united in our disobedience, and in God’s mercy.

In Paul’s day there were Jewish believers who felt superior to Gentiles… and this included Jewish converts to Christianity who looked down on Gentiles who had converted to Christianity. In Paul’s day, and in our own, there are Christians around who believe that – in the eyes and heart of God – Christianity has replaced Judaism. Jews and Christians ought never to think of themselves as enemies to one another or superior to the other. Jews and Christians ought always to think of God’s purpose as one of salvation and not of destruction. If we can understand God’s attitude and goal for all of humankind, then we can find a sense of direction in how we respect one another and love and serve God together.  

GOSPEL READING:  Matthew 15:10-28

In the first part of today’s reading, verses10-20, Jesus is teaching the crowd and his disciples as he responds to challenges and criticism from the scribes and the Pharisees. These teachers of the written Law (the scribes) and fervent, fanatical followers of both the written Law and all of its oral interpretations and extended teachings (the Pharisees) had asked Jesus why his disciples didn’t practice the religious protocol of washing their hands before eating by the clearly prescribed and deliberate actions of tradition. Please understand that the issue is not about cleanliness but about righteousness and that not washing your hands in the “holy” and “clean” way would make any food that was eaten “unholy” and “defiled”. After he boldly mentions that his questioners are “blind guides of the blind” (verse 14), Jesus teaches that a person is not defiled by what s/he puts into their stomach but by that which originates from their heart. “Big” disciple Peter (last Sunday he was trying to water ski to find proof that the ghost on the surface of the Sea of Galilee was really Jesus) requests explanation and receives a bit of a biology lesson from Jesus to help him better understand.

Sometimes, like scribes and Pharisees, Christians can develop two selves – a public “outer” self that appears righteous and respectable; and a private “inner” self that is infected by evil intentions and sinful actions. Our greatest need for reunion is within ourselves, to become ONE SELF, because two-faced living will destroy us. But grace abounds, and Jesus can detect and cure this disease in us.

Also, sometimes the “traditions” in a congregation – our rituals, procedures, expectations, certain taboos, etc. – can make it difficult for new people to feel welcomed or at ease. How can a faith community celebrate and value tradition without becoming too rigid and judgmental and a “closed” community?

As we apply today’s Gospel to ourselves, which do you think God prefers, clean hands or a clean heart?

In the second part of today’s reading, verses 21-28, a Canaanite woman comes to Jesus with an urgent need. Her daughter is being tormented by a demon. The woman doesn’t just ask for help; she shouts for it. And she expresses a faith in his identity and a trust in his power to bring deliverance for her daughter.

Jesus ignores her. But she is desperate and persistent and won’t stop shouting and asking. Then he tells her, in effect, that she is the wrong race, the wrong religion, not any concern of his. But she is desperate and persistent and kneels and pleads some more. Then he likens this woman, her daughter, her kind, to dogs looking to get the food that is for the children in a household. That word “dogs” was especially derogatory and hateful in those times, and it expressed ancient hostilities toward one of Israel’s ancient enemies. But the Canaanite woman is desperate and persistent; she says, in essence, “Call me a dog, but even the dogs get the crumbs that fall from the table.”

We are so accustomed to seeing the gospels portray Jesus as wise and godly, tender and loving, compassionate and merciful. Quite honestly, he does not look so good in this encounter with the Canaanite woman. Some Christians have tried to justify what he said and did as “role playing” for the sake of his disciples, to teach them something. And some Christians have explained that he was “testing” the woman’s faith by extending the encounter with her.

However, it certainly seems to me that Jesus is the one who had a change in his own heart and mind that day, that he was moved by her persistence and pricked by her faith… and that his own understanding of God’s gracious reign was widened beyond the limits of his culture, beyond any “systemic racism” of his nation or religious prejudice or old stereotypes or habits of discrimination. Like his desperate prayer in the garden on the night he was betrayed or his words from the cross that speak of his own suffering, this incident reminds us of the genuine humanity of Jesus. Before this story, in the first part of today’s reading (verses 10-20) Jesus was teaching and correcting others, talking about matters of the heart. And in this story he is learning and undergoing correction or transformation of his own heart. This story, while a bit confusing, does not trouble me. I don’t worry about Jesus, about his integrity or his character or his love. This story enhances my faith

If Jesus can be transformed to a broadening of God’s mercy and love, then so can we! If Jesus can have a change of heart, then so can we! I pray that my own eyes and ears and heart and hands may be opened to be more and more like Jesus. I pray that, in a world where some people count and some people count for nothing, our St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church might always be about the new calculation that Jesus offers – one that finds fulfillment in an increasingly inclusive circle of affirming love and genuine acceptance and real compassion. Just as Jesus is traveling into a new geographical area this morning, so God is constantly moving into new territory, breaking boundaries, removing walls of separation as the Kingdom of God enlarges. In Galatians, St. Paul writes: “In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” We could certainly add other characteristics that are used to separate and judge.  STRETCH THOSE ARMS… STRETCH THAT LOVE! Someone somewhere is in need of the Good News of Christ!