This week’s lectionary gospel text features the curious story of a Syrophoenician woman who pleads with Jesus to heal her daughter. It’s an interesting case study in who Jesus considers his core audience -- initially he ignores the woman, while the disciples lobby to have her removed for disturbing the peace. When she persists, Jesus tells her bluntly that “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” In other words... Canaanite women need not apply. He then follows that up with what seems to us like an uncharacteristically harsh observation about diverting children’s food to the family dog. When she replies with a verbal riposte of her own, Jesus realizes that her faith is genuine and instantly heals her daughter. In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Dean Feldmeyer notes this demonstrates that even Jesus had to fight through his biases and preconceived notions when interacting with someone who he would have perceived as an outsider. Dean points out that this highlights for us the question of how we approach those who we consider “others,” whose culture and behavior are different, even completely antithetical, from our own.
Of course, as Dean reminds us, we see that dynamic played out in several of the hot-button issues dominating the headlines: whether Israelis and Palestinians can overcome their suspicion and fear of one another enough to hammer out a truce that can last for more than a few days; how we respond to the tidal flow of undocumented youth breaching our borders and illegally entering the country; and the threat posed by the spreading Ebola virus in Africa. But, as Dean notes, we also see it in a less life-threatening way on the sports pages: specifically with the stories of former WNBA star Becky Hammon being hired by the San Antonio Spurs as the NBA’s first female assistant coach, as well as the attempt by Michael Sam to make the St. Louis Rams roster and become the NFL’s first openly gay player this season. (And this isn’t the first time Hammon has been an “outsider” -- she previously weathered heavy criticism for becoming a naturalized Russian citizen in order to suit up for that country’s national team.) In each case, these athletes overcame significant hurdles to make groundbreaking achievements -- and, as Dean reminds us, some of those hurdles were the biases and prejudices of what society considered possible or even appropriate. And therein, he suggests, is a powerful object lesson about what we must fight through in order to be open to the “outsiders” we encounter.
Team member Leah Lonsbury offers some additional thoughts on the optional portion of this week’s gospel text, in which Jesus tells a mini-parable about uprooted plants and the blind leading the blind into the pit. This comes on the heels of a comment about what comes out of us rather than what we eat being what defiles us. Pressed to explain by Peter, Jesus ties it all together by noting that it is the evil in our hearts and the actions we take that make us unclean -- not violating arcane dietary or sanitary restrictions as the Pharisees maintain. As Leah points out, Jesus is channeling his inner exasperated parent and telling all of us to “Grow up!” If we don’t, he implies, and continue on the path of following the blind by behaving in ways that hurt ourselves and one another, then we are destined for an unhappy end.
Strangers in a Strange Land
by Dean Feldmeyer
Matthew 15:21-28
Throughout our history, from our earliest days after the first Easter right up to today, we Christians have been called upon to struggle with the subject of inclusivity. How are we going to treat people who are different from us?
Many biblical scholars believe that this was perhaps the defining controversy that was roiling Matthew’s church, somewhere near Antioch, Syria, shortly after the Second Jewish Revolution in Palestine (70 C.E.).
The massive and brutal suppression of the revolt by Rome had sent thousands of refugees, many of them Jewish Christians, fleeing north and into the arms of their mostly Gentile Christian brothers and sisters in Syria and Asia Minor. How these disparate groups of Christians, Gentile and Jewish, would live and worship together would set the course of Christian history for centuries to come.
Throughout the gospel which bears his name, Matthew brings us a message of inclusivity and acceptance of those who are different from us. This week he reaches beyond the comfort zones of even the most liberal and accepting Christians with the story of the Syrophoenician (Canaanite) woman, wherein we see that even Jesus had to struggle to step beyond the prejudices of his culture and his upbringing.
In the News
The inclusive vs. exclusive battle rages on the political stage: Are the undocumented kids (63,000 according to the most recent figures) who have been apprehended entering the country refugees or criminals? And what shall we do with them? Should we drive them out as quickly as possible, or should we hear their stories through the filter of Christian love and charity?
It plays out on the religious stage as well: How shall we relate to LGBT persons in our churches? Shall we welcome them as they are, or demand that they change before they can be part of our faith community? And if we welcome them, shall we bless their unions as marriages? Shall we ordain them as our leaders? What will inclusion look like?
And it is being played out on the medical/scientific stage: What shall we do about Americans who contract Ebola while ministering to God’s people in Africa? Should they be allowed to return to the United States for treatment, bringing the virus with them? What about all of those in Africa who don’t have the same access to such highly specialized treatment?
In all of these, what will drive our decisions? Will it be fear or compassion, faith or anxiety?
Oddly, it is on the stage of professional sport that this drama is being most actively pursued and the question of inclusivity vs. exclusivity most visibly asked and answered.
Last week, head coach Greg Popovich of the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs hired Becky Hammon as an assistant coach, making her the first woman ever to be a full-time member of an NBA coaching staff. Amazingly, the announcement was met with relatively little controversy.
Hammon is no stranger to the Spurs organization. She was a star player for the WNBA’s San Antonio Stars, and spent much of her down time while recouping from various injuries hanging out with the Spurs’ coaches and players. She knew them, and they knew her. Coach Popovich said, “Having observed her working with our team this past season, I’m confident her basketball IQ, work ethic, and interpersonal skills will be a great benefit to the Spurs.”
“I know Coach Pop has made it very clear to me that I’m being hired because of my basketball IQ and because I’m qualified,” Hammon said. “He said, ‘It just so happens you are a woman, but I’m hiring you because of your IQ and your personal relationship skills.’ I’m just grateful that they see something in me that fits in with them and their organization.” She says that Popovich’s reasoning for why he hired her and his unqualified support, along with the personal relationships she’s already managed to forge with some of the players, may be part of why she has been so quickly accepted by the team -- even though, as a woman in a man’s world, she is a stranger in a strange land.
Then there’s Michael Sam, an “out” gay man in what is presumed to be an arrow-straight world. He was selected by the St. Louis Rams in this past spring’s NFL draft amidst a storm of controversy, and with pro football’s preseason gearing up everyone is watching and waiting to see how things pan out for this stranger in a strange land.
Will his sexual orientation become a “distraction” for his team, as some have predicted? Will he be accepted by his teammates as he was in college, or will he be treated as a pariah, an outcast among his fellow athletes? Will he be recognized and accepted for what he brings to the team, or ostracized for how he is different?
Another pro football player, Derrick Coleman, is a deaf person in a hearing world. He’s a fullback and special teams player for the 2014 Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks.
Coleman reports that he has never been told that he can’t do something because of his hearing impairment. So when it came time to play football, he and his coaches, both in high school and college, made it happen. The coaches saw promise in him and worked with him to find a way to play the game. When he wasn’t drafted into the NFL, he signed as a free agent. When he was cut by the Minnesota Vikings, he signed with the Seahawks and earned a place on the team.
His deafness has never been an impediment to his being accepted and included as part of the team. Seahawks coach Pete Carroll says of Coleman: “He’s been a great contributor on this team.... And he’s a guy that does everything right. He does his job impeccably well in all areas, in everything that we ask of him. He’s a terrific effort guy. He’s tough. He’s fast. He’s been a fantastic part of the team. He’s been really a cool story. Not because he has issues, because he’s made this team and he’s made a spot for himself and he’s playing well. The fact that he has a hearing issue is really not even something that we deal with.”
If you were looking for a potential professional baseball pitcher, you probably wouldn’t look for long at Jim Abbott. He was born without a right hand, a one-handed player in two-handed world. Yet he was an All-American hurler at the University of Michigan; he won the 1987 Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in America; was a starting pitcher for the 1988 U.S. Olympic team that won a gold medal; and had an outstanding major league career for four different teams that spanned ten seasons, and was capped when he threw a no-hitter in September 1993. Not surprisingly, his lack of a right hand was never an issue with whether or not he would be included on any of his teams.
There are other notable examples of athletes who overcame disabilities. Rocky Bleier lost 40 percent of the use of his right foot and leg from a grenade explosion in Vietnam, yet the running back was a key member of the Pittsburgh Steelers and played in four Super Bowls. Tom Dempsey was born with no toes on his right foot, but made it onto the New Orleans Saints as a placekicker. Wearing a special shoe that allowed his leg to function like a polo mallet, he became a star in his own right. He held the record for the longest field goal in NFL history (63 yards) for over four decades, until it was eclipsed last December. Pete Gray lost his right arm in a farming accident when he was six years old, but was still accepted onto major league baseball’s St. Louis Browns, where he played 77 games in 1944 and batted .218.
In some of these stories, athletes had to overcome disabilities. But in all of them they had to overcome the prejudices and preconceptions of our culture about what they were capable of being and doing.
The Canaanite woman would be able to identify with their struggles.
In the Scriptures
She starts out with two strikes against her.
First, she’s a woman. And second, she’s a Canaanite, a Gentile foreigner.
The deck is kind of stacked against her ever getting help from this Jewish man, but still she braves the stares and sour expressions of his disciples and makes her way through the crowd so she can confront him and ask for his help. She has heard that he is capable of some pretty amazing things, and she needs some pretty amazing help if her sick daughter is going to live.
The things we do for our children, huh?
We will bear any indignity, assault any obstacle, climb any mountain, fight any enemy, even at the cost of our own lives, if we think it will ease their pain or cure their affliction.
Don’t get in her way. She’s a desperate mother with a sick child. You do not want to mess with her.
Unable to reach him, she calls out over the heads of those who are blocking her way. “Have mercy on me, Son of David. My daughter is tormented by a demon.”
This itinerant Jewish rabbi has a reputation for “having mercy” on those who are afflicted. But she’s got that whole female/Gentile thing going against her. Touching her, even talking to her, violates every taboo that he was taught throughout his whole life. If not from his parents, then certainly by his culture; by his friends at play and at school; by the conversations he overheard between his parents and other adults. What will he do?
The disciples are pretty clear about what they think he should do: “Send her away. She’s making a scene.”
At first, Jesus seems willing to do as they suggest and he offers an excuse to the woman. She is not a member of his “target demographic.” His ministry is to the Jews and will have no meaning to her. She worships different gods and operates out of a different ethic. His Jewish message is not translatable into the Canaanite. Because she’s an outsider, a Gentile, she can’t benefit from his ministry.
It is her sad lot to “fall into a pit,” and there’s really nothing he can do about it.
But she persists. “Lord, help me.”
He answers with an old proverb, an axiom, a cliché that doesn’t really apply. One does not feed the children’s food to the dog because there is a limited amount of food. There is not a limited supply of God’s grace, however. There’s plenty to go around. We can’t appeal to stewardship here. No one need be left out because of scarcity.
She replies with a clever rejoinder. She literalizes his metaphorical axiom and points out the silliness, the pettiness of it. “Yeah, but the dogs are still allowed to eat the crumbs that fall from the table.”
We can almost hear Jesus laugh. This woman has grit. And more importantly, she has faith.
Whether or not she actually believes that Jesus can help her daughter, she is willing to act on, to take a risk on the possibility that he can. That is what faith really is all about. It’s not so much about believing, about intellectual assent, as it is about acting, doing, risking, trusting.
In the Pulpit
“Lord, help me.”
She has humbled herself, humiliated herself, fought her way through the crowd, and finally pled her case, loudly and inarticulately, to what she has to know is an unsympathetic or at least disinterested foreigner.
What chance does she really think she has of getting any kind of real help here?
And, of course, the foreigner says “no.”
His miracles and healings are performed with the purpose of making a theological point, a Jewish theological point. And he assumes that the point will be lost on her, so why bother? Actually, who knows if the miracle is even possible if she doesn’t have the theological savvy to understand the point of the whole thing?
But she persists.
“Lord, help me.”
How eloquent are those three words! How beautifully they express the profound depth of her need. There is nothing left to be said. She is desperate, and she is hopeless. She is at the end of her rope. All that is left in her at this point is this cry of despair.
I have nowhere else to go.
I have nowhere left to turn.
You are my last hope.
Please, help me. Please.
He has already started to walk away, but that stops him. He turns slowly and looks at her. Pharisees and scribes he can write off. They are arrogant know-it-alls. They are the blind leading the blind, and they won’t be approachable or teachable until they have hit the bottom of the pit.
But this is different. This is just a poor, desperate, helpless woman pleading for her sick child.
And he cannot turn away.
He cannot.
“You know,” he says, “people will say that I am feeding the children’s food to the dogs.”
She replies, “The children have more than they need. Look, some of theirs falls to the floor. And it’s a feast for the dogs.”
He has not seen faith like this even among his own disciples. She receives that for which she has come.
We do not hear any more about this woman. Did she follow Jesus? Did she become a member of “The Way”? Did she tell others about what he did for her?
We don’t know any of that. Our storyteller, Matthew, does not seem to think that it’s important. He has a different point that he wants to make: Faith, real faith, can be found in the oddest and most unlikely places.
Sometimes it can be found in people who look and talk differently from us, who worship and act differently from us, who eat and socialize differently from us, who call God by a different name than we do.
Sometimes God can work in, through, and by people who aren’t like us.
So we should be very careful about whom we exclude from our circle. Very careful, indeed.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Leah Lonsbury
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
It’s time to grow up.
Wow. If I had a nickel for every time I said that to my fourth-grade son this summer...
Stop belittling your sister. She’s half your age. It’s time to grow up.
Really? Does cooked spinach really seem like the greatest oppression going on in our world tonight? It’s time to grow up.
When I say “Go take your shower,” is it really necessary for me to add “use soap”? It’s time to grow up.
Boy, would I be a rich, rich woman if that nickel thing ever really came to fruition. I’d still be exasperated, but I’d be rich.
Jesus is exasperated in the optional part of our reading from Matthew’s gospel for this week too. He’s been teaching and preaching and preaching and teaching, and nobody seems to really get it.
Earlier in Matthew’s gospel, the folks from Jesus’ hometown can’t seem to hear what he has to teach. They’re caught up in those universal questions that keep us all from moving back home: “Isn’t that the carpenter’s boy?” “Where’d he get all those crazy ideas?” “Not here in Nazareth, that’s for sure!”
Jesus is an adult (amongst other things) with a life-changing message. Folks, it’s time for you to grow up too.
Then the five thousand gather, and the disciples panic.
Did you call the caterer?
No. Did you?
No. (Insert your frustrated expletive of choice here.)
Hey, Jesus! What in the world are we going to feed these people?
Jesus has healed those thought to be long gone, brought a girl back to life, turned the law on its head, and started the rumblings of a revolution with a band of misfits. Do the disciples really think he can’t manage dinner? Hey, Peter and friends, it’s time to grow up.
At the beginning of chapter 15, the Pharisees are caught up on the disciples’ sanitary habits, or seeming lack thereof. The disciples can’t be holy and righteous and worthy of our time, the Pharisees surmise -- they walked right by the hand sanitizer.
“Wait a minute, Pharisees, let’s take a look at what’s really important,” says Jesus. “You have traded the commandments of God for your nitpicky rules. You have drawn the lines about who is in and who is out, who is right and who is wrong, who is righteous and who is sinful, all to benefit yourselves and maintain your precarious position of power. And that’s power grasped with human hands instead of granted from God, by the way.”
Excuse me, Pharisees. It’s time to grow up.
This passage’s potential for body humor jokes is not lost on me -- I just spent the whole summer with my son, remember? Does the Pharisees’ obsession with pure pettiness or pettiness about being pure really have the bumbling disciples that thrown off-track? “Let me break this down for you into something you might actually understand,” Jesus tells the disciples, and then he proceeds to tell the only poop joke in the Bible. At least that’s what my son dubbed it when I read this passage to him earlier this week. Maybe he’ll listen in worship on Sunday. Maybe.
When we get caught up in the petty, the juvenile, the short-sighted, or the legalistic bindings we place on ourselves, others, and sometimes even God, we all end up dealing in poop jokes, or the theological, ethical, or relational equivalent. And then we’re sure to miss the exquisite, nuanced, and enlightened beauty of the saving and boundless love of God.
When we fail to see and live in the life-changing, circle-widening, reconciling love of God, Jesus says, then we’re just the blind leading the blind. And that’s going nowhere good or righteous or healing.
When our hearts won’t give up our injurious, exclusionary, and self-righteous delusions, then we’re the ones doing the defiling. Pick up the newspaper and read any number of stories about racism, sexism, homophobia, jingoism, and other misled ways we separate, estrange, and assault each other. Lest we think these big-picture, national and international, and public stories are far from our own, it’s important to regularly take a closer look our own personal, domesticated, day-to-day lives as well. Just ask Jesus about the Canaanite woman that shows up in verse 22. We all walk dangerously close to the edge of the pit from time to time.
Jesus learns his own lesson thanks to the persistence of the Canaanite woman, and he discovers in this “other” an example of faithfulness that leads to blessing and healing and widening the circle.
I wonder what I might discover were I to heed my own advice that it’s time to grow up? I can’t be sure, but I’ll bet it doesn’t involve body humor. Thanks be to God.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Genesis 45:1-15
We were saddened to learn this week that Robin Williams committed suicide. Our first thought was “Why?” since he had everything any of us could want -- fame, fortune, notoriety. But he also had something that none of us want yet still plagues many of us, and that is the hidden illness of depression.
Application: Joseph teaches us in the way he received his brothers that acceptance must always take precedence over judgment, for we do not know the hurt and anguish that lies within the soul of any individual. This is evident when we observe the fear and anguish with which Joseph’s brothers approached him.
*****
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
News broke recently that a Russian crime syndicate was able to steal 1.2 billion username and password combinations, giving them access to social security numbers and credit-card information. The biggest concern is not the intrusion into financial transactions, but the use of the information for identity theft. In the history of the internet, this is the largest theft of personal data to date.
Application: Paul assures the Israelites that their identity as Jews will always be protected, even with the confession that Jesus is the Messiah.
*****
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
Merriam-Webster has just published a new Scrabble dictionary listing acceptable words for the popular board game. It’s the first update in a decade, and 5,000 new words have been added. Many of the new additions relate to technology, and as psychologist and Scrabble champion Robin Pollock Daniel observes, the inclusion of words related to technology “makes the game more accessible to younger people, which we’re always looking for.”
Application: To the dismay of his followers, Jesus demonstrated the acceptance of all individuals.
*****
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
Director James Cameron is recognized for his films that accentuate the use of technology, with Avatar being one prominent example. Yet this tech-savvy director refuses to use cellphones and other media devices that are so common and popular today. He offers this as his reason: “I look around the airport, and every single person is oblivious to the world around them.... I’ve made a conscious choice to not spend all my time... looking down at a device. I refuse to do it.”
Application: We will all be blind guides if our focus does not include the world around us.
*****
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
Drug lord Servando Gomez has such control over the Michoacan region of Mexico that he makes YouTube videos featuring himself. He is known as “La Tuta” (“the teacher”), since he was a schoolteacher before he became a crime boss. He uses the videos to promote his crime syndicate known as the Knights Templar.
Application: We must be aware that there are many blind guides in society leading our young people astray.
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From team member Chris Keating:
Genesis 45:1-15; Psalm 133
Both the Genesis passage and Psalm 133 describe the sweetness of reconciliation. Joseph greets his brothers with emotion and tenderness, and calls for their father to be brought to him. The scene brings to life the imagery of Psalm 133, where reconciliation is viewed as soothing and healing as the precious oil of anointing.
Of course the opposite is also true, as witnessed this weekend in the devastating rioting following the shooting of a St. Louis area teenager. Michael Brown, 18, was shot and killed Saturday by police in Ferguson, Missouri, a close-in suburb of St. Louis. The police force in the small town is nearly all white, and does not mirror the community’s demographics. As reports of the shooting spread across the news and social media, tensions in the community heightened. Following a prayer vigil on Sunday, mob violence erupted as crowds began to loot stores and break windows. Monday brought a stunned, yet calm “morning after” and an announcement that the FBI would take the lead in investigating the young man’s death.
The event carries echoes of the killing of other African-American teenagers, and is a reminder of the racial divisions that continue not only in the St. Louis region but across the nation. It was announced that Benjamin Crump, the attorney who represented Travyon Martin’s family, has been hired to represent the Brown family. For now, many in St. Louis are yearning for the very good and pleasant moments of dwelling in unity and peace.
*****
Genesis 45:1-15; Psalm 133
It was a ghastly scene, all captured on video: three-time NASCAR series champion Tony Stewart struck and killed driver Kevin Ward Jr., who had left his car after colliding with the wall. As the rest of the field slowed, Ward got out of his crippled sprint car -- apparently to confront Stewart, whom he likely believed had caused the accident. Instead, Stewart’s car hit the 20-year-old Ward, killing him. In reviewing the clip, John Swansburg comments:
It’s impossible to know, from this clip at least, what Stewart saw and what his intent was in the split second between seeing Ward on the track and making contact with him. Why did Stewart swerve at the last second? It almost seems as if he was speeding up, not slowing down -- could that be true?
What we see is important. For Joseph, seeing his brothers prompted reconciliation. For the Psalmist, imagining the abundance of God’s provision is vital to imagining unity.
*****
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
The Canaanite woman’s persistence is remarkable -- her faith in pursuing Jesus illustrates the parable Jesus has just taught the crowd about what is holy and pure. In a similar way, many saw the late White House Press Secretary James Brady as a model of persistence -- both in terms of his personal struggles following being shot by James Hinckley in 1981 and in his pursuit of gun reform. Brady survived the shooting, but was left with the staggering effects of a severe brain injury. As USA Today noted: “the essential part of what made the affable Brady the man friends called ‘The Bear’ never went away. He drove himself through months of painful rehabilitation, calling his therapists ‘physical terrorists.’ ” In the years following the shooting, Brady persisted to fight for tough gun regulations. When asked if he thought a waiting period for buying firearms was inconvenient, he responded, “I need help getting out of bed, help taking a shower, and help getting dressed, and... I need help going to the bathroom.... I guess I’m paying for their convenience.”
***************
From team member Mary Austin:
Matthew 15:21-28
House of One
Jesus and the Gentile woman are divided by their religious traditions, but in Berlin people of faith are hoping to move in the opposite direction. When the ruins of an old church were discovered in 2009, Protestants in the city were asked if they would like to use the site, given its historic significance. They felt like they had enough church space, but noticed that Jews and Muslims needed a place for worship. “What emerged instead was the House of One -- an idea for a new building hosting a church, a mosque, and a synagogue -- all under the same roof. If all goes according to plan construction will begin next year and the doors will open in 2018.”
In the new building, “Each religion will have its own practice space, all equally sized but with different designs. There will also be a central room connecting the prayer rooms and providing an area where Christians, Muslims, and Jews can all meet, along with those of other faiths. ‘We can see all over the world that faith can divide people,’ said Markus Dröge, a Protestant bishop in Berlin. ‘We want to show that faith doesn't divide Jews, Christians, and Muslims, but instead reconciles them.’ ”
*****
Matthew 15:21-28
Help
“Lord, help me,” the woman says to Jesus. Like her, we look for help in all kinds of places, but it also turns out that we love to give help. Helping others turns out to be good for both those doing the giving and the receiving. “Whether we are looking at studies of older adults, middle-aged women, or pre-teens, we see that altruistic behavior casts a halo effect over people’s lives, giving them greater longevity, lower rates of heart disease, and better mental health. We prosper -- physically, mentally, emotionally -- under the canopy of positive emotions that arise through the simple act of giving. Science tells us that there appears to be a fundamental human drive toward helping others. When people do ‘unto others’ in kindness, it lights up the primitive part of the brain that also lets us experience joy. This feeling of elevation is sometimes described by psychologists as the ‘helper’s high.’ ”
If we want to become more helpful, author Stephen Post suggests rehearsing it mentally ahead of time so we’re ready when we see a need. “Visualize helping. Every morning, take just a few minutes to close your eyes and visualize yourself helping some of the people you know you will encounter during the day. In psychology, this is called ‘priming,’ and lots of new research suggests it’s very effective in shaping behavior. For instance, a study by psychologists Mario Mikulincer and Phillip Shaver found that people were more willing to help someone in need after they’d been prompted to think about a caring and supportive figure in their lives. If you do a little positive mental imaging before your day begins, you’ll be more likely to respond helpfully to the world around you.”
*****
Matthew 15:21-28
Outsider
His facial deformity makes David Roche an outsider wherever he goes, and he has used that feeling of exclusion to become a comic and motivational speaker. His face is unusually shaped, and, as he explains on his website, “When I walk on stage, I encourage the audience to ask, ‘What happened to your face?’ I then explain that I was born with a severe facial disfigurement. On the left side of my face is an extensive cavernous hemangioma, a benign tumor consisting of blood vessels. As an infant and child I underwent many facial surgeries and heavy radiation therapy, which left radiation burns on my temple and eyelid. Yet my face is a gift, because my shadow side -- my difficulty and challenge -- is on the outside, where I have been forced to deal with it.”
He adds that everyone feels like an outsider sometimes. “My face is unique, but my experiences are universal. Every person has feelings of being different and in some way unacceptable. No matter what our life circumstances, we all must learn to value ourselves and the gifts that we bring to the world.”
***************
From team member George Reed:
A pastor once suggested that when we would come to the gates of heaven on Judgment Day, Jesus would greet us while directing us over to the gate and saying: “You are welcome to come in, but first I want you to see who else I’ve let in. Then you decide if you want to spend eternity with me and them.”
*****
I don’t know if this really happened -- but I know it is true. A farmer had taken his last load of grain to the feed elevator and had gone to the bank to cash his check. He then stopped by the car dealership to buy a new Cadillac. The farmer walked in with his torn bib overalls and told the salesperson what he wanted. This was a small town and the salesperson was new to the area; so he took one look at the farmer and said that he was busy. The farmer nodded, walked into the office of the owner (who was a good friend of his), told him what he wanted, and laid the cash on the desk. The lesson? You can’t judge a man by his overalls.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!
People: It is like precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard.
Leader: It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion.
People: For there God ordained blessing, life forevermore.
OR
Leader: Come and worship the God who created us all.
People: We offer our praise to God, who made us in God’s own image.
Leader: Come and share with all God’s people everywhere.
People: We come acknowledging that we are all kindred, we are all God’s children.
Leader: Love and serve God by loving and serving the least and the lost.
People: We will love God in all those we see around us.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“All Creatures of Our God and King”
found in:
UMH: 62
H82: 400
PH: 455
AAHH: 147
NNBH: 33
NCH: 17
CH: 22
LBW: 527
ELA: 835
W&P: 23
AMEC: 50
STLT: 203
Renew: 47
“From All That Dwell Below the Skies”
found in:
UMH: 101
H82: 380
PH: 229
NCH: 27
CH: 49
LBW: 550
AMEC: 69
STLT: 381
“Help Us Accept Each Other”
found in:
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
“This Is My Song”
found in:
UMH: 437
NCH: 591
CH: 722
ELA: 887
STLT: 159
“O God of Every Nation”
found in:
UMH: 435
H82: 607
PH: 289
CH: 680
LBW: 416
ELA: 713
W&P: 626
“Jesu, Jesu”
found in:
UMH: 432
H82: 602
PH: 367
NNBH: 498
NCH: 600
LBW: 708
ELA: 273
CCB: 66
Renew: 289
“Forgive Our Sins as We Forgive”
found in:
UMH: 390
H82: 670
PH: 347
LBW: 307
ELA: 605
W&P: 382
Renew: 184
“It’s Me, It’s Me, O Lord”
found in:
UMH: 352
NNBH: 496
CH: 579
“I Am Loved”
found in:
CCB: 80
“People Need the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 52
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who sees potential where we see none: Grant us the wisdom and vision to look with eyes of faith that can see your image in others no matter who they are or how unlike you we think they are; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, the one who sees beyond the obvious to the reality of what you have created. Help us to hear you speak to us today so that we might increase our faith and look upon others with the same insight, love, and grace that you do. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our tendency to judge others as being less worthy than ourselves of God’s love.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have created all people in your image and you call all of us your children, and yet we are quick to dismiss others as being not worthy. We look at their clothes, the color of their skin, or their less than pleasing looks and discard them. We hear their accents or their poor grammar and we push them aside. “These are not the ones God is willing to bless and use,” we say. Yet we are no better than any of them. We are all your children, and none of us live up to the potential you placed within us. Forgive our selfish condemnation, and help us to see others as you see them so that we may dwell together in peace and service to you and to one another. Amen.
Leader: God is our loving creator and parent. God loves and desires to bring us all to the wholeness of life. Live that fullness among others.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
O God of us all, we praise you for your greatness. We praise you for your love that reaches out to all creation.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have created all people in your image and you call all of us your children, and yet we are quick to dismiss others as being not worthy. We look at their clothes, the color of their skin, or their less than pleasing looks and discard them. We hear their accents or their poor grammar and we push them aside. “These are not the ones God is willing to bless and use,” we say. Yet we are no better than any of them. We are all your children, and none of us live up to the potential you placed within us. Forgive our selfish condemnation, and help us to see others as you see them so that we may dwell together in peace and service to you and to one another.
We give you thanks that you were able to see us as you created us and not as we have become. We thank you for the love and blessings you have bestowed upon us. We thank you for those who saw something good in us when others did not.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for your world and those who dwell there. We pray especially for those who feel the hurt of being rejected by others. Whether the rejection involves physical, emotional, or spiritual violence against them, we are aware that they are hurting. As you move among them, help us to be your loving, accepting presence among those around us.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
King David is a good example of someone who didn’t seem to have what it would take, but God saw that he did. You can use the Goliath story or the story of Samuel anointing David as king. In both cases David didn’t look like the best candidate for the job, but with God’s help he was. It isn’t what people say about us that counts -- it is who God says we are.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Jesus Helps Everyone
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
Object: a photo of your pet
Today I brought a picture of my pet. (Show the photo and tell the children the pet’s name.) I want to ask a question of the children who have dogs as family pets. Do your pets come around the table at mealtime and beg for food? (Let them answer.) I’ll bet that sometimes when your parents aren’t looking you sneak something for them to eat. Sometimes, maybe when you aren’t looking, your parents sneak your pet something to eat too.
Your pet probably sticks close to the table during mealtime. He has great faith that sooner or later something good is going to come his way. Sometimes the pet waits and waits. It seems like he is not going to get anything. But sooner or later a scrap of food goes his way. Thinking about feeding pets at the dinner table, and their great faith and patience in waiting, reminds me of today’s lesson.
The lesson is about someone who had great patience. It was a woman whose daughter was sick. The woman was not even a Jew. She worshiped another god. But the woman learned that Jesus was a great healer. She followed Jesus. She called out to him to help heal her daughter. Finally Jesus realized this woman had great faith, even though she was not a Jew. She called to him and asked him to please heal her daughter. Finally Jesus said to her, “Woman, great is your faith.” Her daughter was healed instantly.
This story tells us that Jesus’ love is for everyone. It shows us that we must have patience when we pray for help. The woman never gave up asking Jesus for help. It took a long time. Jesus finally answered her.
The next time your pet is begging for food at the table, think about the faith your pet has in you. You must have the same faith in God. Remember that God’s love is for all the people of the world, including you!
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The Immediate Word, August 17, 2014, issue.
Copyright 2014 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
