Reflections on "Doing Everything Well?" Mark 7: 27-34

As I prepared the sermon, I considered preaching on Jesus' command to not tell anyone about what he is doing in Mark with James' commentary on the power of the tongue.  It might have been an interesting comparison, which perhaps I will work on later.  ultimately, I focused on the two stories in the Mark text (this we last week's lectionary passage - I had preached the lectionary's passage from James and wanted to preach on these two stories, so I did it a week later)

I generally like preaching narrative, and did so this week as well.  I am not sure if I should have just focused on one of the stories and not included the other.  The lectionary includes both passages in the same week, so I decided to go with both.  

“Doing Everything Well?” September 16, 2018, SAPC, Denton; Mark 7: 27-34; James 3: 1-12 Richard B. Culp

From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, 25 but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered him, “Sir,[h] even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29 Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” 30 So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32 They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33 He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. 34 Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35 And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36 Then Jesus[i] ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37 They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

Introduction:  “he has done everything well”

wouldn’t’ it be great If after someone has told two stories about you, the final comment is “she has done everything well.” Quite a statement.

“he has done everything well.” That’s what the Gospel of Mark says about Jesus.

By the end of the two stories, maybe so. But it does not start out that way.

move 1:  In fact, it begins with Jesus a bit cranky.

a. jesus has arrived at a home in Tyre.

1.  Tyre - a town to the north of Jesus’ usual stomping grounds.   

2. Like Decapolis, the town in the second story, 

Tyre  it is largely populated by Gentiles. (http://cep.calvinseminary.edu/sermon-starters/proper-18b/?type=the_lectionary_gospel, Leonard Vander Zee)

3.  In other words, Jesus is away from his home turf hanging out with the Gentiles, the outsiders.

b.  Apparently, Jesus is trying to get away.

1. To take take a break.

2.  Maybe he’s not in the mood to mingle with a bunch of Gentiles.

3. trying to hide out in this house.

c. But, a woman comes to find him.

1. A Gentile, Syro-Phoenician.  

2. not the target audience for jesus’ ministry.

2.  But here she comes anyway, a desperate mother whose little daughter is sick.

3. We are not told how she knows Jesus is there or why she would even think he could heal her daughter, but a surely a desperate mother will do almost anything to save her daughter.

4. She arrives unannounced and falls at the feet of Jesus. (http://cep.calvinseminary.edu/sermon-starters/proper-18b/?type=the_lectionary_gospel, Leonard Vander Zee)

5.  Her presence a reminder that Jesus has a target on his back - we often think about those who were trying to stop him, or argue with him, but do not forget that he is a target for those those who are desperately looking for him to save them.

d. When the woman finds Jesus, he gets a bit cranky.

1.  She asks for him to heal, and he answers with a sharp remark that seems to suggest she is no more than a dog, and as such unworthy of anything Jesus can offer her.

2. She responds, well she responds like a desperate mother willing to accept anything from Jesus if he will heal his daughter.

3. “Don’t I even get the crumbs?”

4.  Some biblical scholars suggest their exchange and his sharp response reveals Jesus’ humanity, his human side that is tired and cranky and does not want to deal with anyone, including this mother.

3. Some biblical scholars suggest Jesus knows what she is going to say, so he is setting her up to make a point about his willingness to engage outsiders.

4.  I do not know if either theory is correct, but I do know that the desperate mother appeals to Jesus who then heals her daughter, without even going to see her little daughter.

d.  Jesus hears the pleas of the desperate.

1. In doing so, he reveals the God of the Israelites who generation after generation has heard their cries and acted to save and redeem them.

2.  If you hear nothing else this morning, hear this good news:  God hears our desperate pleas and responds to heal and save us.

e. that truth reveals our role as the body of Christ - to hear the pleas of the desperate.

1.  to bring to them the hope and help of God’s saving grace.  

2. As we have heard and watched the unfolding story of Hurricane Florence, you have probably heard mention of the Cajun Navy are informal ad-hoc volunteer groups comprising private boat owners who assist in search and rescue efforts in Louisiana and adjacent areas. 

3.  These groups were formed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and reactivated in the aftermaths of the 2016 Louisiana floods and Hurricane Harvey. 

4. The Cajun navy came into being during Hurricane Katrina when former Louisiana state senator Nick Gautreaux put out a plea across local TV and radio for "Anybody [who] wants to go help the people of New Orleans please come to the Acadiana Mall." Between 350 and 400 boats and people showed up. This makeshift flotilla that became known as the Cajun Navy is credited with rescuing more than 10,000 people from flooded homes and rooftops. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajun_Navy).

5.  they heard the cries for help, and answered.

6. As the body of Christ, we are called to listen for the cries of the desperate and answer.

Move 3: Following Jesus healing the little daughter, we have the story of Jesus healing the blind man with the speech impediment.  A couple of things from this second story.

a. the role of our task as the body of Christ continues to be lifted up.

1.  Notice that friends bring the man to Jesus.

2.  The deaf man with the speech problem is not left alone.

3. those around him recognize his need for healing and take him to the one who can bring him healing.

4. In their actions, they model for us our task as the body of Christ - to notice those in need and help them find healing and hope.

b. And then the deep sigh, the single Aramaic word that sounds like a sigh, “Ephphatha!”  

1.  It’s interesting that Mark should keep this word, so strange to his Gentile audience.(http://cep.calvinseminary.edu/sermon-starters/proper-18b/?type=the_lectionary_gospel, Leonard Vander Zee)

2.   Maybe from a dramatic sense it reveals that this is at the core of who Jesus is - the one who can transform lives and bring hope.

4.  maybe the one telling the story uses this as a literary device  - an Aramaic word to draw attention to itself and then the follow-up Greek words “Be opened” defining the Aramaic and offering an emphasis that no hearing or reading the story can miss.

5.  “be opened”  what Jesus offers the world;  what we as followers of Christ are called to do - open our eyes and ears to see the power of God in Christ, and then open our hands, our hearts, and our mouths to share God’s power to change  the world.  

Conclusion:  “he has done everything well.”  

Are you doing everything well?

Reflections on “Love without Limits” James 2: 1-8; Proverbs 22: 1-9

We had a packed service with two baptisms, recognition of teachers as we begin our fun Sunday School schedule, and a wedding taking place immediately following worship (a member and his significant other, with many members staying for the wedding).  I mention that because part of what I tried to do in my sermon preparation was sharpening the focus of the sermon so it could be direct and a bit shorter than most weeks.  As I worked on the sermon, I decided during the Time with Young Disciples to ask them "What one thing would you want to teach child being baptized?"  That question also helped me sharpen the focus for the sermon.

The Proverbs passage (both the James and Proverbs passages were from the lectionary) fit really well with James passage and the sermon, but I did not expand the sermon to reference it.  In retrospect, I probably could have done so easily since the Proverbs text complemented the James passage very well.

“Love without Limits” September 9, 2018, SAPC, Denton; James 2: 1-8; Proverbs 22: 1-9 Richard B. Culp

James 2: 1-8:  My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?[b] 2 For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3 and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,”[c] 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters.[d] Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? 7 Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

8 You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Introduction:  This morning we have a baptism; 

not just a baptism, but a double baptism;

not just a double-baptism, but cousins  (Chase will  make St. Andrew his home church, and Matthias will grow up in another community of faith)

As part of the baptismal liturgy, the congregation will be asked, “Who stands with these children?” and you will give your answer by standing, a visible sign of your support, for each child and the parents who present their children for baptism.  You also stand on behalf of the church universal, pledging the support of any community of faith in which these two cousins and their families will fin themselves. will live,

We do not commit to help them grow into nice boys or nice people, although we hope they do.

We commit to raising them in the faith so that one day they might profess Jesus Christ as their lord and Savior.

If you had to teach them one thing - what would it be?

Move 1:  That’s what James is doing in his letter we read today.

a.  He begins with the question:  do you really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?

1. then he wants to give everyone a concrete example on which to base their answer.

2. he picks how they treat those who come into their midst at worship.

3. i’m probably not a fair judge on how people are treated since I seldom attend worship when I’m not identified by robe and stole as a minister, but maybe 10 years or so ago, I had occasion to be a visitor in a congregation.

4.  A group of six guys including my brother and I, along with some men from the congregation I served in OH took off for the week-end to go to Milwaukee (a Christmas gift from my wife).

It was a March week-end, so you can probably guess what we were doing - traveling to watch march Madness in person and on TV. 

We stayed in downtown Milwaukee.  Our games to see in person were on Friday and Sunday afternoon, so we have Sunday morning off.

We all walked over to the nearest Presbyterian church (of course) in downtown Milwaukee.  it was a huge, beautiful sanctuary.  Clearly a church that had seen its better days.  the huge sanctuary had been divided into smaller spaces, one of which was the worship space for a much smaller group.  As I looked around, I knew it was a church that was trying to redefine itself.

they had a moment like we do where people were invited to greet their neighbors.

they saw us, 6 guys in our early 40s and rushed us.  they seemed to pair up on each of us, excited conversation taking place.  all i could figure was they thought we were the advance management team for some company and soon our wives and 2.5 kids would follow, join the church, and redevelop the congregation in a fell swoop.

I watched as each pair discovered we were just here for one hour this week, never to return.  With slumped shoulders they slowly returned to their seats, their disappointment palpable.

I don’t know how other visitors are typically greeted in that church, but we got their best because they could see potential in us, they thought we had a lot to offer.  We were the rich visitors in Jame’s illustration.

do you really believe in our glorious Lord jesus Christ?

if you do, then all people are treated equally.  

No special status for the rich.   No special treatment for those with potential.

a.  Do not play favorites.

1.  Fair.

2. But, it is more than just a doctrine of fairness.

3.  About who we all of us are.

4. All of us are children of God and loved by God.

5.  God, whose love knows no limits.

c.  hard to imagine that kind of love.

1.  think about a first-time parent -  discovers limitless love for the child.

2. then the second child arrives - the parent does take the amount of love for the first child and split it between the two children.  No, the parent discover the inexhaustible supply of love.

3. and the third child, the same.

4. fi there is the fourth, it continues.  

5. Love that has no limits.

6. God has limitless love for each of us.

d. The point James makes is that all of us are children of God, loved completely and fully by God, so we who live out God’s love should show no partiality in who we love or not love.

1.  Regardless of our ethnicity, our socio-economic status, our sexuality, or any other category our world has, God loves us.

2.  And God calls us to love all others with the same limitless love.

do you really believe in our glorious Lord jesus Christ?

If so, show it by how you love everyone.

Move 2:  to be clear, James also wants us to know that how we treat the poor is an important part of how we love everyone.

a.  not because the poor are any more important to God than anyone else.

1. But because they need help.

2.  they are struggling and God desires to see their needs.

b. As the people of God who care called to be the body of Christ, to share God’s love in the world, we are called to care for the poor.

1. I know at some levels that is a complicated task.

2.  You can read books like Toxic Charity that challenge our assumptions about caring for those in need.

3. We can debate which entity should be responsible for the needy in our midst.

4. or, the best way to break the cycle of poverty.

5.  I am not trying to ignore the complexity of dealing with poverty issues.

6.  But, I am pointing out our call to engage those issues.

7.  James is pretty clear in connecting how we treat the poor with our answer to the question “Do you believe in our glorious Jesus Christ?”

Conclusion: As we live out our baptismal vows and help raise children in the faith, we invite them to “believe in our glorious Jesus Christ.”  

And we show them what it looks like by loving all people with God’s limitless love and caring for the poor among us.  Amen.

Reflections on "Washing Hands" Mark 7: 1-8

It was my first sermon out of the the Old Testament since May, although the topic of hand washing took us back to Jewish rituals developed in the time of the Old Testament stories.  I did not like my conclusion going into the sermon, so I adjusted it on the fly, and I ended up with a conclusion that I liked less than what I had originally written (the original conclusion in the text below).

did not get much feedback about the sermon as congregation left Sunday.  The sermon seemed ok to me, but I sort of missed the narrative of the Old Testament from this past summer's lectionary.

“Washing Hands” September 6, 2018, SAPC, Denton; Mark 7 Richard B. Culp

 Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands,[a] thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it;[b] and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.[c]) 5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live[d] according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

‘This people honors me with their lips,

    but their hearts are far from me;

7 in vain do they worship me,

    teaching human precepts as doctrines.’

8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

Introduction:  The Pharisees think the disciples should wash their hands before eating.

Jesus defends the disciples for not washing their hands before eating.

Jesus defies every parent who has his or her child before sitting down to eat - “Have you washed your hands.”

Or parents who carry hand sanitizer to make sure everyone can have clean hands if there is not a bathroom nearby.

Or churches who prominently display hand sanitizer and have the ministers use it as part of the communion ritual to put the congregation at ease about coming forward to receive elements.

this week I read an article about how to be more hygienic when serving communion.  You'll be glad to know that we are doing pretty well - in fact, having cut bread pieces for intinction puts us pretty high on the hygiene scale!

Jesus’ response seems sort of odd to our hygiene conscious sensibilities.  

Major clue that we live in a different context than the one in which Jesus made his point about clean and unclean hands and there is more going on in this story than meets the eye

Before we begin unraveling this story, a couple of thoughts;    ff we reduce this story to traditions are bad and acting from the heart is good, we might join a lot of others through history who have used this text to attack traditions, but i don’t think it is quite that simple.

Also, you see yourself on Jesus’ side, like you and Jesus have it right and everyone else and their traditions have it wrong, then you might need to rethink what Jesus is saying.

Move 1:  Purity laws

a.  Self-identity and self-understanding

1.  Imagine being Jew in a world where you are a small minority.

2. In the particular moment when this story takes place, the Romans are in power and the Jews are trying to live in the niche they have created for themselves in the world where they have little political power and they are surrounded by a plurality of people who worship a multitude of pagan gods.

3.  The rituals are a way of defining themselves and allowing them to recognize those who are like them [Tom Wright in Mark for Everyone (9) touches on this idea].

b.  Rituals like hand-washing are often tied to their religious tradition.

1.  Notice that the Gsopel of Mark refers to this ritatul as a tradition.

2.  hand washing is not a rule the Pharisees instituted to out of nowhere to make life hard on others;  it was part of the tradition they are trying to keep alive of http://leftbehindandlovingit.blogspot.com/2012/08/ethical-hermeneutics-and-hermeneutical.html

3. Handwashing goes back to days of priests washing as they go into the Temple. 

4.  The temple was the holy place where they would meet God.

5.  To prepare oneself by cleansing was a reminder that when encountering the holiest of holies, they need to be cleansed.  So the priests would wash their hands and say a prayer to God.

6.  As time when by, the ritual became more than just a act of the priests as they entered the Temple.  it was a way for all God’s people to be reminded that they were connected to God and their need to be cleanses as they engaged the holy.

7.  It also became a way to carry on the tradition when they no longer gathered at the Temple.as they encountered God, they needed to be cleansed say a https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/hand-washing/

8.  Rituals like hand washing were part of an effort to be faithful to God.

c.  but, but over time the purity laws morph into points of exclusion.

1. By the time Jesus is arguing about this in the Gospel of Mark, the religious leaders had the idea that if you did not follow the rituals, you were outside of the tradition

outside  of a relationship with God.

outside of God’s love.

2. how easily over time rituals came to be seen as gates put into place to exclude.

Move 2:  here’s where Jesus takes issue with the rituals.

a.  Jesus has a different agenda than traditional rituals.

1. Jesus comes to break down the barriers that keep us from God.

2. Jesus comes to expand the circle, instead of shrinking it.

3.  jesus calls us beyond religious traditions or rituals that exclude others.

b.  Did you notice how Mark emphasizes that the Pharisees and scribes come from jerusalem?

1.  For Mark, everything points toward Jerusalem, where Jesus will die and be resurrected.

2.  this discussion of rituals is played out in that context - the rituals cannot free us to know God’s grace; only Christ’s death and resurrection and can bring us to new life.

3.  no food, no rule, no human doctrine can mediate God’s love - only Christ can, and he offers God’s love to everyone.

c. I might also note that the Greek word for washing or washing as in washing of hands or washing the pots is the same root word as to baptize.

1. it seems to me that the point is clearly being made that the rituals are being replaced by baptism.

2. If you want to connect with God and be given new life, be cleansed in the waters of baptism and united with Christ in his death and resurrection.

Move 3:  Finally, remember, it’s about us

a.   it's not the scribes. Not the Pharisees. Not the law. 

1.  What Jesus subjects to fiercest criticism in this passage is the human being. 

2.  Joel Marcus notes the concentration of the word anthrōpos ("human being" or "person") eleven times in the span of Mark 7:7--23 (http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1381; matt skinner)

b.  How are you living your life?

1.  Do you live and act in ways that invite people to know God’s grace?

2. or do you like those rules that suggest there are a lot of hurdles to knowing God’s love?

Conclusion: When you come to the Lord’s Table today, reflect on the gift of Christ’s body and blood you receive - is it a gift for all, or a gift to guard with rituals?