The Tenth Sunday after Trinity, 20 August 2017, Sutton Montis
Notes from the conversation at this Informal Service.
WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION
We live in an age of intemperate speech.
After white nationalist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, Governor Terry McAuliffe told far-right demonstrators and neo-Nazis to ‘go home and never come back’. McAuliffe said he had implored President Trump to help ‘stop the hate speech, stop the rhetoric in this country, we have got to bring people together’. [1] Today the President is reported to have described anti-fascist and anti-racist demonstrators who converged on Boston as “anti-police agitators”. [2]
We are in an age of 'fire and fury’ (to quote the President again). As we gather here, how we long for words of comfort, words of peace, gentle words of fellowship and hope.
HYMN 231 I heard the voice of Jesus say (performed by Macappella from CD ‘I Will Not Sing Alone’)
PRAYER
Today’s gospel readings are hard because in them we find Jesus engaging in what can honestly be described as intemperate speech. And we wonder what to make of them.
READING Matthew 15.1-20
Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 ‘Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.’ 3 He answered them, ‘And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, “Honour your father and your mother,” and, “Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.” 5 But you say that whoever tells father or mother, “Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God”, then that person need not honour the father. 6 So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said:
8 “This people honours me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
9 in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.”’
10 Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, ‘Listen and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.’ 12 Then the disciples approached and said to him, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees took offence when they heard what you said?’ 13 He answered, ‘Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.’ 15 But Peter said to him, ‘Explain this parable to us.’ 16 Then he said, ‘Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. 19 For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.’
CONVERSATION
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being very passively, and 10 being very aggressively, how did Jesus talk to the Pharisees? Why?
How did the Pharisees react?
HYMN 457 Stand up, stand up for Jesus
READING Matthew 15.21-28
21 Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’ 23 But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.’ 24 He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ 25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ 26 He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ 27 She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ 28 Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.
CONVERSATION
How many times did Jesus reject the approaches of this woman? In what ways?
When he did speak to her, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being very passively, and 10 being very aggressively, how did Jesus talk to her? Why?
How did the woman react?
CONTEMPLATION: On living in an age of intemperate speech
Observations re the Pharisees:
Philosopher Karl Popper, “The paradox of tolerance is that defending tolerance requires to not tolerate the intolerant”.
Edmund Burke, ”The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do [SAY] nothing.”
Re the Canaanite woman:
David McCracken, The Scandal of the Gospels, “The Pharisees are offended; the Canaanite woman is not offended. The stark contrast [reveals that] the opposite of offence is faith.”
Their reactions to Jesus’ intemperate words showed that “the pious and law-abiding Pharisees lacked faith, and a Gentile dog has great faith”.
The woman’s faith changed Jesus … this is the moment of realisation that his mission is not just to his own people but to all people…
In this world which is so conflicted about speech, sometimes God’s truth will be received as a scandal.
So we have to train ourselves to keep faith with the spirit of Jesus and always try to speak his truth, whatever the consequences. Matthew 11.6, Jesus to John the Baptist's disciples: 'Blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me.'
In our prayers let us take time to ask God for help so we can speak for him…
PRAYER
‘Hymn’: A New Poem by Sherman Alexie: addressing the hatred currently plaguing the United States.
Who will you be? Who will I become
As we gather in this terrible kingdom?
My friends, I'm not quite sure what I should do.
I'm as angry and afraid and disillusioned as you.
But I do know this: I will resist hate. I will resist.
I will stand and sing my love. I will use my fist
To drum and drum my love. I will write and read poems
That offer the warmth and shelter of any good home.
I will sing for people who might not sing for me.
I will sing for people who are not my family.
I will sing honor songs for the unfamilar and new.
I will visit a different church and pray in a different pew.
I will silently sit and carefully listen to new stories
About other people’s tragedies and glories.
I will not assume my pain and joy are better.
I will not claim my people invented gravity or weather.
And, oh, I know I will still feel my rage and rage and rage
But I won’t act like I’m the only person onstage.
I am one more citizen marching against hatred.
Alone, we are defenseless. Collected, we are sacred.
We will march by the millions. We will tremble and grieve.
We will praise and weep and laugh. We will believe.
We will be courageous with our love. We will risk danger
As we sing and sing and sing to welcome strangers.
©2017, Sherman Alexie [3]
including BRYN HOWARTH Trust in Me (see below)
ending with THE LORD’S PRAYER
BLESSING
Notes
A previous sermon on this subject: Matthew 15: Jesus is rude, preached in Liverpool in 2008, very influenced by Paul Nuechterlein’s Girardian Lectionary notes for Proper 15A, in particular the section from David McCracken, The Scandal of the Gospels.
[1] Virginia governor tells Nazis 'go home' and calls on Trump to fight hate speech – video, Guardian, 13 August 2017.
[2] Sarah Betancourt, Trump attacks Boston counter-protesters as 'anti-police agitators’, Guardian, 19 August 2017.
[3] ‘Hymn’: A New Poem by Sherman Alexie, Earlybirdbooks website. With thanks to News From Nowhere Bookshop for their Facebook post with this link.
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