Lord,
Have Mercy

A sermon by Pastor
Sonja Dalglish for FPC Weslaco

August 14, 2011

Genesis 45:1-15, Psalm 133:1-3, Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32,
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28

1. I.  Introduction

This
week has been a whirlwind of getting ready for Camp Creativity.  Many people have been busy with the planning
and preparation.  And just when the
Fellowship Hall looked like a beautiful marketplace, I realized we could not
see the screen.  And, because we would be
using the screen for training and during the week for the slides with the words
of the songs, The big canopy had to be moved from one side of the room to the
other.  I want to thank our members for
putting together this lovely setting.  We
will gather each day, with four tribes of children on these four blankets colored
to match the posters.

You
may have noticed that many other things have been happening this week.  Somalia and the famine in the horn of Africa
has been in the news.  There are multiple
problems in this area of the world.  The
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has been responding, using a portion of the
offering that we gave at Easter, the One Great Hour of Sharing.  However, it is such a huge problem that if
you want to give more, designate it on your check and we will direct the funds
to that area.

II.
Even Jesus Learned More About His Mission

In
today’s text, there is an echo of our worship service.  The Canaanite woman is on one side of Jesus
and the disciples are on the other.  She
cries and cries for attention, “Lord, Have Mercy.”  If we were reading this in the Greek, you
could hear her crying, “Kyrie Eleison.”
As our music director could tell you, there are many choir anthems with
these words.  It is built into our
liturgy to ask for mercy because we have all sinned.  Lord have mercy.  We need God’s help to live lives that are
good and kind.   Kyrie elieson.  We need help to be knit into this community
and into society.

On
the other side of Jesus stand the disciples who are saying, “Tell her to go
away.  She’s a bother.  We can’t hear you.  She’s interrupting.  Send her away.”

And
she cries, “Kyrie, Eleison.  Lord have
mercy.  Piedad.  Piedad.
Have mercy, Lord on me.”

Through
the ages, people have cried.  In the
middle of Nazi Germany, the Jews cried out.
In the U. S., the slaves cried out.
Women across the world, in many countries today where they have no
rights, cry out.  Children who are
starving and children who are working in factories, are crying out.  Lord have mercy.  They cry until their voices dwindle and
eventually are silent.

Many
of us know the Bible so well that we have lost all ability to be shocked by the
Biblical message.  And yet, today,
perhaps some of us still can be shocked.
There is a woman here crying out for attention, needing help and not
giving up.  She continues to cry out,
just like the woman in Jesus’ parable of the woman and the unjust judge.   Did Jesus remember her when telling that
parable.

Are
you shocked by the disciples?  Are you
shocked by Jesus’ response? He is willing to send her away, saying, “I’ve come
for the lost children of Israel.”  He
insults her by likening her to a dog.
Dogs were not as loved in this society as in ours.  Jesus even says that to talk to her and help
her is beneath him.

Yet,
we all realize that at sometime we are like that Canaanite woman, that outsider
standing calling for God’s mercy.  We
stand in need of God’s grace and mercy.
And, we acknowledge that most of us are not Jewish by ancestry.   We are the offspring of the Canaanite woman
- or some other non-Jewish race. How could Jesus say that he did not come for
us?

So
many times I think that in thinking of Jesus, we emphasize that he is the son
of God so much that we forget that he was completely human.  He studied scripture.  He prayed.
He learned and he grew in his understanding of God and of his own
purpose.  This is one of those times that
we see him growing and changing.  Helping
this woman and her daughter does not take anything away from his commitment and
mission to the Jews, and yet, he initially refuses to help.  But she counters him.  Cleverly, she say that even the dogs are
allowed to eat the scraps of food that fall from the table to the floor.

Perhaps,
Jesus paused and then laughed with understanding.  She bested him.  She changed his mind.  He realized that his mission was larger than
he had envisioned.  Here, he realized
that he came even for the Gentiles, even for you and me.

Conclusion

Jesus
mission was expanded.  Most of the time,
I’m told, when laity hear this passage, they see themselves as the Canaanite
woman, the person who persists in faith and is rewarded by Jesus’ attention and
healing.  But there is more.  We may have been the Canaanite woman at some
time in our lives, but most of us today are the disciples.  How do we respond to those who call for
attention?

Who
is the outsider calling for help and attention today?  Where are the walls in our society?  Who are those with faith calling out for us,
as disciples and spokespeople of Jesus, to respond?

There
are many outsiders in the world today.
Which voices do we not want to hear?
There is a book with a foreword by Bishop Desmond Tutu called, We
Were Baptized, Too.  It is a series of essays by gay Christians
asking to be accepted into the full body of the church.  There are Mexicans who have for generations
depended on being able to travel across to work for seasons in the US and
return to their families in Mexico.  And
it is not just those from Mexico who want to come for a chance at a better
life.   In another part of the world,
there are Palestinians who are kept from their work and even from medical care
by very physical walls.  The Lemon Tree
is a book recommended to me about a Jewish and Palestinian family living side
by side and the problems that each face.
There are women in many societies today without equal protection under
the law.  There are children forced to
work in factories.  There is still
slavery in the world.  Yesterday, I saw
the movie, The Help, and highly recommend it.
It is the story about black maids in the South and what society looked
like to them as they were treated more like dogs than people.

What
is the good news for these people?

As
they cry, “Lord, have mercy!”  Are we the
disciples who just want these people to shut up and go away?  Is our comfort so important to us that we
cannot see and feel the needs of these on the other side of the fences we put
up?

Will
we try to limit the Gospel or will we follow Jesus’ lead and allow our mission
to be expanded?

References

The
liturgical analogy comes from Workingpreacher.org and I use it with thanks to
my Methodist colleague, Roberta Goodman, who brought it to my attention.

1.  We Were Baptized Too: Claiming God’s Grace for Lesbians
   and Gays by Marilyn Bennett Alexander
   (Jan 1, 1996) with a forward by Desmond Tutu.
2. The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the
   Middle East by Sandy Tolan (Apr 17, 2007)
3. The Help (Movie Tie-In) by Kathryn Stockett
   (Jun 28, 2011)
   
   Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday,

August 14, 2011, the
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Gospel Matthew
15:(10-20) 21-28  

Things That Defile

¹⁰Then
he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: ¹¹it
is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out
of the mouth that defiles.” ¹²Then the disciples approached and said
to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you
said?” ¹³He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not
planted will be uprooted. ¹⁴Let them alone; they are blind guides of
the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” ¹⁵But
Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” ¹⁶Then he said,
“Are you also still without understanding? ¹⁷Do you not see that
whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? ¹⁸But
what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. ¹⁹For
out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft,
false witness, slander. ²⁰These are what defile a person, but to eat
with unwashed hands does not defile.”

The Canaanite Woman

²¹Jesus
left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. ²²Just
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.” ²³But
he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying,
“Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” ²⁴He answered, “I
was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” ²⁵But she
came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” ²⁶He answered,
“It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” ²⁷She
said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their
masters’ table.” ²⁸Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your
faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed
instantly.

First Reading Genesis
45:1-15

¹Then
Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and
he cried out, “Send everyone away from me.” So no one stayed with him when
Joseph made himself known to his brothers. ²And he wept so loudly
that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. ³Joseph
said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers
could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.

⁴Then
Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He
said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. ⁵And now
do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for
God sent me before you to preserve life. ⁶For the famine has been in
the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be
neither plowing nor harvest. ⁷God sent me before you to preserve for
you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. ⁸So
it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh,
and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. ⁹Hurry
and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made
me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. ¹⁰You shall
settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children
and your children’s children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that
you have. ¹¹I will provide for you there &mdash: since there are
five more years of famine to come — so that you and your household, and all
that you have, will not come to poverty.’ ¹²And now your eyes and
the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that speaks to you.
¹³You must tell my father how greatly I am honored in Egypt, and all
that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.” ¹⁴Then he
fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his
neck. ¹⁵And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after
that his brothers talked with him.

Psalm Psalm 133:1-3

¹   How
very good and pleasant it is

when
kindred live together in unity!

²   It
is like the precious oil on the head,

running
down upon the beard,

on the beard of Aaron,

running
down over the collar of his robes.

³   It
is like the dew of Hermon,

which
falls on the mountains of Zion.

For there the LORD ordained
his blessing,

life
forevermore.

Second Reading Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32

¹I
ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite,
a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. ^2aGod
has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.

… ²⁹for the gifts and the calling of God are
irrevocable. ³⁰Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now
received mercy because of their disobedience, ³¹so they have now
been dishas imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.