1. Good Morning. Let’s Pray . . . O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Opening Comments: Dear Friends I must confess to you that I have been struggling under a heavy sense of failure over the last year or so. Our Church is not growing as I believe that it could and should and over the last year I have been wrestling with the sense that I have failed God and you.
Heck I’ve even had us build a pink elephant out in front to get our neighbor’s attention - and what’s the result? Nothing other than “great idea neighbor!” and some kind remarks about our care of the Church building and grounds.
We’re pretty much where we were 3 or 4 years ago with some happy exceptions I might add but the fact is that either I haven’t been able to inspire you to go out and make disciples of the world or you haven’t been able to hear God’s calling through me and then been willing then to respond to His call upon your life.
In the first instance it’s my fault because of my lack of what? . . . my commitment, inspirational skills, courage or organizational abilities to engage and mobilize you to do what Jesus called us all to do and that is “to go out first to our neighborhoods and then to the rest of the world with the good good news that God loves us and wants relationship with us.”
In the second instance it’s your fault for being like most first world westeners – unwilling or unable to get out of your “make my day” consumerism mentality to actually get up out of your comfortable lives and love your neighbors into the Kingdom of God.
Yes, I know it’s complicated.
Over the last few months I‘ve been wrestling with this in conversations primarily with the members of the Rector’s Council.
Dn Dave, Jimmy Miller, Fr. Eric and Scott Schwabe and I have been meeting and amidst the basic business of “doing church” we’ve been wrestling with this fundamental issue.
Anyway Randi and I went on vacation. I spent a very wonderful but basically sad 2 weeks with my sister in Australia and a very lovely but distant time with my wife and kids at a family reunion in Hawaii. I was distracted by this fundamental quandary! - My mind, heart and soul were focused on what it takes to be a vital Christian and to lead Christians in today’s world – distracted by the siren call of the market place and the seductive calls of a media constantly playing on our prurient emotions.
I’ve returned with a commitment to keep on trying to find the answers. I won’t surrender until I’m dead! I promise you that.
It’s complicated isn’t it?
We can blame the world or we can try to discern what we need to do to change us and the world but at the end of the day what’s going to make the difference isn’t better organization or a more focused strategic plan or even a more dynamic leader but rather hearts willing to be set ablaze by the Real Presence of our God walking with us – empowering us – to confront ourselves and our society with His love!
It’s about following Him – He is the source of all bliss – all joy – all pure delight – all real happiness! Where is our bliss our delight - our joy today?
Is it in getting more and more stuff? Is it in getting more and more emotional stimulation and consolation - or is it in finding and experiencing God’s love for us and then sharing it with others?
Can we learn and change?
Let’s turn to Scripture for our answer:
Now please hold that question in your minds and turn with me briefly to our Gospel reading because I think our Lord has an answer for us.
Matt. 15:21 ¶ From there Jesus took a trip to Tyre and Sidon. 22 They had hardly arrived when a Canaanite woman came down from the hills and pleaded, “Mercy, Master, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly afflicted by an evil spirit.” 23 Jesus ignored her. The disciples came and complained, “Now she’s bothering us. Would you please take care of her? She’s driving us crazy.”
24 ¶ Jesus refused, telling them, “I’ve got my hands full dealing with the lost sheep of Israel.” 25 ¶ Then the woman came back to Jesus, went to her knees, and begged. “Master, help me.” 26 ¶ He said, “It’s not right to take bread out of children’s mouths and throw it to dogs.” 27 She was quick: “You’re right, Master, but beggar dogs do get scraps from the master’s table.”
Matt. 15:28 Jesus gave in. “Oh, woman, your faith is something else. What you want is what you get!” Right then her daughter became well.
Doesn’t this story bother you? It does me! . . .
A Canaanite woman cries out to Jesus to heal her daughter and by the end of the story, her daughter has been healed -- but between the crying and the healing, Jesus says some pretty dreadful things – some have argued that his responses to this poor woman were arrogant, racist and just mean.
We may believe that Jesus was "truly human," but we don't want him to be too human. So over the years, theologians and preacher have tried to clean up this story. Heck I’ve done it.
At different times I’ve argued that Jesus was simply testing this woman to see if she had enough faith. When she passed the test, Jesus said, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." Does that help? It did help me for a time.
Incidentally that verse has been the cause of some real pain because some people have heard Jesus saying, "If you had more faith your husband or wife, your mother or father or child would not have died." And O by the way the woman in question never actually made a confession of faith.
Here's another option to soften Jesus' words that I have used in the past: the Greek word kunarios (translated "dogs") really means "little dogs, puppies." So when Jesus tells the woman, "It’s not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs," he really means puppies. Jesus is perhaps cleverly suggesting that he is a benevolent parent and she is like a little puppy that he obviously loves. Does that help? It did help me for a time but no longer. I think that there is a greater lesson to be learned here.
But Matthew doesn't clean up this story. Matthew dares to give us a very human Jesus and he paints a specific picture of this woman. She’s a Canaanite woman. She’s not one of Jesus' people. Should he be surprised? Jesus has gone into the region of Tyre and Sidon. This is her home. Matthew's choice of the word "Canaanite" seems a bit strange. By the time of Jesus, people were no longer called "Canaanites." This name was no longer on the map -- a bit like calling New York New Amsterdam! Matthew chooses "Canaanite" on purpose: not only is she the "other," but she’s part of an enemy people.
Yet she seems to know who Jesus is. She begs him to heal her daughter who is tormented by a demon.
I suppose you could also read this whole story as a kind of set-up, something scripted by Jesus, or even Mark the Evangelist - to make a point. But I think it has the ring of history about it, and that Jesus really did learn something – in his humanity – about the faithfulness and worthiness even of outsiders!
There’s another factor that makes it appealing to me to assume that even Jesus had to learn. And that is, that the very process of education and growth is somehow divine!
One of the Collects in the Book of Common Prayer that I love goes like this:
Merciful God,
you gave your only Son
to be both a sacrifice for sin
and an example of godly life;
help us gladly to receive
all that he has done for us
and follow in his footsteps;
through Jesus Christ our Savior
Among many other things, Jesus was intended to be a moral example for us who are his followers.
· He prayed, so we should pray.
· He forgave, so we should forgive.
· He loved, so we should love.
· Why not, “He learned, so we should learn?”
God knows, we have a lot to learn!
Do you want to learn what it means to be a follower of the Great prayer, the great forgiver, the great lover and the great learner?
Do you want to learn and thereby to change – to change and become powerful disciples of Jesus Christ?
If you do then lean in – pray, forgive, love and learn!
And as you do this you and I will change – be transformed into the image of our beloved Jesus Christ! Amen and Amen!
Our Mission statement is “To seek and find God in our lives and in the lives of others around us and to reveal Him to them! Is this challenge worthy of you?
If so then learn it by heart and then tease out all of it’s implications and then pray that our Lord would empower you to do it – then do it!!!!! Amen!
Let’s pray . . .
Opening Comments: Dear Friends I must confess to you that I have been struggling under a heavy sense of failure over the last year or so. Our Church is not growing as I believe that it could and should and over the last year I have been wrestling with the sense that I have failed God and you.
Heck I’ve even had us build a pink elephant out in front to get our neighbor’s attention - and what’s the result? Nothing other than “great idea neighbor!” and some kind remarks about our care of the Church building and grounds.
We’re pretty much where we were 3 or 4 years ago with some happy exceptions I might add but the fact is that either I haven’t been able to inspire you to go out and make disciples of the world or you haven’t been able to hear God’s calling through me and then been willing then to respond to His call upon your life.
In the first instance it’s my fault because of my lack of what? . . . my commitment, inspirational skills, courage or organizational abilities to engage and mobilize you to do what Jesus called us all to do and that is “to go out first to our neighborhoods and then to the rest of the world with the good good news that God loves us and wants relationship with us.”
In the second instance it’s your fault for being like most first world westeners – unwilling or unable to get out of your “make my day” consumerism mentality to actually get up out of your comfortable lives and love your neighbors into the Kingdom of God.
Yes, I know it’s complicated.
Over the last few months I‘ve been wrestling with this in conversations primarily with the members of the Rector’s Council.
Dn Dave, Jimmy Miller, Fr. Eric and Scott Schwabe and I have been meeting and amidst the basic business of “doing church” we’ve been wrestling with this fundamental issue.
Anyway Randi and I went on vacation. I spent a very wonderful but basically sad 2 weeks with my sister in Australia and a very lovely but distant time with my wife and kids at a family reunion in Hawaii. I was distracted by this fundamental quandary! - My mind, heart and soul were focused on what it takes to be a vital Christian and to lead Christians in today’s world – distracted by the siren call of the market place and the seductive calls of a media constantly playing on our prurient emotions.
I’ve returned with a commitment to keep on trying to find the answers. I won’t surrender until I’m dead! I promise you that.
It’s complicated isn’t it?
We can blame the world or we can try to discern what we need to do to change us and the world but at the end of the day what’s going to make the difference isn’t better organization or a more focused strategic plan or even a more dynamic leader but rather hearts willing to be set ablaze by the Real Presence of our God walking with us – empowering us – to confront ourselves and our society with His love!
It’s about following Him – He is the source of all bliss – all joy – all pure delight – all real happiness! Where is our bliss our delight - our joy today?
Is it in getting more and more stuff? Is it in getting more and more emotional stimulation and consolation - or is it in finding and experiencing God’s love for us and then sharing it with others?
Can we learn and change?
Let’s turn to Scripture for our answer:
Now please hold that question in your minds and turn with me briefly to our Gospel reading because I think our Lord has an answer for us.
Matt. 15:21 ¶ From there Jesus took a trip to Tyre and Sidon. 22 They had hardly arrived when a Canaanite woman came down from the hills and pleaded, “Mercy, Master, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly afflicted by an evil spirit.” 23 Jesus ignored her. The disciples came and complained, “Now she’s bothering us. Would you please take care of her? She’s driving us crazy.”
24 ¶ Jesus refused, telling them, “I’ve got my hands full dealing with the lost sheep of Israel.” 25 ¶ Then the woman came back to Jesus, went to her knees, and begged. “Master, help me.” 26 ¶ He said, “It’s not right to take bread out of children’s mouths and throw it to dogs.” 27 She was quick: “You’re right, Master, but beggar dogs do get scraps from the master’s table.”
Matt. 15:28 Jesus gave in. “Oh, woman, your faith is something else. What you want is what you get!” Right then her daughter became well.
Doesn’t this story bother you? It does me! . . .
A Canaanite woman cries out to Jesus to heal her daughter and by the end of the story, her daughter has been healed -- but between the crying and the healing, Jesus says some pretty dreadful things – some have argued that his responses to this poor woman were arrogant, racist and just mean.
We may believe that Jesus was "truly human," but we don't want him to be too human. So over the years, theologians and preacher have tried to clean up this story. Heck I’ve done it.
At different times I’ve argued that Jesus was simply testing this woman to see if she had enough faith. When she passed the test, Jesus said, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." Does that help? It did help me for a time.
Incidentally that verse has been the cause of some real pain because some people have heard Jesus saying, "If you had more faith your husband or wife, your mother or father or child would not have died." And O by the way the woman in question never actually made a confession of faith.
Here's another option to soften Jesus' words that I have used in the past: the Greek word kunarios (translated "dogs") really means "little dogs, puppies." So when Jesus tells the woman, "It’s not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs," he really means puppies. Jesus is perhaps cleverly suggesting that he is a benevolent parent and she is like a little puppy that he obviously loves. Does that help? It did help me for a time but no longer. I think that there is a greater lesson to be learned here.
But Matthew doesn't clean up this story. Matthew dares to give us a very human Jesus and he paints a specific picture of this woman. She’s a Canaanite woman. She’s not one of Jesus' people. Should he be surprised? Jesus has gone into the region of Tyre and Sidon. This is her home. Matthew's choice of the word "Canaanite" seems a bit strange. By the time of Jesus, people were no longer called "Canaanites." This name was no longer on the map -- a bit like calling New York New Amsterdam! Matthew chooses "Canaanite" on purpose: not only is she the "other," but she’s part of an enemy people.
Yet she seems to know who Jesus is. She begs him to heal her daughter who is tormented by a demon.
I suppose you could also read this whole story as a kind of set-up, something scripted by Jesus, or even Mark the Evangelist - to make a point. But I think it has the ring of history about it, and that Jesus really did learn something – in his humanity – about the faithfulness and worthiness even of outsiders!
There’s another factor that makes it appealing to me to assume that even Jesus had to learn. And that is, that the very process of education and growth is somehow divine!
One of the Collects in the Book of Common Prayer that I love goes like this:
Merciful God,
you gave your only Son
to be both a sacrifice for sin
and an example of godly life;
help us gladly to receive
all that he has done for us
and follow in his footsteps;
through Jesus Christ our Savior
Among many other things, Jesus was intended to be a moral example for us who are his followers.
· He prayed, so we should pray.
· He forgave, so we should forgive.
· He loved, so we should love.
· Why not, “He learned, so we should learn?”
God knows, we have a lot to learn!
Do you want to learn what it means to be a follower of the Great prayer, the great forgiver, the great lover and the great learner?
Do you want to learn and thereby to change – to change and become powerful disciples of Jesus Christ?
If you do then lean in – pray, forgive, love and learn!
And as you do this you and I will change – be transformed into the image of our beloved Jesus Christ! Amen and Amen!
Our Mission statement is “To seek and find God in our lives and in the lives of others around us and to reveal Him to them! Is this challenge worthy of you?
If so then learn it by heart and then tease out all of it’s implications and then pray that our Lord would empower you to do it – then do it!!!!! Amen!
Let’s pray . . .
Opening Comments: Dear Friends I must confess to you that I have been struggling under a heavy sense of failure over the last year or so. Our Church is not growing as I believe that it could and should and over the last year I have been wrestling with the sense that I have failed God and you.
Heck I’ve even had us build a pink elephant out in front to get our neighbor’s attention - and what’s the result? Nothing other than “great idea neighbor!” and some kind remarks about our care of the Church building and grounds.
We’re pretty much where we were 3 or 4 years ago with some happy exceptions I might add but the fact is that either I haven’t been able to inspire you to go out and make disciples of the world or you haven’t been able to hear God’s calling through me and then been willing then to respond to His call upon your life.
In the first instance it’s my fault because of my lack of what? . . . my commitment, inspirational skills, courage or organizational abilities to engage and mobilize you to do what Jesus called us all to do and that is “to go out first to our neighborhoods and then to the rest of the world with the good good news that God loves us and wants relationship with us.”
In the second instance it’s your fault for being like most first world westeners – unwilling or unable to get out of your “make my day” consumerism mentality to actually get up out of your comfortable lives and love your neighbors into the Kingdom of God.
Yes, I know it’s complicated.
Over the last few months I‘ve been wrestling with this in conversations primarily with the members of the Rector’s Council.
Dn Dave, Jimmy Miller, Fr. Eric and Scott Schwabe and I have been meeting and amidst the basic business of “doing church” we’ve been wrestling with this fundamental issue.
Anyway Randi and I went on vacation. I spent a very wonderful but basically sad 2 weeks with my sister in Australia and a very lovely but distant time with my wife and kids at a family reunion in Hawaii. I was distracted by this fundamental quandary! - My mind, heart and soul were focused on what it takes to be a vital Christian and to lead Christians in today’s world – distracted by the siren call of the market place and the seductive calls of a media constantly playing on our prurient emotions.
I’ve returned with a commitment to keep on trying to find the answers. I won’t surrender until I’m dead! I promise you that.
It’s complicated isn’t it?
We can blame the world or we can try to discern what we need to do to change us and the world but at the end of the day what’s going to make the difference isn’t better organization or a more focused strategic plan or even a more dynamic leader but rather hearts willing to be set ablaze by the Real Presence of our God walking with us – empowering us – to confront ourselves and our society with His love!
It’s about following Him – He is the source of all bliss – all joy – all pure delight – all real happiness! Where is our bliss our delight - our joy today?
Is it in getting more and more stuff? Is it in getting more and more emotional stimulation and consolation - or is it in finding and experiencing God’s love for us and then sharing it with others?
Can we learn and change?
Let’s turn to Scripture for our answer:
Now please hold that question in your minds and turn with me briefly to our Gospel reading because I think our Lord has an answer for us.
Matt. 15:21 ¶ From there Jesus took a trip to Tyre and Sidon. 22 They had hardly arrived when a Canaanite woman came down from the hills and pleaded, “Mercy, Master, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly afflicted by an evil spirit.” 23 Jesus ignored her. The disciples came and complained, “Now she’s bothering us. Would you please take care of her? She’s driving us crazy.”
24 ¶ Jesus refused, telling them, “I’ve got my hands full dealing with the lost sheep of Israel.” 25 ¶ Then the woman came back to Jesus, went to her knees, and begged. “Master, help me.” 26 ¶ He said, “It’s not right to take bread out of children’s mouths and throw it to dogs.” 27 She was quick: “You’re right, Master, but beggar dogs do get scraps from the master’s table.”
Matt. 15:28 Jesus gave in. “Oh, woman, your faith is something else. What you want is what you get!” Right then her daughter became well.
Doesn’t this story bother you? It does me! . . .
A Canaanite woman cries out to Jesus to heal her daughter and by the end of the story, her daughter has been healed -- but between the crying and the healing, Jesus says some pretty dreadful things – some have argued that his responses to this poor woman were arrogant, racist and just mean.
We may believe that Jesus was "truly human," but we don't want him to be too human. So over the years, theologians and preacher have tried to clean up this story. Heck I’ve done it.
At different times I’ve argued that Jesus was simply testing this woman to see if she had enough faith. When she passed the test, Jesus said, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." Does that help? It did help me for a time.
Incidentally that verse has been the cause of some real pain because some people have heard Jesus saying, "If you had more faith your husband or wife, your mother or father or child would not have died." And O by the way the woman in question never actually made a confession of faith.
Here's another option to soften Jesus' words that I have used in the past: the Greek word kunarios (translated "dogs") really means "little dogs, puppies." So when Jesus tells the woman, "It’s not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs," he really means puppies. Jesus is perhaps cleverly suggesting that he is a benevolent parent and she is like a little puppy that he obviously loves. Does that help? It did help me for a time but no longer. I think that there is a greater lesson to be learned here.
But Matthew doesn't clean up this story. Matthew dares to give us a very human Jesus and he paints a specific picture of this woman. She’s a Canaanite woman. She’s not one of Jesus' people. Should he be surprised? Jesus has gone into the region of Tyre and Sidon. This is her home. Matthew's choice of the word "Canaanite" seems a bit strange. By the time of Jesus, people were no longer called "Canaanites." This name was no longer on the map -- a bit like calling New York New Amsterdam! Matthew chooses "Canaanite" on purpose: not only is she the "other," but she’s part of an enemy people.
Yet she seems to know who Jesus is. She begs him to heal her daughter who is tormented by a demon.
I suppose you could also read this whole story as a kind of set-up, something scripted by Jesus, or even Mark the Evangelist - to make a point. But I think it has the ring of history about it, and that Jesus really did learn something – in his humanity – about the faithfulness and worthiness even of outsiders!
There’s another factor that makes it appealing to me to assume that even Jesus had to learn. And that is, that the very process of education and growth is somehow divine!
One of the Collects in the Book of Common Prayer that I love goes like this:
Merciful God,
you gave your only Son
to be both a sacrifice for sin
and an example of godly life;
help us gladly to receive
all that he has done for us
and follow in his footsteps;
through Jesus Christ our Savior
Among many other things, Jesus was intended to be a moral example for us who are his followers.
· He prayed, so we should pray.
· He forgave, so we should forgive.
· He loved, so we should love.
· Why not, “He learned, so we should learn?”
God knows, we have a lot to learn!
Do you want to learn what it means to be a follower of the Great prayer, the great forgiver, the great lover and the great learner?
Do you want to learn and thereby to change – to change and become powerful disciples of Jesus Christ?
If you do then lean in – pray, forgive, love and learn!
And as you do this you and I will change – be transformed into the image of our beloved Jesus Christ! Amen and Amen!
Our Mission statement is “To seek and find God in our lives and in the lives of others around us and to reveal Him to them! Is this challenge worthy of you?
If so then learn it by heart and then tease out all of it’s implications and then pray that our Lord would empower you to do it – then do it!!!!! Amen!
Let’s pray . . .
