En el nombre de Dios, creador, redentor, y santificador. Amen.
In the name of God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Amen.
There are times in our lives when we just need a superhero - someone caring enough to notice our need or the injustice we’ve suffered; someone compassionate enough to choose to help us; and someone brave and strong enough to get it done. The prophet Isaiah speaks to this need describing God as one who will swoop in with vengeance and terrible recompense to rescue us from whatever or whoever threatens us.
I had a superhero like that once - a state prosecutor, named Mike, whose arm muscles literally bulged under his suit jacket. Mike fought fiercely for justice for my daughter and me when we were trying to leave my abusive first husband, and he got it done.
But Isaiah also speaks of God as one who springs up unexpectedly like water in the wilderness, who heals us and soothes us like cool streaming water on hot, thirsty ground. I’ve also had this kind of hero… a she-ro, actually: Mary, the Mother of God. Mary first came to me when I was 4 years old and every time I’ve needed her since. Her presence is always comforting and brings me relief and healing of body and soul.
We who believe can trust that God always knows our circumstances and sends us exactly the heroes and she-roes we need, from earth and heaven, to heal and encourage us, and to get us through. The only catch is that we have to be open to receiving the help, which requires humility.
As I preached last week, humility is a vital Christian virtue. We continually cultivate humility by paying attention to the condition of our hearts, the womb within us where God is conceiving and forming not just new life in us, but also a new way for us to live. This new life motivates us to respond in our world in the ways of God rather than the ways the world has taught us.
In his epistle, James, the brother of Jesus, writes about how this looks. We would live without partiality or favoritism, respecting each person just as they come to us. We would be compassionate, acting on our faith, not just spewing it.
The best illustration of this, however, is in today’s gospel. Having just taught his disciples that evil comes not from without, but from within our hearts, Jesus sets off for Gentile country where he embodies this teaching.
A Syrophoenician woman comes up to Jesus, bows down at his feet, and begs Jesus to heal her daughter. This woman is violating all kinds of cultural boundaries: she’s a Gentile, a woman, and she’s speaking to a man who isn’t her family. She could have been punished severely. That’s how desperate she was.
Which is why Jesus’ response to her is so jarring. “Let the children (of Israel) be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” Calling a Gentile a “dog” was a common racial slur at that time. Jesus’ use of it challenges our sanitized version of him.
But this is a story about breaking down boundaries that divide us. In order to break down entrenched barriers we must first notice they exist. Jesus’ startling statement worked like a charm – then and now. Everyone noticed.
The Jewish hearers of Jesus’ slur would have been in full agreement. Syrians are dogs; they don’t deserve what belongs to us. The Syrians listening would have heard the same old, familiar discrimination. It was the way of their world.
That’s why Jesus’ words to this suffering woman, followed by his healing of her daughter, obliterated those entrenched, divisive barriers, and everyone there witnessed this new way of living in the world.
The second healing story breaks down even more barriers. In this story, a deaf man is brought to Jesus. Jesus takes this Gentile man apart from the crowd and performs a Jewish healing ritual on him: laying on of hands and healing prayer, a practice we continue today. Immediately, the man’s ears were opened and his speech was clear.
Mark tells us that those who witnessed this healing were overcome with awe and wonder. Who wouldn’t be?
This man was miraculously healed in his body, but the real barrier Jesus brought down was spiritual. In those days, it was believed that if a person were born deaf it was punishment for sin, probably his parents’ sin. Rather than judging him, Jesus set him free from the sin. In fact, he set his whole family free.
Forgiving sin is something only God can do. So yes, this was an astounding moment! Also astounding was that by this healing, Jesus demonstrated a new way of living in the world - a way where sin is forgiven and healing is real.
In each of these healing stories, Jesus not only meets the ones he heals where they are; he meets the communities that surround them where they are - and heals them too. Jewish people, Syrians, Greeks, and Romans, intensely divided by politics and privilege, are made one in Jesus in these two stories.
The healing love of God obliterates boundaries.
We’re a community that knows healing. It’s the good news we, at Emmanuel, have to share.
We had to learn together that the means of opening a path of healing is the cultivation and practice of humility. We became each other's heroes and she-roes, sometimes fighting fiercely for justice, other times offering tenderness and soothing care.
This is the new way of living in the world Jesus is teaching in today’s lessons. It’s a way that doesn’t care about how much money, power, or influence you have in the world or in this church,
…a way that welcomes all whom God leads to us, just as they are, showing compassion to anyone who needs it
… a way where we who witness the healing power of Jesus share the wonder of that with others in our various social circles
…a way that practices forgiveness, where healing is made real for the one who sinned and the one who forgives, reconciling them and their communities into the unity of God’s love.
The healing we’ve been given isn’t just for us - it’s for us to share - and what better day to do that than Homecoming? Our Picnic in the Parish Hall and Ministry Fair offer us the opportunity to enjoy our friendships and commit our gifts to service in the name of Jesus.
Today we acknowledge that we are the super heroes and she-roes God is sending to serve those in need in our church and in our corner of God’s kingdom. We already have all we need to obliterate the barriers that divide us because we have seen and lived the reality of God’s healing love. Amen.
