This being the first Sunday of September we will be celebrating the Sacrament of Communion. If you are joining us online via YouTube you are invited to have bread and juice/wine ready so we can all eat and drink together.
The Scripture Readings this week are:
- James 2:1-9, 14-17
- Mark 7:24-30
The Sermon title is ALL Our Neighbours
Early Thoughts: In one of the best known stories from the Gospel of Luke Jesus is asked what is most important. He replies that loving God and loving your neighbour are the most important things to do. The lawyer, wanting to justify himself we are told, then asks "who is my neighbour?", which prompts Jesus to tell the parable of the good Samaritan.
All these years later I think we still ask the same question -- and we still hope to get an answer that makes us more comfortable than what Jesus seems to suggest. Then again, it appears even Jesus needed to have his definitions stretched.
When do we show favoritism? When are we partial to those we deem more acceptable or worthy of our attention? Are we always aware of it? Are there times when our definition of Neighbour is more limited than we would like to admit?
I suspect there are times when we show partiality, when we play favorites, when we limit our understanding of "who is my neighbour". I also suspect much of that we do unconsciously, that it is just a part of how we have been socialized and taught.
Which brings me to this wonderful story of Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman. She asks for help, not for her but for her daughter. Jesus says she is not the sort of person he was called to help. He likens it to giving the food meant for the children to the dogs (a little insulting and offensive there my friend). But she does not relent. She changes Jesus' mind and he offers healing to her daughter.
This can be a challenging story. Are we really ready to see a Jesus who shows such obvious favoritism based not on need but on ethnicity? (For the record in Matthew's telling of this story the ethnic favoritism is even more explicit -- Matthew 15:21-28)
Or more positively... are we prepared to see that Jesus, the Word-Made-Flesh, God wearing a human form, is so fully human that he carries the prejudices and biases he learned as a child and the ability to grow beyond them?
WE are called to love, to act lovingly (treat love as a verb, not as a feeling when thinking about the Great Commandment), our neighbour. ALL our neighbours. The ones like us, the ones we like, the ones we think worthy AND the ones who are different, the ones of whom we disapprove, the ones we would rather went somewhere else. The good news is that we can be challenged on our definitions and understandings and grow beyond them.
James reminds us that our faith, our words, our statements of love need to issue in action. Let us all re-learn how to love our neighbours without favoritism or partiality. Let our faith remain lively and active.
--Gord
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