Today's Scripture Readings
Isaiah 56:1, 6-8 (NRSV)
Psalm 67 (BCP., p.675)
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 (NRSV)
Matthew 15:21-28 (NRSV)
Blog Reflection
There are two major questions that are often asked by theologians.
Question 1. When Jesus was tempted in the desert for forty days (See Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, and Luke 4:1-13), could He have sinned or not?
Question 2. Before Jesus was Baptized in the River Jordan (See Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, and Luke 3:21-22) did He know who He was?
Both of these questions hinge on the belief that Jesus was and is of two natures; Divine and Human. If we say that Jesus could have sinned during the temptation, then was He really Divine? If Jesus could not have sinned, was He really Human? If Jesus did know who He was before His Baptism, was he really Human? If Jesus did not know who He was, then how was He Divine?
Today's Gospel account of Jesus' encounter with the Canaanite woman raises some similar questions. His answer to her request to heal her daughter seems anything but kind, polite and consoling. It sounds as if Jesus has been affected by the cultural biases of His time. What does this say about His Divinity and Humanity?
I have written any number of times on this particular Gospel. I have sided with those who say that Jesus was affected by the prejudices of His culture. I would still have to say that, but this time, from a different perspective and reason.
When Jesus came to us as God's perfect revelation of God's Self, He also showed us what human nature is really like, and what it could be. The relationship of humankind with God suffered then, as it does now because of our immaturity. Our refusal to grow up and become more like the Divine Person of Jesus Christ. God came to us in Christ to show us just how broken and childish human nature had become, and how we might follow Christ to the point of our relationship to the Divinity might be restored. God chose to teach us, heal us, and restore us through the broken humanity made whole through the humility of God's Son, Jesus the Christ.
I believe, that the experience of Jesus in His conversation with the Canaanite woman is God's way of reflecting for us in Christ, how wounded and immature our human relationships are. We are so blinded by the racism that allows Michael Brown to be shot by a police officer, that many Christians and Americans would rather bury our heads in the sand, and say the police were justified in their brutality, than call out for justice. We should not only call for justice for Michael Brown, but also for the peaceful protestors who were brutalized.
The large number of women, men and children who suffer from mental illness issues, and keep silent because of fear, marginalization and the many consequences that come from telling someone, that only when a beloved man named Robin Williams commits suicide, do more people sit up and take notice. We continue to pretend like mental illness is not a real situation in our homes, families, churches and communities. We even ignore the need for dangerous weapon regulations reform, because billionaires in the NRA flood our politics.
People who sit in pews shouting "praise the Lord" because a judge in Tennessee ruled that their Constitutional Amendment banning the freedom to marry in their State is constitutional, because they cannot see how the Christianist groups have brainwashed them to justify prejudice, violence and oppression.
Others sit in judgment and negative stereotyping of Muslims world wide, because of the horrible massacre of Christians in Iraq. In actuality, there is very little difference between fundamentalist Christians and fundamentalist Muslims. The only difference is Mohammed or Jesus as their reason for justifying violent extermination of "others" who are not like them.
Why is this Gospel of Jesus' encounter with the Canaanite woman so important to these and other things going on around us?
Jesus' experience in Matthew's Gospel shows us that the healing of humankind by God's Divine love, does not come without the reconciliation of our relationships with one another. The scarred and childish relationships, divided by discrimination and inequality won't be mended by God's Divine intervention alone. They will experience healing and reconciliation because we take the step forward of confessing just how fractured and splintered those relationships are and working together with the Holy Spirit's guidance to bring about real change.
The message of the Christian Gospel is that our communal relationships and our personal relationships with God are healed and redeemed through the Paschal Mystery as we are restored to our Divine relationship as Daughters and Sons of God. With us, God is well pleased.
We often forget to look again at the story of our Creation in Genesis 1:26a. "Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness......" We were created by God in a communal relationship of God with God's Self. It is the belief of Christians then, that God heals and restores that relationship through the community of God's relationship with and through the Divine and Human natures of Christ. The relationship is healed and reconciled by healing the broken community of humankind, through it's relationship with the Divine community with one another. In the Ascension of Christ, we celebrate that in Jesus, our broken humanity is always at the right hand of God, interceding on our behalf for the healing and reconciliation to continue through the perpetual sacrifice of Christ.
The Holy Eucharist is our constant evidence of God working among us, through our common humanity infused with the Divine mystery of Christ. The single host, though it is broken and shared is all part of the one loaf. So the Body of Jesus, broken on the Cross, and His Blood shed, spills into our diverse human relationships, to heal us in and through one another. These things happen because of the faith that the Canaanite woman had to keep appealing to Jesus, even humbling herself to serve as a renewed understanding for Him, so that He would grant what she asked.
How do we allow the broken humanity of Jesus to bring Divine healing to our relationships?
How do we reconcile our broken humanity, with the perfected humility of Christ?
Where do we hear Jesus through others challenging us to mature in our relationship with God through our wounded relationships with others?
Perhaps we are the Canaanite woman looking for help from a broken system.
Perhaps we are Jesus who need to see things from a different point of view.
Whatever and wherever we find ourselves, Jesus is calling out to us through the circumstances of our daily lives, to live by faith and trust. Through Him and His Divine love, may our many broken relationships be healed and reconciled.
Amen.
Prayers
Isaiah 56:1, 6-8 (NRSV)
- Thus says the LORD:
- Maintain justice, and do what is right,
- for soon my salvation will come,
- and my deliverance be revealed.
- And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,
- to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD,
- and to be his servants,
- all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it,
- and hold fast my covenant--
- these I will bring to my holy mountain,
- and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
- their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
- will be accepted on my altar;
- for my house shall be called a house of prayer
- for all peoples.
- Thus says the Lord GOD,
- who gathers the outcasts of Israel,
- I will gather others to them
- besides those already gathered.
Psalm 67 (BCP., p.675)
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 (NRSV)
I 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. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.
For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.
Matthew 15:21-28 (NRSV)
Jesus left Gennesaret and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 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." 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." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." He answered, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instantly.
Blog Reflection
There are two major questions that are often asked by theologians.
Question 1. When Jesus was tempted in the desert for forty days (See Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, and Luke 4:1-13), could He have sinned or not?
Question 2. Before Jesus was Baptized in the River Jordan (See Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, and Luke 3:21-22) did He know who He was?
Both of these questions hinge on the belief that Jesus was and is of two natures; Divine and Human. If we say that Jesus could have sinned during the temptation, then was He really Divine? If Jesus could not have sinned, was He really Human? If Jesus did know who He was before His Baptism, was he really Human? If Jesus did not know who He was, then how was He Divine?
Today's Gospel account of Jesus' encounter with the Canaanite woman raises some similar questions. His answer to her request to heal her daughter seems anything but kind, polite and consoling. It sounds as if Jesus has been affected by the cultural biases of His time. What does this say about His Divinity and Humanity?
I have written any number of times on this particular Gospel. I have sided with those who say that Jesus was affected by the prejudices of His culture. I would still have to say that, but this time, from a different perspective and reason.
When Jesus came to us as God's perfect revelation of God's Self, He also showed us what human nature is really like, and what it could be. The relationship of humankind with God suffered then, as it does now because of our immaturity. Our refusal to grow up and become more like the Divine Person of Jesus Christ. God came to us in Christ to show us just how broken and childish human nature had become, and how we might follow Christ to the point of our relationship to the Divinity might be restored. God chose to teach us, heal us, and restore us through the broken humanity made whole through the humility of God's Son, Jesus the Christ.
I believe, that the experience of Jesus in His conversation with the Canaanite woman is God's way of reflecting for us in Christ, how wounded and immature our human relationships are. We are so blinded by the racism that allows Michael Brown to be shot by a police officer, that many Christians and Americans would rather bury our heads in the sand, and say the police were justified in their brutality, than call out for justice. We should not only call for justice for Michael Brown, but also for the peaceful protestors who were brutalized.
The large number of women, men and children who suffer from mental illness issues, and keep silent because of fear, marginalization and the many consequences that come from telling someone, that only when a beloved man named Robin Williams commits suicide, do more people sit up and take notice. We continue to pretend like mental illness is not a real situation in our homes, families, churches and communities. We even ignore the need for dangerous weapon regulations reform, because billionaires in the NRA flood our politics.
People who sit in pews shouting "praise the Lord" because a judge in Tennessee ruled that their Constitutional Amendment banning the freedom to marry in their State is constitutional, because they cannot see how the Christianist groups have brainwashed them to justify prejudice, violence and oppression.
Others sit in judgment and negative stereotyping of Muslims world wide, because of the horrible massacre of Christians in Iraq. In actuality, there is very little difference between fundamentalist Christians and fundamentalist Muslims. The only difference is Mohammed or Jesus as their reason for justifying violent extermination of "others" who are not like them.
Why is this Gospel of Jesus' encounter with the Canaanite woman so important to these and other things going on around us?
Jesus' experience in Matthew's Gospel shows us that the healing of humankind by God's Divine love, does not come without the reconciliation of our relationships with one another. The scarred and childish relationships, divided by discrimination and inequality won't be mended by God's Divine intervention alone. They will experience healing and reconciliation because we take the step forward of confessing just how fractured and splintered those relationships are and working together with the Holy Spirit's guidance to bring about real change.
The message of the Christian Gospel is that our communal relationships and our personal relationships with God are healed and redeemed through the Paschal Mystery as we are restored to our Divine relationship as Daughters and Sons of God. With us, God is well pleased.
We often forget to look again at the story of our Creation in Genesis 1:26a. "Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness......" We were created by God in a communal relationship of God with God's Self. It is the belief of Christians then, that God heals and restores that relationship through the community of God's relationship with and through the Divine and Human natures of Christ. The relationship is healed and reconciled by healing the broken community of humankind, through it's relationship with the Divine community with one another. In the Ascension of Christ, we celebrate that in Jesus, our broken humanity is always at the right hand of God, interceding on our behalf for the healing and reconciliation to continue through the perpetual sacrifice of Christ.
The Holy Eucharist is our constant evidence of God working among us, through our common humanity infused with the Divine mystery of Christ. The single host, though it is broken and shared is all part of the one loaf. So the Body of Jesus, broken on the Cross, and His Blood shed, spills into our diverse human relationships, to heal us in and through one another. These things happen because of the faith that the Canaanite woman had to keep appealing to Jesus, even humbling herself to serve as a renewed understanding for Him, so that He would grant what she asked.
How do we allow the broken humanity of Jesus to bring Divine healing to our relationships?
How do we reconcile our broken humanity, with the perfected humility of Christ?
Where do we hear Jesus through others challenging us to mature in our relationship with God through our wounded relationships with others?
Perhaps we are the Canaanite woman looking for help from a broken system.
Perhaps we are Jesus who need to see things from a different point of view.
Whatever and wherever we find ourselves, Jesus is calling out to us through the circumstances of our daily lives, to live by faith and trust. Through Him and His Divine love, may our many broken relationships be healed and reconciled.
Amen.
Prayers
Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a
sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us
grace to receive thankfully the fruits of this redeeming work,
and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, p.232).
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us
through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole
human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which
infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us;
unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and
confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in
your good time, all nations and races may serve you in
harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, p.815).
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