Every once in
a while, when I am introduced to someone, they look at me and say, “So you’re a
pastor?!” When they say that, I get the definite perception that they are the
kind of people who hold clergy in rather low regard. So I answer, “Yes, I am a
pastor, but not that kind of pastor.” Which of course, prompts the question,
“What do you mean by that?” And my answer is, “that I am not a pastor who
preaches judgment and punishment, I am a pastor who preaches grace and mercy.”
And then I
tell them the story of a young woman who approached me in a bar. She worked
there as a cocktail waitress, and overheard my conversation with a parishioner
who had taken me out to lunch. After he left, she came up to me and asked if I
was a minister. And so I told her, yes, but not that kind of minister. And
after explained what I meant, she told me that she was a single mother who had
been addicted to drugs. She told me that she had done a number of things in her
life that she was ashamed of, and wondered if my church would be willing to
accept someone like herself.
Of course, I told her yes, my
church would be more than willing to accept someone who had been through all of
her troubles, and be willing to support and encourage her to continue to walk
in faith. And she smiled and told me that in two other churches she had
attended, they had found out about her past, and she had been shunned and felt
pushed out of the church.
This woman
came to our church, and found welcome and acceptance in the congregation, and
eventually became a much loved member of our congregation for her work to start
a young women’s group, singing with the choir, and work on the Christian
Education board.
I thought of
Marcie, that was the name of the young woman, because of our story about the
Canaanite woman in our gospel lesson this morning. Canaanites were another
group that were considered enemies of the Jews. They did not live by the law of
Moses, they ate unclean foods, they practice idolatrous customs. In fact, the
reason this story is included by Matthew in this chapter, is that Jesus has
just got done, saying that how well you follow the law, what you eat, and what
you have done in the past is not what God judges you on. It is what you are
willing to do in your life based on faith in Jesus Christ.
Like the
Canaanite woman, Marcie knew the God of grace that Jesus proclaimed, she asked
once, twice, three times. She did not give up, because she believed that this
God of grace would do something for her. And so, when she appealed to what
Jesus had just said, that it was the faith that a person had, rather than what
they ate or what they had done that made them acceptable to God, Jesus
recognized her faith, and did what she most wanted, healed her child.
Now in 25
years of preaching, I have found many people in the communities I have served,
who believe in this God of Grace. Many
of them, when they went to some other churches, heard a message of judgement
and condemnation. In the congregations I
have served, I have also noticed that there are people who struggle with the
God of judgment in the Old Testament, and the God of Grace revealed in Jesus
Christ. In this struggle they find themselves unable to receive God’s
forgiveness, and so they hold onto the past, and the sins of the past that
control them. Now some might say I am
preaching two different God’s, but that is not true. The God of the Old
Testament is a God of justice, gracious, mercy and forgiveness. However, the
stiff necked Israelites, because of their sin, only perceived God’s wrath.
While the Patriarchs, Psalmists, and Prophets, all recognized God’s goodness,
graciousness and blessings. The God of Grace has been there in both testaments,
and for all who are willing to acknowledge that grace, there is forgiveness of
sins, and life everlasting.
One final
note, this events of this past week in Charlotesville Virginia were very
disturbing for many people. What most disturbed me was a young man, who was part of the white supremacist group, who
was talking about being a Christian. It is difficult to believe, but I have
heard a number of White supremacists use their Christian faith to justify their
beliefs. They think of other races as mud people, or less than human. This
belief about other peoples, cultures and races, is inferred by them from
Israel’s being a chosen people, and by their worship of the God on the
mountain, full of fire, fury, and wrath. But in Jesus Christ, the God of Israel
is revealed to be the God of compassion and grace. This is the God who suffered
death on the mountain of Calvary, so that all our human divisions might be
overcome. And in this chapter of Matthew, and in this story of the Canaanite
woman, Jesus makes it clear that faith in God’s love and grace is what makes us
children of God, and that faith brings God’s blessing in our lives. A blessing
of peace not violence, of unity not division, of life not death. And that’s the
good news of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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