Sunday, September 26, 2021

Proper 21B

Proper-21b

http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Pentecost/BProp21_RCL.html

Almighty power in mercy & pity

If God is going to work with us about anything, God must first have our attention. Of course, God can do lots of things without me. Really an infinite number of things.

But if what we’re talking about is me cooperating with God — which on the whole seems like a good thing to do — we have to be, like, cooperating.

Right at the very beginning of our liturgy today, I claimed something that gets my attention. In the collect of the day I addressed God and claimed that:

“O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity:”

God’s power is found in mercy? Amazing!

When we show mercy and pity we are cooperating with God’s “almighty power” -- they become our super-powers ¹.

Sometimes for sure God’s power is just power. Awesome power.

Creation. Making the heavens and the earth. Making the tiny creatures that crawl upon the earth. Making creatures like you and me.

Awesome power.

But we claim in today’s collect that the most powerful power — is mercy and pity — understood as “sympathetic sorrow for one suffering, distressed, or unhappy”, which is to say empathy for those who suffer.

Something of that power of mercy and pity is found in the words from the letter of James today:

Are any among you suffering? They should pray.
Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.
The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. Prayer is a tool of the super powers of mercy and pity
Like the lamb who is lost, when we go out with mercy and comfort to bring that lost one home, we have shown the almighty power of God.

Protect the people

When we pay attention to the one who is lost and seek to bring them back, we are caring for the whole people, the whole community. When one is lost or suffering, the flock is not whole. The whole flock suffers. Mercy and pity oblige us to care for the health of the whole body.

The word that comes through to me today has to do with the ties that bind us. It is said:

if the ties that bind us together are stronger than the ones that tear us apart, all will be well

Mercy and pity lead us to focus on the ties that bind, to build up and nourish the ties that bind us, to resist what tears us apart. Then with Julian of Norwich we can say, "All shall be well, all manner of thing shall be well."

God seeks our attention so that we might be co-creators with God’s almighty power of mercy and pity.

Mercy and empathy with those who suffer implies our connection to one another. When one falls the whole body falls with it.

Esther

Today’s reading from Esther gives us a delightful and playful example of defending the ties, the connections, that bind individuals to the community.

Jewish feast of Purim

This is the only Sunday our lectionary allots to the book of Esther. It is a traditional reading for the feast of Purim in Judaism, occuring in the early months of the year. Purim celebrates the saving of the people from Haman who had been plotting to annihilate the Jewish people.

In the course of 3 years in seminary, praying the daily office every day, we got around to reading the book of Esther. We were somehow prepared for the intrigue and drama. Much like a melodrama, with hero and heroine battling the obvious enemy, there was a kind of quiet cheering when Haman dies on the gallows.

It seems to me that there are many movies and TV shows that are run with that basic model.

Mordecai and Esther are the good guys. Haman is the bad guy. Our reading today comes near the end of the book.

Haman: “on these gallows”
Mordecai and Esther the heroes

This adventure tale provides us with an entertaining account of those focusing on the ties that bind us. It is sobering as the adventure is gruesome in its violence. It is perhaps akin to a surgery that might be required to allow healing to take place.

“Hedge” of Torah (Pirke Aboth)

In the opening of a book from the early rabbis, written around the time of Jesus, we read about how the people collaborate with God to protect the people.

Moses received the Torah from Sinai and gave it over to Joshua. Joshua gave it over to the Elders, the Elders to the Prophets, and the Prophets gave it over to the Men of the Great Assembly. They [the Men of the Great Assembly] would always say these three things: Be cautious in judgment. Establish many pupils. And make a safety fence (a hedge) around the Torah.

Protecting the people by means of:

recognizing God has the (almighty) power
the people must be careful (cautious) in judging others
the people must be intentional about passing on the teaching to others
the people must keep a safety fence around what is sacred

In the book of Esther, through intrigue and plotting, Mordecai and Esther protect the people from persecution and death. They become co-creators with God in caring for the whole community at a time of threat.

Strengthening the system to fight what threatens the ties that bind

Many years ago I learned a concept that has been important to me ever since. It was explained to me that our bodies produce malformed cells all the time. This is caused by all sorts of things. But the wonder and miracle of our bodies is such that our natural anti-bodies know to cast out the malformed cells.

It’s when our natural defenses break down, when we forget or lose the ability to protect the whole body, that illness and disease results.

The hedge, the safety fence, the almighty power of God, mercy and pity, protects the whole body.

Today’s gospel passage

Today’s gospel passage shows us Jesus deliberately and dramatically teaching his disciples about the care for the whole body and not just a part of it. It illustrates focusing on the ties that bind us rather than those that pull us apart.

The disciples report:

We saw someone casting out demons in your name

The disciples wonder:

Who’s in and who’s out? Who’s not doing it the right way?

They announce:

We’re ready to cast them out.

But Jesus tells them

You must focus on the whole body; the tent is much bigger than you can see or imagine.

Failure to care for one another is a Stumbling block. Here the “little ones” may stand for children. Jesus often sees the people best illustrated in the children. Perhaps it means the quiet ones. The ones who don't stand out. The ones we barely notice or forget about.

If you don't expend your superpower, your mercy and pity, on them; then, Jesus says, you are working to tear down the body not build it up.

If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones
If your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out
Better to commit suicide?

These are difficult things. Violent, like Esther was. Jesus sometimes uses that kind of language to get our attention. Like the words that began this homily. God's power in mercy and pity.

Unless the Lord has our attention we'll wander off.

“Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God, But only he who sees takes off his shoes; The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.” ― Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Jesus urges us to take off our shoes as we walk on holy ground. And it's all holy ground.

Jesus speaks in riddles that seem like enigmas. He uses paradox to get our attention? And once he has it, he begins the work of transforming us by his almighty power.

“For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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cf. John 14:12-14: “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”↩

Sunday, September 19, 2021

Proper 20b: Lady Wisdom

September 19, 2021 Proper 20b

Sept. 19, 2021 St. Paul's, Monroe, NC

http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Pentecost/BProp20_RCL.html

Long fascination with this "Lady"

When I was just a young teenager I had a pretty strong appetite for reading. I read lots of different kinds of things, wherever my interest took me. I was interested in Nikola Tesla because he was a scientist and he had a connection with Colorado Springs where I had an aunt. I was interested in Dr. Lister and Dr. Jenner of the 19th century who were pioneers of modern medicine. My father was a doctor and at that point I still assumed that’s what I would become. One of my fascinations was the Byzantine Empire. I’m not really sure where that interest came from. I wasn’t yet particularly interested in church history or theology; that would come later.

It was at that age that I was especially fascinated by the architectural beauty of the cathedral in Constantinople. It was known as Hagia Sophia, or holy wisdom.

One can still see it in Istanbul which is what Constantinople became. The building itself was one of the grandeurs of the world 1000 years ago; it became a mosque when the Ottoman empire conquered the Byzantine Empire. There was something about, its symmetry, mathematical sort of design, the dome above, the mosaics of Christ the Pantocrator, I'm not sure. But it was attractive to me. Haunting. Exotic. A little bit like holy wisdom itself, I guess.

Later, at the beginning of the 20th century it became a museum. In the last year it has begun the process of becoming a mosque again.

[Hagia Sophia Was a Cathedral, a Mosque and a Museum. It’s Converting Again.]

[Hagia Sophia built in AD 537, during the reign of Justinian]

Holy wisdom. By the time I was 20 I was interested in that grand building because it represented a period of philosophy and theology that was of great interest and concern to me. I was trying to learn about early Christianity, the classical Hellenistic period, and just generally where I might fit into the world.

I learned that holy wisdom had a connection with the logos of the opening of John’s Gospel.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. ¹

I learned that indeed wisdom has a very important role in the Hebrew Scriptures, what Christians called the Old Testament. As I began to teach students the Bible, wisdom was always a main component.

Wisdom & Holy Spirit

When one expands the horizon to Christian theology generally it becomes clear that there is also a connection between wisdom and the Holy Spirit as it developed in later theology.² It is a foundational concept for a student of Judaism and Christianity and of the Origins of western civilization.

The theme of “wisdom” runs throughout the Bible. Wisdom is the God-given ability to discern between good and evil (wisdom is understanding); Wisdom is spiritual in nature. Friendship with Wisdom is something that should be pursued for its own sake.

Such is an overview of the book of Proverbs in which the entire contents are devoted to wisdom.

woman image of Holy Spirit

Various explanations

In Proverbs 1:20-33, we encounter a female character named Wisdom. She is walking through the streets, crying out in a loud voice for people to follow her. Who is this mysterious figure? Some have come to think of Lady Wisdom as a being, a deity in her own right. Others have come to equate her with the feminine side of God or the Holy Spirit. ~~A closer look at Scripture itself reveals to us that Wisdom is not a deity, nor is it the feminine side of God~~. The scriptural presentation of Wisdom, as we hear it in today's readings, is evocative rather than explicit, it is metaphorical rather than literal.

Wisdom plays such an important role in the BIble, none more so than Proverbs chapter 8, where “wisdom” is celebrated and is portrayed as almost a physical "thing" that we could touch or see if she stood in front of us. Wisdom is at least an aspect of God that takes on personal characteristics while being distinct from God. ³

The book of Proverbs comes down to us divided into 31 chapters. If for no other reason those 31 parts have contributed to many people over the centuries making a practice of reading one chapter of the book each day as a part of one’s daily devotions. The reading we had today, appearing as it does at the end, is notable for anyone familiar with the book of Proverbs. ### It portrays wisdom as a woman, ostensibly presenting her as a perfect wife, the picture of what a wife should be. She is an expert at all kinds of things, and she makes her husband comfortable and proud.

I think of one scene that’s one of my favorites from the television series Mrs. Maisel. If you haven’t seen it you should it’s funny as could be. But it portrays a woman going to sleep with her husband with her hair perfectly done as it could have been prepared for going out to the country club. After her husband is asleep she gets up and puts her hair into curlers, takes off her makeup, and slathers cold cream on her face. She then make sure with the curtains that she wakes up before dawn and before the alarm clock goes off. All of that so that she can redo her hair and her face so that when her husband wakes, he sees the same vision he had when he fell asleep the night before.

It's easy for me to be humorous about the picture of the perfect wife presented in our reading from Proverbs. The reason is because of what I think the chapter is about.

It looks like what it is about is a wife and her relationship with her husband and related details. On the surface that’s what it is about. But consider that the entire book of Proverbs is about wisdom, it is about holy wisdom, it is about God -- not about the particulars that make up the examples in the text. Another way of putting it is that for very good reasons I choose not to read the text literally. It is a text about our relationship with God.

The idea of the perfect wife in the text is expressed in terms of what was understood to be an ideal wife in the time frame of perhaps 2500 years ago. When we love wisdom there is a harmony in our life that is impossible without holy wisdom. Or perhaps we could substitute without the Holy Spirit. Or perhaps we could substitute God. We might say, "When we love God with our whole heart, there is a peace in our life that cannot be found without that love."

The text concludes with a clearer statement of what it’s really about.

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

The text of Proverbs at the beginning and at the end reminds the listener that wisdom, holy wisdom, is fundamentally "Fear of the Lord".

"Yirath adonai." It is not a cringing sort of fear. it is reverential awe. It is a form of devotion, the consciousness of the sacredness of the mystery of the presence of the living God. Source

When one has that sort of awareness one knows holy wisdom. Psalm one begins with a description of the peace that results from holy wisdom. Our prayer book translation renders it:

Happy are they who [know holy wisdom] ... They are like trees planted by streams of water, bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither."

That is a text not about trees and streams of water. It is a text that evokes the results of bringing reverential awe before the presence of God.

I’m reminded of the ancient Buddhist lesson about the finger and the moon.

My daughter used to regularly see in a particular configuration of clouds, shadows, and beams of sun light -- the presence of God. Driving along Pearl Harbor, she might look to the west and see the clouds forming over the mountains and say, "Daddy, see the presence of God." Now because I was driving 50 miles an hour, I would be tempted to take just a quick glance to see whether she had unbuckled her seatbelt, or opened the window to put her hand out. I was checking on my daughter. I was looking at the finger. But missing entirely the presence of the living God to which her finger pointed.

Today our text encourages us to keep our attention focused on the important things and to let go of the lesser things. Today God speaks to us through an ancient text, but speaks to us in the very world in which we live. It is the Word of God. It is the Spirit breathing life into us through the corridors of time. Holy Wisdom invites us to live with her.

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John's Prologue and Jewish wisdom imagery (Ehrman). Some readers over the years have wondered if this celebration of the Logos of God that becomes flesh owes more to Greek philosophy than to biblical Judaism. It’s a good question, and hard to answer. One thing that can be said is that this Logos idea does find very close parallels with other biblical texts – in particular with texts that speak of the Wisdom (Greek: Sophia) of God. Sophia and Logos are related ideas; both have to do in some respect with “reason.” Sophia is reason that is internal to a person; Logos is that reason that gets expressed verbally.↩
Joe Poprocki Wisdom as one of the "gifts of the Holy Spirit"↩
Much of the Christ poem in John 1 has parallels with the paean to Wisdom in Proverbs 8. Consider the following verses, spoken of Wisdom: Bart Ehrman ↩

Sunday, September 12, 2021

Proper 19b, Sept. 12

Proper 19b

Sept. 12, 2021 St. Paul's, Monroe

Remember — Memorare

Lectionary page

Over the last week or two we have seen and heard and read and viewed countless reflections on the events of 20 years ago. Not all of us at Saint Paul's have memories of that fateful day, but most of us recognize it was a day that changed just about everything.

The pundits have reflected on lessons learned, there have been poignant stories of initial victims and their families, of survivors and their families, and those who are still suffering the effects. I know for me it has been emotional.

One thing that has not been especially prominent has been a focus on the religious connection with that day and it’s after-effects. It’s a little surprising to me because more than any other event in my life I experienced 9/11 from the perspective of the church.

That day 20 years ago, I was a long ways away -- six time zones away -- from the events. A 12 hour flight away. I had been in Hawai’i all of four days.

My first official day in the office was spent beginning to plan for a liturgy which we hoped residents of our neighborhood would attend.

I didn’t know the neighborhood yet. I didn’t know what resources my church might be able to bring to bear. I knew that the entire country, the world really, was entering into a common shared experience. It was an experience we didn’t have words for at that moment.

This past week I listened to the testimony from several survivors and witnesses of the events on the ground. They made reference to the way in which at that moment the city of New York, the people of the United States, and much of the world itself, were united. We stood together as human beings, and that doesn’t happen very often. That in itself is a religious story.

It was standing together, being family, o'hana it's called in Hawai'i. It's way more than biological connections. It's not even proximity or similar appearance. It is much more a spiritual reality. On 9/11, for a short period of time, the whole world was family.

Preparing a liturgy

We at the church knew rather quickly that we needed to respond to the community, not just to our parishioners. We began to plan for a prayer service that would target the neighborhood around us.

The chapel that we had at St. Mary's was an old building about 80 years old at the time, dating from the earliest years of Saint Mary's. The doors to it were always unlocked to anyone who wanted quiet and a place to have a conversation with God. In the next year or two we ended up having to decide to lock the doors during the night, but it was very much a community space.

Fairly quickly I decided that it was serendipitous that the coming Friday, 3 days away, was the Feast of the Holy Cross. A feast of the church that focused on the crucifixion of Jesus seemed like a most fitting backdrop to our community coming together for prayer and to honor those who had died.

For some of us the surprising thing about the events we saw unfolding on the television was that the numbers of those who died was seemingly miraculously low. It was a number that was similar to those who died at Pearl Harbor in 1941. There were quite a number of survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor in my congregation. Members of my community could easily identify with survivors of 9/11.

At that liturgy I made reference for the first time to God suffering with his people. It would not be the last time. We sang two hymns that day that I thought would be familiar to people in the community, Balm in Gilead and Amazing Grace. I came to associate both of those songs with Good Friday liturgies from then on.

Memorial

One of the main things that we do when we observe memorials, as we have done this past week, is remember. To keep a memorial for those who suffered and died, to give thanks for the response of so many heroes, first responders, caregivers and so many more, is to remember the powerful, loving, self-sacrificial things that they did. Remembering for such significant occasions means that we must not forget.

The first event that I remember being referred to that way was the great Holocaust of the mid 20th century. That there were more genocides to follow only emphasized the importance of never forgetting.

I am aware, however, that this is not the first nor the last of the human events about which we must say, "We must not forget."

What are we doing as we remember such things?

Honoring the fallen? Honoring those who are still suffering and dying because of the effects? Yes. To be sure.

But we do more. The memorial we keep is for the one event that we must not forget. We are here as followers of Christ. What we must do is proclaim the Gospel.

How much the more is it the case that we must continue to remember and never forget the eternally significant event: the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.

Remembering Christ

Our remembering in the context of the gospel is a solemn remembering, it is a sacred symbol.

Symbols are powerful things. Anyone who makes reference to something being "merely a symbol" has no real understanding of symbols. A stop sign is merely a shape, a sign. But it is also a symbol, and as a symbol it has the power to stop a many tonned semi-tractor trailer.

Symbols are powerful because they are able to bring about the very thing to which they point.

When we keep a memorial, we may understand the sacred symbol to point in several directions. It may be intended to honor our forebears, those who have gone before us and made possible who we are today. That is important and it is noble. We may also keep a sacred memorial for the purpose of giving God the glory. That too is a noble and a blessed thing.

As we keep a sacred memorial, we would do well to remember the words from Psalm 90:

“For in Your sight a thousand years
are like yesterday that has passed,
like a watch of the night.”

Our intention is to connect with the gospel.

The diocese has developed a liturgy with the subject “Lament, Longing, Hope.” It premiers today and is offered for use throughout the diocese until the end of October.

Swindell liturgy

[Do show and tell]

The primary occasion for this liturgy which brings together emotions like lament, longing, and hope is our ongoing experience with the global pandemic.

The liturgy recognizes that there is a wide range of emotions that we are feeling during this time. The numbers who have died in the pandemic vastly exceed the numbers who have on 9/11 or at Pearl Harbor.

There is also deep sorrow and lament over the divisions that have become increasingly visible in our communities, our civic communities as well as religious ones. Our family, our o'hana, is fractured.

The cry for hope can be heard in the voices of many whom we hear every day.

We will set aside a time in the next few weeks when we at St. Paul's will observe this liturgy as we do here on Sundays, both in person and virtually.

The Gospel we have received

In the passage we have heard today from the Gospel of Mark, Jesus turns to his disciples and asks them who do people say that I am? Their responses were all over the place, sounding a lot like a typical band of Christians of today. We represent perspectives and factions from many different points of view. But Jesus didn’t allow those competing visions to be the final answer. He needed them to listen closely.

Not surprisingly the single, pointed vision he wanted them to understand was essentially paradoxical. It basically didn't make sense. That's what a paradox is. Understandable, then, for people to be all over the place.

“For those who want to save their life will lose it”

The Messiah whom they were expecting, the Son of Man, was meant to suffer. The leader they longed for was meant to be rejected and to be killed.

This is the Gospel we proclaim as we keep memorial. What we remember today is filled with suffering. More than anyone should have to bear. But we are gathered under the banner of one who shares that suffering.

The memory of 9/11 means that to me. The time of pandemic, when experienced through the lens of faith, means that to me.

Closing

We are now at day one after the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

We are not yet through the grueling haul of pandemic.

Before us always -- both then and now -- is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, crucified and Risen again.

Our Messiah is a suffering Messiah. That is the context of our suffering.

2 Corinthians 1:5-7 ESV

For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

Romans 8:18 ESV

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

In the words of one of the songs from the diocesan liturgy and also the liturgy I led 20 years ago:

There is a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole
There is a balm in Gilead
To heal the sin-sick soul

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Sunday, September 5, 2021

Proper 18b 2021: St Paul's, Monroe

title:Proper 18b -- Sept. 5, 2021 author: Fr. Dale date: Sept 5, 2021

Unofficial end of summer

When I was young I didn't think about Labor Day as anything but associated with the school year starting. Later of course when I began working in the church I was the one typically responsible for overseeing the beginning of Christian education. So it was the beginning of work after a few weeks at least of vacation.

Labor Day weekend. And we've been waiting so long for things to get back to normal, but it never seems to quite get there. We're not ready to start Sunday school here at Saint Pauls, getting there perhaps, but not there yet. We are going to make an effort to begin scheduling to Sunday
morning Eucharist services.

I have tried to encourage open feedback as we begin to try to emerge from our time of pandemic. I'm really serious about that. You see that we have different bulletins from the second service. They are different but I hope equal in some other fundamental ways. I welcome feedback, and it may be only that they're different.

Different isn't the same as -- well, it isn't the same as same. My sincere aim is to do justice to both services even while there is difference between them.

Justice and equality

It wasn't until graduate school that anyone tried to teach me in a systematic sort of way about what justice was all about. It was something of a shock to me to think of it in the context of equality.
It was actually a mathematical example that began to give me a sense of what justice might look like. It was making the connection between that old fashion symbol of justice, a scale with a measuring cup on each side. It suddenly made sense to me that justice was like those two cups on either side of the scale. Each one could hold something different but if the scale balanced there was justice.

It's an entirely fair question to ask me what does this have to do with the gospel? What does Labor Day have to do with the reason that we are here? Labor Day after all was a more or less political gesture beginning in the late 19th century with a focus on supporting unions in the labor movement as it grew. It's interesting to me that labor unions in this country at this time are almost as much a fighting issue as a number of other things, like, not necessarily in order of importance: abortion, wearing a mask, getting a vaccine, paying taxes, getting assistance from the government, ... and so on.

Proverbs

It turns out I think that justice and equality have to do with the gospel in major ways. Jesus had a deep concern for justice. As did the prophets who came before him. We hear about justice in today’s reading from the book of Proverbs. It is a book whose content is about wisdom and in some places is about the personification of wisdom. Wisdom from that rich tradition is something to be gained and sought for its own sake. Something of value, value beyond measuring.

The rich and poor are both alike, God has made them both. Whoever causes injustice will reap calamity it says. And whoever is generous is blessed. It really couldn’t be any plainer put. Truly God has a special love for the poor. But as the book The Shack puts it God has a special love for everyone also.

But that means that God has a special love for equality, equality of the kind I pointed to above. Not equal as in the same, but equal as in just.

James

As we continue reading from the letter of James, this special book in the New Testament speaks directly and pointedly about justice as well. It starts off by criticizing favoritism.

I had a priest friend in Honolulu, one of my "elders", whom I respected deeply. When he was just a young priest and willing to try all kinds of daring things, he did something I wish I had thought of doing at some point. He acted out dramatically the point he wanted to make in his preaching. In effect, he illustrated the saying: "Preach the good news. Use words if you have to." Fr. Tom showed up in church that day dressed as a homeless person. He stayed long enough to see lots of examples of the way we habitually treat the poor and the outcast. The people avoided him as much as possible and didn't recognize him as their priest. Just another homeless person. He left and quickly changed back into vestments and had himself an illustration for his sermon.

Really we cannot help it, judging one thing to be better than another, and another person more valuable for certain purposes than another. But the gospel that we have received seems clear to me to say that the God who created us, who created all of us, rich and poor alike, has created all of us equally and with the same love and care.

"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works?" Consider where we are and compare that to God. James has written his letter from the perspective of a deep and committed faith in the God of all. He understands that the great commandment that Jesus formulated, built as it is on the faith of our Jewish forebears, requires that we "love our neighbor." That requires of us that we put it into action.

Good News. Gospel. It seems clear to me that the gospel has much to do with justice.

Mark

Our gospel reading today seems predominantly to feature miracles of deliverance. These are signs of the Messiah as Mark presents it. A daughter possessed by a demon is miraculously freed by Jesus. A deaf man is cured of his impediment. Ears are opened and tongues released. Miracles to be sure and signs of Jesus' identity as Messiah.

But for me, the dramatic image in today’s reading is a woman. A Syro-Phoenician woman. A mother who will stop at nothing to seek healing for her child. A mother who will go up against a wandering healing prophet -- a prophet whose religious faith she does not share.

Some have observed that in her response to Jesus she levels an argument about justice that Jesus himself is persuaded by. One might put it with some accuracy that a woman has argued with Jesus and won the debate.

"Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs."

Church and labor

It turns out that the church has a long history of recognizing the connection between the gospel and workers, the working poor.¹ The early church was looked down upon by the classic Roman culture around it because of its concern for the outcast, the widows and orphans. One of the things that drew me to Christian faith was learning about the writings of Pope Leo the 13th in the latter part of the 19th century. He notably argued in favor of labor unions and understood it to be a fundamental part of the Christian faith to alleviate the poverty of the working class.

That teaching continues up to the present day. Pope John Paul II published an encyclical reaffirming the earlier teaching and updating the concerns to that of the late 20th century.

The Anglican church² has just as strongly affirmed the same teaching, the same support for labor unions, and the need of Christians to reach out with support and genuine help to those in need.

My own call to ministry was founded in no small measure by the witness of the worker priest movement of the 1950's. Priests especially in France chose to live among the working class.

Labor Day and the Gospel have a lot to do with one another. Lord, help us to understand what that means.

Justice Not Charity

I have thought for a while that much of the debate and acrimony in the church would have a different focus if we consistently put it in terms of the question, "What would Jesus do?" In my day to day living it's an appropriate question to keep before me. Issues about what to do in any particular occasion might well look different if we asked that question.

Love the Lord with your whole heart, soul, and might? How would Jesus do that today?

Love your neighbor as yourself? How would Jesus do that today?

Centuries ago a major figure in Judaism, Maimonides, proposed an eight-fold hierarchy of giving and assisting those in need. The highest form of giving is to give a gift, loan, or partnership that will result in the recipient becoming self-sufficient instead of living upon others. The second highest form of tzedakah, (or "charity") is to give donations anonymously to unknown recipients. Giving out of pity is the lowest form of helping another in need³.

That might give us some clue about what Jesus would do today. As I try that question on, it occurs to me that the greatest heroes around us today are first responders. They are the essential workers who are paid the least and fired firstborn. Let us praise them, the often anonymous care-givers, the servers who serve us every day, the laborers who are essential to putting food on our plates. There are so many. We are here because of the labor of so many. Let us give thanks.