Worship
for the Lord’s Day
August
16, 2020
A Note before we begin
this day’s worship:
Several people have asked me why I haven’t been doing
“livestreams” of worship from the church.
My simple explanation is this; I believe that worship is not a spectator
event. It is something that we, as
worshipers, should be actively involved in.
Livestreaming worship feels more like a TV show, where you sit back and
let others do-it-for-you. The method
I’ve employed here, good or bad, suggests that you participate in our worship, as well as
listen.
We are working on the possibility of doing parking
lot worship services in September at Bethesda before returning to corporate
worship in both of our buildings – Bethesda and Olivet. I might take a Sunday or two off before we
return to worship in the buildings as I haven’t taken a single day off doing
the Daily Meditations or Sunday worship. That week, I’ll either post ahead of time or
will post something offered by our Presbytery Staff who have put together
various worship services for churches to use.
As we make any of those
plans, we’ll let you know details as needed.
Be patient. We will be together again, soon! Until then, let’s begin:
Prelude
Opening Prayer
Lord, be with us today
as we come to You from all life’s journeys and circumstances. Give us courage and strength for the day with
peace and hope for tomorrow. Fill us
with Your love and grace that we may serve You effectively and fully each day. Quiet our hearts, still our minds, and
fortify our bodies as we worship You today.
AMEN.
Hymn How
Firm a Foundation
Prayer of Confession
God of infinite mercy and love, we come before You today,
knowing that we have not always been faithful to what You would have us
do. We have too often turned our backs
on those in need, choosing not to hear their cries. Forgive us, O Lord. We know that You do not want us to behave in
this way. Your love and mercy, so
generously showered over us, should be a beacon to guide our own actions. We make no excuses, for none would suffice. We ask only for Your forgiveness and
blessing, turning us around and placing us on the path of compassion and peace
once more. This prayer we offer in
Jesus’ name. AMEN.
Words of Assurance
God’s love is greater than our understanding and our
comprehension. That love is continually
given to each and every one of us each day.
Rejoice! God’s forgiving love is
poured out for you now and always. AMEN.
Affirmation of Faith –
The Apostles’ Creed
I believe in God the
Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ His only Son
our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost; born of the Virgin Mary;
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended
into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall
come to judge the quick and the dead. I
believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life
everlasting. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer:
(Continued prayers for
all those affected by the Coronavirus, for our schools, for our national leaders,
and for Beirut. I just received word yesterday
from a mutual friend that my colleague and friend, Dr. Johnny Awwad in Beirut is
fine. He is organizing many recovery
efforts in the midst of growing violence, protests, and unrest in Lebanon. Please continue to keep him and our Presbyterian
Church in Lebanon in prayer.)
How beautiful
is the diversity of Your children! Lord,
You have blessed us with such variety in our fellow human beings. You have not
demanded that everyone be the same, have the same degree of faith, offer the
same service. You have given freely of Your
healing love to each one of us. Today we
offer many names in prayer for healing, restoration, hope, and peace – these names
come from our heart to Yours. We know
that You hear each cry for healing. We
also know that You have heard all the prayers we offer, even if we have offered
those prayers alone. Now, let us place
our trust in Your compassion. Let us
remember that Your blessings extend to all people. Strengthen us in this time to be witnesses to Your
love and servants in ministry to all Your people.
For we ask these things
in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior who taught us to pray saying; Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, forever.
AMEN.
Hymn Just As I Am
Scripture Readings
Old Testament: Genesis 45:1-15
Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those
who stood by him, and he cried out, “Send everyone away from me.” So no one
stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. 2And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household
of Pharaoh heard it. 3Joseph said to
his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could
not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence. 4Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And
they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into
Egypt. 5And now do not
be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent
me before you to preserve life. 6For the famine
has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which
there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 7God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on
earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a
father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of
Egypt. 9Hurry and go
up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me
lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. 10You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near
me, you and your children and your children’s children, as well as your flocks,
your herds, and all that you have. 11I will provide for you there—since there are five more years
of famine to come—so that you and your household, and all that you have, will
not come to poverty.’ 12And now your
eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that
speaks to you. 13You must tell
my father how greatly I am honored in Egypt, and all that you have seen. Hurry
and bring my father down here.” 14Then he fell
upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his
neck. 15And he kissed
all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with
him.
New Testament: Matthew 15:21-28
21Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre
and Sidon. 22Just 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.” 23But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and
urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” 24He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house
of Israel.” 25But she came
and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and
throw it to the dogs.” 27She said,
“Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’
table.” 28Then Jesus
answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”
And her daughter was healed instantly.
Anthem – Schindler’s List – this violin piece is haunting in its
simplicity and soul stirring. The taping
of this video was done in 2017 in the largest synagogue in Europe in Budapest
by violinist Csonger Korossy-Khayll.
Sermon – Just a note: You can click on the sermon title
and hear/watch me give this sermon via YouTube.
Eating the Crumbs
(based on
Matthew 15:21-28)
Today’s passage describes one of
those difficult moments in Jesus’ life.
What makes it so difficult is how harsh Jesus sounds, how harsh and
downright rude. First he refuses to
answer a woman pleading for his help, then he denies that he has anything to
offer “her kind,” and finally he likens her to a dog - before the sheer force
of her faith changes something in him and he decides to answer her prayer after
all.
The
problem for Jesus is that she is a Canaanite woman, one of the kinds of people with
whom observant Jews of Jesus’ time had very little contact. She comes from the coastal region of Syria,
where strange gods are worshiped, and ritual laws of cleanliness are
unknown. Therefore, she is both an
outsider and what was considered an untouchable to the Jewish population.
Earlier,
in the tenth chapter of Matthew, Jesus himself warns his disciples to steer clear
of Gentiles, like this Canaanite woman, reminding them that they have been sent
only to the lost sheep of Israel. The
only problem for Jesus, up to this point in Matthew, is that the lost sheep don’t
seem to want to be found. In spite of
Jesus’ undivided attention to them, they are not rushing to respond to his
shepherd’s call.
The
setting for today’s reading is that he has just come from Nazareth, his own
hometown, where his friends and family have doubted his authority and taken
offense at his teaching. They don’t
believe he is who he says he is. And so,
he’s decided to withdraw from the crowds for a while, but the crowds have
followed him, and he has, with five loaves and two fish, fed them all thinking
that this might give them faith. But
then there was the storm at sea and Peter’s wish to cross the water, ruined by
Peter’s fear and doubt, “o ye, of little faith”.
And
now on top of all that comes this Canaanite woman crying out to him to heal her
daughter – one more of the needy multitudes who want something from him – only
this one does a shocking thing: She
calls him by rightful, revealed name, “O Lord, Son of David.” It is the title reserved for the Messiah, the
title his own people have refused to recognize in him and have withheld from
him. When this Gentile, Canaanite woman
addresses him as the Son of David, she names something in him that even his own
disciples have failed to recognize, and it must seem like a mean trick of fate
to him to hear what he most wants to hear coming from the mouth of someone he
least wants to hear it from.
So,
he does not answer her. He draws a line,
as surely as if he had leaned down and traced it in the dust at his feet. Enough is enough. He will go no further. The bank is closed. The doctor is out. The sign on the door says, “Closed for
Business.” He will not take another
request. So, what if she called him by
name? He refuses to waste his energy on
this Gentile woman while his own people go wanting, and have yet to recognize
him. “I was sent only to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel,”
he says to the woman, and that is supposed to be that.
The
problem is that this woman will not stay on her side of the line. Kneeling at his feet, she says, “Lord, help
me.” Jesus has dismissed her, but she
will not be dismissed; she has gotten her foot in the door before Jesus can
close it in her face, and she shows no sign of leaving before he has dealt with
her. “Lord, help me,” she says.
Where have we heard that
before? One of those honest, soul-wrenching
prayers that I talked about last week when we have come to the end of our rope –
we have nowhere else to go, so we turn to God, with no words but “Help”.
Can’t she hear? He has told her no, told her that she is not one
of his own sheep, but she doesn’t seem to have gotten the message so he says it
again, louder and clearer than before.
“It is not fair to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs,”
he says. I have thought long and hard on
this statement by Christ. I have thought
about it when I see people being treated unfairly. I have thought about it for my own life. I think that is downright the cruelest
comment Jesus makes in all of scripture.
I
suppose we need to take a step back, however.
We sometimes forget that Jesus was also a human being like you and
I. And since Jesus was a human being as
well as the Son of God, it seems fair to guess what might have been going on
with him. He was discouraged and weary
and a long way from home. Every time he
turned around someone wanted something from him, but at the same time no one
wanted what he most wanted to give – namely, himself, in terms of who he was
for them and not only in terms of what he could do for them. He is literally
at the frayed end of his own rope, and he is all but used up. It’s a taking world, taking everything he has
to give, but giving nothing in response; no faith, no understanding, no belief
in him. I’m sure, at this point, he
might have felt, “Why should I continue to give?”
It’s
not really that hard to imagine how that feels, even if you don’t happen to be
the Messiah – to be surrounded by people who want your money and your time and
your gifts but who do not seem much interested in who you really are; to be
confused about what you are supposed to do, how much you are supposed to give,
and to be worried about whether there is enough of you to go around.
The
telephone rings and it is the Disabled American Veterans selling light bulbs
that last longer than the ones you normally buy at the store. Or it’s the fire department recruiting
sponsors for handicapped children, or the kidney foundation seeking generous
donations. If you can’t do $25 dollars
now, can we, at least, count on you for $15.
Every day’s mail brings more pleas for help from every cause under the
sun: animal rights, the environment, child abuse prevention, civil liberties,
cancer prevention.
You
have to draw the line somewhere, right?
You have to decide what you can do and what you cannot do, whom you can
help and whom you cannot help, or you will be eaten alive. You’ll be swallowed whole and you may never
even be missed, because everything you have is not enough to feed the hunger of
the world. Well, I think that’s a point most
of us reach and often we decide to draw the line around our own families and
friends, around our own churches and communities and concerns.
We
draw the line and, like Jesus, we may lose our tempers when outsiders try to
cross it, because they are challenging the limits we have placed on ourselves
to protect ourselves. Strangers show up
saying, “Help me,” and we invoke the line, the line that separates insiders
from outsiders, clean from unclean, family from the wolves that howl outside
our doors. “It is not fair to take the
children’s bread and throw it to the dogs,” we say, or something to that
effect. It sounds harsh, but what are
you going to do? You have to draw the
line somewhere.
But
the Canaanite woman simply will not budge.
It reminds me of a game children play, in which two of them look
steadily into each other’s eyes, each trying to make the other blink first. Jesus all but claps his hands in the woman’s
face, trying to get her to blink and leave.
But she doesn’t blink. “Yes,
Lord” she says when he calls her a dog, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that
fall from their master’s table.” All she
wants is a crumb. Not some monumental
fete. Not some gourmet meal prepared
exclusively for her. Just a crumb of his
attention. Just a miniscule piece of
scrap thrown carelessly, dropped by haphazard mistake, her way.
Something
in Jesus changes, something in him snaps.
And he blinks. This mother just
wants her daughter to be healed. “What
am I doing?”, he probably thinks. His
anger dissolves. Something in him is
rearranged and changed forever, a change you can hear in his voice. “O woman, great is your faith,” he says to
her. “Be it done for you as you
desire.” And her daughter is healed
instantly.
The
line he had drawn between him and the woman disappears; the limits he had
placed on himself vanish, and you can almost hear the huge wheel of history
turning as Jesus comes to a new understanding of who he really is and what he
has been called by God to do. He is no
longer a Messiah called only to the lost sheep of Israel, instead he is God’s chosen
redeemer of the whole world, Jews and Gentiles alike, beginning with this
Canaanite woman.
Through
her faith he learns that God’s purpose for him is bigger than even he had imagined, that there is enough
of him to go around, and in that instant there is no going back to the limits
he observed even a moment ago. The old
boundaries will not contain his new vision; he must rub them out and draw them
bigger, to include this foreign woman today and who knows who tomorrow. It looks like answering God’s call means that
he can no longer control his ministry or narrow his mission. There is no more safety or certainty for him,
no more guarding against loss or hanging on to his cherished notions about the
way things ought to be. Faith works like
a lever on him, opening his arms wider and wider until there is room for the
whole world in them and I believe it is in that moment with this Canaanite woman,
praying a simple prayer, “Lord, help me” when He truly became the Son of David,
the Messiah, the Redeemer of the World, in his own eyes.
And
isn’t that the way it goes for us too?
Over and over, God’s call to us means pushing old boundaries, embracing
outsiders, giving up the notion that there is not enough of us to go around. That our faith, our trust, our limits are
bigger than we could even imagine. We
may resist; we may even lose our tempters, but the call of God is insistent, as
insistent as the Canaanite woman who would not leave Jesus alone. The call of God keeps after us, calling us by
name, until finally we step over the lines we have drawn for ourselves and
discover a whole new world on the other side.
The call of God is insistent, and whenever we limit who will be on our side
of the line and who will be on the other side of the line, who gets the gourmet
meal and who gets the crumbs, God gets to work in us, rubbing out the lines we
have drawn around ourselves and preparing a feast for all.
It
can be painful perhaps, at first – as painful as it was for Jesus to hear a
Canaanite woman call him Lord when his own family would not; as painful as it
was for him to step beyond generations of tradition and respond to her faith;
as painful as it is for any one of us to step over the lines we have drawn to
protect ourselves and explore unknown terrain, as painful as it might be for us
to fully embrace the idea that there aren’t some people more deserving of
caviar, while others deserve only bread crumbs.
Let
go! Step out! Look a Canaanite in the eye, ask an outsider
what her life is like, trespass an old boundary, enter a new relationship, push
a limit, take a risk, give up playing it safe!
You have nothing to lose but your life the way it has been, and there is
lots more life where that one came from.
And if you get scared, which you will, and if you get mad, which you
probably will too, remember today’s story.
With Jesus as our model – and our Lord – we are called to step over the
lines we have drawn for ourselves and prepare a feast for all, not because we
have to or want to, not even because we ought to, but because we know that it
is God’s own self who waits for us on the other side, not with bread crumbs for
us to eat, but with a whole feast prepared for all. AMEN.
Hymn God Be
With You Till We Meet Again
Benediction
Jesus’ love and compassion has been poured out for you today.
Go into the world in confidence, bearing
forgiveness and love for all God’s people. Go in peace.
AMEN.
Postlude
