Sermon Title:  Crossing the Line

Sermon Text:  Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon Date:  August 16, 2009

 

First Scripture Reading – John 4

4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

    7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

    9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. [a])

    10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

    11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

    13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

    15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."

    16 He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."

    17 "I have no husband," she replied.

    Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

    19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."

    21 "Woman," [b] Jesus replied, "believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth."

    25 The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."

    26 Then Jesus declared, "I, the one speaking to you—I am he."

The Disciples Rejoin Jesus

 27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?"

    28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?" 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

    31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something."

    32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."

    33 Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?"

    34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don't you have a saying, 'It's still four months until harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now those who reap draw their wages, even now they harvest the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor."

Many Samaritans Believe

 39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.

 

Second Scripture Reading – Matthew 15:21-28

 

21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly." 23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us."                                                                                                                          24 He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."                                         25 The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said.                       26 He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs." 27 "Yes it is, Lord," she said. "Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table."                                                                                                                    28 Then Jesus said to her, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted."                                                                                                                         And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

 

MESSAGE

 

When I travel to a city that has a major league sports team I buy a ball cap for my grandson.  So when I was heading out to Atlanta to go to the New Baptist Covenant last January I asked my grandson Jaxon which baseball cap he’d like me to bring him – the Atlanta Braves or the Falcons.  “The Falcons,” he said.  “But nothing with Michael Vick on it.  He hurts dogs.”

            Fast forward 19 months and things have changed drastically for Michael.  He has served his time, Tony Dungy became his personal mentor, and he was just signed by the Philadelphia Eagles as a back-up quarterback.  And what an uproar this has caused around the sports world.  Many people are outraged that he has been given this spot.

            Ever since the football commissioner reinstated Vick to the NFL there has been a lot of talk about how he didn’t deserve this chance.  He hurt dogs.

            But along the way I wondered why he didn’t deserve a second chance.  He served his time.  From what I had heard he was contrite and admitted he had done wrong.  In his press conference in Philadelphia he was a humble man and well, if Tony Dungy thinks he is okay, that is enough for me. If you are interested he is doing an interview on “60 Minutes” tonight.

            What blew me away was that so many still wanted him to suffer and I wondered how often we Christians are among the hardest on others who are trying to get back on their feet.

 

Prayer:  Lord God, give me the words to speak and give us ears to hear.  Amen.

 

            I changed the first reading today because on Friday as I watched television, talked to friends on Facebook and listened to sports radio there was a lot of talk about whether or not Michael Vick deserved a second chance.  One reporter said this really wasn’t about a second chance, this is about a 9th or 10th chance for Vick.  I thought about researching Vick to see about his background to see if something there wired him the way he was and then a friend on mine from high school wrote this to me:

 

“There is a lot being said about how people deserve a second chance, I feel the real issue here is that no one deserves a second chance, but because of God's great Love towards us he has given GRACE (his un-merited favor) and MERCY (leniency and compassion shown toward offenders by a person or agency charged with administering justice) through Jesus.”

 

            Ah, so that’s it.  Michael doesn’t “deserve” a second chance, but then again neither do you and I.  Neither does the Samaritan woman at the well. 

            Last week we heard that the disciples thought about the scarcity of the situation when 5,000 needed to be fed.  Jesus knew about a God of plenty and showed them all how five loaves and two fish can feed multitudes.

            This week’s scriptures show us several things:

 

1.     Jesus was willing, in both cases, to cross the lines established by the norms of the day.

2.     Nothing stopped him from being available to the people.

Our first scripture is back at the well in Samaria.  Several passages strike me here.

1.         9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus has stayed behind while the disciples go to town for food.  Perhaps he knew if he stayed he would meet someone whose life he could change.  Haven’t you ever been led to do something that opens the door for you to meet someone special?  Think how much more Jesus would understand that inkling, being fully divine as well as fully human.

He meets this woman and they talk about water and lives and she admits that she doesn’t have a husband and I’m not sure if she ever has or if she has simply lived with five different men.  Still Jesus is telling her something really important here – “I know everything about you and still I am offering you this living water.  I don’t care about your past, I care only about your future.”

 

2.  Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?"

 

But it doesn’t mean they didn’t want to ask!  I think that is there at all because it means the disciples actually kept their mouths shut instead of asking the obvious.  Why on earth is Jesus talking to yet another woman he is supposed to be talking to!  Good grief, Jesus!  What are you thinking?????

The list of women he talks to is so long at this point.  We have women everywhere who have dared to talk to him.  And then there was that Canaanite woman, “one of the great unwashed with whom observant Jews of Jesus’ time had little contact.  She comes from the coastal region of Syria, where strange gods are worshiped and ritual laws of cleanliness are unknown.  In other words, she is a Gentile, the biblical term for anyone not a Jew – an outsider and untouchable.”  (B Brown-Taylor, “The Seeds of Heaven,” p. 62)

This outsider has the audacity to ask Jesus to heal her daughter and Jesus says he isn’t here for her.  Something like if someone stopped by here for prayer and I said that I only prayed with members of the church --- but even worse. 

But this outsider doesn’t believe that his God isn’t her God too and she calls him on it.

In her sermon in “The Seeds of Heaven,” Barbara Brown Taylor sees the story this way:  Several things have happened before this story.  He has just come from Nazareth, his own hometown, where family and friends have doubted his authority and taken offense when he tried to teach.  He has recently received word that his cousin John the Baptizer has lost his head (on the whim of a dancing girl) and he tried to go away to be alone but the crowds followed him and he healed their sick and fed them with five loaves and two fish.   Then there was the storm at sea and Peter’s wish to cross the water, ruined by Peter’s fear and doubt.  “Everywhere Jesus turns finds need – need and people who want what he can do for them but who remain blind to who he is.  He is at the frayed end of his rope, and all but used up.” Then comes along this Canaanite woman and he has had enough.  He draws a line and says to himself he will not cross it, nor will he allow her to cross it.  (p. 62) 

You understand where he is, don’t you.  Aren’t you weary of being asked to contribute to all of the good causes in the world?  Or seeing people holding signs asking for work or food?  Or helping out at the church with the nursery or the back to school carnival?  Or to even forgive people who haven’t lived as you think they should live?

I mean, after all, how many chances does Michael Vick get?  How many chances do you give your sister or brother who have hurt you time and again?  Your neighbor?  The woman down the street who has lived with five different guys in the last three years?  The guy who can’t get a job because he just got out of prison? 

How many chances do they get?

As I watched ESPN yesterday I heard numerous quotes from other players in the National Football League wishing Michael “good luck” and saying he deserves a second chance.  I think they were also saying that they would want a second chance if they were to do something stupid themselves.

I know I want another chance when I mess up.  I want to know that when I pay the consequences for those actions that I won’t have to live on the outskirts of town like a leper once I have paid it.  I want to know that Jesus is going to love me regardless and I’d love to know that God’s people will do the same.  Whether I have had five husbands or I live in Canaan, I want to know that God’s people will love me too.

If you are either one of these women, you get that God loves you, even when you aren’t sure about the people of God.

The thing is we are all one of these women at one time or another.  We have messed up.  We have been an outsider looking in.  If you think about it, you know this is true.  Lines have been crossed in front of you and it hurts.  You have made a bad decision and hurt someone and wondered if you would ever be forgiven.  Or if you could forgive yourself.

The gospels are full of stories about Jesus crossing lines, examples for us to live by and stories that give us hope and encouragement.  As Paul said in Romans 8:  “Nothing can separate me from the love of God through Christ Jesus.”

            Nothing.  And like my friend David says, we don’t deserve second chances, but by the grace of God, we get them anyway.  Thanks be to God.  And it’s our job to pass it on.