Sermon Texts

August 17, 2008

Coming back home feels so good! It feels so good to return to familiar food, familiar routine, familiar faces. By being out of the country for seven weeks I know the difference between being at home and being a foreigner in another land.

Part of the difference has to do with passport control. When we landed at O'Hare, we could go through the desk for U.S. citizens, where there was no line, unlike the long line for non-citizens - and unlike the long lines we had to endure in Turkey and Greece for non-citizens of European Union countries. I felt like an alien in Israel when we had to show our passports as we went through the check point into Bethlehem, across the separation barrier from Tantur, our study center in Israel.

Part of the difference has to do with language. Now we didn't have any real difficulties; most people in the tourist business speak at least some English. But while we were in Istanbul, I felt so starved for hearing English I lost my sense of different accents - I asked some people in a restaurant whom I heard speaking English where they were from in the United States, only to find out that they were from Australia!

Coming back home feels good. There's a comfort in being surrounded by the familiar. And what is familiar for us is often defined by its difference from what is foreign. Our lessons today relate in one way or another to a sense of spiritual home. Whose home is that spiritual home?

Our First Lesson today from Isaiah reflects the time when the Jews returned to Judah from their exile in Babylon. They began the process of rebuilding their Temple that had been destroyed at the beginning of their Babylonian Captivity. Notice, though, how Isaiah describes the Temple: The prophet says that God will bring foreigners to God's holy mountain, and, God says, "my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." Whose home is the spiritual home of the restored Temple? Of course, it was to be the home for the Jews, but God also intended it to be for the nations, for all people.

This may be an exaggeration, but I felt that I was living out this vision in a small way. Perhaps you know that what is called the "Western Wall" is what remains of the foundation of the Second Temple, the temple built by Herod the Great just before the time of Christ. This wall has become a pilgrimage site and a special place of prayer for Jews, both Israelis and Jews from abroad. But not just for Jews - for others as well. I suppose you noticed that Barack Obama prayed there during his visit to Israel in July. I visited the Western Wall as well - you may have seen the picture in my blog. It was a special moment as I touched the Wall and prayed for my family, for my ministry, for you here at Ascension. Touching that wall was a way of connecting with something from the time of Jesus - and it was a way of living out that promise that God's house will be a house of prayer for all peoples - including you and me.

I hope that it is no surprise to say to you that Jesus was a Jew. Sometimes over the centuries Christians have tried to ignore this reality. Spending time in the Holy Land is a way of being reminded of that reality. The search for walking where Jesus walked is often frustrated by the build-up of layers of history - centuries of different occupiers and generations of pilgrims - but the Western Wall was there in Jesus' time, and archaeological explorations around the Temple Mount have uncovered streets and steps that were there in the First Century. So one can imagine Jesus' walking near the Temple and saying or thinking, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel." Here and elsewhere the Gospel of Matthew indicates that Jesus' primary mission was to his fellow Jews. What happens in our Gospel today? This foreigner, this Canaanite woman from present-day Lebanon who represented the ancient adversaries of the Jewish people, persists in her request and replies to Jesus, "Even the dogs eat the crumbs from their master's table." Jesus marvels at the woman's faith - faith that seems to be a mixture of bold persistence and trust in Jesus' ability to help her - and heals her daughter. Has this woman expanded Jesus' sense of the scope of his mission to include Gentiles? Was Jesus just testing the genuineness of her faith? We don't know. But this we know: those at home with their faith in Jesus include both Jews and Gentiles. Whose home is with Jesus? All people, including you and me.

Our Second Lesson from Romans raises the question of whose home is the house of faith in the opposite direction. If Jesus opens the door to Gentiles, what does this mean for Jews? This can be a thorny issue that deserves more than a passing reference in a sermon. Paul struggles with this question at some length in chapters 9-11 of Romans. Our Lesson today gives us Paul's conclusion. Has God rejected the Jews? By no means, Paul insists. He concludes by saying that the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. Interpreters of Romans debate what exactly Paul means, but it seems clear to me that Paul is saying that the promises God made to the Jewish people beginning with Abraham and Sarah and expressed most fully in the giving of the Law at Sinai are still in effect. It seems clear to me that Jews living in faithfulness to that covenant continue to receive the gifts and calling of God to be God's people. But Paul goes on to conclude that God seeks to be merciful to all. As Isaiah proclaimed, God intends the covenants God makes to reach out and include all people, Jews and Gentiles alike.

While you were celebrating the 4th of July with the Brat Stand and Plant Sale, I was invited to attend the Friday Sabbath service of a progressive Jewish community in Jerusalem. At the potluck afterwards people were invited to perform the ritual washing of hands but because of the on-going drought in Israel to do so with minimal use of water. We might wash our hands for hygienic reasons; this is also a sign of religious purity. Our Gospel from Matthew shows that Jesus tended to oppose such rituals, for he was more concerned with the purity of the heart than the hands. Religious rituals can set up barriers around a spiritual home; Jesus encourages a spiritual home open to all based on sincerity of heart and genuineness of faith.

Whose home is our spiritual home? It belongs to the nations. One of the special experiences I had while I was at Tantur - one that I'm sure I will refer to again - was a Eucharist in the tomb portion of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the shrine built over the traditional sites of Jesus' crucifixion, death, and burial, and you can walk down into a cave-like shrine where Jesus' tomb supposedly was located. One of the Catholic priests in our ecumenical group had a goal of celebrating Mass in several of the holy sites in Jerusalem, and others from our Tantur group were invited to participate. Early one morning he had reserved the tomb, and I decided to join him. This tomb chapel was no bigger than the closet next to the lift, and seven of us were crowded into the tomb - joining in an Eucharistic celebration of the resurrection in the traditional place of the resurrection. Who was there? The priest from England, a Catholic brother from Samoa, a Catholic sister from Australia, a Catholic lay worker from Singapore, a Catholic brother from Mexico, a Catholic deacon/seminarian from Houston, and me. This was a powerful experience for me on several levels, but it surely was an experience of our Christian spiritual home being open to the people of all nations.

Whose home is it? Christ's home belongs to all people, including you and me. Thanks be to God! Christ's home belongs to all people. May God help us to keep our doors wide open to welcome all people! Amen.