“A Welcoming Community”
Mark 2: 24-37; James 2:1-10, 14-17
By Andries J Coetzee
September 6, 2009
It is good to be back after three months away from my community of faith! Thank you so much for your warm welcome, your prayers in my absence and your support to my family and especially Beth with the passing of her father.
These past months in South Africa have been life-changing for me, and I thank you for the opportunity to have this time for renewal, rest and spiritual growth. I am looking forward to sharing my experi-ences with you in the next months. Definitely another high point was this past week when I became an American Citizen.
Thanks to all who came to the court-house, who have sent cards and have congratulated me. I cannot imagine sharing this experience with any other group of people, as it was during our Adult Sunday School series entitled “Faith and Politics” that I decided to become a citizen of this great nation. It was our ability as a community to be in conversation with one another without getting personal or nasty about potentially divisive issues before the last presidential election. It was our ability to
respect one another and learn from each other that made me decide to be part of this nation that has become home to so many people from all over the world. This notion was affirmed on Tuesday at my oath ceremony, and those of you who were there can testify to that as we indeed saw and experi-enced the changing face of our nation.
In some ways I just want to keep on talking about my experiences in South Africa and about be-coming an American citizen, but then I read the lectionary text and it left me with no choice but to reflect on the readings of today. In all honesty, I think this is the reality of the gospel as it does not allow us the luxury of staying on the mountain top or living in the afterglow. No, … it compels us to make our experiences part of our daily living,… to transform us to become more and more like Christ, until the whole world is infused with the love of the God who created and is creating still. This will be a time where, everyone and everything belongs. This will be a time where there will be no outsiders, as all us belong, as all of us will be insiders. Yes, this will be a time where there will be no longer Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free – instead of separation and division, all distinctions will make for a rich diversity to be celebrated for the sake of the unity that underlies them all. (Desmond Tutu)
This “new reality” is what we are working for, and for which I received new enthusiasm during my Sabbatical. Therefore it was moving to me, and so many other people, to see people of sixteen different countries become American citizens, people of different
origin, cultures, languages and color, … sitting side by side, saying one oath pledging to
one flag and willing “to do” for America as she gives so much to us.
Very powerful were the words of U.S. District Judge Paul A. Magnuson, saying that the
best times of America are still ahead because of the rich diversity new immigrants bring
to this country, just as the immigrants from the past have. These were words that made
us think twice….immigrants and citizens alike.
The reality for most of these immigrants is that they look different from the immigrants of the past and that they don’t speak English as fluently as those immigrants and their offspring have come to speak. On Tuesday each of us received a welcome packet which included The Citizen’s Almanac, The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States. Unfortunately, the reality for most of these new citizens deems it necessary for the U.S. Department of Justice to include infor-mation that helps naturalized citizens protect their rights to work in this country. This notification
states an employer cannot treat you differently because of your place of birth, accent, or appearance.
This judgment of another, based on appearance, is a difficult reality for us to admit. No, not in the United States of America that stands for freedom and liberty for all, … no, not in Bloomington, Minnesota where we are known to be nice, no, not here at Oak Grove Presbyterian Church where we see ourselves as an “Open and Growing”. … No, God not here, not us! This was Jesus in the Gospel of Mark prior to today’s reading … no God … not me.
In Mark 6:30-44 Jesus has compassion for the great crowd of people who followed him (verse 34) as it was late and they were hungry. That evening Jesus and his disciples manage to feed five thousand people with only five loaves of bread and two fishes. They fed everyone regardless of nationality, belief or language; in fact that night there was so much food that they had leftovers as God’s goodness is abundant with enough for everyone.
How disbelieving and shocking to hear Jesus, only some days later, judging a woman of Syrophoe-nician decent, calling her a dog, as she was seen as a Gentile and a pagan by the Jewish people. Jesus’ first reaction was not to help this woman by healing her daughter. The One who said let the little children come to me, is the one who would not heal this little girl because of her ethnicity.
“Using a dining metaphor”, Karen Keely writes, “Jesus turns her away implying that there is a limited supply of food and that only some may eat while others will go hungry. And this shortly after he has managed to feed five thousand people with only five loaves and two fish (Mk 6:30-44)! Surely Jesus of all people should know that God's goodness is bounteous, that there is more than enough food for everyone.”
“And this is essentially what the Gentile woman points out to Jesus. There's plenty of food for every-one; even once all of those recognized as people, as insiders, are fed, there's still food left over for those considered dogs, the outsiders … they all find nourishment around the table as there is enough for everyone”. This point of confrontation then becomes the point of miracle and healing. “Jesus
promptly heals the woman’s child, and never again in Mark does he refuse to heal anyone or question anyone's worthiness to be healed.”
Not only did Jesus bring healing to the life of the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter, but he also makes a new life possible for us where we can be more aware when we judge another. The reality is that the more we grow in faith or the more we become Christlike, the more we become aware of our first instincts, those reactions at the most basic level of humanity. These instincts are the ones that judge, hurt, cause pain and in the end deny the true wealth of baptism, in which the poor, the weak, the lowly and the stranger, yes, even strangers of other nationalities are transformed into the royal
children of God.
As we come to this table set before us today Jesus understands our initial antipathies to strangers -- after all, he had them himself -- but ultimately he shows us, through his own life, that there is no one we should not invite to this feast. Even more so, through his commissioning us in ministry, he gives us the power to overcome our judgment of others, not by erasing these primal reactions, but by giving us the awareness to act in confidence and generosity as there is plenty of bread for everyone, so no one will go hungry but rather dine abundantly. (The Crumbs Under the Table: Bread Enough for All by Karen A. Keely) Thanks be to God … Amen!
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