Sunday, August 17, 2008
Preacher: Pastor Kendra Mohn
Readings:
Isaiah 56:1,6-8
Romans 11:1-2a,29-32
Matthew 15:[10-20] 21-28
Preacher: Pastor Kendra Mohn
Readings:
Isaiah 56:1,6-8
Romans 11:1-2a,29-32
Matthew 15:[10-20] 21-28
Audio sermon link: http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/422/CB7FEE81-12A7-B502-E8E4-DD5F0B0A8CBA.mp3
Pastor Mohn greeted us today with a confession that she’s on Round 2 of preaching the scriptures and she’s felt, at times, as if she’s out of stories, even ones about her family. So thank God for the Olympics. The theme resonating through this week’s texts is nationality, wha tit means to be foreign, to be from “away”.
The question “Where are you from?” permeates all the readings today.
Watching the Olympic opening ceremonies, we were regaled with images of the host country, its culture, the depth and richness of its country and people. Nation after nation marched into the Bird’s Nest in its own unique attire, with its own unique behavior and mannerisms. What a diverse world we live in and what a cool thing that is to see and realize. It is also a reminder that not every basketball player is American!
One thing that stuck out to Pastor Mohn was how many athletes were not competing for their home country of origin. One story was telling, a woman gymnast whose son was suffering from leukemia, but could not get medical help in her own country. So she moved to Germany, and became a gymnast while her son received the medical attention he required. And they would not play the German national anthem for her until she officially became a citizen. When she had, they claimed her for their own. She belonged to them.
And, yet, she remains from her home of origin as well.
The Olympics showcases this interesting and telling dichotomy. Our national identity says something about “where we’re from”, but it begs an accompanying question …
Pastor Mohn greeted us today with a confession that she’s on Round 2 of preaching the scriptures and she’s felt, at times, as if she’s out of stories, even ones about her family. So thank God for the Olympics. The theme resonating through this week’s texts is nationality, wha tit means to be foreign, to be from “away”.
The question “Where are you from?” permeates all the readings today.
Watching the Olympic opening ceremonies, we were regaled with images of the host country, its culture, the depth and richness of its country and people. Nation after nation marched into the Bird’s Nest in its own unique attire, with its own unique behavior and mannerisms. What a diverse world we live in and what a cool thing that is to see and realize. It is also a reminder that not every basketball player is American!
One thing that stuck out to Pastor Mohn was how many athletes were not competing for their home country of origin. One story was telling, a woman gymnast whose son was suffering from leukemia, but could not get medical help in her own country. So she moved to Germany, and became a gymnast while her son received the medical attention he required. And they would not play the German national anthem for her until she officially became a citizen. When she had, they claimed her for their own. She belonged to them.
And, yet, she remains from her home of origin as well.
The Olympics showcases this interesting and telling dichotomy. Our national identity says something about “where we’re from”, but it begs an accompanying question …
Is your place of origin as important as we’re you’re from “right now”?
Speaking as a self-professed nomad, Pastor Mohn laughingly recounted how when she and Erik are asked “Where are you from?”, they look at eachother and smile. As a relative nomad, myself, I often share a similar smile with Laurna when we’re asked that same question.
We think “Do you mean the last 3 years? …the four before that. Where I was born? Where my family comes from? I guess I’m from Wisconsin." I know Laurna and I only just this past year can say that we’ve lived in Wisconsin longer than we’ve lived anywhere our entire adult lives since moving out of our parents’ homes.
In Isaiah, the Israelites are not from where they’re from! They are in exile. They’re from Jerusalem, but they live in Babylon. If you ask them, they will tell you they “belong to God”.
“And foreigners who join themselves to the Lord … these I will bring to my holy mountain.”
God has made the net bigger!
Pastor Mohn offers a thought-provoking nuance. Often the question “Where are you from?” begs an underlying question “To whom do you belong? Who claims you as their own?”. This will tell us something about ‘who you are’.
Rcently David Brooks wrote his Op-Ed column in the NY Times pondering why Barack Obama in not leading by a landslide in the national presidential polls. His theory is that:
“ … Obama is a sojourner. He was in law school, but not of it … he was in the legislature, but not of it … he partook in Trinity United Church of Christ, but was not of it … He is in the US Senate, but not of it. He absorbed things from those diverse places, but was not fully of them. This has been a consistent pattern throughout his odyssey … and it does make him ‘hard to place’. We don’t just judge the individuals but the places that produced them. We judge them by the connections that exist beyond choice and the ground where they will go home to be laid to rest … If you grew up in the 1950s, you were inclined to regard your identity as something you were born with. If you grew up in the 1970s, you were more likely to regard your identity as something you created.”
Very telling, indeed, this “where’re you from” conundrum.
In Romans, Paul tells us that God is claiming a wider collection than was previously imagined (by us). Our imagining is faulty in this regard. The message in Romans is also that when Jesus comes and “does this new thing”, he is making the net wider, to be more inclusive.
And then, on the heels of this dramatic message, he calls a woman a dog, he ignores her in a dramatically rude fashion. Pastor Mohn shares that there are many interpretations of why Jesus might have done this. Perhaps he was being ironic to teach the disciples a lesson by proxy, maybe preaching “A”, then doing just the opposite to make a point. Pastor Mohn offers an alternative & truly human interpretation … maybe Jesus was just tired, at the end of a very long day with no gas left in his tank.
Haven’t we all been there? Working away finally at something we need done when the phone rings and we say “Do I have the time for them?” There’s often not enough of us, seemingly, to ‘go around’. Maybe Jesus was saying “Do I have anything left for one more person?” There’s not enough of me to go around.
But the woman answers him directly and forthrightly. She counters
We think “Do you mean the last 3 years? …the four before that. Where I was born? Where my family comes from? I guess I’m from Wisconsin." I know Laurna and I only just this past year can say that we’ve lived in Wisconsin longer than we’ve lived anywhere our entire adult lives since moving out of our parents’ homes.
In Isaiah, the Israelites are not from where they’re from! They are in exile. They’re from Jerusalem, but they live in Babylon. If you ask them, they will tell you they “belong to God”.
“And foreigners who join themselves to the Lord … these I will bring to my holy mountain.”
God has made the net bigger!
Pastor Mohn offers a thought-provoking nuance. Often the question “Where are you from?” begs an underlying question “To whom do you belong? Who claims you as their own?”. This will tell us something about ‘who you are’.
Rcently David Brooks wrote his Op-Ed column in the NY Times pondering why Barack Obama in not leading by a landslide in the national presidential polls. His theory is that:
“ … Obama is a sojourner. He was in law school, but not of it … he was in the legislature, but not of it … he partook in Trinity United Church of Christ, but was not of it … He is in the US Senate, but not of it. He absorbed things from those diverse places, but was not fully of them. This has been a consistent pattern throughout his odyssey … and it does make him ‘hard to place’. We don’t just judge the individuals but the places that produced them. We judge them by the connections that exist beyond choice and the ground where they will go home to be laid to rest … If you grew up in the 1950s, you were inclined to regard your identity as something you were born with. If you grew up in the 1970s, you were more likely to regard your identity as something you created.”
Very telling, indeed, this “where’re you from” conundrum.
In Romans, Paul tells us that God is claiming a wider collection than was previously imagined (by us). Our imagining is faulty in this regard. The message in Romans is also that when Jesus comes and “does this new thing”, he is making the net wider, to be more inclusive.
And then, on the heels of this dramatic message, he calls a woman a dog, he ignores her in a dramatically rude fashion. Pastor Mohn shares that there are many interpretations of why Jesus might have done this. Perhaps he was being ironic to teach the disciples a lesson by proxy, maybe preaching “A”, then doing just the opposite to make a point. Pastor Mohn offers an alternative & truly human interpretation … maybe Jesus was just tired, at the end of a very long day with no gas left in his tank.
Haven’t we all been there? Working away finally at something we need done when the phone rings and we say “Do I have the time for them?” There’s often not enough of us, seemingly, to ‘go around’. Maybe Jesus was saying “Do I have anything left for one more person?” There’s not enough of me to go around.
But the woman answers him directly and forthrightly. She counters
“What if it’s even bigger than we thought? What if the net is, indeed, wider? What if God’s intention is beyond anything we’ve yet imagined? What if our imagination has been faulty ( to this point)?”
What if?
She is wise enough to remind Jesus that every loaf of bread sheds its crumbs that nobody wants. Even if she can’t sit at the table where Jesus is because of where she’s from, she wants those crumbs. She’ll take the scraps. She’s not proud. She knows she doesn’t deserve it, but she’ll take what she can get.
When the body of Jesus is broken, grace and mercy spill out all over the place. We know we don’t deserve it, but we each secretly hope there might be a crumb or two left over that nobody wants, that we can find later when there’s no one to tell us we can’t have it.
When the body of Jesus is broken, there’s plenty to go around. There’s nobody checking ID’s, saying “Where are you from? To whom do you belong?”.
They simply give and we receive … the scraps – that promise peace beyond our faulty imagining, hope beyond all that tomorrow will bring unbeknownst to us, love that is beyond that of a parent for their child.
So .. the answer to “Where are you from? To whom do we belong?” is we belong to God. It’s a miracle that the scraps left over are enough for all – even you!
What if?
She is wise enough to remind Jesus that every loaf of bread sheds its crumbs that nobody wants. Even if she can’t sit at the table where Jesus is because of where she’s from, she wants those crumbs. She’ll take the scraps. She’s not proud. She knows she doesn’t deserve it, but she’ll take what she can get.
When the body of Jesus is broken, grace and mercy spill out all over the place. We know we don’t deserve it, but we each secretly hope there might be a crumb or two left over that nobody wants, that we can find later when there’s no one to tell us we can’t have it.
When the body of Jesus is broken, there’s plenty to go around. There’s nobody checking ID’s, saying “Where are you from? To whom do you belong?”.
They simply give and we receive … the scraps – that promise peace beyond our faulty imagining, hope beyond all that tomorrow will bring unbeknownst to us, love that is beyond that of a parent for their child.
So .. the answer to “Where are you from? To whom do we belong?” is we belong to God. It’s a miracle that the scraps left over are enough for all – even you!
No comments:
Post a Comment