11th Sunday after Pentecost-Rev Melanie Lemburg

11^th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 15A

August 16, 2020

        This past week, my friend and colleague here sent me a meme.  She didn’t include any words to it-just the picture.  It’s a picture of Michael Jordan and Dennis Rodman on the basketball court in their Chicago Bulls uniforms.  In the pic, the equanimous Jordan has gripped the back of the jersey of the notoriously hotheaded Rodman and is calmly walking him back as Rodman looks like he’s headed off to start a fight.  The caption on the meme labels Jordan as “The Holy Spirit” and Rodman as “my response to people on social media.”  Below the picture it reads: me: “first of all…”; Holy Spirit:  “Delete it.”  My friend knows me well, especially of my deep wrestling with not debating people on social media. 

        This meme was especially true for me this week, as I walked away from a potential fight on Facebook.  The younger sister of one of my high school friends posted a link to an article about the church Godspeak Calvary Chapel in Newbury, California who has refused to stop in person services indoors despite a county order mandated by the state in mid-July requiring that services be moved outdoors.  She posted her own commentary about justice, about our rights as Americans and how they are being jeopardized as if we were in a Communist country, and she wrote that if her brother and sister in law, who live in California, were to attend that church they could be arrested for their faith.  Well, of course, I had to read the actual article which states that the city council in this community has voted to pursue legal action against individuals or entities not complying with public health orders and that the board of supervisors of the county is asking for a temporary restraining order to stop the church’s plans to continue indoor services.  A number of folks weighed in on the post, all touting freedom of religion for the individuals and sharing their fears that our liberties are being taken away under the banner of public health. “Justice!  Where is the justice?” they clamored.

        I was already formulating my response when, like Michael Jordan for Dennis Rodman, the Holy Spirit intervened and told me to put down my iPad and walk away. But the whole thing got me to thinking.  Why is it that some Christians have returned to in person worship indoors at this time and others have not? And what does our understanding of justice have to do with that decision?

        Our readings for today both give a nod to the theological concept of justice.  In our Old Testament reading, we hear God telling the people, “Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance will be revealed…”  Isaiah is talking about how God will do a new thing and that the former things are passing away.  But this promise of a new thing, which will include gathering up all the people and even those who have been considered outsiders, requires a response from the people of consent and obedience.  God’s expectations for their response include keeping Sabbath, refraining from evil, and holding fast to the covenant.

        In the gospel reading for today, Jesus encounters a Canaanite woman right after he’s been involved in a controversy with some scribes and Pharisees.  The woman begs Jesus to heal her daughter, and Jesus’s response is less than complementary.  But the woman is persistent, and she kneels before Jesus and says, “Lord, help me.”  (Note that this is virtually the same thing Peter says to Jesus in last week’s gospel when he attempts to walk on water and begins floundering.)  She and Jesus exchange more words, and Jesus, impressed by her faith, heals her daughter and sends her on her way.

        I’m struck by the fact that in this instance, when the woman says to Jesus, “have mercy,” even though our translation has mercy as a noun, in the original Greek, mercy is a verb.  “Do something merciful” she is saying to Jesus. 

        In both of these readings, people are invited to expand their understanding of justice.  Now, keep in mind that the Hebrew notion of justice is very different from our current American understanding of justice.  When we say justice now, I believe we think at best, of protecting individual rights, and at worst, a systematized way to enact vengeance for perceived harm or wrong-doing.  The Hebrew notion of justice is to do right, to make right, to make things right for everyone.  So in the Isaiah reading, God is showing God’s people that God is expanding the notion of justice, of making things right for everyone, to include not just God’s people who are a part of the covenant but to include people who have typically been considered outside God’s consideration. 

        And in this gospel reading, Jesus is being challenged by the demand of the Canaanite woman to do something merciful on behalf of her daughter, to expand his understanding of his mission and his notion of justice.  Perhaps in that moment, he realizes that his mission is no longer only about saving the lost sheep of Israel but it has now become about saving everyone, about making things right for everyone, about doing something of mercy for everyone. 

        This week, I learned that we have lost one of our newer couples to the Catholic Church because they have resumed in person gatherings in church and the weekly distribution of the sacrament.  In my sadness and my disheartened state, I had to remind myself why we are doing this.  It is because your vestry and I believe that in order to do our part in making things right for everyone (in this church, in the greater community, and even beyond), the best way we can make things right is to not gather for in person worship.  That for us, rather than infringing on our individual rights to worship together, rather than focusing on our individual wants and desires, we are choosing what we believe to be the path of justice and mercy that expands beyond individuals to what we hope to be the greater good. 

        This week, your invitation is to be mindful in different situations that you encounter about how we might be called to expand our notion of justice.  Look for ways to think beyond the rights that you want as an individual to how we might be invited to all together make things right for all.  Look for ways in your life this week where you are called to do mercy, to think of mercy as a verb and not just a noun.