The Double-Dog Dare Days Of August
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The world was put on edge last week, as yet another missile test by North Korea (and the suggestion that they now have the capability of miniaturizing nuclear warheads) led to an escalating war of words between the North Korean regime and President Donald Trump. While it is possible that Trump’s provocative rhetoric is a gambit intended to motivate the Chinese to more seriously rein in their North Korean allies, it seems far more likely that the increasing threats are a result of the president’s increasing frustration with the lack of solutions to a serious problem, as well as his irritation at having to take seriously a regime that he regards as an annoying gnat. Yet a frightened world is loathe to dismiss the situation as mere venting, as harmless words. Indeed, the harsh language appears to have greatly increased the danger of a rash move being made by one side or the other. And, as team member Chris Keating points out in this installment of The Immediate Word, words have the power to do real damage -- every bit as much as the “sticks and stones” of the old adage. That’s the point Jesus makes to the disciples in the first (optional) part of this week’s lectionary gospel text. Responding to what he views as pointless dietary laws, Jesus instead notes that what defiles a person is not what goes into their body (what they eat) but rather what comes out (their words). Words can be so dangerous, Jesus explains, because they proceed from the heart -- and thus reveal what we truly think and believe. But as Chris reminds us, words have an equally powerful ability to bring about healing and reconciliation... something our secular leaders would do well to keep in mind.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on the lectionary readings and the way we can misinterpret the words of scripture by looking too closely at individual statements rather than the Bible’s larger themes. As one example of this, Dean cites the recent statements of Robert Jeffress, a prominent pastor who maintains that scripture (specifically Romans 13) gives President Trump the authority to do whatever it takes to remove “evildoers” like Kim Jong-Un -- even if that means war. That seems to contrast sharply, Dean suggests, with the larger themes of love, forgiveness, acceptance, and reconciliation that Jesus returns to again and again in scripture.
The Double-Dog Dare Days of August
by Chris Keating
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
August’s lazy, hazy dog days quickly became a deadly double-dog dare contest between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un, the supreme leader of North Korea. Both nations have been at odds with each other for nearly 70 years. During his working golf vacation in New Jersey last week, President Trump responded to North Korea’s rhetorical sword-rattling by launching a verbal preemptive strike of his own.
Call it the Bedminster bombast, or the putt that rocked Pyongyang. But the duel between the two countries is more than fodder for late-night comedians. It’s a deadly standoff with history-changing repercussions.
Whatever the intent of the two leaders, it got the world’s attention. In Guam, a U.S. territory cited as a potential target, government officials began prepping residents for nuclear war with pamphlets on surviving an attack. Tips included taking shelter, taking off your clothes, and taking a shower.
The Cold War-era rhetoric has been edging up lately following North Korea’s increasing deployment of missiles. Its nuclear capabilities are confirmed, and have prompted rebukes from neighboring countries as well as sanctions by the United Nations. Any further provocations by North Korea, President Trump has said, would lead to “things they never thought possible,” including an onslaught of “fire and fury.” Pyongyang retaliated by issuing its own apocalyptic-sounding threats to turn Seoul into a lake of fire while bringing the “final ruin” upon the United States.
There is no vacation from matters of national security, or the orations of war. Indeed, much of the war of words between Washington and North Korea seems to confirm Jesus’ counsel in Matthew: “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” The contrasts between these barbed exchanges and the biblical understanding of peacemaking offers an intriguing opportunity to hear Jesus’ words in a world filled with double-dog (and even triple-dog) dares.
In the News
It’s summertime, and the living is uneasy. When the United Nations approved hefty sanctions against North Korea, it seemed leaders of both countries cried “Game on!”
Following the U.N. security council’s vote to place tough sanctions on North Korea for continuing to test intercontinental missiles, President Trump declared that North Korea had better get in line -- or else. The ink was barely dry on the sanctions -- which halt North Korea from exporting key commodities -- before the president took time away from his vacation to stake out his ground.
President Trump began by declaring any aggression from North Korea would be met with “fire and fury the likes the world has never seen.” Then upon reflection, the president qualified his remarks a bit. Perhaps he hadn’t been tough enough. Not to be outdone, Kim Jong-Un’s regime called Trump’s remarks utter nonsense, and then suggested that the president is senile and overly concerned with his golf game. So there. Their next response was to suggest they would be turning the U.S. territory of Guam into an apocalyptic puddle of red-hot brimstone.
Maureen Dowd cheekily noted that the standoff between Washington and Pyongyang feels a bit like “a couple of chubby brats with big missiles and short fuses.” Watching Trump and Kim Jong-Un trade jabs at each other, said Dowd, can feel particularly frightening because of their similarities:
They’re both spoiled scions who surpassed less ruthless older brothers to join their authoritarian fathers in the family business. They both make strange fashion statements with their hair and enjoy bullying and hyperbole. They both love military parades, expect “Dear Leader” displays of fawning, and favor McDonald’s and Madonna.
Both leaders seem to be crafting their word battles with precision as a way of garnering tactical advantage. For Kim, bluster is his primary interface with the rest of the world. Likewise, Trump, who also deployed his verbal artillery to pummel Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and to suggest he was thinking about sending troops into Venezuela’s political chaos, also seems to harbor no aversions to hurling barbed epithets as a show of force.
Not one to walk back his words, President Trump lobbed another volley toward Kim by indicating that his tone wasn’t tough enough. As Guam’s residents began prepping for a nuclear attack, the president’s staff hit the streets as an attempt to assure Americans war was far from imminent. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mathis both pushed for a diplomatic resolution.
Despite this, it’s hard imagining Trump and Kim sitting down to a Mickey D’s summit anytime soon, hashing out nuclear treaties over Big Macs and fries. At least they could get separate checks. Jesus reminds us, however, that it is not what goes into a person that defiles but what comes out. And it is these intentions that have other world leaders concerned.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel believes the tense rhetoric is the wrong path to pursue, saying that she doesn’t see a military solution as an option. The United Kingdom’s First Secretary of State Damian Green concurs, saying that Trump must be “sensible” by exhausting remedies from the United Nations first.
It’s possible that Kim sees himself benefiting from this skirmish. North Koreans, trained from an early age to see Americans as vicious murderers, will rally around him -- not that they have much choice in the matter. It is also entirely possible, suggests Jean H. Lee, that Trump might also see the blather blitz as tipping public opinion in his favor by distracting Americans from his other issues.
The other day New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd took to history to offer a dispiriting, though poignant, reflection on the standoff. She mentions Theodore Sorensen’s chronicling of President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis. Kennedy was struck by a reference in Barbara Tuchman’s book The Guns of August regarding a conversation between two German leaders on the spark that ignited World War I. Tuchman writes that a German chancellor asked his successor “How did it all happen?” His successor replied, “Ah, if only one knew.” Dowd continues by recalling JFK as saying: “If this planet is ever ravaged by nuclear war -- if the survivors of that devastation can then endure the fire, poison, chaos, and catastrophe -- I do not want one of these survivors to ask another ‘How did it all happen?’ and to receive the incredible reply: ‘Ah, if only one knew.’ ”
This August, as the cicadas begin their final choruses, the insects’ perpetually annoying mating calls might be welcome relief from the doubling-down dares and taunts coming from leaders who frequently sound less diplomatic and more like Yosemite Sam chasing Bugs Bunny.
In the Scriptures
Ah, the days of summer. The challenge of this text is to allow it, in all of its messiness, to resonate with listeners who are preoccupied with back-to-school and squeezing in one last camping trip.
While the editors of the lectionary have bracketed verses 10-20 from rest of the chapter, the parenthetical verses add a critical dimension to Jesus’ otherwise awkward encounter with the Canaanite woman (vv. 21-28). Tracing the edge of this pericope back to the beginning of chapter 15 provides even more context.
Jesus, in 15:1-9, is confronted by Pharisees and scribes about his disciples’ failure to abide by traditional hand-washing rites. Jesus pushes back, urging the Pharisees and scribes to see that they have elevated aspects of tradition over Torah. Turning to Isaiah, he calls the religious folks hypocrites who pay homage to God with their lips -- but not with their worship.
It’s a point he continues to make in verses 10 and following. Jesus reinterprets the meaning of “clean” and “unclean” for the crowd. It’s unsettling to the Pharisees, whom Jesus calls “blind guides of the blind.” What really matters is what is in one’s heart -- this is what defiles a person. Yet the disciples seem confused -- perhaps even dense. Exasperated, Jesus employs a rather graphic illustration straight from the pages of a middle-school lunchroom. It is as if he is saying, “Look, what you eat goes straight through you and you know what happens next. It’s just waste product.”
It’s what is in the heart that matters. Jesus gets a taste of his own words in the concluding section (vv. 21-28), as he encounters a foreign woman who comes pleading for her ill daughter. What comes out of this woman’s heart is faith, hope, and love for her daughter. Despite being “unclean,” her heart is pure.
Yet Jesus is indifferent to her pleas. It is an extraordinary -- and demanding -- passage. Jesus tries to dismiss the woman, and perhaps even swears at her. His language is rough and coarse. This is not the welcoming Jesus who shows up in our sermons on grace and inclusion. As professor Mitzi J. Smith notes, the Canaanite woman is like so many other women both before and after her. She persists, she leans into the male-dominated sphere of Jesus’ inner circle. This anonymous woman’s voice could have been lost. Even Jesus tries to push her away, but still she persists. Suddenly, as Matthew has framed this story, we see how the many strands of this text become threaded together.
I wonder if Jesus’ mother would have snapped her fingers at her son’s disquieting rebuke of the woman. He sees the unnamed woman’s great faith, and suddenly everyone understands the parable he has just spoken. “For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander...”
In the Sermon
Words matter. Just ask Senator John McCain. In the 2000 presidential campaign, McCain suffered a brutal loss in the South Carolina GOP primary following a dirty-tricks campaign that suggested he had fathered a black child out of wedlock (he was campaigning with his daughter Bridget, who is adopted from Bangladesh). Fast forward to the 2016 campaign, where Donald Trump said that the former prisoner of war and Republican presidential nominee wasn’t actually a true American hero because he had been captured.
Yet when it came time to vote this year on the so-called “skinny” repeal of Obamacare, the senator from Arizona knew that what matters is not what comes out of the mouth -- lengthy speeches, provocative tweets, stinging soundbites -- but what comes from the heart. Without saying a word, McCain brought the message down with his now-famous thumbs-down gesture.
“It was the right thing to do,” he said later.
The point here is not to pit one politician against another, but to highlight the debilitating and defiling words which we too often employ in our encounters with people who are different from us.
Words do indeed matter. Swagger and bluff, braggadocio and rapier-pointed barbs may be hurled toward us like cruise missiles, but what truly matters are matters of the heart. Time will tell whether the barrage of words exchanged between the leaders of North Korea and the United States will launch military actions, or whether they will encourage peace. Right now, it’s a nuclear-charged gambit.
Worrying about how things will turn out, however, misses the larger point regarding how followers of Jesus are called to pursue the things that make for peace. Christian understandings of peacemaking could inform a conversation on this text, particularly in relationship to Jesus’ embrace of the foreign woman and his curing of her daughter. She persists, and Jesus persists too, in seeking first the kingdom of God.
A sermon arising from this text proclaims the truth that our mouths can be deadly weapons. They can be launching systems for bombs that destroy others. Hurtful, hate-filled words are released into the air and land with precision, destroying another’s heart. But that is just one example. Too often blather bombs lead to real bombs that kill both the body and the spirit. Jesus reminds us that the toxins we hurl at others will eventually defile our lives as well. We will become victims of the hate we spew.
This text offers numerous connections to our lives today, including the horror experienced in Charlottesville, Virginia, this past weekend, the tense state of relations between the United States and North Korea, or any other place where invective is used to harass others. Jesus’ words, and his subsequent encounter with the woman, point to the higher righteousness he proclaimed earlier in the Sermon on the Mount.
Accepting the call to discipleship means allowing Christ to transform our entire way of speaking and living. The encounter with the faith-filled Canaanite woman offers an example of one whose heart is undefiled, and is a reminder of how goodness persists.
A final caution: the preacher who understands it is what comes out of our mouths that defile us will understand that Jesus isn’t just talking about how our stomachs react to the bit of greasy sausage we ate for breakfast Sunday morning before preaching. Instead, a preacher will point to how words can shape communities, how the heart can create spaces for peace, and how great our faith will be when we persist in seeking first the kingdom of God.
SECOND THOUGHTS
A Tapestry of Love
by Dean Feldmeyer
Genesis 45:1-15; Psalm 133; Isaiah 56:1, 6-8; Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
The British-produced Welsh police procedural television drama Hinterland begins each week with the credits running over a montage of extreme closeups that are more than a little off-putting and even a little bit, well, gross. After seeing these images a few times, however, the viewer begins to realize that as sinister as they seem up close, they are actually just harmless, everyday junk.
When the camera backs away and we see the objects in their context, we observe that one is a rusty door hinge, another is an old wasp nest, a third is a child’s tooth, and another is a seed pod.
They are the same things we have seen before, only now we see and maybe even define them differently because we see them from a perspective that allows us to take them in their proper context.
Our study and examination of scripture often fails due to a malady that I call the micro-focus. We take a few verses and we dissect them and examine them and try to squeeze as much meaning and application as we can get out of them, but the answers we discover seem simplistic or they run counter to other things we have read in and about the Bible, and we wonder why we have run dry so early in our exploration.
There is another way of looking at scripture, however, and it is what I call that of “macro-focus.” That is, we step back from the text so we can see it in all its surroundings. Passages of scripture which seem to mean one thing when taken by themselves can often mean something completely different when we use a macro-focus that lets us see them in their historic and literary context.
In the Scriptures
This week’s readings, if we are to take them at all seriously, must be taken not just in their individual contexts but in their literary context as well. That is, they need to be seen in the light of all the other things that have been written in the Bible.
Each passage is about love, forgiveness, and/or reconciliation.
In Genesis, Joseph, after toying with his brothers for a short while, finally reveals his true identity to them, forgives them for the shabby way they treated him, points out that thanks to God everything has worked out for the best, and then “he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him” (v. 15).
In Psalm 133 the psalmist reminds us how “very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity,” forming a footnote or commentary upon the story we have just read in Genesis.
Isaiah gives his readers a mini-sermon on inclusion and acceptance since God accepts not just Jews but Gentiles as well, and he declares the temple to be a “house of prayer for all peoples.” And then God shares the plan to gather “the outcasts of Israel” and “others... besides those already gathered.”
And finally, in Matthew’s gospel we hear about Jesus, who was sent as a savior for the Jews, enlarging his mission at the behest of a Gentile woman who is so desperate for her dying daughter that she is willing to go to a Jewish rabbi and ask him for a miracle.
In every passage we see the common threads of forgiveness, acceptance, and reconciliation being woven together into a beautiful tapestry of love.
And it doesn’t stop with these four passages.
The word “love” appears in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible 488 times, and the word “forgive” appears 58 times. But do not only a word search but also a topical search of scripture and we find that the topics of love, forgiveness, reconciliation, grace are addressed more than 600 times.
This is not just a trend, my friends. It is a juggernaut. The very real and undeniable fact is that scripture, as a whole, moves inexorably in the direction of love.
There are those persons, however -- persons who call themselves Christians and even pastors -- who would not have us believe this.
In the News
Back when President Donald Trump was still “presumptive Republican nominee” Trump, he invited about 25 fundamentalist and evangelical Christians to serve as his “evangelical advisory council” -- and most if not all of them still serve in that capacity.
The implication of this seems to be that all Christian evangelicals back Trump and support his policies. That, of course, is not the case. Many do not -- Max Lucado, Jim Wallis, Peter Wehner, and Eric Teetsel among them. Be that as it may, however, he is still getting advice from some who many consider to be prominent evangelical pastors and leaders, one of which has been lately in the news.
Robert James Jeffress Jr. is a Southern Baptist pastor, author, and radio and television host. Jeffress hosts the weekly television program Pathway to Victory, which he claims is broadcast on 11,295 cable and satellite systems in 195 countries. He also has a daily Pathway to Victory radio program, heard on over 900 stations in the United States. He is the pastor of the 13,000-member First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas.
While a pastor in Wichita Falls in 1998, Jeffress sought to have two children’s books about children with gay or lesbian parents removed from the public library by checking out the books and paying for them rather than returning them to be recirculated.
In October 2011, he provoked a national controversy when he introduced former Texas governor Rick Perry at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, DC, by indicating that one of Perry’s rivals for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney (a Mormon), was opposed to Christianity.
Lately, he has been quoted as saying that “When it comes to how we should deal with evildoers, the Bible, in the book of Romans, is very clear: God has endowed rulers full power to use whatever means necessary -- including war -- to stop evil.” He adds that “In the case of North Korea, God has given [President] Trump authority to take out Kim Jong-Un.”
He says that he was prompted to make the statement after Trump said that if North Korea’s threats to the United States continue, Pyongyang will be “met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”
Jeffress believes that Romans 13 gives the government authority to deal with evildoers. “That gives the government... the authority to do whatever, whether it’s assassination, capital punishment, or evil punishment to quell the actions of evildoers like Kim Jong-Un,” he said.
Amy Black, a political science professor at Wheaton College (an evangelical institution in Illinois), isn’t so sure, however. She would remind us that theologians and church leaders have debated the interpretation of Romans 13 for millennia. Most mainstream interpretations of the passage, she said, would suggest that God works through governmental leaders, but ultimate authority comes from God.
Paul was writing to the Romans in a place and time where there was only one government and one political leader, and that was Caesar. He would not have imagined that his words could be applied to other political leaders as well. What if the political leader was Adolf Hitler? Would Christians be compelled by Romans 13 to obey him? What if the political leader was Chairman Mao, or Idi Amin or, well, Kim Jong-Un?
“If anything,” Black says, “Romans 13 creates a conundrum, because it could be interpreted that Kim Jong-Un has authority to govern.”
Jeffress’ error is that of micro-focus, sometimes referred to as cherry-picking or proof-texting. He has found a piece of scripture and interpreted the verses to support his own point of view, completely disregarding their historical and literary context as well as the contemporary context to which he is trying to apply them.
Paul’s words in Romans 13 were written to the Christians in the Roman church, whom Paul had never visited or met. A few years before this letter (49 CE) the emperor Claudius had expelled all Jews from the city of Rome because of the civil unrest that was being created between orthodox Jews and Christian Jews over who was more authentically Jewish and who should control the synagogues. When Claudius died in 54 CE, the edict expelling the Jews lapsed and they began returning to the city. In the intervening five years, however, the Christian churches had become almost totally Gentile in their rituals and practices -- and this caused no small amount of tension between the Gentile church leaders and the returning Jewish Christians.
Paul wrote the epistle to the Romans to introduce himself and his theology to the Christians, a theology of love, reconciliation, and salvation “to the Jews first and also to the Greek” (1:16). If the Christians of Rome would take Paul’s words seriously they would avoid the kinds of conflicts that had prompted Claudius’ purge of 49 and live together in peace. That is the historical context.
The literary context of the few verses in Romans 13:1-7 finds them sandwiched between Romans 12 -- which calls for Christians to “let love be genuine” and “Bless those who persecute you” and “Do not repay evil for evil” -- and Romans 13:8ff, which calls on Christians to “Owe no one anything but to love one another.”
Romans 13:1-7 is a coda in the ongoing symphony of love and charity which makes up the totality of the biblical narrative. It must not, indeed it cannot, be responsibly interpreted in any way that contradicts that story, that rents the beautiful tapestry of love that is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In the Sermon
I can add nothing more to this commentary, so I will let another evangelical -- some say fundamentalist -- preacher speak the closing lines.
This is Billy Graham in a 1979 interview in Sojourners magazine:
Sojourners: How does your commitment to the lordship of Christ shape your response to the nuclear threat?
Graham: I am not sure I have thought through all the implications of Christ’s lordship for this issue -- I have to be honest about that. But for the Christian there is -- or at least should be -- only one question: What is the will of God? What is his will both for this world and for me in regard to this issue? Let me suggest several things.
First, the lordship of Christ reminds me that we live in a sinful world. The cross teaches me that. Like a drop of ink in a glass of water, sin has permeated everything -- the individual, society, creation. That is one reason why the nuclear issue is not just a political issue -- it is a moral and spiritual issue as well. And because we live in a sinful world it means we have to take something like nuclear armaments seriously. We know the terrible violence of which the human heart is capable.
Secondly, the lordship of Jesus Christ tells me that God is not interested in destruction, but in redemption. Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to reverse the effects of the Fall. Now, I know there are mysteries to the workings of God. I know God is sovereign and sometimes he permits things to happen which are evil, and he even causes the wrath of man to praise him. But I cannot see any way in which nuclear war could be branded as being God’s will. Such warfare, if it ever happens, will come because of the greed and pride and covetousness of the human heart. But God’s will is to establish his kingdom, in which Christ is lord.
Third, of course, Christ calls us to love, and that is the critical test of discipleship. Love is not a vague feeling or an abstract idea. When I love someone, I seek what is best for them. If I begin to take the love of Christ seriously, then I will work toward what is best for my neighbor. I will seek to bind up the wounds and bring about healing, no matter what the cost may be.
Therefore, I believe that the Christian especially has a responsibility to work for peace in our world.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
Words That Defile
Jesus tells the crowd listening to him to listen and understand. “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” Understanding that principle, attorney and Christian author Bob Goff poses the question “How much are our words worth?”
Goff says he fines himself a considerable amount of money when he uses negative or unkind words. “I used to think the words I used didn’t really matter that much,” he says, “but the older I get, the more I see how certain words just cost me so much more than others. It’s not a monetary cost -- it’s a spiritual or relational cost. But in order to make the intangible cost feel tangible, I prescribe a monetary cost to my words.” To make the cost tangible, he explains, “I charge myself money for words I know cost me a lot -- and the most expensive words are negative ones. I charge myself $500 for each one. Before I speak negative words -- words of criticism to a friend or a client, bitter or angry words, or just words that could come across as complaining -- I remind myself that those words cost 500 bucks each.”
When tempted to use harsh words he counts the cost, noting that “a sentence like ‘you’re an idiot’ or ‘I don’t want to do that’ could practically buy me a vacation to Maui. When I think about it this way, I use these words very sparingly. When I find myself tempted to waste my negative words on a circumstance that doesn’t really deserve them, I pause for a minute. I take myself to that mental place where I’m rocking in a hammock, tied between two palm trees, listening to the sounds of ocean as it sloshes into shore. And I choose my words more carefully.”
*****
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
The Happiest Words
“What comes out of the mouth comes from the heart,” Jesus says. Our words come from our hearts, and they can be filled with happiness, dread, encouragement, or sorrow. Researchers who study words tried to determine the happiest words in the English language, and they reveal that the happiest word is “laughter.” The least happy: “terrorist.” The least happy words, working up from the bottom, are: “terrorist, suicide, rape, terrorism, murder, death, cancer, killed, kill, died, torture, raped, deaths, arrested, killing...” The happiest words, starting at the top, are: “laughter, happiness, love, happy, laughed, laugh, laughing, excellent, laughs, joy, successful, win, rainbow, smile, won, pleasure, smiled, rainbows, winning, celebration, enjoyed, healthy, music, celebrating, congratulations, weekend, celebrate, comedy, jokes, rich, victory, Christmas, free, friendship, fun, holidays, loved, loves, loving, beach...” What comes out of our mouths can uplift, or bring down. Our words can add to the joy and peace in the world, or fracture them further.
*****
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
Adding Words
Most of us use the same several hundred words in our ordinary conversations -- the same set of words comes out of our mouths most days. But William Shakespeare is credited with not just a gift for drama, but also with shaping the English language through his plays. He helped standardize spelling and grammar, and added to the language. “Among Shakespeare’s greatest contributions to the English language must be the introduction of new vocabulary and phrases which have enriched the language, making it more colorful and expressive. Some estimates at the number of words coined by Shakespeare number in the several thousands. Warren King clarifies by saying that ‘In all of his work -- the plays, the sonnets, and the narrative poems -- Shakespeare uses 17,677 words. Of those, 1,700 were first used by Shakespeare.’ ”
*****
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
Words as Action
The words that come out of our mouths can defile us or redeem us, Jesus says. Poet Marie Howe says words are an important form of activity in the world. She says that words are more than words, having a force of their own, adding that “language is almost all we have left of action in the modern world. I mean, unless we’re in Syria or we’re in Iraq. But for many of us, action has become what we say. The moral life is lived out in what we say more often than what we do.”
Howe says that words join us to other people. She remembers “the day I said to my daughter for the first and maybe only time when she was 4 years old -- I remember where I was standing in Austin, Texas, making her bed. And she said, ‘Why do I have to do it?’ And I said, ‘Because I said so.’ And I turned around, and there they all were again. There were like millions of people going [claps] ‘Yeah, we said it too.’ And I’m like, ‘Hi, everybody. I just joined you.’ And they were like, ‘Welcome.’ I was so glad to be with them.”
Words are part of our shared experience, joining us to the great cloud of witnesses who use the same words.
*****
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
Incredible Faith
The mother who approaches Jesus to ask him to heal her daughter has a tremendous amount of faith in a stranger, and a foreigner, to believe that he can make her daughter well. She doesn’t see the limits that Jesus sees. Caroline Casey has a similar kind of impossible faith in her own life. In a TED talk, Casey recalls how her life changed on her 17th birthday.
“I accompanied my little sister in complete innocence, as I always had all my life -- my visually impaired sister -- to go to see an eye specialist. Because big sisters are always supposed to support their little sisters.... So I used to get my eyes tested just for fun. And on my 17th birthday, after my fake eye exam, the eye specialist just noticed it happened to be my birthday. And he said, ‘So what are you going to do to celebrate?’ And I took that driving lesson, and I said, ‘I’m going to learn how to drive.’ And then there was a silence -- one of those awful silences when you know something’s wrong. And he turned to my mother, and he said, ‘You haven’t told her yet?’ On my 17th birthday,” she says, she learned the truth. “I am, and have been since birth, legally blind.”
Her parents made a decision not to tell her that she was legally blind. As she recalls, “my parents made a bizarre, unusual, and incredibly brave decision. No special needs schools. No labels. No limitations. My ability and my potential. And they decided to tell me that I could see. So just like Johnny Cash’s Sue, a boy given a girl’s name, I would grow up and learn from experience how to be tough and how to survive, when they were no longer there to protect me, or just take it all away. But more significantly, they gave me the ability to believe, totally, to believe that I could.”
She adds: “And with the same dogged determination that my father had bred into me since I was such a child -- he taught me how to sail, knowing I could never see where I was going, I could never see the shore, and I couldn’t see the sails, and I couldn’t see the destination. But he told me to believe and feel the wind in my face.... I rammed through life as only a Casey can do. And I was an archeologist, and then I broke things. And then I managed a restaurant, and then I slipped on things. And then I was a masseuse. And then I was a landscape gardener. And then I went to business school. And you know, disabled people are hugely educated. And then I went in and I got a global consulting job with Accenture. And they didn’t even know. And it’s extraordinary how far belief can take you.”
When things fell apart for her, she thought about her next adventure. A few months later “I had the only blind date in my life with a seven-and-a-half-foot elephant called Kanchi. And together we would trek a thousand kilometers across India.... And you know what, that trip, that thousand kilometers, it raised enough money for 6,000 cataract eye operations. Six thousand people got to see because of that.” Out of her outrageous faith came a nonprofit organization, and the chance to make a difference for people in the world.
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From team member Ron Love:
Genesis 45:1-15
People magazine recently interviewed Halle Berry regarding her upcoming movie Kidnap and other aspects of her current life situation. When asked what she is learning, Berry replied that after her third divorce she is learning “That I can be alone.” She went on to say: “Don’t be afraid living unhappy. It’s teaching me. Don’t be afraid about what people will think about the choices you make. We have to live for ourselves.”
Application: Joseph had to learn to live with his fears.
*****
Genesis 45:1-15
Each week People magazine runs a feature titled “Why I Care.” Recently the column interviewed actress Connie Nielsen. She said that when she was making the movie Lost in Africa in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya, she discovered those who were acting as cast members “were living in dire need.” She realized then that “I had to do something about it.” That is when Nielsen started the Human Needs Project. The project consisted of a community center where individuals had access to water, showers, laundry, computers, and the internet. Connie Nielsen said that worldwide there are 1 billion people in poverty who need access to such facilities.
Application: Joseph taught us that there are no limits on doing good.
*****
Genesis 45:1-15
Each week People magazine runs a feature titled “Heroes Among Us.” Recently the magazine discussed the community involvement of pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha. When Dr. Hanna-Attisha noticed a higher than normal concentration of lead in her patients, she went on to investigate the reason for this. Along with others, she discovered that when the city of Flint, Michigan, switched their water supply from Detroit’s water system to the Flint River in order to save money, the pipes carrying the water were contaminated. Hanna-Attisha, 46, said: “When I saw this data, my focus became the kids of Flint and their tomorrow. I rolled up my sleeves because we owe it to them.”
Application: Joseph taught us that there are no limits on doing good.
*****
Genesis 45:1-15
Michelle Carter has just been sentenced to 15 months in jail for enticing her 18-year-old boyfriend Conrad Roy III to commit suicide. In thousands of text messages she encouraged Conrad to take his own life. The most condemning of all her text messages was when Conrad was in a pickup truck equipped to be filled with carbon monoxide gas and he got out. Michelle ordered him back into the truck, which Conrad did and soon died. In pronouncing sentence, judge Lawrence Moniz said that Michelle had many chances to save Conrad but “She did nothing. She did not call the police or his family. She didn’t issue a simple additional instruction: ‘Get out of the truck.’ ”
Application: It is difficult to understand why people are so callous to the lives of others.
*****
Genesis 45:1-15
Five-time Grand Slam winner and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Maria Sharapova recently published her memoir, titled Unstoppable: My Life So Far. At the age of 17 Sharapova stunned the world when she was able to beat Serena Williams at Wimbledon. Serena was smiling at the net in the traditional post-match handshake, but Sharapova knew that Serena was not smiling inside. In the locker room Maria heard Serena bawling with guttural sobs. When Maria was asked why she could never beat Serena again, she says it was because she could not forget her wailing in the locker room.
Application: Interpersonal relationships have a long-term effect on us.
*****
Isaiah 56:1, 6-8
Five-time Grand Slam winner and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Maria Sharapova recently published her memoir, titled Unstoppable: My Life So Far. Sharapova was sanctioned from playing tennis for 15 months for taking the performance-enhancing drug meldonium. Sharapova claims that she was unaware the drug, which she had been taking for years, had been placed on the list of prohibited substances. Of the experience Sharapova said: “It’s probably the toughest thing any athlete can go through.” But she prevailed and was able to continue her tennis career after she completed her punishment.
Application: Isaiah warns us that there will be justice.
*****
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
In the Middle Ages, a person with leprosy would be brought into the church and a funeral service would be conducted. At the conclusion of the sacramental act the penitent would be sent out of the church wearing a black robe to live as if already dead. Forbidden to reenter the church, the sanctuary walls had “squint” holes so sabbath worship could be observed while being outside.
Application: Paul instructs us to receive all individuals with mercy. Today, I wonder, through ignorance or prejudice, by apathy or enmity, how many people do we consign to live as if dead?
*****
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
Sitting at home in the small impoverished Pennsylvania coal town, I watched the 57th Academy Awards ceremony. Standing at the podium with Oscar in hand for best actress as Edna Spalding in Places in the Heart, Sally Field looked radiant. It was her second Oscar; the first was for her starring role in Norma Rae. Beaming before the audience was the starlet who possessed it all: career notoriety, beauty, fame, and wealth. But as Sally Field soared before a world audience, all were unaware of an actress who had a disenfranchised ego lurking beneath the facade of success. This realization came thundering forth in her acceptance speech when she confessed: “I can’t deny the fact you like me. Right now, you like me!” This line has become immortalized, for it reveals the unseen demons that lurk within all our psyches. All that was considered the marquee of success paled for sought adulation -- the touch of affirmation -- from one’s own peers.
Application: Paul instructs us to receive all individuals with mercy. They must be understood and accepted.
*****
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
People magazine recently interviewed Halle Berry regarding her upcoming movie Kidnap and other aspects of her current life situation. The interviewer, Jess Cagle, observed that the movie allowed Berry to let “loose her inner mama bear.” Berry replied to that statement: “A regular ordinary mom finds the superpower inside herself and saves the day. At the end you feel like, ‘Wow... don’t mess with Mom!’ ”
Application: Jesus instructs us to act with courage and strength, and if we are versed in his teachings that will almost come instinctively.
*****
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
People magazine recently ran a lengthy article titled “Faces of an Epidemic.” The article pictured the faces of 130 individuals who have already died this year from an overdose of opioids. The faces were of individuals from all socioeconomic strata of life. There were many heart-wrenching interviews and sober recollections by health-care professionals. Bill Schmincke, who watched his son Steven die, said: “Once the stuff gets a hold of you, it doesn’t let go.” Bill Schmincke and his wife Tammy went on to say, “They’re in the grasp of a demon.” In order to do their part in helping others, the couple started the nonprofit Stop the Heroin.
Application: People need to listen and understand.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: May God be gracious to us and bless us.
People: May God’s face always shine upon us.
Leader: Let the peoples praise you, O God.
People: Let all the peoples praise you.
Leader: May God continue to bless us.
People: Let all the ends of the earth revere our God.
OR
Leader: Let us listen for a word from God today.
People: We open our ears and hearts to God’s voice.
Leader: The Word of God is powerful and gracious.
People: May the Word of God transform and empower us!
Leader: Share the words of God’s grace with all God’s people.
People: With joy we will share God’s Word and love with all.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing”
found in:
UMH: 57, 58, 59
H82: 493
PH: 466
AAHH: 184
NNBH: 23
NCH: 42
CH: 5
LBW: 559
ELA: 886
W&P: 96
AMEC: 1, 2
Renew: 32
“When in Our Music God Is Glorified”
found in:
UMH: 68
H82: 420
PH: 264
AAHH: 112
NCH: 561
CH: 7
LBW: 555
ELA: 850, 851
W&P: 7
STLT: 36
Renew: 62
“God Hath Spoken by the Prophets”
found in:
UMH: 108
LBW: 238
W&P: 667
“Let There Be Peace on Earth”
found in:
UMH: 431
CH: 677
W&P: 614
“This Is My Song”
found in:
UMH: 437
NCH: 591
CH: 722
ELA: 887
STLT: 159
“Open My Eyes, That I May See” (especially v. 3)
found in:
UMH: 454
PH: 324
NNBH: 218
CH: 586
W&P: 480
AMEC: 285
“Lord, Speak to Me”
found in:
UMH: 463
PH: 426
NCH: 531
ELA: 676
W&P: 593
“Like the Murmur of the Dove’s Song”
found in:
UMH: 544
H82: 513
PH: 314
NCH: 270
CH: 245
ELA: 403
W&P: 327
Renew: 280
“From the Rising of the Sun”
found in:
CCB: 4
“I Will Call upon the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 9
Renew: 15
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who spoke creation into being: Give us the wisdom to know the power of our words
so that we may refrain from hurting others and share blessings instead; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We bless you, O God, for you created all that is with a word from your mouth. Help us to learn the power of our words so that we can heal instead of harm, and bless instead of curse. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to understand the power of our own words.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. Too often we speak without thinking and allow ourselves to say things that hurt other people. We criticize when we don’t need to, and we fail to compliment when we could. We misuse the power of our words in ways that are hurtful to your children, O God. Help us to bridle our tongues so that we do not harm others. Help us to use our words to build up and empower others. Amen.
Leader: God speaks in tones of love and grace. God wants us to mirror that in our speech. Receive the power of God’s Spirit to speak words of love for God.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise and adore you, O God, for by your word creation came into being. You spoke and the power of your words set in motion the wonders of creation which continue even to this day and beyond.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. Too often we speak without thinking and allow ourselves to say things that hurt other people. We criticize when we don’t need to, and we fail to compliment when we could. We misuse the power of our words in ways that are hurtful to your children, O God. Help us to bridle our tongues so that we do not harm others. Help us to use our words to build up and empower others.
We give you thanks for the gift of speech and hearing that allows us to communicate with one another. We thank you for those who have spoken words of grace and hope to us and taught us of your love. We thank you for the opportunities we have to speak to others as your voice.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who are abused by words. We know there is great power in words and they can beat people down. Help us to repair some of the damage by always speaking words of grace and love.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Talk about the power of words. You might use the old saying “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” (or not). Ask the children if anyone has ever called them names or said mean things to them. How did that feel? What does it feel like when someone says nice things about you? When they say you did a good job? Words are powerful -- they can make us feel good or feel bad. When we use kind words and help people feel good about themselves, we are spreading God’s love.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
The Power of Words
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Matthew 15:10-20
(Gather the children and welcome them. If you are able, try to give a positive or complementing message to each child that is gathered with you.)
Our gospel message today reminds me of a line my friends and I were taught when we were children. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!”
Have you ever heard this line? What do you think it means? (Receive the children’s responses.)
I often struggle with this line -- I don’t think it’s really true. Sure, sticks and stones might break my bones. But words can hurt too. People call each other bad names or mean names. People tell lies to one another. Or even worse, people can tell lies about one another -- spreading rumors that aren’t true.
Words can hurt. The hurt that is made by words hurts us inside -- words can hurt feelings, they can hurt how we see ourselves. Words can hurt friendships. Words can start fights!
Have you ever had someone’s words hurt you? Have your words ever hurt someone else? (Pause to allow the children to respond.)
I’m sad to say... it’s pretty common to have someone’s words hurt us, and to hurt another person with our words.
I did a little research for my talk with you today. I found out that it takes five positive messages to undo one negative message. Five! That means if one person says something mean to you, it will take five nice messages for you to feel good again. The tough part is: the mean message never really goes away. Somehow, we seem to remember the hurtful messages more than we remember the nice messages.
So what do we do?
Do we hold on to that old line: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!”
Do we try to think about what we say before we say it... and try to say nice things?
Do we say “I’m sorry” to someone if we say mean words, or if we share gossip about them? (And say “I’m sorry” to God too!)
(Pause to allow the children to respond.)
In our gospel lesson today, Jesus says: “It’s not what goes into someone’s mouth that hurts a person; it’s what comes out of the mouth. What comes out of the mouth comes from the heart.” If what comes out of your mouth are mean words or hurtful words, you’re probably holding mean things in your heart too.
Be careful about the words you say, about what comes out of your mouth. Know that words can hurt.
Let’s share a prayer together.
Prayer: O Holy God, you know what’s in our hearts -- you know if we are sad or angry or hurt or feeling mean. You love us, no matter what. Help us to guard our words and be careful about what we say, for we know that our words can hurt. Forgive us when we hurt one another. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, August 20, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on the lectionary readings and the way we can misinterpret the words of scripture by looking too closely at individual statements rather than the Bible’s larger themes. As one example of this, Dean cites the recent statements of Robert Jeffress, a prominent pastor who maintains that scripture (specifically Romans 13) gives President Trump the authority to do whatever it takes to remove “evildoers” like Kim Jong-Un -- even if that means war. That seems to contrast sharply, Dean suggests, with the larger themes of love, forgiveness, acceptance, and reconciliation that Jesus returns to again and again in scripture.
The Double-Dog Dare Days of August
by Chris Keating
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
August’s lazy, hazy dog days quickly became a deadly double-dog dare contest between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un, the supreme leader of North Korea. Both nations have been at odds with each other for nearly 70 years. During his working golf vacation in New Jersey last week, President Trump responded to North Korea’s rhetorical sword-rattling by launching a verbal preemptive strike of his own.
Call it the Bedminster bombast, or the putt that rocked Pyongyang. But the duel between the two countries is more than fodder for late-night comedians. It’s a deadly standoff with history-changing repercussions.
Whatever the intent of the two leaders, it got the world’s attention. In Guam, a U.S. territory cited as a potential target, government officials began prepping residents for nuclear war with pamphlets on surviving an attack. Tips included taking shelter, taking off your clothes, and taking a shower.
The Cold War-era rhetoric has been edging up lately following North Korea’s increasing deployment of missiles. Its nuclear capabilities are confirmed, and have prompted rebukes from neighboring countries as well as sanctions by the United Nations. Any further provocations by North Korea, President Trump has said, would lead to “things they never thought possible,” including an onslaught of “fire and fury.” Pyongyang retaliated by issuing its own apocalyptic-sounding threats to turn Seoul into a lake of fire while bringing the “final ruin” upon the United States.
There is no vacation from matters of national security, or the orations of war. Indeed, much of the war of words between Washington and North Korea seems to confirm Jesus’ counsel in Matthew: “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” The contrasts between these barbed exchanges and the biblical understanding of peacemaking offers an intriguing opportunity to hear Jesus’ words in a world filled with double-dog (and even triple-dog) dares.
In the News
It’s summertime, and the living is uneasy. When the United Nations approved hefty sanctions against North Korea, it seemed leaders of both countries cried “Game on!”
Following the U.N. security council’s vote to place tough sanctions on North Korea for continuing to test intercontinental missiles, President Trump declared that North Korea had better get in line -- or else. The ink was barely dry on the sanctions -- which halt North Korea from exporting key commodities -- before the president took time away from his vacation to stake out his ground.
President Trump began by declaring any aggression from North Korea would be met with “fire and fury the likes the world has never seen.” Then upon reflection, the president qualified his remarks a bit. Perhaps he hadn’t been tough enough. Not to be outdone, Kim Jong-Un’s regime called Trump’s remarks utter nonsense, and then suggested that the president is senile and overly concerned with his golf game. So there. Their next response was to suggest they would be turning the U.S. territory of Guam into an apocalyptic puddle of red-hot brimstone.
Maureen Dowd cheekily noted that the standoff between Washington and Pyongyang feels a bit like “a couple of chubby brats with big missiles and short fuses.” Watching Trump and Kim Jong-Un trade jabs at each other, said Dowd, can feel particularly frightening because of their similarities:
They’re both spoiled scions who surpassed less ruthless older brothers to join their authoritarian fathers in the family business. They both make strange fashion statements with their hair and enjoy bullying and hyperbole. They both love military parades, expect “Dear Leader” displays of fawning, and favor McDonald’s and Madonna.
Both leaders seem to be crafting their word battles with precision as a way of garnering tactical advantage. For Kim, bluster is his primary interface with the rest of the world. Likewise, Trump, who also deployed his verbal artillery to pummel Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and to suggest he was thinking about sending troops into Venezuela’s political chaos, also seems to harbor no aversions to hurling barbed epithets as a show of force.
Not one to walk back his words, President Trump lobbed another volley toward Kim by indicating that his tone wasn’t tough enough. As Guam’s residents began prepping for a nuclear attack, the president’s staff hit the streets as an attempt to assure Americans war was far from imminent. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mathis both pushed for a diplomatic resolution.
Despite this, it’s hard imagining Trump and Kim sitting down to a Mickey D’s summit anytime soon, hashing out nuclear treaties over Big Macs and fries. At least they could get separate checks. Jesus reminds us, however, that it is not what goes into a person that defiles but what comes out. And it is these intentions that have other world leaders concerned.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel believes the tense rhetoric is the wrong path to pursue, saying that she doesn’t see a military solution as an option. The United Kingdom’s First Secretary of State Damian Green concurs, saying that Trump must be “sensible” by exhausting remedies from the United Nations first.
It’s possible that Kim sees himself benefiting from this skirmish. North Koreans, trained from an early age to see Americans as vicious murderers, will rally around him -- not that they have much choice in the matter. It is also entirely possible, suggests Jean H. Lee, that Trump might also see the blather blitz as tipping public opinion in his favor by distracting Americans from his other issues.
The other day New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd took to history to offer a dispiriting, though poignant, reflection on the standoff. She mentions Theodore Sorensen’s chronicling of President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis. Kennedy was struck by a reference in Barbara Tuchman’s book The Guns of August regarding a conversation between two German leaders on the spark that ignited World War I. Tuchman writes that a German chancellor asked his successor “How did it all happen?” His successor replied, “Ah, if only one knew.” Dowd continues by recalling JFK as saying: “If this planet is ever ravaged by nuclear war -- if the survivors of that devastation can then endure the fire, poison, chaos, and catastrophe -- I do not want one of these survivors to ask another ‘How did it all happen?’ and to receive the incredible reply: ‘Ah, if only one knew.’ ”
This August, as the cicadas begin their final choruses, the insects’ perpetually annoying mating calls might be welcome relief from the doubling-down dares and taunts coming from leaders who frequently sound less diplomatic and more like Yosemite Sam chasing Bugs Bunny.
In the Scriptures
Ah, the days of summer. The challenge of this text is to allow it, in all of its messiness, to resonate with listeners who are preoccupied with back-to-school and squeezing in one last camping trip.
While the editors of the lectionary have bracketed verses 10-20 from rest of the chapter, the parenthetical verses add a critical dimension to Jesus’ otherwise awkward encounter with the Canaanite woman (vv. 21-28). Tracing the edge of this pericope back to the beginning of chapter 15 provides even more context.
Jesus, in 15:1-9, is confronted by Pharisees and scribes about his disciples’ failure to abide by traditional hand-washing rites. Jesus pushes back, urging the Pharisees and scribes to see that they have elevated aspects of tradition over Torah. Turning to Isaiah, he calls the religious folks hypocrites who pay homage to God with their lips -- but not with their worship.
It’s a point he continues to make in verses 10 and following. Jesus reinterprets the meaning of “clean” and “unclean” for the crowd. It’s unsettling to the Pharisees, whom Jesus calls “blind guides of the blind.” What really matters is what is in one’s heart -- this is what defiles a person. Yet the disciples seem confused -- perhaps even dense. Exasperated, Jesus employs a rather graphic illustration straight from the pages of a middle-school lunchroom. It is as if he is saying, “Look, what you eat goes straight through you and you know what happens next. It’s just waste product.”
It’s what is in the heart that matters. Jesus gets a taste of his own words in the concluding section (vv. 21-28), as he encounters a foreign woman who comes pleading for her ill daughter. What comes out of this woman’s heart is faith, hope, and love for her daughter. Despite being “unclean,” her heart is pure.
Yet Jesus is indifferent to her pleas. It is an extraordinary -- and demanding -- passage. Jesus tries to dismiss the woman, and perhaps even swears at her. His language is rough and coarse. This is not the welcoming Jesus who shows up in our sermons on grace and inclusion. As professor Mitzi J. Smith notes, the Canaanite woman is like so many other women both before and after her. She persists, she leans into the male-dominated sphere of Jesus’ inner circle. This anonymous woman’s voice could have been lost. Even Jesus tries to push her away, but still she persists. Suddenly, as Matthew has framed this story, we see how the many strands of this text become threaded together.
I wonder if Jesus’ mother would have snapped her fingers at her son’s disquieting rebuke of the woman. He sees the unnamed woman’s great faith, and suddenly everyone understands the parable he has just spoken. “For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander...”
In the Sermon
Words matter. Just ask Senator John McCain. In the 2000 presidential campaign, McCain suffered a brutal loss in the South Carolina GOP primary following a dirty-tricks campaign that suggested he had fathered a black child out of wedlock (he was campaigning with his daughter Bridget, who is adopted from Bangladesh). Fast forward to the 2016 campaign, where Donald Trump said that the former prisoner of war and Republican presidential nominee wasn’t actually a true American hero because he had been captured.
Yet when it came time to vote this year on the so-called “skinny” repeal of Obamacare, the senator from Arizona knew that what matters is not what comes out of the mouth -- lengthy speeches, provocative tweets, stinging soundbites -- but what comes from the heart. Without saying a word, McCain brought the message down with his now-famous thumbs-down gesture.
“It was the right thing to do,” he said later.
The point here is not to pit one politician against another, but to highlight the debilitating and defiling words which we too often employ in our encounters with people who are different from us.
Words do indeed matter. Swagger and bluff, braggadocio and rapier-pointed barbs may be hurled toward us like cruise missiles, but what truly matters are matters of the heart. Time will tell whether the barrage of words exchanged between the leaders of North Korea and the United States will launch military actions, or whether they will encourage peace. Right now, it’s a nuclear-charged gambit.
Worrying about how things will turn out, however, misses the larger point regarding how followers of Jesus are called to pursue the things that make for peace. Christian understandings of peacemaking could inform a conversation on this text, particularly in relationship to Jesus’ embrace of the foreign woman and his curing of her daughter. She persists, and Jesus persists too, in seeking first the kingdom of God.
A sermon arising from this text proclaims the truth that our mouths can be deadly weapons. They can be launching systems for bombs that destroy others. Hurtful, hate-filled words are released into the air and land with precision, destroying another’s heart. But that is just one example. Too often blather bombs lead to real bombs that kill both the body and the spirit. Jesus reminds us that the toxins we hurl at others will eventually defile our lives as well. We will become victims of the hate we spew.
This text offers numerous connections to our lives today, including the horror experienced in Charlottesville, Virginia, this past weekend, the tense state of relations between the United States and North Korea, or any other place where invective is used to harass others. Jesus’ words, and his subsequent encounter with the woman, point to the higher righteousness he proclaimed earlier in the Sermon on the Mount.
Accepting the call to discipleship means allowing Christ to transform our entire way of speaking and living. The encounter with the faith-filled Canaanite woman offers an example of one whose heart is undefiled, and is a reminder of how goodness persists.
A final caution: the preacher who understands it is what comes out of our mouths that defile us will understand that Jesus isn’t just talking about how our stomachs react to the bit of greasy sausage we ate for breakfast Sunday morning before preaching. Instead, a preacher will point to how words can shape communities, how the heart can create spaces for peace, and how great our faith will be when we persist in seeking first the kingdom of God.
SECOND THOUGHTS
A Tapestry of Love
by Dean Feldmeyer
Genesis 45:1-15; Psalm 133; Isaiah 56:1, 6-8; Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
The British-produced Welsh police procedural television drama Hinterland begins each week with the credits running over a montage of extreme closeups that are more than a little off-putting and even a little bit, well, gross. After seeing these images a few times, however, the viewer begins to realize that as sinister as they seem up close, they are actually just harmless, everyday junk.
When the camera backs away and we see the objects in their context, we observe that one is a rusty door hinge, another is an old wasp nest, a third is a child’s tooth, and another is a seed pod.
They are the same things we have seen before, only now we see and maybe even define them differently because we see them from a perspective that allows us to take them in their proper context.
Our study and examination of scripture often fails due to a malady that I call the micro-focus. We take a few verses and we dissect them and examine them and try to squeeze as much meaning and application as we can get out of them, but the answers we discover seem simplistic or they run counter to other things we have read in and about the Bible, and we wonder why we have run dry so early in our exploration.
There is another way of looking at scripture, however, and it is what I call that of “macro-focus.” That is, we step back from the text so we can see it in all its surroundings. Passages of scripture which seem to mean one thing when taken by themselves can often mean something completely different when we use a macro-focus that lets us see them in their historic and literary context.
In the Scriptures
This week’s readings, if we are to take them at all seriously, must be taken not just in their individual contexts but in their literary context as well. That is, they need to be seen in the light of all the other things that have been written in the Bible.
Each passage is about love, forgiveness, and/or reconciliation.
In Genesis, Joseph, after toying with his brothers for a short while, finally reveals his true identity to them, forgives them for the shabby way they treated him, points out that thanks to God everything has worked out for the best, and then “he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him” (v. 15).
In Psalm 133 the psalmist reminds us how “very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity,” forming a footnote or commentary upon the story we have just read in Genesis.
Isaiah gives his readers a mini-sermon on inclusion and acceptance since God accepts not just Jews but Gentiles as well, and he declares the temple to be a “house of prayer for all peoples.” And then God shares the plan to gather “the outcasts of Israel” and “others... besides those already gathered.”
And finally, in Matthew’s gospel we hear about Jesus, who was sent as a savior for the Jews, enlarging his mission at the behest of a Gentile woman who is so desperate for her dying daughter that she is willing to go to a Jewish rabbi and ask him for a miracle.
In every passage we see the common threads of forgiveness, acceptance, and reconciliation being woven together into a beautiful tapestry of love.
And it doesn’t stop with these four passages.
The word “love” appears in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible 488 times, and the word “forgive” appears 58 times. But do not only a word search but also a topical search of scripture and we find that the topics of love, forgiveness, reconciliation, grace are addressed more than 600 times.
This is not just a trend, my friends. It is a juggernaut. The very real and undeniable fact is that scripture, as a whole, moves inexorably in the direction of love.
There are those persons, however -- persons who call themselves Christians and even pastors -- who would not have us believe this.
In the News
Back when President Donald Trump was still “presumptive Republican nominee” Trump, he invited about 25 fundamentalist and evangelical Christians to serve as his “evangelical advisory council” -- and most if not all of them still serve in that capacity.
The implication of this seems to be that all Christian evangelicals back Trump and support his policies. That, of course, is not the case. Many do not -- Max Lucado, Jim Wallis, Peter Wehner, and Eric Teetsel among them. Be that as it may, however, he is still getting advice from some who many consider to be prominent evangelical pastors and leaders, one of which has been lately in the news.
Robert James Jeffress Jr. is a Southern Baptist pastor, author, and radio and television host. Jeffress hosts the weekly television program Pathway to Victory, which he claims is broadcast on 11,295 cable and satellite systems in 195 countries. He also has a daily Pathway to Victory radio program, heard on over 900 stations in the United States. He is the pastor of the 13,000-member First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas.
While a pastor in Wichita Falls in 1998, Jeffress sought to have two children’s books about children with gay or lesbian parents removed from the public library by checking out the books and paying for them rather than returning them to be recirculated.
In October 2011, he provoked a national controversy when he introduced former Texas governor Rick Perry at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, DC, by indicating that one of Perry’s rivals for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney (a Mormon), was opposed to Christianity.
Lately, he has been quoted as saying that “When it comes to how we should deal with evildoers, the Bible, in the book of Romans, is very clear: God has endowed rulers full power to use whatever means necessary -- including war -- to stop evil.” He adds that “In the case of North Korea, God has given [President] Trump authority to take out Kim Jong-Un.”
He says that he was prompted to make the statement after Trump said that if North Korea’s threats to the United States continue, Pyongyang will be “met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”
Jeffress believes that Romans 13 gives the government authority to deal with evildoers. “That gives the government... the authority to do whatever, whether it’s assassination, capital punishment, or evil punishment to quell the actions of evildoers like Kim Jong-Un,” he said.
Amy Black, a political science professor at Wheaton College (an evangelical institution in Illinois), isn’t so sure, however. She would remind us that theologians and church leaders have debated the interpretation of Romans 13 for millennia. Most mainstream interpretations of the passage, she said, would suggest that God works through governmental leaders, but ultimate authority comes from God.
Paul was writing to the Romans in a place and time where there was only one government and one political leader, and that was Caesar. He would not have imagined that his words could be applied to other political leaders as well. What if the political leader was Adolf Hitler? Would Christians be compelled by Romans 13 to obey him? What if the political leader was Chairman Mao, or Idi Amin or, well, Kim Jong-Un?
“If anything,” Black says, “Romans 13 creates a conundrum, because it could be interpreted that Kim Jong-Un has authority to govern.”
Jeffress’ error is that of micro-focus, sometimes referred to as cherry-picking or proof-texting. He has found a piece of scripture and interpreted the verses to support his own point of view, completely disregarding their historical and literary context as well as the contemporary context to which he is trying to apply them.
Paul’s words in Romans 13 were written to the Christians in the Roman church, whom Paul had never visited or met. A few years before this letter (49 CE) the emperor Claudius had expelled all Jews from the city of Rome because of the civil unrest that was being created between orthodox Jews and Christian Jews over who was more authentically Jewish and who should control the synagogues. When Claudius died in 54 CE, the edict expelling the Jews lapsed and they began returning to the city. In the intervening five years, however, the Christian churches had become almost totally Gentile in their rituals and practices -- and this caused no small amount of tension between the Gentile church leaders and the returning Jewish Christians.
Paul wrote the epistle to the Romans to introduce himself and his theology to the Christians, a theology of love, reconciliation, and salvation “to the Jews first and also to the Greek” (1:16). If the Christians of Rome would take Paul’s words seriously they would avoid the kinds of conflicts that had prompted Claudius’ purge of 49 and live together in peace. That is the historical context.
The literary context of the few verses in Romans 13:1-7 finds them sandwiched between Romans 12 -- which calls for Christians to “let love be genuine” and “Bless those who persecute you” and “Do not repay evil for evil” -- and Romans 13:8ff, which calls on Christians to “Owe no one anything but to love one another.”
Romans 13:1-7 is a coda in the ongoing symphony of love and charity which makes up the totality of the biblical narrative. It must not, indeed it cannot, be responsibly interpreted in any way that contradicts that story, that rents the beautiful tapestry of love that is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In the Sermon
I can add nothing more to this commentary, so I will let another evangelical -- some say fundamentalist -- preacher speak the closing lines.
This is Billy Graham in a 1979 interview in Sojourners magazine:
Sojourners: How does your commitment to the lordship of Christ shape your response to the nuclear threat?
Graham: I am not sure I have thought through all the implications of Christ’s lordship for this issue -- I have to be honest about that. But for the Christian there is -- or at least should be -- only one question: What is the will of God? What is his will both for this world and for me in regard to this issue? Let me suggest several things.
First, the lordship of Christ reminds me that we live in a sinful world. The cross teaches me that. Like a drop of ink in a glass of water, sin has permeated everything -- the individual, society, creation. That is one reason why the nuclear issue is not just a political issue -- it is a moral and spiritual issue as well. And because we live in a sinful world it means we have to take something like nuclear armaments seriously. We know the terrible violence of which the human heart is capable.
Secondly, the lordship of Jesus Christ tells me that God is not interested in destruction, but in redemption. Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to reverse the effects of the Fall. Now, I know there are mysteries to the workings of God. I know God is sovereign and sometimes he permits things to happen which are evil, and he even causes the wrath of man to praise him. But I cannot see any way in which nuclear war could be branded as being God’s will. Such warfare, if it ever happens, will come because of the greed and pride and covetousness of the human heart. But God’s will is to establish his kingdom, in which Christ is lord.
Third, of course, Christ calls us to love, and that is the critical test of discipleship. Love is not a vague feeling or an abstract idea. When I love someone, I seek what is best for them. If I begin to take the love of Christ seriously, then I will work toward what is best for my neighbor. I will seek to bind up the wounds and bring about healing, no matter what the cost may be.
Therefore, I believe that the Christian especially has a responsibility to work for peace in our world.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
Words That Defile
Jesus tells the crowd listening to him to listen and understand. “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” Understanding that principle, attorney and Christian author Bob Goff poses the question “How much are our words worth?”
Goff says he fines himself a considerable amount of money when he uses negative or unkind words. “I used to think the words I used didn’t really matter that much,” he says, “but the older I get, the more I see how certain words just cost me so much more than others. It’s not a monetary cost -- it’s a spiritual or relational cost. But in order to make the intangible cost feel tangible, I prescribe a monetary cost to my words.” To make the cost tangible, he explains, “I charge myself money for words I know cost me a lot -- and the most expensive words are negative ones. I charge myself $500 for each one. Before I speak negative words -- words of criticism to a friend or a client, bitter or angry words, or just words that could come across as complaining -- I remind myself that those words cost 500 bucks each.”
When tempted to use harsh words he counts the cost, noting that “a sentence like ‘you’re an idiot’ or ‘I don’t want to do that’ could practically buy me a vacation to Maui. When I think about it this way, I use these words very sparingly. When I find myself tempted to waste my negative words on a circumstance that doesn’t really deserve them, I pause for a minute. I take myself to that mental place where I’m rocking in a hammock, tied between two palm trees, listening to the sounds of ocean as it sloshes into shore. And I choose my words more carefully.”
*****
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
The Happiest Words
“What comes out of the mouth comes from the heart,” Jesus says. Our words come from our hearts, and they can be filled with happiness, dread, encouragement, or sorrow. Researchers who study words tried to determine the happiest words in the English language, and they reveal that the happiest word is “laughter.” The least happy: “terrorist.” The least happy words, working up from the bottom, are: “terrorist, suicide, rape, terrorism, murder, death, cancer, killed, kill, died, torture, raped, deaths, arrested, killing...” The happiest words, starting at the top, are: “laughter, happiness, love, happy, laughed, laugh, laughing, excellent, laughs, joy, successful, win, rainbow, smile, won, pleasure, smiled, rainbows, winning, celebration, enjoyed, healthy, music, celebrating, congratulations, weekend, celebrate, comedy, jokes, rich, victory, Christmas, free, friendship, fun, holidays, loved, loves, loving, beach...” What comes out of our mouths can uplift, or bring down. Our words can add to the joy and peace in the world, or fracture them further.
*****
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
Adding Words
Most of us use the same several hundred words in our ordinary conversations -- the same set of words comes out of our mouths most days. But William Shakespeare is credited with not just a gift for drama, but also with shaping the English language through his plays. He helped standardize spelling and grammar, and added to the language. “Among Shakespeare’s greatest contributions to the English language must be the introduction of new vocabulary and phrases which have enriched the language, making it more colorful and expressive. Some estimates at the number of words coined by Shakespeare number in the several thousands. Warren King clarifies by saying that ‘In all of his work -- the plays, the sonnets, and the narrative poems -- Shakespeare uses 17,677 words. Of those, 1,700 were first used by Shakespeare.’ ”
*****
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
Words as Action
The words that come out of our mouths can defile us or redeem us, Jesus says. Poet Marie Howe says words are an important form of activity in the world. She says that words are more than words, having a force of their own, adding that “language is almost all we have left of action in the modern world. I mean, unless we’re in Syria or we’re in Iraq. But for many of us, action has become what we say. The moral life is lived out in what we say more often than what we do.”
Howe says that words join us to other people. She remembers “the day I said to my daughter for the first and maybe only time when she was 4 years old -- I remember where I was standing in Austin, Texas, making her bed. And she said, ‘Why do I have to do it?’ And I said, ‘Because I said so.’ And I turned around, and there they all were again. There were like millions of people going [claps] ‘Yeah, we said it too.’ And I’m like, ‘Hi, everybody. I just joined you.’ And they were like, ‘Welcome.’ I was so glad to be with them.”
Words are part of our shared experience, joining us to the great cloud of witnesses who use the same words.
*****
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
Incredible Faith
The mother who approaches Jesus to ask him to heal her daughter has a tremendous amount of faith in a stranger, and a foreigner, to believe that he can make her daughter well. She doesn’t see the limits that Jesus sees. Caroline Casey has a similar kind of impossible faith in her own life. In a TED talk, Casey recalls how her life changed on her 17th birthday.
“I accompanied my little sister in complete innocence, as I always had all my life -- my visually impaired sister -- to go to see an eye specialist. Because big sisters are always supposed to support their little sisters.... So I used to get my eyes tested just for fun. And on my 17th birthday, after my fake eye exam, the eye specialist just noticed it happened to be my birthday. And he said, ‘So what are you going to do to celebrate?’ And I took that driving lesson, and I said, ‘I’m going to learn how to drive.’ And then there was a silence -- one of those awful silences when you know something’s wrong. And he turned to my mother, and he said, ‘You haven’t told her yet?’ On my 17th birthday,” she says, she learned the truth. “I am, and have been since birth, legally blind.”
Her parents made a decision not to tell her that she was legally blind. As she recalls, “my parents made a bizarre, unusual, and incredibly brave decision. No special needs schools. No labels. No limitations. My ability and my potential. And they decided to tell me that I could see. So just like Johnny Cash’s Sue, a boy given a girl’s name, I would grow up and learn from experience how to be tough and how to survive, when they were no longer there to protect me, or just take it all away. But more significantly, they gave me the ability to believe, totally, to believe that I could.”
She adds: “And with the same dogged determination that my father had bred into me since I was such a child -- he taught me how to sail, knowing I could never see where I was going, I could never see the shore, and I couldn’t see the sails, and I couldn’t see the destination. But he told me to believe and feel the wind in my face.... I rammed through life as only a Casey can do. And I was an archeologist, and then I broke things. And then I managed a restaurant, and then I slipped on things. And then I was a masseuse. And then I was a landscape gardener. And then I went to business school. And you know, disabled people are hugely educated. And then I went in and I got a global consulting job with Accenture. And they didn’t even know. And it’s extraordinary how far belief can take you.”
When things fell apart for her, she thought about her next adventure. A few months later “I had the only blind date in my life with a seven-and-a-half-foot elephant called Kanchi. And together we would trek a thousand kilometers across India.... And you know what, that trip, that thousand kilometers, it raised enough money for 6,000 cataract eye operations. Six thousand people got to see because of that.” Out of her outrageous faith came a nonprofit organization, and the chance to make a difference for people in the world.
***************
From team member Ron Love:
Genesis 45:1-15
People magazine recently interviewed Halle Berry regarding her upcoming movie Kidnap and other aspects of her current life situation. When asked what she is learning, Berry replied that after her third divorce she is learning “That I can be alone.” She went on to say: “Don’t be afraid living unhappy. It’s teaching me. Don’t be afraid about what people will think about the choices you make. We have to live for ourselves.”
Application: Joseph had to learn to live with his fears.
*****
Genesis 45:1-15
Each week People magazine runs a feature titled “Why I Care.” Recently the column interviewed actress Connie Nielsen. She said that when she was making the movie Lost in Africa in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya, she discovered those who were acting as cast members “were living in dire need.” She realized then that “I had to do something about it.” That is when Nielsen started the Human Needs Project. The project consisted of a community center where individuals had access to water, showers, laundry, computers, and the internet. Connie Nielsen said that worldwide there are 1 billion people in poverty who need access to such facilities.
Application: Joseph taught us that there are no limits on doing good.
*****
Genesis 45:1-15
Each week People magazine runs a feature titled “Heroes Among Us.” Recently the magazine discussed the community involvement of pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha. When Dr. Hanna-Attisha noticed a higher than normal concentration of lead in her patients, she went on to investigate the reason for this. Along with others, she discovered that when the city of Flint, Michigan, switched their water supply from Detroit’s water system to the Flint River in order to save money, the pipes carrying the water were contaminated. Hanna-Attisha, 46, said: “When I saw this data, my focus became the kids of Flint and their tomorrow. I rolled up my sleeves because we owe it to them.”
Application: Joseph taught us that there are no limits on doing good.
*****
Genesis 45:1-15
Michelle Carter has just been sentenced to 15 months in jail for enticing her 18-year-old boyfriend Conrad Roy III to commit suicide. In thousands of text messages she encouraged Conrad to take his own life. The most condemning of all her text messages was when Conrad was in a pickup truck equipped to be filled with carbon monoxide gas and he got out. Michelle ordered him back into the truck, which Conrad did and soon died. In pronouncing sentence, judge Lawrence Moniz said that Michelle had many chances to save Conrad but “She did nothing. She did not call the police or his family. She didn’t issue a simple additional instruction: ‘Get out of the truck.’ ”
Application: It is difficult to understand why people are so callous to the lives of others.
*****
Genesis 45:1-15
Five-time Grand Slam winner and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Maria Sharapova recently published her memoir, titled Unstoppable: My Life So Far. At the age of 17 Sharapova stunned the world when she was able to beat Serena Williams at Wimbledon. Serena was smiling at the net in the traditional post-match handshake, but Sharapova knew that Serena was not smiling inside. In the locker room Maria heard Serena bawling with guttural sobs. When Maria was asked why she could never beat Serena again, she says it was because she could not forget her wailing in the locker room.
Application: Interpersonal relationships have a long-term effect on us.
*****
Isaiah 56:1, 6-8
Five-time Grand Slam winner and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Maria Sharapova recently published her memoir, titled Unstoppable: My Life So Far. Sharapova was sanctioned from playing tennis for 15 months for taking the performance-enhancing drug meldonium. Sharapova claims that she was unaware the drug, which she had been taking for years, had been placed on the list of prohibited substances. Of the experience Sharapova said: “It’s probably the toughest thing any athlete can go through.” But she prevailed and was able to continue her tennis career after she completed her punishment.
Application: Isaiah warns us that there will be justice.
*****
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
In the Middle Ages, a person with leprosy would be brought into the church and a funeral service would be conducted. At the conclusion of the sacramental act the penitent would be sent out of the church wearing a black robe to live as if already dead. Forbidden to reenter the church, the sanctuary walls had “squint” holes so sabbath worship could be observed while being outside.
Application: Paul instructs us to receive all individuals with mercy. Today, I wonder, through ignorance or prejudice, by apathy or enmity, how many people do we consign to live as if dead?
*****
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
Sitting at home in the small impoverished Pennsylvania coal town, I watched the 57th Academy Awards ceremony. Standing at the podium with Oscar in hand for best actress as Edna Spalding in Places in the Heart, Sally Field looked radiant. It was her second Oscar; the first was for her starring role in Norma Rae. Beaming before the audience was the starlet who possessed it all: career notoriety, beauty, fame, and wealth. But as Sally Field soared before a world audience, all were unaware of an actress who had a disenfranchised ego lurking beneath the facade of success. This realization came thundering forth in her acceptance speech when she confessed: “I can’t deny the fact you like me. Right now, you like me!” This line has become immortalized, for it reveals the unseen demons that lurk within all our psyches. All that was considered the marquee of success paled for sought adulation -- the touch of affirmation -- from one’s own peers.
Application: Paul instructs us to receive all individuals with mercy. They must be understood and accepted.
*****
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
People magazine recently interviewed Halle Berry regarding her upcoming movie Kidnap and other aspects of her current life situation. The interviewer, Jess Cagle, observed that the movie allowed Berry to let “loose her inner mama bear.” Berry replied to that statement: “A regular ordinary mom finds the superpower inside herself and saves the day. At the end you feel like, ‘Wow... don’t mess with Mom!’ ”
Application: Jesus instructs us to act with courage and strength, and if we are versed in his teachings that will almost come instinctively.
*****
Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28
People magazine recently ran a lengthy article titled “Faces of an Epidemic.” The article pictured the faces of 130 individuals who have already died this year from an overdose of opioids. The faces were of individuals from all socioeconomic strata of life. There were many heart-wrenching interviews and sober recollections by health-care professionals. Bill Schmincke, who watched his son Steven die, said: “Once the stuff gets a hold of you, it doesn’t let go.” Bill Schmincke and his wife Tammy went on to say, “They’re in the grasp of a demon.” In order to do their part in helping others, the couple started the nonprofit Stop the Heroin.
Application: People need to listen and understand.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: May God be gracious to us and bless us.
People: May God’s face always shine upon us.
Leader: Let the peoples praise you, O God.
People: Let all the peoples praise you.
Leader: May God continue to bless us.
People: Let all the ends of the earth revere our God.
OR
Leader: Let us listen for a word from God today.
People: We open our ears and hearts to God’s voice.
Leader: The Word of God is powerful and gracious.
People: May the Word of God transform and empower us!
Leader: Share the words of God’s grace with all God’s people.
People: With joy we will share God’s Word and love with all.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing”
found in:
UMH: 57, 58, 59
H82: 493
PH: 466
AAHH: 184
NNBH: 23
NCH: 42
CH: 5
LBW: 559
ELA: 886
W&P: 96
AMEC: 1, 2
Renew: 32
“When in Our Music God Is Glorified”
found in:
UMH: 68
H82: 420
PH: 264
AAHH: 112
NCH: 561
CH: 7
LBW: 555
ELA: 850, 851
W&P: 7
STLT: 36
Renew: 62
“God Hath Spoken by the Prophets”
found in:
UMH: 108
LBW: 238
W&P: 667
“Let There Be Peace on Earth”
found in:
UMH: 431
CH: 677
W&P: 614
“This Is My Song”
found in:
UMH: 437
NCH: 591
CH: 722
ELA: 887
STLT: 159
“Open My Eyes, That I May See” (especially v. 3)
found in:
UMH: 454
PH: 324
NNBH: 218
CH: 586
W&P: 480
AMEC: 285
“Lord, Speak to Me”
found in:
UMH: 463
PH: 426
NCH: 531
ELA: 676
W&P: 593
“Like the Murmur of the Dove’s Song”
found in:
UMH: 544
H82: 513
PH: 314
NCH: 270
CH: 245
ELA: 403
W&P: 327
Renew: 280
“From the Rising of the Sun”
found in:
CCB: 4
“I Will Call upon the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 9
Renew: 15
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who spoke creation into being: Give us the wisdom to know the power of our words
so that we may refrain from hurting others and share blessings instead; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We bless you, O God, for you created all that is with a word from your mouth. Help us to learn the power of our words so that we can heal instead of harm, and bless instead of curse. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to understand the power of our own words.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. Too often we speak without thinking and allow ourselves to say things that hurt other people. We criticize when we don’t need to, and we fail to compliment when we could. We misuse the power of our words in ways that are hurtful to your children, O God. Help us to bridle our tongues so that we do not harm others. Help us to use our words to build up and empower others. Amen.
Leader: God speaks in tones of love and grace. God wants us to mirror that in our speech. Receive the power of God’s Spirit to speak words of love for God.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise and adore you, O God, for by your word creation came into being. You spoke and the power of your words set in motion the wonders of creation which continue even to this day and beyond.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. Too often we speak without thinking and allow ourselves to say things that hurt other people. We criticize when we don’t need to, and we fail to compliment when we could. We misuse the power of our words in ways that are hurtful to your children, O God. Help us to bridle our tongues so that we do not harm others. Help us to use our words to build up and empower others.
We give you thanks for the gift of speech and hearing that allows us to communicate with one another. We thank you for those who have spoken words of grace and hope to us and taught us of your love. We thank you for the opportunities we have to speak to others as your voice.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who are abused by words. We know there is great power in words and they can beat people down. Help us to repair some of the damage by always speaking words of grace and love.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Talk about the power of words. You might use the old saying “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” (or not). Ask the children if anyone has ever called them names or said mean things to them. How did that feel? What does it feel like when someone says nice things about you? When they say you did a good job? Words are powerful -- they can make us feel good or feel bad. When we use kind words and help people feel good about themselves, we are spreading God’s love.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
The Power of Words
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Matthew 15:10-20
(Gather the children and welcome them. If you are able, try to give a positive or complementing message to each child that is gathered with you.)
Our gospel message today reminds me of a line my friends and I were taught when we were children. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!”
Have you ever heard this line? What do you think it means? (Receive the children’s responses.)
I often struggle with this line -- I don’t think it’s really true. Sure, sticks and stones might break my bones. But words can hurt too. People call each other bad names or mean names. People tell lies to one another. Or even worse, people can tell lies about one another -- spreading rumors that aren’t true.
Words can hurt. The hurt that is made by words hurts us inside -- words can hurt feelings, they can hurt how we see ourselves. Words can hurt friendships. Words can start fights!
Have you ever had someone’s words hurt you? Have your words ever hurt someone else? (Pause to allow the children to respond.)
I’m sad to say... it’s pretty common to have someone’s words hurt us, and to hurt another person with our words.
I did a little research for my talk with you today. I found out that it takes five positive messages to undo one negative message. Five! That means if one person says something mean to you, it will take five nice messages for you to feel good again. The tough part is: the mean message never really goes away. Somehow, we seem to remember the hurtful messages more than we remember the nice messages.
So what do we do?
Do we hold on to that old line: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!”
Do we try to think about what we say before we say it... and try to say nice things?
Do we say “I’m sorry” to someone if we say mean words, or if we share gossip about them? (And say “I’m sorry” to God too!)
(Pause to allow the children to respond.)
In our gospel lesson today, Jesus says: “It’s not what goes into someone’s mouth that hurts a person; it’s what comes out of the mouth. What comes out of the mouth comes from the heart.” If what comes out of your mouth are mean words or hurtful words, you’re probably holding mean things in your heart too.
Be careful about the words you say, about what comes out of your mouth. Know that words can hurt.
Let’s share a prayer together.
Prayer: O Holy God, you know what’s in our hearts -- you know if we are sad or angry or hurt or feeling mean. You love us, no matter what. Help us to guard our words and be careful about what we say, for we know that our words can hurt. Forgive us when we hurt one another. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, August 20, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
