Miracles On The Margins

“Miracles On The Margins”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

August 17, 2014

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Matthew 15:21-28

A Reading from Where The Edge Gathers

by Bishop Yvette Flunder:

“In its effort to be inclusive the church often reaches out carefully to the margin. Radical inclusivity demands that we reach out to the farthest margin, intentionally, to give a clear message of welcome to everyone. Radical inclusivity recognizes, values, loves, and celebrates people on the margin. Jesus was himself from the edge of society with a ministry to those who were considered least. Jesus’ public ministry and associations were primarily with the poor, weak, outcast, foreigners, and prostitutes. Radical inclusivity practices and celebrates the Christian community outside of the dominant culture, believing that the realm of God includes the margins of society and is a perfect place for ministry. Marginalized people, now as in the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry, respond to a community of openness and inclusivity, where other people from the edge gather. Such an atmosphere welcomes people to feel safer to be who they are.”

         The human family has always been diverse. Each continent, region, nation, city, and town has its own traditions and worldviews that have evolved over the millennia. But no matter where a person may live at any given time and place, the human spirit always seeks to belong. We find easy belonging with those who are most like ourselves. As the saying goes, “Birds of a feather flock together.” In the United States today, we may have moved legally past slavery and so-called “separate but equal” Jim Crow Laws, but we are still a divided nation. We still follow our instinct to group with others like ourselves in order to feel normal. It takes an extra effort to break through those barriers of identity to create diverse community.

         We have seen this past week in Ferguson, Missouri how people are still struggling with issues of race and class. At face value, it appears to be a struggle between Black and White folks, something this nation knows all too well. Last Saturday around noon, 18-year-old Michael Brown was walking down the street with a friend and was confronted by a police officer. The details of the encounter are still being debated, but the fact we know is that the officer shot and killed Michael. Following news of the event, protests began in the streets, which led to riots and looting.

         This is not an isolated incident; police quarrel with people of color all the time. Poverty has led to crime (as it often does), which leads to conflict. Michael’s death was a watershed moment for the Ferguson community. The Black community’s frustration with police has overflowed. Those who are entrusted with protecting the people are now viewed as oppressors, as agents of injustice.

         Moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches, Rev. Elder Dr. Nancy Wilson responded to this tragic event with a call to continue fighting against racism. She urges us to not only examine our own consciences around our own prejudices, but also to take action in the form of nonviolent resistance and open dialogue. Rev. Nancy writes, “It is time for us to rise up -- not in violence but in creative non-violent action, which pulls back the curtain on the inherent violence of racism and race-based policing. We remember the words of Jesus and the words of almost every angel in the Bible who upset people's lives: "Fear not!" You can do this!

Be creative! Today, there are Freedom Schools springing up across this country. Be part of it! Today, there are foster homes in our churches that are opening up to the children crossing the border. Learn Spanish! Put yourself on the path of change. Speak out! Say "Hello" to someone who appears different from you. Start small, but think BIG! Organize! Start where you are. Work as a team. Just start!

Build a new heaven and a new earth. Use the power in your hands to build a better world that is full of creativity, love, learning, and fullness of life for all our children. Build this world with open hands so that the world belongs to everyone.”

         This kind of action is what it means to be church. We meet each Sunday to worship God with song and study and sacrament, but these are only symbols of how we are called to act in our broken world.

         Ironically in this week’s Gospel passage, we find an inter-racial dialogue. Jesus was a Jew and he encountered a syrophoenician woman on the road. She is not given a name in any of the Gospels, but we know that she is from a Gentile nation that did not worship the God of Israel. Jesus encounters her in the district of Tyre and Sidon. The name Tyre means “rock” and Sidon means “fishing.” So Jesus was not stuck between a rock and a hard place, but rather between a rock and a fish… As strange as this sounds, the choice between a rock and a fish has meaning for us.

         The syrophoenician woman’s daughter was ill and somehow she had heard that Jesus had the ability to heal. So she begs Jesus to help her daughter. The literal translation from Greek is that she “squawks” at him. She is making a ruckus, being annoying even. She is persistent in her protest. She will not leave until she receives her blessing.

First Jesus just ignores her, but then when the disciples ask Jesus to send her away, he responds to her. He does not ask her to go away. Instead, he says something blatantly disrespectful and derogatory. He says that God’s blessings are for God’s Jewish children, not for “dogs” like her. It was common in that time for Jewish authorities to call other races “dogs.” Jews did not keep dogs for pets in that time. Dogs were just scavengers on the streets that were accepted as an annoying part of life.

         Surprisingly, the woman does not slap Jesus across the face as many of us might do if we were called a slur. Instead, she challenges Jesus. She essentially says, “I may be a dog to you, but even the dogs get the leftovers from the table.” Her words stop Jesus in his tracks. Her bold act of faith changed Jesus’ mind. Not only did he heal the woman’s daughter; from that point forward Jesus would not withhold blessing from non-Jews.

         We don’t like seeing Jesus in this light because we are told that Jesus was perfect, sinless, and always did the right thing. But if there is ever an incidence of Jesus sinning, it is in the racism he showed in this passage. Jesus was a man who embodied the Divine Presence so much in his life that we call him The Anointed One of God, Christ, Messiah. But he was still a man. As we all do, Jesus grew up in a specific place and time. He grew up learning racism from his own people. His first reaction to the syrophoenician woman came from the way he had been socialized. But the miracle moment came when Jesus’ fear of the other (xenophobia) turned into love of the other. The two had a “Namaste” moment when she saw God in him and he saw God in her. It changed Jesus for the rest of his life. And it ultimately changed how the Christian church would embrace both Jews and Gentiles.

         Jesus had the choice between the rock- the seemingly solid knowledge of who should interact with whom, and the fish- casting out the net of the Gospel far and wide to include everyone. Jesus chose inclusivity over exclusivity; he chose love over racism.

         Bishop Yvette Flunder is the founder of the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries and is also an ordained minister in MCC. She wrote a wonderful book called Where the Edge Gathers and that is where our first reading today is from. Bishop Flunder helped to start a church in San Francisco called City of Refuge United Church of Christ. Coming from the Pentecostal tradition, she had a vision that queer folks of color needed a place for Christian worship, community, and service. City of Refuge has since bloomed into several vibrant communities.

The secret to their success is not making an exclusive group of LGBT people of color. Rather, their success is rooted in the value of what Bishop Flunder calls “radical inclusivity.” She saw the demographics of the queer people of the South of Market district of San Francisco: transgender women, sex workers, people struggling with addiction, and people living in poverty. Instead of creating an “us vs. them” community of the wealthy and more “normal” against the more marginalized, City of Refuge was created as a place where all marginalized people have access to all opportunities in the church.

Bishop Flunder did not shy away from the most marginalized. Instead, as Jesus did, she empowered them to have purpose in community. The result is a true reflection of what Jesus called the Kin-dom of God: diverse peoples working together to share the Unconditional Love of God.

We can learn a lot from Bishop Flunder’s vision of radical inclusivity. Instead of focusing on ministering with a wide range of people, we can be tempted to attract only those who can give a large tithe. We can be tempted to flock together and be content with having only one or two species of bird. But God’s call is so much larger than that. God calls us to boldly face the uncomfortable realities of racism and classism. We need to own the fact that in the words of the puppet musical Avenue Q, “Everyone’s a little bit racist sometimes!” We have all grown up in a racist society, so it is a part of us. But that does not mean that we cannot make progress on the road to healing. Jesus was transformed when he faced diversity, so in the Way of Christ, may we be ever transformed as well. We choose radical inclusivity! And so it is. Amen.