You’re not welcome here!
Pastor Fey
was about 90 years old when I met him. I was a seminarian working at Messiah
Lutheran Church, in St. Louis. He was retired and lived at a nearby nursing
home. He was a small man, maybe 5’4” at most, and he was Caucasian – which will
be important later. He served in many places over his career as a pastor, but
one of them we Buffalo, NY in 1967 during the riot. His congregation had both
white and black members, and he loved them all. One night in 1967 while things
were very tense in the city, he got a call that one of his African American members
was getting close to dying. “Will you come?”
Segregation
was real in Buffalo, and there were places where Black people weren’t welcome
and places where White people weren’t welcome. Pastor Fey’s member was in an
apartment where white people weren’t welcome. “Of course I’ll come. I’ll be
there as soon as I can.”
When Pr. Fey
got to the apartment, there were two very large men sitting at the door. As
I’ve thought about this story, it strikes me that they were probably just
trying to keep people the love inside safe, but when Pr. Fey walked up to the
door, they towered over him and made it clear he was not welcome there.
He told
them, “One of my members is in there and they called me to visit.”
They
replied, “You’re not going in.”
He replied,
“I am going in. My member needs me.”
They
threatened him. “We could hurt you! We could kill you!”
“My member
is dying, and I am going to see her.”
One of them
looked at him and said, “Aren’t you afraid of us?”
Pr. Fey
looked at him and said, “What kind of God do you think I serve?”
It can be
scary to be unwelcome. Sometimes that hostility comes with unkindness and
cruelty. Sometimes people who are unwelcome experience mistreatment and violence.
It is extremely hard to do what is right when you find yourself in that place
where it is clear, “You’re not welcome here.” It’s hard to meet hatred with
love. To meet hostility with courtesy. To do what is right while being wronged.
But I think
Pr. Fey was on to something when he asked, “What kind of God do you think I
have?”
What kind of
God do you think you have?
In our
Gospel lesson today, a Canaanite woman came to Jesus and His disciples for help
for her daughter. It was clear she was unwelcome. The disciples flatly say,
“Send her away.” Jesus is just ignoring her pleas. His answers are cold, “I was
sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” (Which was true of His earthly ministry.
It was the Apostles, these guys who are urging Jesus to send her away, who were
sent to the nations!) And then Jesus makes this terrible statement, “It is not
right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
Ouch! Are
you offended by Jesus’ words here? (We’re really good at being offended in our
culture!)
More
important than how you feel about what Jesus said, how did the woman respond to
Jesus? She says, “Yes, Lord.” See this. She knows she is not one of the lost
sheep of Israel. She is not one of God’s chosen people, the people of the
covenant. “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their
master’s table.”
What kind of
God does the woman have? Her God might be the God of Israel, but through Israel
she knows that God is one who brings salvation. He is a God who promised a
house of prayer for all peoples. He gathers outcasts. He receives the praises
from all the peoples. This God is good, His steadfast love endures forever. So
she looks at Jesus, God’s Messiah, and expects goodness, mercy, and salvation
from Him. Because that’s who God is, and she believes God’s
messiah will do God’s work. And He does!
This
encounter is so important. Don’t sweep it away because it is uncomfortable.
Don’t soften it. People try to defend Jesus, “He’s testing her faith.” Or,
“He’s testing the disciples.” Or, worst of all, “He’s joking with her.” (Did
you think this was funny?)
It’s a hard
reality sometimes, but God does what He does. Job learned that, didn’t he? Have
you ever been confused by what God does? Have you ever prayed and felt like He
was far away? Jesus did. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” He’s
quoting Psalm 22; the end of that verse says, “Why are you so far from the
words of my groaning?”
We can’t
always explain what God does. As C.S. Lewis says of Aslan in the Chronicles of
Narnia, “He’s not a tame lion.” God is not our butler to wait on us hand and
foot and see to our every desire. He’s not the great candy-man in the sky. And,
friends, that is off-putting for a lot of people. They don’t want a god who
doesn’t fit their mold, who sometimes tells them, “no,” or who tells them,
“You’re actions are not acceptable in my sight.” God stands as judge over all
people, and He sees our sins. Jesus calls us to repentance, to walk in God’s
ways, because sin separates us – it separates us from God … and from one
another.
Sadly, there
are a lot of Christians who like to lean into that un-welcome feeling. Like the
disciples, sometimes we give people the message that we want Jesus to send them
away. Life is messy, people are complicated, and inconvenient. Sometimes we
want to stick with people who are nice, and clean, and like us. Sometimes we
act like God’s love is only for certain people. We’re only looking for the
“lost sheep of Israel.” Then we look out at people and say, “and you don’t fit
this flock.” It’s as if we sometimes forget the Apostolic Mission of the
Church.
-
Matthew
28:19 – Go and make disciples of all nations.
-
Acts
1 – You will be my witnesses at Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of
the earth.
-
1
Tim – God wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth –
the truth of Jesus’ cross!
Sin
separates people from one another so that we look with judgment on people who
sin differently than we do. But we’re all in the same boat. We read in Romans
11, “God consigned all to disobedience …” He consigned us all to disobedience,
but to what end? So, “that He may have mercy on all.”
The root
problem is that sin separates people from God. We cannot overcome this
separation. So in mercy Christ came to us. He came proclaiming the Kingdom of
heaven to the lost sheep of Israel … and there were gentile dogs who heard His
message and believed, too! Jesus went to the cross to atone for the sins of the
world – the whole world’s sin was on Him! – and he died for all people.
We were
unwelcome in God’s presence, but now we are welcome for Christ’s sake.
And God has
placed us here to carry that mercy into the world – a world that will not
always welcome us. Will that be uncomfortable? Sometimes. Will it be dangerous?
Could be.
What kind of
God do you think you have? Do you have a who can save you from death … even if
you die? Jesus’ empty tomb would say, “Yes, you do!” You have a God who
welcomes the unwelcome. He welcomed you! He leads sinners to repentance. He
showers us with grace.
Isn’t that
what happened when you were baptized? Doesn’t He give you even more grace when
you come to the Lord’s Supper? You have no right to these things, yet God
welcomes You in mercy and love. And He places you where you can welcome others
to know Jesus – the one who casts out demons, who welcomes dogs like you and me
from under the table and makes us sit at the table as children of God. Amen.
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