Maintain justice, and do what is right…..

When we search the Scriptures to find our God being EXCLUSIVE, it is not hard to find evidence. God tells the Hebrew people not to marry “foreigners” who worship false gods as their own hearts will be turned to the idols. Prophecies of doom and destruction against those who do not worship God and follow God’s laws are frequent and harsh. St. Paul writes in the Epistles that we should not let even the appearance of evil show up in our actions. St. Paul also cautions us against any activity that might cause another person to turn away from Jesus.

However, Scripture offers many more passages about our God who INCLUDES all people in grace. Isaiah is a prophet of hope – and of inclusively – to the Hebrew people in the time leading up to their captivity in Babylon. God spoke to Isaiah so that the people were given hope in this dark prelude to even darker times. Let us read aloud and together the verses from the Hebrew Scripture that we heard:

1 Thus says the Lord:
Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come,
and my deliverance be revealed.

6 And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him,

to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants,

all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it,

and hold fast my covenant—
7 these I will bring to my holy mountain,

and make them joyful in my house of prayer;

their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar;

for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
8 Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel,

I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.

Here we see a picture of an INCLUSIVE GOD who desires the worship and obedience of every person that God has created in every land and in every tribe. St. Paul specifically tells the Romans – some Jewish and some not –that God has not forgotten God’s people who were chosen by God and born in the lineage of Abraham. But now, Paul says, God has opened the gate to all people, not just the tribes of Israel.

Paul goes on to say that GOD – God, hear that – GOD has IMPRISONED everyone – that includes you and me – in DISobedience in order to show us that God’s mercy can be spread to all and shared to all. God imprisoned us in disobedience. What does that mean? It means that God has given us the LAW to show us how to approach God and each other.

If you have raised children in any way – family, teaching, healthcare, recreation – you know that children are not born LAWFULL critters. Children do not have impulse control, so children hit and bite at their pleasure. Children do not have a concept of consequences so a child will reach out for anything and everything, hot, cold, sweet, or sour. Children learn as they disobey rules that they can be punished or hurt. Only then do they begin to understand consequences. Even as adults we are still learning that lesson.

St. Paul says that the gifts and calling of God are IRREVOCABLE – not easy, not cheap, not automatic, not mass-produced. God call us to obedience, love, service and joy as our own salvation and as an invitation to salvation for others. God freely offers. God freely gives. God has no return desk.

Our Gospel reading is interesting in light of both the passages from Isaiah and Romans. Jesus is criticized for His negative evaluation of one of the rules for Purity established by the Pharisees – the rules around ritual washing of your hands before eating and rules around what could be eaten. Jesus could not be clearer in His teaching: breaking physical rules does not make you unclean. Your brain and your mouth make you unclean. Unclean thoughts become unclean words become unclean actions.

How easy it would be to have a three-point outline with explicit instructions declaring precisely what I must do to obtain God’s approval! So, as humans we look at the law and we make up our own rules around what God accepts. We layer rules on top of rules to keep ourselves on track. Often that track moves us further and further from the real spirit of what God intends.

Listen to the Canaanite woman – I know I do not sit at the table, but aren’t even the household dogs allowed to scrounge under the table for crumbs? Is there not even a tiny blessing available for me as a person before God?

Many scholars and interpreters say that the Canaanite woman taught Jesus a lesson in racism and exclusivity. I personally do not agree with that. I read this as an incident reported and repeated by the early church as a lesson for OUR racism and exclusivity. Remember – the early church fought bitterly over whether new Christians must become Jews before they were accepted as real Christians. Thankfully, St. Paul’s side won, or we would not be here today. Christian belief would be a ridiculously small group of people struggling to survive in the Middle East.

We have so many challenges in our community and in our society. We chafe against restrictions on where we can go and how we can gather. We peep over our masks at strangers and wonder if they are healthy. We follow the demonstrations around racial equity but see only the ones that devolve into destruction because that is where the television cameras go – smoke and blood are magnets for attention. Real issues disappear in the breaking glass.

How much would Tybee Island change if we made the decision to treat everyone on the Island – resident, renter, visitor – as a precious child of God? What would happen if we engaged in actual verbal prayer with names before God for each person whose lawn or driveway touched our property and added those directly across the street from us? Would we notice any difference if we prayed every morning for any person God knew we would meet or talk to in that day? What if we said “thank you” to every store clerk or food server who is taking care of us by cleaning and wearing a mask? A sincere thank you – not just a rote thanks as we brush by them? I think we would begin to see more people as beloved children of God. I believe we would learn to love as God loves and that would indeed change the world.

May God give us his blessing,

and may all the ends of the earth stand in awe of him

because we carry God’s light with us for all to see.