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Rez is a community where Jesus welcomes, shapes, and sends disciples for the good of our neighborhood. No matter where you are in life, this is a place for you.
Life Together In The Goodness Of God
We're really glad that you're here worshiping with us this morning. It was a Wednesday morning I recall three years ago when I got a call from our senior warden at the time David Hormoth about the results of a congregational vote that had just been conducted by the vestry. A vote about whether we should stay or leave our denomination at the time. Now for over 10 years this church Resurrection South Austin had been driven by a spirit of radical hospitality. Of welcome in our neighborhood. We wanted a church as much as we could strive to be a church for our neighbors. And that kept pushing us past lines that we weren't supposed to cross or maybe we thought we weren't supposed to cross. Lines that had been drawn for us. Lines about the ordination of women. Lines about issues of racial justice. And lines about inclusion of all of God's children. The circle being drawn around us felt like honestly at the time it was getting smaller and smaller and bolder and bolder for us. It was hard to live in this circle as a congregation especially the kind of congregation that we were and had always been. David called me to report the result of this vote how it went with the church. If it failed this vote I would resign was the agreement. But if the vote had passed our church would be free to leave in peace. If you were there for that day you know how the vote went. You also know how it felt when that vote was going on. And 80 percent over 80 percent of our church voted to cross those lines that we weren't supposed to cross in our pursuit of Jesus. That's who Rez is. It was a tough time. I don't want us to have some sort of romantic or naive view of that time. It was a really difficult time. Really difficult. We lost dear friends beloved church members who we didn't want to leave. People outside the church who didn't know anything about us were hurling insults and name calling and undermining what we were trying to do. And all of that really stung. It took a toll on us. Crossing those lines it may sound cool or courageous but it was really costly because it was offensive to some and even trickier for others. But there was also this very liberating boldness that came in knowing that we were following Jesus across these boundaries that had been drawn for us. There was this surprising sort of joy even in the midst of the sting and the hurt. There was this joy that emerged in knowing that we were focusing on and following Jesus. This morning's gospel that I just read to us about the Canaanite woman is all about crossing boundaries crossing lines. Jesus left that place it says and went to the district of Tyre and Sidon. He had once instructed his disciples just before this happened by the way to go nowhere near those places those Gentiles. Don't cross those lines Jesus just taught. And now we find him crossing those lines. A Canaanite woman comes out of the crowd shouting not just a Gentile but a category that carried centuries of hostility between her people and Israel. She shouts after a group of Jewish men which would have been outrageous. And kneels before one of them and refuses to go away refuses to stop. Have mercy on me Lord son of David she says. My daughter is tormented by a demon. This woman knows exactly who Jesus is and names him rightly. We should hear her confession of who Jesus is in a similar way that we hear Peter's confession of who Jesus is. The Messiah the Lord. But in this encounter Jesus doesn't at first answer his disciples in fact say send her away. How annoying right send her away. And then he says it's not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs he says. Dogs. There's no way around that word that lands hard. That is a that is a tough passage for us. This is what Jewish people called Gentiles. So at the time it maybe was just sort of a yeah insult. And Jesus said it to her face. I don't know exactly what to do about this passage. I've studied this for years and I have a couple theories. I've raised some serious questions about what is really going on here was Jesus provoking a situation in which his disciples who thought they were better than this woman that they would become in that moment. They're her students and find themselves subject to her revelation her instruction. Was that the case or is this a moment in which we see really profoundly and maybe even uncomfortably the humanity of Jesus and his learning and discovering just how far the welcome of God's kingdom really goes in real time. I don't know. But I do know though is that when we spend so much time trying to figure out exactly what was in the mind of the Lord. We take away from the central figure of the story actually this woman and her confession. We take away some of the attention that's due to the boldness and courage that it took for her to do what she did. She doesn't retreat. She doesn't take their word for it and say well you know they would know I should probably leave these people alone. She takes that insult and turns it back on them with its own logic. Yes Lord sure granted but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table. That is a sick burn. I'm sorry guys. Come on now. And Jesus stops. And this is the moment of clarity. Woman how great is your faith. Mind blown perhaps. Let it be done for you as you wish. Great is your faith. This is this phrase is the highest praise in all of Matthew's gospel that anyone ever gets. Not even a disciple gets this praise. Not a religious leader. Not to anyone on the inside. But instead Jesus gives this high praise to this way outside leader or this way outside Canaanite woman. She teaches everyone in the scene what faith actually looks like. Faith does not wait for permission. It doesn't accept someone else's line as final. Faith seizes Jesus of Nazareth and goes directly to him and doesn't stop. That's what faith does. Faith goes straight for Christ. That refusal to accept someone else's boundary as final. I think this is the church at its best actually. The refusal to accept someone else's line someone else's boundary is final. When it comes at the cost of going straight for Christ we cannot accept that. The church at its best dismisses those lines and those boundaries because all the church sees at its best is Christ and goes straight for Christ. The church at its best in other words are truly disciples of Jesus. Following him beyond the circles the world draws around us or anyone else in this world. The circles we draw around identity and sexuality social standing how much money you have. On what side of the border you were born your gender or literally anything else. Because the God we worship is not the God of insiders. But the one who keeps crossing every boundary we and the world draw finding faith in the most unexpected places. The places and the people that we write off and dismiss and this God gathers others besides those already gathered and doesn't stop. This is really good news that this is who God is. Paul confirms that God has imprisoned all in disobedience just as Don just read so that he may be merciful to all. The mercy of God doesn't know a boundary. No one earns their place at this table. That's not how this works. God's mercy isn't something for us to police or manage as the church as if God needs our help protecting God or his table or something. I don't think God is that insecure and I think God's got that unlock. OK. Right. But instead church we as disciples were not called to police or manage were called to freely give that mercy that we have received in the way that we have received it. And that's the good news. It's a Christianity that's either full of anxiety and fear and control or a free Christianity that is liberated to give generously and freely the same way that God has given to us in Jesus Christ. Those are wildly different faiths observing the church's behavior throughout history. This seems simple, but it's reasonable when you look at our own history to question if the church really believes this about God's mercy and its widening range. We have for two long handed people a Christianity that is wrapped in our own culture. Wrapped in our own politics. It is not Christian to be conservative. It is not Christian to be sort of on the leading edge of whatever is most progressive. It is Christian to follow Jesus regardless of the lines and boundaries the world determines. Our sexuality, our gender norms. We take these things and we have for too long wrapped Christianity and mingled them up and tied them up and then delivered this package to people full of all of these other things and called it the gospel. You have to accept all this in order to receive the gospel. We have required assimilation before belonging. You have to believe these things or do these things before you can be one of us and be welcome. We've done that too long. It's all wrong, by the way. I hope you understand what I'm saying here. What I'm illustrating is like, this is not good. And it is actually a departure from from God's welcome and the gospel. Gustavo Gutierrez, he I think really clearly helps name this misstep that the church has made for far too long. He says it is one thing to believe with conviction and yet another to exclude people who do not think like us. And I think the difference between those two things is mercy. The mercy that doesn't come from us isn't derivative from us, but the mercy that comes from God. We can have conviction and also be in fellowship with people who don't agree with us. The church has in its confusion of conviction and exclusion altogether, the church has sent away too many. You're not like us. You don't believe like us. You can't be with us. Just as the disciples asked that this woman would be sent away in the same way the church has done this. We have been those disciples, in other words, tempted to accept the circles the world draws around us instead of following the God who keeps crossing those boundaries and ever widening that circle of his mercy. But the difference, friends, and you need to hear this, this isn't a circle that we need to go out and establish. The difference that Christ has already made in this world is a boundary crossing difference. The world we live in now because of the resurrection of the dead that we now have in Jesus Christ, the world that we now live in, where the forgiveness of sins is readily given to us because of Christ. This is the world that we now need to sync up our circles with. Does that make sense? That is reality. We got to get on board with that reality. That's what repentance is, realigning our lives to the reality that God has already made in our lives through Christ. What's left for us to recognize is that our little circles, they're going to need to widen maybe even beyond the places we're comfortable with them widening. I've experienced that so many times in my life. Last night, we had the absolute, it's such a great time. It's probably one of the most joyful public experiences I've ever experienced in my life for three years in a row here. We were marching down in the South Congress, the Austin Pride Parade, all our Episcopalians, and it was such an amazing time. I drove my truck. It was pretty sweet, had the trailers all decked out. We had such a great time. It was this over the top, beautiful celebration of the diversity of all that God has made us to be and God's acceptance and love of all that God has made God's people to be. That was more than just a pride march for us. It was to say with the presence of our own bodies to those who had been cast out of the church so often. This message, God's circle includes you. God's mercy includes you. You are made in the image of God. You belong. God loves you. We witness God's expanding circle when we stand with our undocumented neighbors who are being told that mercy stops at the border. And we say, this table, the kingdom of God, it is not something that the government gets to determine who's in or who's out on. And the government's just going to have to deal with that. That may get us into trouble, friends, but, you know, we've been in trouble before, right? Especially when we're following the Lord into these new boundary crossing areas of God's welcome and mercy. It's worth it. We witness to God's expanding circle when we stand against the dismantling of public schools and health care. The destruction of our environment. Defunding all these things while we spend over one trillion dollars on our military. And say, as a church, we ought to say, access to education and healing should not depend on your economic standing or what side of the border you were born on. We witness to God's expanding circle when we fill out a card, even a small thing, a card for training day. It may seem like I'm just serving at the A.B. table or something, you know. We witness to the same ever-widening circle of God's welcome when we make ourselves available to serve another person in these even small acts. Making ourselves available for training day, not just for the donuts, although that's like 80 percent of it for me. But to actually learn a way to serve and love my neighbor who's sitting right beside me and especially those who aren't yet sitting right beside me. Not just to click buttons or to set something else up, but to actually cultivate the space in which someone can encounter the mercy of God. That's worth it, right? How compelling is that? The Canaanite woman didn't wait for permission. Friends, I want to say the same thing to us. Do not wait for permission. You have Christ. That's all you need. Go straight to Jesus. Disregard those boundaries, those lines that others tell you you cannot cross. Follow Jesus. Follow Jesus. Go straight to him. Beloved, the good news is the circle of God's mercy was never ours to draw. And neither is it ours to police or manage. It was never ours to guard. But in Christ, we have a God who keeps crossing that line out of love for all the God has made. No exception. This is the same God who laid down his life for his friends, crossing that line of death and suffering into new life and resurrection so that all might be welcome into God's loving and saving embrace. Amen. Isn't that great news? This is the same God who still today in Austin, Texas, in this world still lives, still reigns, and is still expanding the reach of God's mercy and God's love until all that God has made is home with God. Amen. Let's take a moment of silence, make ourselves available to the voice of the Spirit and listen to God's invitation to us this morning.