Insiders

and Outsiders Kerri Allen Matthew 15:10-28 Fourth Presbyterian Church Chicago August 14, 2011 Matthew 15:10-28 Then Jesus called the crowd to him and said to them, 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. Then the disciples approached and said to him, Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said? Jesus answered, Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit. But Peter said to him, Explain this parable to us. Then Jesus said, Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile. Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon. But Jesus did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us. Jesus answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But she came and knelt before him, saying, Lord, help me. Jesus answered, It is not fair to take the childrens food and throw it to the dogs. She said, Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters table. Then Jesus answered her, Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish. And her daughter was healed instantly. Sermon Text: Okay so I know its early in the morning, but I wonder if youll all indulge me for a bit and enter into a little imagining. This morning you were probably greeted warmly by an usher. Someone smiling and friendly, who was ready and willing to help you find a place in worship? But lets rewind and imagine a little different scenario. Imagine that there was an usher stationed at every door checking you for an ID. An ID much like a drivers license where you had to pass a test before you could come into worship. A Presbyterian ID that said you had answered a whole lot of questions correctly that allowed you to enter into worship. These were not like the ushers you encountered in worship this morning, these ushers were more like bouncers that youd encounter as you tried to get into an exclusive night club. Bouncers, checking IDs. 1

This ID is particularly branded to make sure that you have the correct theology and that you behave in the correct Christian ways, that says you are worthy of worshipping in this church and with these particular people. An ID that suggests that you are even saved because you have ascribed to a certain set of beliefs and you have no hesitations or reservations; an ID that affirms that you subscribe to black and white. So what if you dont have an ID? Well the bouncer-ushers are there to forcefully keep you out! Keep you out! Sounds a little whacky doesnt it? Of course it does, thats an imaginary story, right? Well imagine this. Imagine a young man in Kentucky, injured in a car accident. He is a faithful Christian met with a horrific sense of tragedy that leaves him paralyzed and in a wheel chair. He becomes depressed and despondent and his family, in hopes of helping him get through his recovery, call the pastors of his church to visit him. But the visit wasnt what I would expect from pastors or what any of us should expect from our religious leaders. These pastors proceeded to tell the young man that he was no longer welcomed in the church. He was not healed from his accident and they couldnt have outsiders seeing him in wheelchair and thinking that the church was not full of the most faithful, most favored Christians. This, of course, is probably even harder to imagine, but this is the story I encountered during my hospital chaplain internship last summer. Seems a little extreme and harsh that the boundaries are drawn to keep certain people inside and other people out. Extreme but not unlike what is going on throughout the 15th Chapter of Matthew text this morning. As we enter into this passage I read this morning at the 10th verse, but before that, starting at the 1st verse, the Pharisees, or some of the religious authorities of the day, had come to Jerusalem to see Jesus. Starting at the beginning of the chapter, these religious leaders were extremely concerned that Jesus was not following traditional Jewish teaching and they were quite upset with him. They demand to know: Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat. The Pharisees were particularly concerned that ritualistic norms are being executed. They came to Jerusalem to make sure that the status quo is maintained, the religious boundaries of the day remain in tact, keeping the insiders in and the outsiders out. Well Jesus isnt particularly impressed and responds to them, pointing out the irony of their question: Why do you break the traditions of your elders? Jesus draws upon Isaiahs prophesy and chastises them You honor God with your lips, but your worship is a farce because your heart is not connected with Gods teachings. Jesus calls them hypocrites and proceeds with a parable to the crowd and to his own disciples. 2

 Jesus does not further address the holiness code around hand washing, but he transitions into a parable about eating. In the context of his audience and the emphasis on Jewish dietary laws at this time, this path Jesus takes is a radical statement. A radical statement that is laced with irony. Before we assume that Jesus is throwing out the law of his own Jewish tradition, we should realize that Jesus is connecting what goes in and out of the body, with the heart. Its not an explicit rejection of the law, rather its re-informing the connection between holiness and treatment of Gods people. This is clear from Jesus previous reference to Isaiah Jesus is calling upon the larger covenant narrative of the Jewish tradition that expands beyond ritual and right and wrong worship protocol and seeks to connect relationship with God to relationship between one and other. These boundaries were not established simply for the sake of ritual, they were established as boundaries for how people related with God and with one and other. Without the covenant relationship being primary focus and that focus being from the heart in how they treated one another, the act of ritual is idolatrous. Yet the Pharisees traveled to Jerusalem to check the religious IDs of Jesus and his disciples. These, the religious leaders of their day, the maintainers of the tradition, the ones who are the experts on God huh. The Pharisees, in this particular passage, were nothing more than religious bouncers of their time. So even though Jesus has clearly admonished the Pharisees by this point in the Scripture, its still not connecting with his disciples. Theyre disconnected from Jesus radical explanation framed to reconnect the centrality of covenant relationship with God as inextricably linked to how they care for one another. Theyve missed it. And Jesus explicitly tells Peter, You missed it. Two opportunities, two separate scenes pass with the disciples encountering Jesus radical and ironic re-telling of the religious tradition and the disciples continue to be disconnected. As we forward to the next scene this disconnect becomes more prominent and the opportunity to relay the radical, yet ironic message, becomes more profound. Jesus disciples are ready and willing to take on the role of religious bouncers. The self-appointed role of the watchdogs of the faithful. A Canaanite woman approaches Jesus. The ultimate outsider, a woman who is from a people who were historically the sworn enemies of the Jews a woman who was from the place where the people were traditionally pagan. This was not a Jewish woman, so how dare she approach Jesus? And the disciples were determined that she remain an outsider. Keep her out Jesus. Keep her out! Jesus seems to be playing along with his disciples, as the woman begs for mercy for her daughter. I was sent only for the lost sheep of Israel. I imagine Jesus disciples are finally breathing a sigh of relief, Finally Lord, you get it. 3

 Even surrounded by all of the religious bouncers trying to keep her out and away from Jesus, the woman is not having it, Lord, have mercy. Jesus, still seemingly playing along with the disciples tells her, You are nothing more than a dog. Imagine the watchdog bouncers on the sidelines, cheering on Jesus in this exchange, Keep her out! Keep her out! A refrain that is only outmatched with the womans pleas, Lord have mercy. Even the dogs eat scraps, the woman proclaims. And there it is, the testimony of her faith, the Canaanite woman, the outsider, not one of the religious bouncers she gets it. And mercy the Lord does show. Three distinct scenes here in the Biblical text we explore this morning. Each moving along testing the boundaries until this powerful contrast demonstrates that it is the outsiders who are in and the insiders who need to take another look another look at themselves. Insiders who maintain the goal of trying to keep others away from the church, or away from the tradition, who seek to bar the outsiders? Well Jesus tells them, they are hypocrites. Jesus says worship God with your heart, do not worship the ritual, do not worship the religion, worship God. Jesus proclaims the faithful are not always as they appear. The faithful are sometimes the outsiders, the least suspecting. And Jesus proclaims that he was not sent to be a religious bouncer, and his disciples are not to be the religious watchdogs of their day. Not then and not now. For God has mercy on all Gods people. Those suspecting and those unsuspecting, including the outsiders. All thanks be to God. Amen.