Truthful Humility – 17 August 2014 – Lectionary 20

Primary connections in these texts link honesty (with oneself and others) with humility. The Canaanite woman who confronts Jesus for healing is both truthful and humble. These attributes are also present in Isaiah’s call to justice. And in Romans, we find Paul’s astounding statements about human disobedience and God’s mercy. The honest truth is that God’s healing continues despite our failure to deserve it. And the Canaanite woman knows that. She can teach us. In truth, we cannot honestly receive God's goodness without a sense of humility. 

Matthew 15:10–28

The exploration of God’s relationship with what is not good in our world (perhaps we do not want to call everything that is negative “evil”) is given specific focus in the Gospel text. Rather than leaving out the alternate additional sentences, verses 10-20, invite them into the discussion. Let them raise the questions of evil, defilement, and God’s relationship with all that we detest in our world. Jesus addresses these issues and we should hear what he says.

Jesus speaks first with the disciples in a theoretical way about the location of what does not produce good. Let the blind lead the blind, Jesus says. They are going to “fall down,” and you can’t change that. 

 The disciples ask for greater clarity. Jesus again speaks in abstract terms: What a person produces from the heart is capable of defeating him or her. What the body itself (the stomach) produces is irrelevant to the production of goodness. The seat of evil is in the heart. 

 Then the abstraction takes hold in a concrete person. A woman appears who wants help for her daughter. Jesus’ disciples want her to get lost. Even Jesus isn’t clear that she is part of his concern. She’s not an Israelite. 

 She is remarkable for having argued with Jesus, and fought her way into his blessing, but her real triumph is her humility. She doesn’t try to argue that she is not a dog. Instead, she embraces Jesus’ definition of her (anything to get his help! Her daughter is the point!). He is the master. She is the lapping dog. She will crawl for any crumb he might toss to her. She is granted her desire because Jesus sees that her eyes are on the power he has to dispense and on its goodness. She is not demeaned by his portrait of her. Instead, she dismantles that identity by absorbing it and twisting it to her own purposes. Thus is evil overcome. 

 This may be a story of pacifism: winning through accommodation rather than battle.

Isaiah 56:1, 6–8

Those of us who are given to thinking of scripture in terms of Law and Gospel find here an excellent example of the complexity of assigning such designations. What could be Law: “Maintain justice… do what is right… keep the Sabbath… do not profane it… hold fast my covenant…” What could be Gospel: “soon my salvation will come… my deliverance be revealed… these I will bring to my holy mountain… make them joyful… I will gather others besides those…” 

 The grace of God permeates the actions that sometimes sound as if they are prerequisites for God’s grace. Where one ends and the other begins is usually obscure.  . . .  Grace is enacted in truth-telling.

Romans 11:1–2a, 29–32

This chapter of Romans concerns God’s design of creation. Verses 2b-28, the missing verses here, deal with God’s historical embrace and the people’s denial of allegiance to God which ask what happens to those who have been given a share in God’s realm and yet turn away from it.

The reigning question is what becomes of those who have been grafted onto the olive tree—a metaphor for God’s life-giving presence in the lives of the beloved—and yet break off. The answer is verse 32: “For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.” . . .   

 Yet, we need to investigate what it is to be “imprisoned in disobedience.” Is this Luther’s “bondage of the will?” Is it Paul’s statement that he cannot do the good he wills to do? Is it a twisted description of a God who lets destruction thrive in the creation? Does it tell us that God created evil, too? There is much here for the preacher to explore.

– Melinda Quivik, General Editor of Liturgy, independent liturgical scholar

Homily Service 38, no. 9 (14 Aug 2005): 15-24.

Anti-Racism Preaching

The Liturgy issue published this year in April dealt with "Liturgy, Culture, and Race." These are big matters, and the entire issue is worth reading. However, for preachers, Suzanne Wenonah Duchesne's essay on preaching to undermine racism is particularly practical and helpful. Here are excerpts:  

KNOW THYSELF

To Know Thyself . . . means that a part of this journey involves a recognition that race is a construction embedded within U.S. society. The preacher, then, needs to discover his place within that system. Because everyone who lives in the United States is immersed in systemic racism, preachers need to be truthful with themselves. A high degree of honesty is integral to preaching because every sermon espouses a particular worldview whether the preacher acknowledges it or not. The degree of honest engagement by the preacher will be evident to the congregation and will go a long way toward building trust with the congregation as they observe the preacher as one who also struggles with the consequences of systemic racism. The benefits of getting to Know Thyself in terms of one's social location include not only increased personal knowledge and increased trust within the congregation but also the beginning of a self-hermeneutic that allows preachers to critically consider their worldview, how it influences their scriptural interpretation, and how they will convey that knowledge to their congregations.

  

KNOW THY CONGREGATION

[T]he antiracist preacher will want to remember the words of Audre Lorde when she points out, “Oppressed peoples are always being asked to stretch a little more, to bridge the gap between blindness and humanity.” [Audre Lorde, “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism,” in Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (Berkeley, CA: Crossings Press, 2007), 132.] This is why it is necessary to keep power relations in mind. Eric Law describes the pedagogy of the powerless and the pedagogy of the powerful and emphasizes the need for structures that ensure that both the powerless and the powerful are able to speak in groups. [Eric H. F. Law, The Word at the Crossings (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2004), 119–20.] A pedagogy of the powerless enables those who are marginalized to always speak first, have their opinions considered first, and be supported in their speech so as to empower their liberation. At the same time, a pedagogy of the powerful engages the powerful in a way that avoids hopelessness and counterproductive acting out by challenging them to let go of their power, to engage in waiting and listening, and to encourage them to speak after all other voices have been heard. The goal is always that groups move beyond superficial multicultural sharing sessions and to move into deeper relationships that provides support against the pressures to stop the work of antiracism that will inevitably come.
 
The pressure and fatigue of antiracism work presents a strong argument for the antiracist preacher to be attentive to rhetorical strategies. One of the rhetorical strategies already alluded to is the importance of attending to the relationship between the preacher and the congregation. The building of trust is essential. But the passion with which a preacher presents sermons is also important. Nurturing emotional connections with one's congregation increases the preacher's ability to hear and respond. [See, as an example, Mary Alice Mulligan and Ronald J. Allen, Make the Word Come Alive (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2005), 114.] A preacher who can convey narrative tension along with the fine details of good storytelling will be far more convincing than one who makes a didactic argument.   

Suzanne Wenonah Duchesne, “Antiracist Preaching: Homiletical Strategies for Undermining Racism in Worship,” in Liturgy 29, no. 3 (15 Apr 2014): 11-20.

Suzanne Wenonah Duchesne is the Lead Pastor of Ridge Avenue United Methodist Church, Roxborough, Penn.; UMC Chapel Coordinator at Palmer Theological Seminary, King of Prussia, Penn.; and Adjunct Professor of Pastoral Theology at Moravian Theological Seminary, Bethlehem, Penn.

Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany: Sunday, 12 February 2012

The Gospel lesson for the sixth Sunday after the Epiphany depicts Jesus’ healing of a man with leprosy. In 2009, Kenneth Schmidt invited readers of Homily Service to use the hymn “The Summons” by John Bell to expand upon the pericope’s theme of ministering to those on the margins of society.

“The Summons" captures the Gospel invitation to go beyond our comfort zone, to do more than is expected and even do it without anyone else seeing it: “Will you kiss the leper clean and do such as this unseen?” It asks very provocative questions: Will you let the Lord lead you into unknown places? Will you take a risk that not everyone will accept or appreciate your efforts, and may even reject you, because of what you do in the name of Jesus? Will you let your real you show, instead of hiding behind the mask of what you want people to see? Will you set aside your fear and go ahead with a Gospel life?

The songs’ point is simple and challenging. God is inviting each of us, by name, into a life of faith that does more than the world expects. God is calling each of us into a life in which God’s love and power can work through us to transform the world around us, as surprisingly and dramatically and radically as Jesus changed the life of that man with leprosy. God wants to do great things in the world, and God wants to do them through us.

In Jesus’ day, lepers were among those considered contemptible and untouchable. Who fulfills that role in society today, and how leaders help the church to overcome its fastidiousness in order to minister to them?

Kenneth Schmidt (2008): 15 February 2009: Epiphany 6, Ordinary 6. Homily Service 42:1, 143.

Kenneth Schmidt is the Roman Catholic pastor of St. Thomas More Catholic Student Parish, serving the students of Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo College. He is a counselor and cofounder of the diocesan Trauma Recovery Program that assists adult survivors of childhood trauma. He also trains mental health professionals and spiritual caregivers in the provision of effective treatment for trauma survivors.