20 August 2023, The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Audio recording of the 10am hybrid/zoom service, sermon by the Rev. Debbie Hawkins
August 20, 2023
Proper 15, Year A
Church of St. Martin
The Rev. Deborah Hawkins
“It begins with words.”
On Wednesday evening I attended an interfaith meeting held at the United Methodist Church. The presenters were from Congregation Bet Haverim. The topic was antisemitism, which is on the rise around the world and in Davis. Indeed, as the presenters reminded us, all hate speech is on the rise around the world, and in Davis. Clergy and members of Social Justice committees from faith communities in Davis were invited to hear the presentation and then engage in a conversation in the hope our awareness would be raised and we would be more prepared to combat hate speech in the world around us and to spread that awareness within our communities.
I wonder if today’s gospel reading can help us with this in any way?
A United Nations definition of hate speech is “any kind of communication in speech, writing or behaviour, that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are, in other words, based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, colour, descent, gender or other identity factor.”
Or, any time we speak hatefully of or to someone for the simple reason they are however God created them.
Given that definition you may notice that in today’s gospel reading Jesus engaged in hate speech. Just before this passage Pharisees and Sadducees were pointing out his followers sometimes break the rules – they gather grain and therefore work on the sabbath – they say. Jesus comes back at them, ‘oh you say the laws of God are important to you, honor your father and mother. But your actions! First chance you get, you try to figure out a way around the law. You hypocrites!’ The disciples told Jesus the Pharisees took offense at his statement. This was followed by him talking to his closest disciples, saying, “it is not what goes into the mouth” that is the problem, “what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles.” (Mt 15:17-18) Jesus continued walking along and came upon the Canaanite woman who asked him for help. He called her and her people dogs and said, ‘I am not here for you, I have nothing for you.’ Some say he was testing her to help bring her to faith. Well, maybe, but it was still hurtful. It was still based in prejudice. It was hate speech.
What he said to the Pharisees, that wasn’t hate speech. It was a heated argument with people Jesus considered part of his group – those he had come for. Later, when Jews and Christians split apart, Christians would use these words and others like them as an excuse to persecute Jews. It is part of our shameful legacy and an example of the power of words.
If we believe what we say every week, that, for our sake, the Holy Mystery became truly human, then there will have been times when he was tired or angry or afraid or cranky and wasn’t careful about what he said and he said hurtful things. I do that sometimes, too. Do you? There will have been times when Jesus the man did divide humanity into insiders and outsiders. I do that sometimes, too. Do you? It is human nature and most of us spend most of our lives working to overcome unconscious prejudices that arise from this human propensity, prejudices we picked up in all sorts of places back in the dim recesses of our pasts. Prejudice is passed down from one generation to the next often in ways we don’t even recognize.
Which is good news for all of us. Not that it gives us permission to be thoughtless and hateful – wouldn’t that change the world if we had to get permission before we could say something hurtful to someone else – but because Jesus shows us what we can do when we do just what he did – categorize a whole group of people as ‘other,’ look down on them, and say something hateful, that we know or don’t know at the time is wrong and we come to regret. It was bad.
So what did the 2 of them show us? Jesus isn’t the only one who is a teacher in this story. What happened when he called her and her daughter dogs?
*To begin with she didn’t end the conversation but she did call him on it. ‘You think I am a dog? Fine. But that doesn’t mean I am unworthy of receiving God’s care.’
*Then he paused and considered what she had said.
*He realized she spoke the truth and he was in the wrong.
What happens when we find ourselves in that position? Hopefully that is when we offer what I call the slump prayer. We round our shoulders, lower and shake our heads and say, ‘ah, Jesus!’
Not in any blasphemous way but as a prayer, a prayer for help, for forgiveness, for the courage to try again. It is a prayer for solidarity with, rather than separation from, the person in front of us and for solidarity with Jesus. ‘Ah, Lord. You know what I have done. Help.’
*When he realized he was wrong, I think he sent off a quick prayer for help
*And then he changed in response to her challenge. He changed.
A few scenes before this one we have the story of the feeding of the 5000 thousand. That took place in Jewish territory. After today’s story, there is a second miraculous feeding story, 4000 this time, and it takes place in gentile territory. We don’t know the ethnicities of those who were fed but I like to think Jesus’ encounter with the mother of the ill Canaanite child led to a part of that fully human being changing a little bit, changing to be what we might call a little more human. Maybe we should look at it as changing in a way that shows how each one of us can become a little bit divine.
So much begins with words. In our sacred stories we say all of creation began with a word. Words continue to have great power. How we use them matters. Jesus has shown us our propensity to divide the world into insiders and outsiders is an innate problem, part of human nature. We must give up thinking we have fixed that part of ourselves or pretending there is no problem or they are the problem, not us. We must give up pretending what we say or hear or have done or left undone does not matter.
The gospel story today is an intimate one. It does not offer sweeping solutions to an overwhelming, world wide problem. It speaks to you and to I about the people we are and we meet in our community.
I was looking at the UN website this week and the sentence that jumped off the screen at me was, ‘Genocide happens within communities.’ UN Secretary-General António Guterres reminds us “The Holocaust did not start with the gas chambers, but with hate speech against a minority.” Since the Holocaust, “hate speech has been a precursor to atrocity crimes, including genocide, from Rwanda to Bosnia to Cambodia.” As he says, “Hate speech is an alarm bell – the louder it rings, the greater the threat of genocide. It precedes and promotes violence.”
When we hear the gospel story today we realize Jesus has given us work to do and it all starts with words. And the good news? The good news is every time we interrupt the cycle of hate and division within ourselves, our households, our real and our virtual communities, every time we hear it and change it, we change for the better and the doors to healing for this world Christ so loves open a little wider.
Ah Jesus, help us.
Ref: https://www.un.org/en/hate-speech
Service Bulletin:
Where’s the Music?
Prelude (“O Word Immortal of Eternal God“, by Orlando Gibbons, “Song 24 arrangement“, by Healey Willan, at 0:00,
Opening Hymn , at 6:45,
Song of Praise, at 10:28,
Sequence Hymn, at 18:01,
Anthem (“Aloha Oe“, by Princess Liliuokalani, at 45:39,
Offertory Response, at 49:25,
Sanctus, at 50:52,
Communion music, at 55:59.
Closing hymn, at 1:04:30,
Postlude (“Postlude on Slane”, by Gerre Hancock), at 1:08:04.
