Listen to Rev. Marcia’s sermon here >
May the words of my mouth and meditation of my soul find favor in your sight…
I am not sure if it is an “Age Thing.” But I am still searching for the words, as I savor every moment of my recent journey to Ireland a few weeks ago. There is almost a fear that, if I find the words, it will be like the final words of a book that I really don’t want to end. For I would rather just hold on to it a little longer before closing the book.
There is something about being away from your familiarity. Void of distractions, no cell phones, Social Media, able to mute out the barrage of words that defile the foundation of our democracy and do harm to our humanity.
We traveled across the Atlantic, 18 high schoolers, 10 chaperones from NY and Boston. We all of different faiths, cultures, backgrounds and life experiences, for a week in Corrymeela, Northern Ireland to experience the Emerging Peace Makers Youth program.
This was not a vacation. We gathered with these amazing youths, engaged in guided facilitation, building skills of how we come together and make a difference in our world. Blessed with the backdrop of the Emerald Cliffs, vibrant sunlit blue skies, hiking the rugged roads where Vikings once roamed, we were now in a place where we could hear one another, listen to one another, learn from one another through our histories and life stories.
As each day passed, every word that came out of our mouths grew deeper in meaning, purpose, kindness and in celebration of one another. We are planting the seeds of the future peacemakers that will, in the years to come, repair the damage done.
For me, as one of the chaperones, my time took on a dual experience. One being present in my responsibilities amidst 18 high schoolers, while embracing what turned out to be a pilgrimage of sorts; finding far more than I knew I was searching for.
We talked about the difficult road to peace: the challenges, trauma, repair and peace. We traveled off site. One trip was to Derry. In 1969, Bloody Sunday took place. To walk through with our guide, truthful telling of history and powerful stories. To literally walk the path of tragedy to reparations to repair.
As our tour guide shared, this is far from an easy or straight path. Especially felt as he brought us to the place where his father was one of the 14 innocent assassinated by British paratroopers in the massacre that Sunday.
It would take decades and countless words across the tables to reach an agreement: The Good Friday Agreement. Is all perfect? No. Derry is a testament to a work in progress. Derry has been resurrected. Walking through the streets, if not for the memorials and murals, you would not know that blood ran in the streets.
As we ended our tour, I asked our guide, “Whose decision was it to rebuild Derry?”
He answered in his Irish brogue, “So we keep tellin’ our histories and tell our stories… That what defines us…not the tragedy…!”
And with a glance, he said, “You should know a little something about that…”
No words needed. Sometimes silence speaks volumes.
At the end of the week, with warm hugs, our EPP group departed back to NY and Boston. I “settled” behind in Dublin, in part to enjoy a cup or two of Irish Breakfast Tea in Dublin, but also to journey to Belfast, to see the recently erected statue of Frederick Douglass.
In brief history, let me share the story. In the 1800s, while still sanctioned by the law and church, it was legal to enslave human beings.
Frederick Douglass escaped enslavement, moved up north and wrote his first book. His former slave owners took offense to his words, of his first autobiography, so eloquently and truthfully telling the stories of being an enslaved human being in America. And so they came after him to “re-enslave…him.”
Frederick jumped a boat headed for Ireland. He landed in Dublin.
Leaving his familiar, this young man of 24 years old, a fugitive runaway slave, had legitimate concerns about how he would be received. But his words had caused a “ripple effect” across the Atlantic that reached the Ireland Isle long before he arrived. He found welcoming and open arms from those who did not look like him, of different cultures and traditions, but of the same heart, speaking the same words of justice, peace and humanity: the Irish abolitionists, particularly Daniel O’Connell and Irish leaders against the oppression of British rule.
He only planned to stay a short time, but settled in for several months, speaking words of truth of the horrors of slavery. In time, Frederick realized he was not placed there only to speak on behalf of freedom of the enslaved, but also breaking the chains of the unfair conditions of oppressed Irish men, women and children. His words ignited civil rights for humanity.
So some 180-plus years later, I was not going to cross the Atlantic without seeing this statue in his honor. And after a long day of Hop On and Off tour, getting lost in Belfast, I found the statue down a narrow street, “East Village back in Jimi Hendrix day look.”
As I stood there, it was truly spiritual. I felt the need to just be still.
No words to speak… So much in the silence…
This is not the end of the journey; it is only the beginning.
Our words…lead to action. Our actions…lead to change.
In today’s Gospel, Matthew brings us to Jesus. Once again, Jesus’s words offend the Pharisees and confuse the disciples.
“Listen and understand, it is not what goes into your mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth that defiles!”
Jesus is being Jesus…
Who came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfil the Word as it was intended…not to oppress God’s children, but to bring them salvation…
It is not breaking the laws or traditions of cleanliness before you eat that defiles you. After all, that food will run its course and end up in the sewer…
It is what comes out of your mouth that defiles you, if not from a pure heart.
The words you speak as a breathing, living person, with a heart beating in your chest. If your heart has been corrupted by words of blind faith, hate, greed, those words spoken will defile you as they enter the world. And we become Children of a Lesser God, searching in the dark by those blinded by false truths, values and hateful rhetoric lifted by a God they created for the purpose of their temporal glory.
Peter is indeed confused by the words Jesus speaks. As in these days and times. And in these times, Jesus will speak words that did not even exist some 2,000 years ago, that reflect those of a defiled heart. Words of racial insults to Indigenous Peoples of countries, particularly those of color, LGBTQ communities, and so many words…that indeed hurt and do harm. Words can be so harmful, hateful, that there are those who can lose their hope and will to live…
In these times, the menu options are endless to feed the gluttonous and greedy. The sewers are overflowing, for they cannot hold the amount of waste produced, resulting in a spillage contaminating our waters, polluting our skies, compromising our food supply and, most dangerously, hardening our hearts with indifference and complacency.
But when we speak from a heart filled with the Holy Spirit, our words give hope for justice, peace for all humanity, and in the most challenging times and the best times, walk in love of God.
Jesus steps away from his familiar place to the new community of Tyre and Sidon, where he will continue to speak the words of God, even in a place where Jews and Gentiles were politically, socially and religiously opposed. Jews believed they were God’s chosen, considered Gentiles unclean.
Amongst all of this, a Canaanite woman has made the pilgrimage to meet Jesus to heal her child. Nothing comes between a mother and her child! She abandons protocol, traditions and laws of engagement. She knew what she came searching for.
I believe Jesus knows this woman. Jesus intentionally did not answer. Instead, giving her a moment.
Jesus knew this woman was going to speak the words from her heart, filled with the Holy Spirit.
You see, Jesus can sense these things…
As he once felt a touch…NOT grab, clutch, yank…but in the midst of a crowd…he felt…a touch of his hem…of another woman of faith.
And so, I believe, Jesus could sense this Canaanite woman was one of great faith. You see, I don’t believe Jesus is being snarky. I believe he is speaking to see if his disciples and those around him have been paying attention. How they would react, what words will come out of their mouths, in the presence of one breaking the rules, ignoring tradition in the presence of the Son of Man. To show what is in their heart as a child of a loving God.
And so they answered. His disciples urged him to “send her away…for she keeps shouting after us!”
And Jesus does Jesus.
Giving this woman of faith the opportunity to show she has been paying attention.
“Woman, great is your faith!”
And in that moment, in the power in the name Jesus, the chains are broken of marginalized hate, religious barriers, ethnic, racial hate, gender indifference, and marginalization. Jesus embraces the stranger, acknowledges how the power of faith can overcome what is broken in our hearts and in our world. One person at a time, bold enough to take that step to Jesus.
“In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God…”
We are to love one another as God loves us.
That is how we are defined as Children of a Loving God. Wherever our travels take us, we travel light, with an open heart, stepping out in faith and trust.
I thought of all the roads still to travel in search of truth, justice, peace and love. Jesus’s steps, Camino Walk, the Bridge at Selma, the Gates of No Return, the doors of Robben Island, the concentration camps, the Jonathan Daniels Alabama Pilgrimage, and so many more.
We still have many paths to walk, oceans to cross and hearts to touch, wounds to heal, for what we have done and left undone, when we have not loved one another as ourselves.
Will I get to them all in my lifetime???… Let’s see God’s plans.
But I do know each Sunday, we gather to walk the walk to the feast God has prepared for all with “no exceptions.” Here there are no rules, laws or traditions that turn anyone away. The invitation is “come as you are, wherever you are in your journey.” I would even add, if you don’t want to receive, then just come up for a “hug”; because sometimes on this journey you can use a “hug.”
And when you are filled, then go out in the world, to be the Church, the living heartbeat in the world. And return, next Sunday or any Sunday after, gather at this table better than you came today.
And let the Church speak the Word.
AMEN
