Reflections...

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 29th October 2006 by Bishop John Victor Samuel. The scripture readings that day were Mathew15:1-28, Leviticus 20:22-27 and Romans 14:1-11.


Peace of God be with you. I would like to thank Rev. Kowk Nai Wang for inviting me to worship with you this morning and share my faith with you.

I was given the freedom to choose the Bible readings for this morning. And I have chosen a portion from Saint Mathew 15:21-28. This is in the heart of a section, which deals with the issue of the Kingdom of God, as a new community grapples with the religious tradition of the existing Jewish community. All of this obviously had huge implications for new religious movement of Jesus Christ.

The whole story, one can say, can be found from chapters 11 to 16. Here we learn how the community deals with the good news of Kingdom of God already announced by Jesus Christ. Keeping oneself clean was a religious tradition. A person was required to avoid touching unclean objects, which was, in fact, anything identified as being unclean. A person was also required to refrain from touching or eating anything that would defile them or make them unholy. All this could only be achieved if the Jewish people set themselves apart from the community and have social contact only with those like themselves. This simply meant that the community had to be isolated from the world. Most of the stories in Mathew deal with these issues and the traditions of the Jewish religion, many of which were brought before Jesus by the Pharisees from Jerusalem.

In this larger section we also see how Jesus, time and again, crosses to other side of the lake or to another territory. The act of each crossing brings change and health to people. The crossing also brings new resolve and new enthusiasm to Jesus as well. Every one involved in the act of crossing experienced health and wholeness. Interestingly, in this larger section there are also two episodes of feeding the crowd. One group had five thousand men and other group had four thousand. Jewish crowd was on the Galilee side and Gentile crowd was on Gennesaret side.

We read in this section that Jesus crosses over to Genesaret. It is true that crossing over brings us to new situation and this newness of the situation brings change. It is note worthy that every crossing starts the process of change. Pharisees and Scribes cross over to Gennesret - Jesus again cross to the region of Tyre and Sidon. As I have said before that every crossing starts a process of change. The change happens on both sides. This change can be felt for both who cross and for those who meet them at the crossing. This process also sets in motion the healing and wholeness of one kind or another.

Before we go into this discussion, I would like us to look more deeply at the chosen text. The episode of the Pharisees and Scribes is interesting. They came from Jerusalem, which was the centre of Jewish religion and tradition. They represented authority of tradition and were the official exponents of the religious traditions. They began their discussion with Jesus on the very simple matter of washing hands before eating – making oneself clean before eating. They were in a Gentile region, and even by a casual touching of a Gentile, could have defiled themselves. Washing before meals therefore, was an important issue to them; but Jesus does not answer their question. Instead, He raised a larger question of law and tradition, which He felt the Pharisees and Scribes changed to suit their own convenience. For example, “Honour your father and mother” was the law and tradition, but the Pharisees and Scribes changed this when the question of property arose. They changed the meaning in order to protect their own properties.

Jesus quoted Isaiah to reprimand them and saying, “This people honours me only with their lips….” Only then does He talk about the issue of clean and unclean. Jesus said,

Listen and understand; what goes into the mouth does not make anyone unclean; it is what comes out of the mouth that makes someone unclean.

When disciples informed Jesus that the Pharisees were not too happy with this, Jesus replied,

Leave them alone; they are blind leaders of the blind; if one blind person leads another, both will fall into a pit.

This is a sharp response. What Jesus was leading them to was a much broader reality of the created world.

Let us now come to a central section of the discussion. This is the main story. Jesus goes to the Sindon and Tyre. The exposition of any truth is always difficult. The language of symbol comes to our aid and our body language conveys what words are unable to convey. Sidon and Tyre are two ancient cities. Sidon is the older, several centuries old, invaded by the Babylonians, Syrians, Persians, Greeks and Romans. Each power left behind their mark of culture, tradition, along with their small population to make their contribution. Every time a power invaded a city, they confronted people and their culture. And of course they influenced the population they overpowered.

But the subjugated too also managed to exert influence in a subtle manner. Thus it was that each side affected the other, resulting in a ‘new’ culture and tradition. The presence of Jesus can also attest to the changes of culture and tradition in Sidon. Thus Sidon becomes a very strong symbol of changing of culture with the passage of time. It was just at this time that a woman with sick daughter pleaded with Jesus His healing hand on this young girl. The mother was a Canaanite woman, a Gentile woman; a woman from the unclean section of the human community as seen by Jews. She pleads and asks a favour of healing. A mother pleads for her daughter. Who else could make such an impassioned plea? As the mother, only she could feel the pain of her child. She did not ask anything for herself, only pleading for her loved one. She asks only for another’s need.

It is here at Sidon, that some thing of great importance happens. The question of clean and unclean raised by Pharisees was uppermost in the mind of Jesus. The Canaanite woman brought further pressure on Jesus to resolve this issue. His disciples, find the woman a nuisance and just want to give the woman what she wants. This further exacerbates the pressure. It is at this point that Jesus becomes more reflective. He says aloud

I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

But the woman continues to plead for help. The pressure on Jesus was great. It was under the agony of pressure, it seems, that He responds, “How could children’s food be given to dogs” – which was also a word used towards Gentiles. The woman answers back, “Yes lord, but even little dogs eat the scraps that fall from their masters table.” What confidence and what faith this woman has! It helps Jesus make a decision,

Woman you have great faith. Let your desires be granted.

Are we not reminded another place where Jesus says,

In truth I tell you, if your faith is the size of a mustard seed and you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move; nothing will be impossible for you. (Mathew 17:20)

It might seem great to you and me. But in Jesus, it is not. He gave a final resolve to all those listening,

Let your desires be granted.

Health was restored. It is with this that a new tradition was born. The tradition of being concerned for others. The tradition of equality of human beings. The tradition of loving every person. For Jesus, the separation of humans on the basis of tradition and religion was a hindrance for health and wholeness.

The interesting thing in this entire section is that it is not learned doctors of religion and tradition who helped Jesus to resolve this issue. It was a Gentile woman, and the needs of a youth, temporarily ill, but soon to be well. It was these two vulnerable members of the community who provided the occasion for Jesus to be resolute.

I want to emphasize this aspect in the story. It is weak, Gentile and a woman who helped Jesus to come to this resolve. I recall a story I read of Mother Teresa when a group was visiting her home in Calcutta for abandoned children. One person expressed his admiration for her work and said, “I do not know how to do all what you are doing, but I am greatly impressed. I admire you for what you are doing and I wish I could also do something like this.” At that time, Mother Teresa was carrying a small baby in her arms. She handed over the child to the man, replying, “This child will teach you” and she went off to do other work.

How easy it is to ignore the small and helpless people, thinking that they cannot teach us. Yes, but we learn. We can learn that when confronted by situations, if we have the right attitude and free ourselves from all our prejudices, we no longer need to stand apart from rest of humanity. Standing aside firmly on our turf and endearing our own traditions is divisive. A divided humanity is a danger to our world.

The world in which we live today is a brand new world. New values have emerged. We are learning that in our security, peace and justice, we require a common understanding and must forge a common struggle. Nothing can be achieved by standing aside with wishful thinking. There are methods which are being employed to teach others how they should learn to live in harmony with others. Nothing is working. Guns will not create peace. Guns and bombs will not create security. Systems of population control will not last. It is true also that the world is struggling to experience life. We seek life. A life in which there is peace, security, justice, happiness, harmony, and freedom from wants. In the words of the Gospel of Jesus, we are seeking life abundance. (John 3: 16) We are seeking a system which will ensure that these needs and these values will be fulfilled.

The old traditions are in direct confrontation with the new aspirations of people. The old traditions demanded isolation, whereas our new world demands harmony of people. The traditions made us feel superior to others, whereas new values demand that we create a common human family to live in peace and harmony. To follow the tradition of clean and unclean, the traditions of separating people on the basis of our traditions of food, dress, faith and calling others with derogatory names is living in constant hostility with the people of the world. This is the way we create hell for ourselves and for others.

This is not what our world wants. The world today is serious for peace and harmony of communities. Peace and harmony cannot be achieved when our traditions demand that we work for separate development for the communities. In fact, there can never be any development by isolating ourselves from rest of the world. Our security is bound with one another. We cannot imagine that any one community with their own traditions will survive. We can build our ghettoes and build walls around us, but we cannot make our ghettos secure. We cannot isolate our selves from the rest of the world. We have seen over the years the emergence of universal values. These are the values that are appreciated by the entire world. Peace, reconciliation and rights of people, have become the legitimate demands of the entire human family. Peace and harmony within the family, community, nation, region and the world are common dreams of every one, young and old.

These dreams demand some basic work from all of us. The issue of one religious tradition over against the value system of modern society has become an important issue for the modern world. Each society created a system by which its survival, benefits and security is designed. These traditions and laws were created in the context of realities they faced yesterday – in the past era.

In the course of history we find a brand new world, with its own realities. This brave new world is charming and attractive on the one hand and scary and frightful on the other hand.

This morning we have been trying to see how Jesus has responded to the old traditions and new demands. We also tried to see how tensions created by old traditions and new demands helped Jesus to resolve the issue once and for all for us. His new resolve was understood by St. Paul who said “in Christ there are no male or female, no slave or freeman…..”

Is it not the unity of human family and the aspirations for peace, harmony and values of justice and freedom in the human life that we call a life that we all seek and aspire for? We call a life linked to the kingdom of God. Is it not the calling of church to give good news of the Kingdom? We have to cross over or reach out to people who stand there. Our position is not important. The coming of the Kingdom is important. It is my prayer that God may give us the courage to begin the process of crossing over and reaching out.