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On Highway 59/20, going from Birmingham to Tuscaloosa, there’s a billboard that says “Real Christians obey Jesus’ teachings.”
I wish instead it said “Real Christians are changed by Jesus’ teachings.” Because we are a transformed people. As Paul has been telling us in Romans throughout this summer, we were dead through sin and are now made alive through Christ Jesus.
And I also wished it said that we are changed by Jesus’ teachings because the Bible is not meant to be a tool for us to justify our way of life. It is, instead, a tool for us to look at our lives and see how we could do better.
Our lessons today do just that. They are a challenge to us to look at how we treat others around us who may be different. Who may belong to different groups, or tribes, or races than we do.
This begins in Isaiah today. Our reading comes at the time when the Israelites were returning from exile. They finally were home in Jerusalem.
And as the Israelites were trying to rediscover their identity, some decided that they needed to put away foreign wives. They needed to separate themselves from anything that was other than them. That was other than their identity as Israelites.
But that’s not what Isaiah is telling them to do. God does not see this separation. The call to do justice, the call to all who will receive God’s salvation, goes to all people who worship God on His holy mountain.
Yes, God has gathered back the “outcasts of Israel” but we are told He will gather others as well.
It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter where you came from. All who worship God are welcome. All who worship God are brought in.
Jesus and His disciples are traveling in towns that would have been filled with Gentiles. Non-Jews. Different people of different tribes than Jesus and the disciples.
And they run into a woman there who is a Canaanite. The people the Israelites pushed out when they entered the Promised Land. And she begs Jesus for help.
Jesus waits to respond until the disciples are paying attention. And they are not happy. They want this woman gone. They want Jesus to send her away.
But Jesus doesn't do that. He calmly tells her that His mission is to the people of Israel. And when she continues to beg, He responds in a way that may seem cruel to our modern ears. That it is not fit to take the food from children and give it to the dogs.
And this Canaanite woman has a clever response. That even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the table.
Even though she's a Canaanite, even though she's not of Jesus' tribe, and even though the disciples, like many Jews of the time, felt that she was beneath them, because she has faith, Jesus is willing to grant the healing that she is looking for for her daughter.
There are some who say this scene shows a change in heart in our Lord. Others say it is Jesus providing a test to show His disciples that faith can live in all people. That who you are and where you are from does not matter because God calls to bring all back to Himself. I tend to lean towards the latter view. But regardless, Jesus in this scene shows that all people are being brought in. All people can and will be rewarded for their faith in the One True God.
And we do see a shift in the Gospel according to Matthew. Before this point, Jesus had told His disciples to just go and preach to the tribes of Israel. After this point, at the very end of the Gospel, Jesus tells the disciples to instead travel and preach to all. Because all are called to hear the Good News of the Lord.
Because of this command, the Gentile element in Christianity eventually outgrew the Jewish element. But this does not mean that God has forgotten His chosen people, as Paul tells us this morning. God is still there for the Jewish people too. He has not abandoned or rejected them. Because, again, God is calling all people back to Him.
In hearing Jesus' teachings, we are called to be changed. And just as God's chosen people were meant to be a city on a hill to shine the light to all nations and bring them back to God, we too are called to internalize God's commandments and to reflect them back to the world. We are meant to reflect to the world not what it is but what it could be.
In the wake of the tragic events of terrorism and violence in Charlottesville, Virginia last week, our readings this morning call us all the much more to reflect what God wants for us in this world. He doesn't want us to be in conflict with each other, and he certainly does not want us to be divided by prejudice and racism. No matter where our ancestors came from, or what is in our wallets, or what is in our minds or on our skin, God is calling us all back to Himself. God is calling us to not be divided by our earthly allegiances but to realize that we only have one true allegiance that ever truly matters. And that allegiance is to Him. That allegiance is to Christ Jesus our Lord.
At St. Paul's, we have been striving to bring people in. We have tried to bring new people into our fold. We have opened our luncheons to all in this town. And we opened our doors to other churches for our community service, to churches of all races in this town. And these are great first steps. But we can do more. We can always do more to welcome all people into this church. We can always do more to try and change Sunday from the most segregated day of the week to the least segregated day of the week.
And this is something I cannot do alone. There are a lot of people I've invited to this church, rich and poor and black and white. And I've been lucky with 2, maybe 3. And I think it's because people look at me and think "He has to say that. He's the preacher. He has to be nice." And to some extent that's true.
But if each and every one of you went out and invited someone new into this church? That would have a huge effect. Because this is your church. So your words, your kindness, will be able to have a much bigger impact.
As you leave here today, keep this in mind. Let the words our readings change you. Let your actions show that no matter what, no matter who you are, God is calling you to worship on His Holy Hill. Show the world what it could be. That we don't have to live with prejudice and violence, but that we can live in the love, hope, and strength that we find in our Lord Jesus Christ.