Sermon for August 17th
St. Luke Lutheran Church – Aug 17, 2008
13th Sunday after Pentecost – Lectionary 20 – Year A
Primary Text: Isaiah 56: 1, 6-8
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have been caught up in the Olympics this last week. I enjoy watching the competition. Hearing the sometimes engaging, other times a little sappy, stories about how the athletes got to the games. Watching the parade of nations and trying to guess where the countries are from before they put the little map in the corner. I usually at least have the right continent. Watching sports that normally do not get any coverage, like swimming, gymnastics, rowing, archery and track and field. I like being torn between watching the regular NBC broadcast with volleyball or the MSNBC feed with table tennis.
The chance to see people from countries that I have never been to all competing together, forgetting their differences, at least a little bit, in order to come together has always been compelling. The theme that they used for this year’s games was an interesting theme. One World One Dream. This theme is interpreted on the official website as a way to show the universal values of the Olympic spirit. To quote, “"One World One Dream" fully reflects the essence and the universal values of the Olympic spirit -- Unity, Friendship, Progress, Harmony, Participation and Dream. It expresses the common wishes of people all over the world, inspired by the Olympic ideals, to strive for a bright future of Mankind. In spite of the differences in colors, languages and races, we share the charm and joy of the Olympic Games, and together we seek for the ideal of Mankind for peace. We belong to the same world and we share the same aspirations and dreams” This Olympic theme calls to all aspects of humanity asking them to come together to further the human race, despite differences of color, religion, and language.
That’s a pretty big ideal to try to reach. In our sinful world we strive to that ideal, but we fall short. There are atrocities committed all over the world everyday in contradiction to this ideal. Even the very first week of the games, war broke out between Russia and Georgia. We still see countless people being abused in Darfur. Oppression is still going on in Israel and Palestine. People are imprisoned throughout the world simply because of their beliefs, political, social or religious. In light of all of this it seems to me that we can never hold up that Olympic ideal of One World One Dream. Should we then simply give up on the ideal? No, I think that ideals, whether they are meant or not, at least help to bring us closer to that ideal. A Russia Georgia cease-fire has been called, and I feel that the Olympic ideal is part of why that occurred. An article that I read recently told of an Iranian athlete who would not compete directly with an Israeli athlete because of support for the Palestinian peoples. This gives us an example where someone directly involved with the Olympics is saying that they feel that those ideals are not being met.
In our Isaiah text, we see part of God’s version of this Olympic ideal. God calls us to maintain justice and do what is right, for God’s salvation will come, and God’s deliverance will be revealed. God declares that God’s house shall be a house of prayer for all peoples who join themselves to the Lord. “And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, … these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; … for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” What a goal, all peoples joining themselves to the LORD, worshiping and praising in God’s house of prayer.
I think we fall short of this ideal as well though, we join ourselves to God, but then our sin turns us away from God, and we no longer maintain God’s justice, and we no longer do what is right, we become the outcasts. Through our own doing we cannot reach God’s ideal. Luckily, Isaiah continues. “Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.” Here we see the good news, it is not up to our own doing to join ourselves to God, God gathers us all.
This year we witnessed the 40th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The theme of One world, One dream brings to mind his “I have a dream speech.” The theme’s are very similar, and speak to similar concerns, one on the global level, one on the national level. King declares that his dream would be that we need to work on the issue of race, and then we can begin to reach the true ideal. The last line of the speech declares: “When we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
Dr. King’s speech also speaks to sin, he realizes that this dream is just that, a dream. A dream is a hopeful goal, but one that we realize that has many speed bumps in its future. Again, this does not mean that we should not strive for ideals and dreams. King refers to earlier in Isaiah where a voice cries out, “Isaiah 40:4-5 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5 Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” We read this text during the Advent season as it is speaks to the coming of John the Baptist foreshadowing Jesus. Our text from Isaiah speaks of the gathering of all the Israelites. And through the complete version of God’s ideals in Jesus Christ, we see God’s gathering of all peoples of this world. In Christ’s death and resurrection, we see God’s completion of that ideal. Christ brings us all together and frees us to maintain God’s justice without fear that our failure will keep us from salvation and deliverance.
The Gospel lesson for today also talks of this gathering of all people. We see Jesus confronted by a Canaanite woman. The Canaanites being ancient enemies of Israel, and therefore Gentiles, not of the house of Israel. Jesus first ignores her cries. Upon the disciples asking him to talk to her to send her away, Jesus states that he “was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” The women persists though, Jesus then insults her, to which she responses by saying that even dogs eat crumbs from their master’s table. This causes Jesus to declare that her faith is great, and her daughter is instantly healed. How do we connect this to the Olympic ideal. It is through the woman’s persistence that Jesus breaks his own boycott on helping those not of the house of Israel. As Jesus has set us free from our own concern over salvation we should be persistent in this world to try and reach the ideals of “I have a dream” and “One World, One Dream.”
13th Sunday after Pentecost – Lectionary 20 – Year A
Primary Text: Isaiah 56: 1, 6-8
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have been caught up in the Olympics this last week. I enjoy watching the competition. Hearing the sometimes engaging, other times a little sappy, stories about how the athletes got to the games. Watching the parade of nations and trying to guess where the countries are from before they put the little map in the corner. I usually at least have the right continent. Watching sports that normally do not get any coverage, like swimming, gymnastics, rowing, archery and track and field. I like being torn between watching the regular NBC broadcast with volleyball or the MSNBC feed with table tennis.
The chance to see people from countries that I have never been to all competing together, forgetting their differences, at least a little bit, in order to come together has always been compelling. The theme that they used for this year’s games was an interesting theme. One World One Dream. This theme is interpreted on the official website as a way to show the universal values of the Olympic spirit. To quote, “"One World One Dream" fully reflects the essence and the universal values of the Olympic spirit -- Unity, Friendship, Progress, Harmony, Participation and Dream. It expresses the common wishes of people all over the world, inspired by the Olympic ideals, to strive for a bright future of Mankind. In spite of the differences in colors, languages and races, we share the charm and joy of the Olympic Games, and together we seek for the ideal of Mankind for peace. We belong to the same world and we share the same aspirations and dreams” This Olympic theme calls to all aspects of humanity asking them to come together to further the human race, despite differences of color, religion, and language.
That’s a pretty big ideal to try to reach. In our sinful world we strive to that ideal, but we fall short. There are atrocities committed all over the world everyday in contradiction to this ideal. Even the very first week of the games, war broke out between Russia and Georgia. We still see countless people being abused in Darfur. Oppression is still going on in Israel and Palestine. People are imprisoned throughout the world simply because of their beliefs, political, social or religious. In light of all of this it seems to me that we can never hold up that Olympic ideal of One World One Dream. Should we then simply give up on the ideal? No, I think that ideals, whether they are meant or not, at least help to bring us closer to that ideal. A Russia Georgia cease-fire has been called, and I feel that the Olympic ideal is part of why that occurred. An article that I read recently told of an Iranian athlete who would not compete directly with an Israeli athlete because of support for the Palestinian peoples. This gives us an example where someone directly involved with the Olympics is saying that they feel that those ideals are not being met.
In our Isaiah text, we see part of God’s version of this Olympic ideal. God calls us to maintain justice and do what is right, for God’s salvation will come, and God’s deliverance will be revealed. God declares that God’s house shall be a house of prayer for all peoples who join themselves to the Lord. “And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, … these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; … for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” What a goal, all peoples joining themselves to the LORD, worshiping and praising in God’s house of prayer.
I think we fall short of this ideal as well though, we join ourselves to God, but then our sin turns us away from God, and we no longer maintain God’s justice, and we no longer do what is right, we become the outcasts. Through our own doing we cannot reach God’s ideal. Luckily, Isaiah continues. “Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.” Here we see the good news, it is not up to our own doing to join ourselves to God, God gathers us all.
This year we witnessed the 40th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The theme of One world, One dream brings to mind his “I have a dream speech.” The theme’s are very similar, and speak to similar concerns, one on the global level, one on the national level. King declares that his dream would be that we need to work on the issue of race, and then we can begin to reach the true ideal. The last line of the speech declares: “When we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
Dr. King’s speech also speaks to sin, he realizes that this dream is just that, a dream. A dream is a hopeful goal, but one that we realize that has many speed bumps in its future. Again, this does not mean that we should not strive for ideals and dreams. King refers to earlier in Isaiah where a voice cries out, “Isaiah 40:4-5 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5 Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” We read this text during the Advent season as it is speaks to the coming of John the Baptist foreshadowing Jesus. Our text from Isaiah speaks of the gathering of all the Israelites. And through the complete version of God’s ideals in Jesus Christ, we see God’s gathering of all peoples of this world. In Christ’s death and resurrection, we see God’s completion of that ideal. Christ brings us all together and frees us to maintain God’s justice without fear that our failure will keep us from salvation and deliverance.
The Gospel lesson for today also talks of this gathering of all people. We see Jesus confronted by a Canaanite woman. The Canaanites being ancient enemies of Israel, and therefore Gentiles, not of the house of Israel. Jesus first ignores her cries. Upon the disciples asking him to talk to her to send her away, Jesus states that he “was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” The women persists though, Jesus then insults her, to which she responses by saying that even dogs eat crumbs from their master’s table. This causes Jesus to declare that her faith is great, and her daughter is instantly healed. How do we connect this to the Olympic ideal. It is through the woman’s persistence that Jesus breaks his own boycott on helping those not of the house of Israel. As Jesus has set us free from our own concern over salvation we should be persistent in this world to try and reach the ideals of “I have a dream” and “One World, One Dream.”
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