August 17 , 2008 Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Proper 15 Commentary by Bruce G. Epperly

See also: [2005] [2002]

Genesis 45:1-15
Psalm 133
Romans11:1-2a, 29-32
Matthew 15:21-28

Today’s passages describe the power of reconciliation to transform families, ethnic divisions, and national infidelity. Joseph reconciles with the brothers who sold him into slavery; Paul describes God’s everlasting love for Jewish people, despite Paul’s awareness of their unfaithfulness; and Jesus has a healing encounter with a woman from a despised ethnic group.

The reconciliation of Joseph with his brothers joins providence with patience and forgiveness. Joseph is no puppet, nor does the Joseph saga suggest, as Rick Warren asserts, that God ordained the most import events of Joseph’s life without Joseph’s input. Throughout the saga, the divine call and response is at work in Joseph’s attention to his dream life, his skill as an administrator, his personal integrity, his response to surprising situations and, at last, his heart-felt reconciliation with his brothers. God is at work in a variety of ways to reconcile this family as well as to provide the foundation for the possible emergence of a nation. God doesn’t do everything or control everything, but works within Joseph’s amazing, rough and tumble life, to inspire the growth of a people who will transform the world. Divine inspiration is not about control but expanding freedom and creativity, congruent with God’s vision of the world as it is and as it could be.

Process-relational theologian Bernard Loomer spoke of “size” as one of the primary religious virtues. Size, or what I call “stature,” involves the extent of intellectual, personal, and experiential complexity a person can embrace without losing her or his own personal center. Over the years, Joseph grew in wisdom and stature, in spiritual size, as he moved from favoritism to forgiveness. The process was no doubt difficult and involved ebbs and flows, as did Joseph’s own professional and personal life, but the process led to a spiritual healing for Joseph that eventuated in survival of his family and the continuing promise of an emerging nation.

Today, medical researchers speak of the “forgiveness factor,” that is, the importance of forgiveness in overall emotional and physical well-being. Long-held grudges imprison us in the past, limit our freedom and creativity, and block God’s highest possibilities for our lives. Perhaps, over many years God was present inspiring Joseph anew each day to let go of the past, forgive his brothers, and embrace new possibilities for his life.

The pastor, in the context of the sermon, or prayer of confession might invite the congregation to reflect on old hurts and forgiveness, and even write them down. These could be placed in the offering plate or some other gesture of letting go and moving ahead with God toward the adventure of reconciliation. Forgiveness is not easy. The pastor needs to remind the congregation that when serious abuse or trauma have occurred, this must be recognized and appropriate relational, emotional, therapeutic, and – at times – legal responses must be taken in order to secure a truly just reconciliation. Though God’s grace is always prior to our response, grace calls us to forgiveness and confession, not as a condition of receiving God’s grace, but as a way to experience God’s abundant grace in its life transforming fullness.

“Has God rejected God’s people? By no means!” So begins Paul’s affirmation of God’s ever-lasting covenant with Israel. Individually and corporately, certain Jewish people may turn away from God and from God’s Messiah Jesus, but God will not reject either the nation or Jewish persons. God’s covenant stands despite our ignorance or infidelity. “The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.” Accordingly, anti-Semitism is a theological and relational impossibility for those who seek to follow the way of Jesus.

Today, we must ask if God’s covenant extends beyond the Jewish people to include all humanity. Without denying the unique history of the Jewish people, we must ask if they alone are God’s uniquely chosen people. Process thought holds this in tension in the same way that it holds Jesus’ uniquely and divinely chosen reality in tension with God’s global revelation. Divine care and revelation for persons and communities is universal – all nations and people are chosen; but Divine care and revelation are also variable and personal – all nations and people are the recipients of God’s blessing. This tension between universality and uniqueness allows us to affirm our own individuality and ethnicity; but also to see our uniqueness as part of a larger spectrum of revelation that embraces the whole earth, and beyond that the universe. All are chosen, and all are chosen uniquely.

The perceptive reader will struggle with the words “God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.” At first glance, it sounds like God’s “tough love” is all about God and not the objects of God’s care. As such, this is simply theological narcissism, if not abuse. After all, whenever we hear assertions about divine behavior that are suspect, we must ask ourselves, “how would we respond if a parent behaved that way?” God’s morality must be higher than our own; God’s stature must be greater than our own, if God is to deserve our worship and gratitude. Can we redeem this sentence? In light of Whitehead’s comment that God’s aim is often the best for the particular impasse in which we find ourselves, we might say that our disobedience hampers the embodiment of God’s highest vision for our lives and that both God and ourselves must live with it. Divine mercy responds to us contextually, luring us slowly forward as best as God can, toward the vision of beauty and justice that is our highest calling.

Matthew’s description of Jesus’ encounter with a Canaanite woman pushes the boundaries of Jesus’ sense of calling to include Gentiles as well as Jews. Readers might ask if this is another example of Jesus’ experience of “growing in wisdom and stature” as this woman appears to present Jesus with a new understanding of his mission. Her unwillingness to let ethnic divisions get in the way of her daughter’s healing may have transformed Jesus’ own vision of his mission as God’s Teacher and Healer. Could Jesus like us have grown in his sense of mission? Could he have been awakened to a higher vision beyond that of the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” to now minister to “lost sheep of all houses and nations?”

The encounter is curious. Jesus seems rude and racist, and we can’t avoid recognizing the pain that the woman may have felt as she heard his words. Or, is there is a deeper story at work in this encounter? Perhaps, Jesus is testing her resolve. As twelve step wisdom says, “you’ve got to want it real bad!” But, another story line may be at work here. Perhaps, Jesus is using all the knee-jerk ethnic comments of his own community, luring his disciples forward as if he agrees with these racist sentiments, and then pulling the rug out from under them by affirming this foreigner’s faith and responding to her daughter’s needs. This encounter, as strained as it appears to be, may be a parable in action – Jesus’ apparently widely-held racist comments are the prelude to a “reversal of expectations” as the Jesus responds with an open heart and positive affirmation to heal the outsider’s daughter.

Stature must be at work in our interpretation of this story, first, in the affirmation that Jesus may have grown by his encounter with the Canaanite woman. Surely, God was constantly inspiring Jesus and this might have been an opportunity for God’s call and response in own Jesus’ life to invite him to become a world healer rather than merely a national healer. Jesus may have experienced a greater mission than he had previously envisaged in light of his encounter with an “outsider.” Second, this passage invites us to ponder where our stature as followers of the Jesus’ way is too small. Who are the persons we disregard? Where do we use disparaging language to describe persons of other races, ethnicities, social classes, gender and sexual identities? Even the best of us has a “You Tube” moment or a private inner voice that condemns or objectifies our neighbor. God’s reconciliation must include seeing our neighbor as he or she is, both flawed and as beloved child of God. Reconciliation must also include our willingness to give and ask for forgiveness, to confess our implicit alienation from others as a prelude to healing in God’s beloved community.

Bruce Epperly is professor of practical theology and director of continuing education at Lancaster Theological Seminary. He is author of fifteen books, including a response to The Purpose Driven Life, the forthcoming Holy Adventure: Forty-One Days of Audacious Living (Upper Room Press).

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