Time after Pentecost- Lectionary 20
Matthew 15:21-28

Most of you are familiar with the stories of Theodor Seuss Geisel, a man most of us know as Dr. Seuss. Born in 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts, Dr. Seuss authored over 40 children’s books including such classics as The Cat in the Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Horton Hears a Who. In 1960 Bennett Cerf bet Dr. Seuss $50 that he couldn’t write an entire book using only fifty words. The result was Green Eggs and Ham, probably my favorite as a kid.

Dr. Seuss’ books were more than entertaining; they were educational. They taught profound life lessons in simple and engaging ways. For instance, the story of Yertle the Turtle is about the danger of power and pride. Another story is entitled The Sneetches. The Sneetches are an imaginary species. Some of them have stars on their bellies and others do not. The problem is that those with stars on their bellies have decided that they are better than those who don’t. It’s a story that teaches children about prejudice and exclusivity. Listen to the opening lines,

Now the Star-bellied Sneetches had bellies with stars.
The Plain-bellied Sneetches had none upon thars.
The stars weren’t so big; they were really quite small.
You would think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all.
But because they had stars, all the Star-bellied Sneetches
would brag, “We’re the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches.”
With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they’d snort,
“We’ll have nothing to do with the plain-bellied sort.”
And whenever they met some, when they were out walking,
they’d hike right on past them without even talking.

Well, who are the sneetches, really? They, of course, are us. One of the ways in which our sinful human nature manifests itself is our seeming need to draw boundary lines around one another to determine who is in and who is out, who is worthy and who is unworthy, who is right and who is wrong, who is good and who is not. Unfortunately I think that as Christians we are some of the most guilty at drawing such boundaries. We’ve sliced Jesus so thinly according to our particular point of view it’s amazing there’s much of him left in our churches and denominations. And that’s especially troubling to me because so much of Jesus’ ministry was about tearing down boundaries. The Church is called to be radically inclusive because the One we call Lord and Savior was radically inclusive.

All summer long I’ve been talking about God’s abundance, looking for signs of that abundance in our scripture readings. Today I see God’s Abundant Gathering, Jesus inviting and bringing together all kinds of different people into the kingdom.

This morning’s scripture reading is a remarkable example of Jesus’ abundant gathering. On the surface it’s a simple story. Jesus travels into the district of Tyre and Sidon and has a very interesting encounter with a woman whose daughter is demon-possessed. This is one of many stories in which Jesus casts out demons. However, there is far more to this story than the casting out of the demon.

Tyre and Sidon were port cities on the Mediterranean Sea north of Israel. Both cities had flourishing trade and were very wealthy. They were proud, historic Canaanite cities…Canaanite being the key word in the story. Hatred between the Jews and Canaanites went back to the days of the Israelites moving into the Promised Land. Tyre is said to have rejoiced when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 586 BC. In fact, the hatred between the Jews and Canaanites ran so deep that no self-respecting Jew would enter into a Canaanite district. It was a boundary that no good Jew would cross. Doing so would defile them. In addition, there were cultural prohibitions against a Jewish man talking to a woman, let alone a Canaanite woman, without her husband present. And finally, because disease at that time—and especially demon possession—was generally assumed to be punishment for past sin, most “good Jews” would have nothing to do with such a situation. Traveling in Canaanite territory, talking with a Canaanite woman, being involved with demon-possession…each one was a boundary to the so called “good” people of Jesus’ day. The Canaanites were Sneetches without stars on their bellies, worthy of being ignored at best.

But Jesus refused to play the boundary game. He would not allow such prejudice and exclusivity to hinder the work of the Gospel. The disciples, being good Jewish men, were shocked that Jesus the Rabbi was being accosted and defiled by such a woman. They urged Jesus to send her away, to erect the age-old boundary of hatred, to affirm that this Canaanite woman and her demon-possessed daughter were not worthy of his time and attention. But from Jesus’ perspective this woman’s background, gender, and circumstances didn’t matter at all. What mattered was that she had two things that Jesus honors—she had a desperate need for healing for her daughter, and she had enough faith to come to Jesus for help.

Over and over again in the Gospels we see Jesus tear down the boundaries that people erect to separate and judge one another, as well as the boundaries we erect to keep others from God’s love and grace. Jesus called a tax collector to be his disciple. Jesus ministered to a Roman soldier. Jesus treated women with dignity. Jesus even prayed for the ones who nailed him to a cross. Over and over again in the Gospel we see Jesus tear down boundaries. So why is it that we, as his followers, so often erect those boundaries all over again?

In a sermon I read on this lesson, one of the pastors at Prince of Peace Lutheran in Burnsville tells this story. “Terri was a waitress at one of my favorite lunch spots in Illinois, a sports bar and grill. Over the course of several months we had gotten to know one another a bit, enough to tease one another and ask relevant questions about family. One afternoon I was eating a late lunch and the place was pretty empty. Terri came over to my table and asked if she could talk to me for a minute. She sat down and asked me if I would be willing to baptize her granddaughter. I told her I’d be glad to if she and her family didn’t have a connection to a local church. I’ll never forget her response.

Terri told me that she had grown up in the Church. Her parents took her and her siblings every Sunday morning. But Terri made some bad decisions as a teenager and got pregnant. Because of her faith she decided to keep the baby and raise the child with her parents’ help. But when she was about six months pregnant, in the middle of the Sunday sermon the pastor asked Terri to stand up. He condemned her publicly and told her that she was no longer welcome in the church. As everyone watched, the ushers escorted Terri out of the building. With tears in her eyes Terri told me that she was so hurt and humiliated that day that she had been unable to set foot in a church.

I’m afraid such stories, or something similar, have been way too common in the church. A kind of self righteousness overtakes people and, before you know it, boundaries and barriers are erected to God’s love and grace.

Some of you probably read the front page article about Pastor Mike Haseltine, Pastor of our neighboring church on Hwy. 61, Maranatha. They call him the Rev pastor, because he races cars, motorcycles and loves to live on the edge. Here’s my favorite Mike Haseltine story, at least as it relates to me. We had been together for lunch at Crossroads Covenant for our local clergy group. I left the meeting and headed east on Broadway, stopping at the stoplight by Home Depot, in the right lane. I was driving my white 2001 Ford Taurus. A few seconds later, a white corvette pulled up next to me in the left lane. I glanced over and saw it was Mike. I thought, this is a perfect picture of the difference between us. He drives a white corvette, I drive a white Taurus. Friends, I don’t have a tattoo on my body. Mike is plastered with them. He wears skull jewelry. The only jewelry I’ve ever worn is my wedding ring. He races cars Friday night, I watch Wheel of Fortune. His thing is not my thing. But I do have to give him credit for using his thing, his passion, to bring the good news to others. He is in a sub culture that many of us never see and is not afraid to talk about God. That is a neat thing. At least at that level he is crossing barriers that I have to admit, do exist.

This is a lesson that makes us think about the barriers and boundaries in our lives. For some of you here this morning, there is a barrier between you and God. You struggle to believe that God really loves you unconditionally. So many of us believe that we’ve committed some sin that is so huge, so awful, that God’s grace on the cross of Christ isn’t enough to cover it. Have you built that kind of barrier in your own life? Are you struggling with guilt and shame? Remember this from the lesson. God delights in setting sinners free. God loves it when desperate people, like the Canaanite woman, come with enough faith to ask for help and forgiveness. That’s what grace is all about.

Or consider the boundaries and barriers you’ve erected in your life that keep you from accepting and loving others. Be honest…with what barriers of race, ethnicity, economics, politics, generation or faith system do you struggle? What kind of sinner do you have trouble loving and forgiving? Who do you look at and assume that you could never be friends? If Jesus opened his heart and his life to all people, shouldn’t we?

Or perhaps we should consider the boundaries and barriers that we’ve erected here at Saint Paul Lutheran. Look around you this morning. Who is missing? Who is it in our communities that are not represented in our community of faith? A pretty large segment, I’m afraid. And why? In what subtle and not so subtle ways have we built barriers and boundaries that keep them away? And why have we not personally invited them?

These are troubling questions. We don’t like to think of ourselves as Sneetches, but we are. And speaking of the Sneetches, in the end they learned that what matters is not what’s on the outside of a Sneetch, but what’s on the inside. Here’s how the story ends:

That day, they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches,
and no kind of Sneetch is the BEST on the beaches.
That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars,
and whether they had one or not upon thars.

That’s how I want my story to end, too. How about you? May we all be open to the transforming work of the Spirit to take away the barriers that are erected and so take part in God’s Abundant Gathering. Amen
With thanks to changingchurch.org for ideas for this message