The Fourth Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 5A)
The Reverend Robert W. Cowperthwaite
June 8, 2008
In his letter to the Church at Rome, Paul writes about Abraham, “Therefore his faith ‘was reckoned to him as righteousness.’” Abraham was not considered righteous because of his strict adherence to the law, rather, it was because of his firm faith. As Paul saw it, “No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what God had promised.”
I’ve talked before about my time on my Grandfather’s farm. We raised Angus cattle. That meant that we spent a fair amount of time tending fences. After a storm, we had to check the fences that crossed the creek. We were ever on the lookout for trees or branches that might fall across a fence. The cattle were notorious for pushing through the fence to get to the seemingly greener grass on the other side. Fences were important – they kept our cattle on our property. Out West, things were different. People built fences to keep cattle out! Cattle herds would range free on the prairie. People protected their gardens and their homes by putting fences up – keeping the cattle out. Cattle were branded so that ranchers would know whose were whose at round-up time.
It has been said that good fences make good neighbors. Fences and walls are used to keep in, to keep out, to mark boundaries. Some of us are of a generation that knew the building and later the tearing down of the Berlin Wall – a wall erected to enforce separation. Castle walls were built to provide safe places. Walls and fences are built to keep convicts “inside” (as they refer to it) so that the rest of us on the “outside” may enjoy our freedom.
There are other kinds of walls, other kinds of barriers, some of them invisible. In a commentary on today’s Gospel William Willimon writes:
“There are other boundaries that are closer to home. They can be determined by which school you attend, where you work, the kind o car you drive, or the cost of your tennis shoes. These artificial walls divide people between those that are like us and those that are not. We usually don’t like to get too close to people who are different from us… Jesus lived in an age of division. Jews safeguarded themselves from others by maintaining laws of purity. The Pharisees saw to the details of those laws and kept the populace on their toes, lest they fall into contact with those who could taint their cleanness.”
In Israel today, a wall, miles long, has been built in order to keep the Palestinians in their area, and out of the rest of Israel. As with everything else these days, there are all kinds of interpretations or concerns about the move. Some see it as a way to control terrorists. Some see it as a step toward an eventual state of Palestine. The fence is, in many ways, symbolic of the huge wall of distrust that has long separated the Israelites from the rest of the Arab world. Right here we are preparing to build a fence between the United States and Mexico as a way to control illegal immigration. There are arguments all around the plan.
In today’s Gospel, (did you think I was never going to get there?) Jesus, in much the same way as he went through the walls to talk with his apostles after his resurrection, he passed right through walls of social and religious prejudice. Jesus calls Matthew, a tax-collector to follow him. Jesus eats with tax collectors and other sinners. He lets himself be touched by a woman who had suffered for twelve years with hemorrhages. He touches a dead child. In each one of these actions Jesus crossed a boundary, went through a well-recognized wall of separation. People were surprised that Jesus would call Matthew, the tax collector to be a disciple. They were even more shocked when Jesus sat down to eat, and welcomed more tax collectors and other sinners to sit with him. One might expect Jesus to respond to a request from the leader of the synagogue, but not to go and touch a dead body, thereby making himself “unclean.” The same when he allowed the woman to touch his cloak.
Jesus told those who were shocked to “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Jesus was paraphrasing from the Prophet Hosea, who proclaimed, “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” [Hos. 6:6] Jesus would not let any kind of wall separate him from these people. He did not require a litmus test, a doctrinal letter of agreement, a promise to “join up” or a signed pledge card, or as is bandied around in the Anglican Communion these days, agreement to some “covenant” before someone could be let-in! He told the woman that it was her faith that made her well. He told the crowd of professional mourners (flute players) that the child they thought dead was, in fact, not. He saw in Matthew, the tax-collector, something even Jesus’ own disciples were blind to. He risked public acceptance by sitting at table with notorious sinners. These were not righteous people, yet he reckoned their faith, or something in them as righteousness, just as God reckoned Abram’s faith as righteousness.
Many people, if asked “how do your get to heaven,” reply, “by being good.” That is the simple answer. Often it is put in the form of a threat, “if you don’t behave, you won’t go to heaven.” When we look at Jesus, we see a different answer. To get to heaven, all we have to do is to ask for help. All we need to do is recognize that it is not up to us to earn our way, but to believe that Jesus will come when we call.
Faithful living is not just about law-keeping. Nor is it about stretching the Law. Instead, it is about the kind of faith that empowers us to cross boundaries. It is about reaching out to others. It is about respecting the dignity of not just some, but every human being. It is about loving our neighbor as ourselves. In his 1st letter to the Corinthians, Paul wrote that, “without love we are but noisy gongs or clanging cymbals.”
Love is not “rule keeping.” It is faithful “risk taking,” for the sake of others. It is being willing to cross boundaries, to touch the untouchable – to love the unlovable. It is what, as it was for Abraham, will be reckoned to us as righteousness by God.
