August 20, 2023 — Pentecost +12A — Matthew 15:[10-20] 21-28

“Jesus] called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”] Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.”

Who deserves G-d’s love? This is the question we must ask today — who deserves G-d’s love? We all have some boundaries we establish when we think about who deserves G-d’s love. Some might say that only Christians deserve G-d’s love. Others might say only heterosexuals deserve G-d’s love. Others would say people like Idi Amin and Pol Pot or even Jim Jones certainly do not deserve G-d’s love.  Some would say only “non-sinners” deserve G-d’s love.

Well, if we believe what Paul teaches, that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of G-d”, and “There is no one who is righteous, all have turned aside” (Romans 3) well then, who is saved? If we have to earn G-d’s love by doing, acting, living, believing in a certain way — and Paul is right, then we are all doomed. If we have to earn G-d’s love  — we cannot do enough, believe enough, or live rightly enough. So, nobody DESERVES G-d’s love. And yet, here is the kicker— while we are not deserving of this love, yet, we are ALL DESERVING of G-d’s love. Can I get an AMEN?

My friends, it is time to change how we think about how G-d should love,  or to whom G-d should or should not delve out G-d’s love — that is none of our business — it is way out of our league. G-d loves us all — it doesn’t matter who we are – how well we drive — how honest we are on our tax returns — no matter what sins we have committed — what good we have failed to do — G-d loves everybody. We need to stop telling G-d how to do what only belongs to G-d.

When a sinner, or a Gentile, or some other “lost soul” says “Lord, help me”, well, Jesus confirms they enter the “no judgment zone” — period — end of the conversation. G-d’s love is for all — because G-d created all things — so G-d loves us all — period.

Now some will reject that love — but G-d still loves them, I believe that. We can go ahead and judge others — but our opinion does not matter. So why spend so much time, energy and seconds of our lives judging? Instead, let’s get on to loving, and living lives of compassion.

Pastor Dave

August 19, 2023 — Psalm 114 

“When Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, Judah became God’s sanctuary, Israel his dominion. The sea looked and fled; Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. Why is it, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back? O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs? Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.” 

Psalm 114 is still sung with Psalm 113 prior to the Jewish Passover meal — it is a song about the power of G-d in delivering the Israelites from Egypt, bringing them into the Promised Land and preserving them in the wilderness in between. 

We read in this Psalm: “Why is it, O sea, that you flee? 

O Jordan, that you turn back? O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs? Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the LORD…” 

We might wonder why the sea, the mountains, and the earth trembles and skips at the presence of G-d…until we remember that all that is was created by G-d. All things should tremble at the presence of the Lord.  

St. Thomas Aquinas, in his analysis of the five ways G-d’s existence can be explained, says in his first way: 

The First Way: Argument from Motion 

1. Our senses prove that some things are in motion. 

• Things move when potential motion becomes actual motion. 

• Only an actual motion can convert a potential motion into an actual motion. 

• Nothing can be at once in both actuality and potentiality in the same respect (i.e., if both actual and potential, it is actual in one respect and potential in another). 

• Therefore nothing can move itself. 

• Therefore each thing in motion is moved by something else. 

• The sequence of motion cannot extend ad infinitum. 

• Therefore it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, put in motion by no other; and this everyone understands to be God. 

It is in this argument that St. Thomas Aquinas reminds us that something had to set everything in motion — that motion was the creation — that creator was G-d. Since the deliverance of the Israelites from the Egyptians, and then their covenantal relationship with G-d, Israel has been singing praises to G-d — and we continue to give thanks for all that G-d has, is, and will do in our lives. 

Let us pray: 

Mighty God, by your power you led your people out of slavery in Egypt, and raised Christ from the dead. Deliver us continually by your power from slavery to freedom and from death to life, for the glory of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. 

Amen. 

Pastor Dave