Sermon Tone Analysis

/Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!  My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.”/

/Jesus did not answer a word.

So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”/

/He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”/

/The woman came and knelt before him.

“Lord, help me!” she said./

/He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”/

/ //“Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”/

/Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith!

Your request is granted.”

And her daughter was healed from that very/ hour.

"I  thank you, God that I am neither a woman, a Samaritan nor a Gentile dog.”

This prayer was uttered frequently by pious Jews, especially those associated with the sect of the Pharisees.

Both Gentiles and women were a source of ritual contamination to the Jews.

Consequently, the disciples of our Lord, being Jewish, were scrupulous in keeping themselves aloof from Gentiles, Samaritans and women.

However, their consternation knew no bounds at the actions of the Master who reached out both to women, to Samaritans and to Gentiles.

Without apology I aver that the Christian Faith is an inclusive religion; especially is the Faith of Christ a Gentile religion and a woman’s religion.

Here, within the Faith, all peoples are equal before the Lord.

Each believer has been redeemed by infinite grace.

Each Christian has received infinite mercy.

Each individual is placed within the Body of Christ to be received with gratitude to the Lord who redeems and each is to be accorded respect befitting such precious individuals.

The Christian Faith has become the home of the Gentiles, fulfilling the prophecy of Noah when he said:

 

/May God extend the territory of Japheth; /

/may Japheth live in the tents of Shem/

[*Genesis 9:27*].

We Gentiles have our religious home in the tents of Shem, for the Faith we have received has Jewish roots.

Our Lord has opened the door and all are welcomed to come that each might receive grace and mercy, the forgiveness of sin and life everlasting.

Though having Jewish roots, we who are not Jews by birth are welcomed before the Father in Christ the Lord.

This is explicitly stated throughout the pages of the New Testament.

/You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise/ [*Galatians 3:26-29*].

/Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men)— remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ/.

/For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.

His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.

He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.

For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit/.

/Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.

And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit/ [*Ephesians 2:11-22*].

Achieving this standing of equality in the Faith was not easy.

It was not that God was reluctant to accept all mankind; but it was the disciples of our Lord who first sought to erect barriers to maintain their cultural purity.

They were biased against Gentiles and prejudiced against women because they had unconsciously exalted culture over Christ.

Though God calls all peoples to Himself and though God reaches out to every gender, the old traditions died hard.

The disciples of our Lord struggled with these issues, and not always successfully.

When Paul rebuked Peter for treating Gentiles as spiritual inferiors, he was but iterating a lesson Peter had already learned years before from the Master.

Explore the text with me to discover a time when Jesus’ actions must have surely shocked the sensibilities of the disciples.

He spoke to a woman!

He spoke to a Gentile!

He commended her for her great faith, and gave her what she requested.

Miss Manners would have been shocked because He violated custom to honour God.

 

*Culture* *Contra Christ*– One of the more difficult tasks assigned to us as Christians is the requirement to distinguish between culture and Christ.

Culture is but the expression of the collective agreement of a given society dictating the manner in which people will conduct daily activities.

Culture is the sum of the traditions with which we are comfortable and familiar.

Culture varies on a national, and even on a regional scale.

Thus culture is fluid, always adapting to changes marking social transitions.

One hundred years ago, western culture dictated that men grow beards and wear hats.

Gradually customs changed and men were clean-shaven and eventually even hats disappeared.

By the time I was a young man, beards were again in style among the young.

The churches within which I first ministered were adamantly opposed to beards.

In their eyes such hirsute fashion spoke of rebellion.

Today, facial hair is a non-issue.

Youth are even prone to shave their heads.

Hats are again common … but it is usually baseball caps instead of Panama hats or Stetsons.

In the recent past, culture dictated that girls did not phone boys.

If the experience in my house was any indication, that custom has changed dramatically.

Girls are much more aggressive in letting boys know they are interested in them.

Dress, food, courtesies … all alike are subject to constant change.

Likewise, attitudes and actions dictated by attitudes marking a given culture are subject to change.

As a young man living in the southwestern United States, black people were not readily welcomed in white churches.

We supported missionaries to carry the message of life to Africa, but we were frequently reminded that American blacks really wanted to worship with their own kind.

My first ministry was in a prison farm where a disproportionate segment of the population were blacks.

As men responded to the Gospel message and confessed Christ, I suddenly was faced with the dilemma of helping them find a church where they could worship.

The church with which I fellowshipped assured me that they really wanted to attend a black church.

When I visited the pastor of a nearby black congregation to explain my dilemma, he told me quite bluntly, “My little white brother, if you fish in my pond, keep what you catch.”

For the first time after becoming a Christian I was confronted with the conflict between Christ and culture.

In deepest humility and with great trepidation, I stood against my own church and with Christ who teaches that all are welcomed into the Faith.

I was soon excluded from the church in which I came to faith and within which I first served the Lord, yet I knew the issue was simply that Christ must prevail over culture.

The pastor of my home church called me in to speak with him.

He pleaded with me to change my mind, quoting several verses which he assumed proved his point.

At last I said to him, “Brother Ed, if I have any steel in my backbone, you put it there.

I cannot transgress the Word of God.

I will take my stand with Christ.”

He then told me that he had phoned every church with which we had fellowship, informing them that I had become a troublemaker who was stirring up racial unrest.

“You will never preach again,” he solemnly intoned.

“Pastor,” I responded, “if you can close that door, God doesn’t want me to go through it.

If He wants it open, you can’t close it.”

I watched that good man drop his head to his hands and sob uncontrollably.

“I knew you would say that,” he lamented.

“I know you are right, but if I took your stand I would lose my church,” he wept.

“Brother Ed, if you don’t take my stand, you will lose a whole lot more than your church,” I shot back.

With that I stood and left his office, never to return to that church.

Don’t think that such a conflict between Christ and culture is confined to the churches of the American South.

I have met every bit as much prejudice in Vancouver from British immigrants offended at the immigration of Chinese and Indian peoples.

Likewise, I met considerable prejudice expressed by Chinese believers against Caucasians.

In every instance, culture was elevated to a position above Christ.

I said to one Chinese congregation, “I stood opposed to my own people excluding other races.

You may be assured that I oppose your efforts to exclude my people from hearing the message of grace.”