May 29, 2016 – I Kings 8:22-23, 41-43; Galatians 1:1-12; Luke 7:1-10
I Kings 8:22-23, 41-43; Galatians 1:1-12; Luke 7:1-10
The Rhetoric of Grace
Lectionary 9 (Second Sunday after Pentecost) – May 29, 2016
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
We live in a time of increasingly oppositional politics and rhetoric.
During this election season in the United States we have seen and heard a lot of hatred and
a lot of inhospitality directed towards Muslims and migrants.
We have heard of wall building rather than bridge building.
We have seen politicians fuelling people’s fears rather than nurturing concern for human need.
We have heard speeches focussed on what divides us as human beings rather than
what unites us.
And while it is fashionable in some circles to dismiss the Bible as an old fashioned
document from another time and place, the Bible can continue to astonish us
(as it does almost every week) and instruct us.
Let me say right now: Solomon, Israel’s third king, was not a perfect human being and
he was not a perfect king.
He is lauded as being a man of wisdom, but he could also be foolish.
He returns Israel to a very hierarchical state in which there are the privileged and the poor;
he returns it to a state very like that which they sought to escape, Pharaoh’s Egypt.
And yet, today, we see some of the wisdom for which he is lauded.
Solomon is a politician.
Today, he dedicates the new temple he has had built, no doubt partly to display
the wealth and power of his court.
It was extravagant, and
no doubt the cost was carried on the backs of the people and a very hefty tax burden.
And yet, in his prayer this morning,
he displays a wisdom for which you just have to love the guy.
Rather than stoking the fires of fear,
rather than seeking to profit by stirring the people’s insecurities about the future,
he prays for those who are different:
he prays for foreigners, for outsiders, for religious others.
He prays for all those who may journey to Jerusalem to make pilgrimage to this new temple.
Amazingly, he asks God to pay attention to their needs, to grant them whatever they ask for,
whatever they need.
The door is not shut on these foreigners; they are received along with their needs.
He takes their faith seriously.
Solomon’s descendants do exactly this in the Gospel story.
They intercede with Jesus to take the needs of the Roman Centurion seriously.
They come to Jesus and they ask him, “Could you heal the centurion’s highly valued slave.”
And he does.
Even Jesus is surprised that he can!
Even Jesus seems surprised that the centurion has faith, has trust that God can heal through him.
I think this is part of a group of stories where God’s long reach into the world for healing
is demonstrated and surprises even Jesus.
Where the reach of God’s grace amazes Jesus.
Where God’s concern for all people – even enemies – is made clear and demonstrated.
Both Jesus and Solomon have the capacity to see others – even enemies –
as human beings with their own needs and cares.
Both Jesus and Solomon understand God’s concern to be bigger than religious, ethnic, and
national boundaries.
Let’s face it: it would have been easy for both of them to put the blame on
the outsider and blame them for everything that was currently wrong,
a tactic that is so prevalent in our culture.
If you read the rest of Solomon’s prayer, you see that he is dedicating the temple at
a time of great difficulty for the Israelites.
It is a time of drought, and famine, and disease – as well as the threat of enemy attack.
In this situation it would have been natural to look for someone to blame.
It would have been natural to find a scapegoat:
foreign immigrants, the ethnically different, the religious other.
And yet, Solomon in his wisdom does none of these things:
instead he prays that God will hear and respond to the needs of the foreigner.
Jesus and the Jewish elders, too, could easily have blamed the Roman centurion and
all the power of the Roman Empire he represents for the sufferings of their people –
and with some justification!
And yet, here we see clearly that blame never leads to healing.
Praying for others, praying for those who are different, praying even for enemies does.
This is a pretty contemporary thing to think about.
Throughout history it has been natural to blame the outsider and the other for
current problems and to attempt to fix them by expelling or eradicating them.
One could point to examples of women as in witch hunts, or
the Jews in medieval and modern Europe, gays and lesbians and ethnic and racial others.
Today, the immigrant crisis in Europe is leading to
the re-emergence of the far right as a real force in politics.
Yet, the texts this morning invite us into the long view, into God’s long view,
which involves the healing of all creation and the binding of all things in heaven and
on earth in love – and to what will lead to that.
Solomon and Jesus invite us into praying for our enemies rather than scapegoating them,
and they invite us into praying for those who are different.
Every Good Friday we intentionally do this in one of the most moving sets of prayers we have.
We pray for other Christians, but we also pray for Muslims and Jews and Buddhists and Hindus.
We even pray for those without faith at all.
And we pray for them and for the reconciliation of all things in the love of God because
of the Golden thread that runs throughout scripture whose first stitch appears on
its very first page: that human beings – all human beings,
every single human being – is created in the image of God.
God is the God of all. Period.
God’s grace is for all. Period.
Whether the foreigner in Solomon’s time, the Romans in Jesus’s time,
or immigrants or Muslims in our time.
God’s grace is for all. Period.
Whether it is the person you can’t stand, the difficult person at work,
the person you’re having a hard time with – child, parent, spouse, ex-spouse –
God’s grace is for all. Period.
As I am on a roll and have talked about two of the readings,
I will go on and make it a grand slam and talk about all four just to show that
this is basic and fundamental for the whole Bible – it is the Golden Thread.
Psalm 96 addresses all the nations, not just the Israelites – all the families of the earth and
all that is in it.
And in Galatians, well – at first glance it would appear that Paul is actually being exclusionary
rather than inclusive,
for he does call for people proclaiming a different gospel than him to be accursed!
But what you need to know is that he is hot because some were seeking to limit the scope of
who was included in God’s love; some were seeking to limit the reach of God’s grace,
and were saying that
only those Christians who followed the Jewish law deserved God’s favour.
This just drives Paul crazy: there is no limit to God’s love and grace and favour!
Grace is not grace unless it is God’s unconditional love for all people without limit and
without conditions. Period!
So really he is trying to free the good news of God’s favour for every single person from
any conditions whatsoever.
And it makes him mad when people try to limit that favour to one group or people.
This is not an easy thing to sign on to, and our baptismal calling is not authentic if
we do not experience it as challenging sometimes.
But it is about being and remaining true to who your baptism in Christ made you:
a beloved child for whom God’s mission to love bless and heal this whole world and
every person in it has become your mission.
It begins in the recognition that you are completely beloved,
in this moment and in every moment.
That you are accepted just as you are in this moment without limits and without conditions.
And it continues in the recognition that that is just as true for the person next to you.
For the next person you greet. For the person who serves you at the grocery store.
For the person at work you have a hard time getting along with.
For the parent, for the child, for the spouse, for the ex-spouse.
For the people you serve at food bank and
for the people you meet at the intersection of Sargent and Victor.
For the 17 people you are currently in the process of sponsoring as newcomers to Canada.
They are all created in the image of a good and loving God.
They are all beloved and could not be treasured more, just like you.
We are called to pray for them and for their welfare.
We are called to participate in their healing as a step in the healing of all creation.
We are called to counter the rhetoric of fear with the rhetoric of inclusion and grace.
The rhetoric of God’s grace and love for all people without limit and without condition.
So together let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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