August 16 2020 Matthew 15.10-20, 21-28 “Jesus Said, ‘Listen’ Pastor Jacqueline Hines

 

August 16 2020 Matthew 15.10-20, 21-28 “Jesus Said, ‘Listen’ Pastor Jacqueline Hines

Twenty weeks and just when we see some things getting worse instead of better, there are still some things that are getting better instead of worse. This is indeed the day that the Lord has made. We may be mourning the loss of some things, still we are rejoicing and we are glad in it.

Let’s begin with a selection by Donna. (available on youtube)

 Rules, Rules, Rules…some cultures have so many rules. Rules are good when they serve to protect us from harm. The rules for stop signs keep us safer than we would be without them. Rules are great when they help us to regulate ourselves and keep us from overindulging so that everyone has a fair opportunity to maintain their wellbeing and to succeed in life. Signs in the supermarket have told us of rules that we can only buy so many packages of toilet paper at a time. Many are tempted to break that rule. Rules are great when they reserve the rights of law abiding citizens to live and dine freely in all public establishments.

Rules are great, but rules need to be regularly reviewed and revisited. We need to make way for new rules.

Rules can become rigid. Rules can become the rationale for unreasonable and reckless behavior. If we refuse to reflect on our rules, rules will be our ruin. Sometime we have to be forced into new rules. 

Some rules of law seem unfair when they put persons in jail for the same amount of time even though one is arrested for carrying $5 worth of marijuana and another for armed robbery. Frequently, persons accused of blasphemy are killed in some countries, while in other countries blasphemers may be simply embarrassed, shamed, or shunned.

Rules can keep us civilized and humane, but if we are not careful, we can allow rules to become downright evil, nonsensical, outdated and irrelevant.

When rules are good, they are very good. When they are bad, they can be very bad.

Jesus talked about rules for things that defile us. He was talking about things that make us spiritually unclean and morally dirty. He talked about things that poison the minds of our children and turn our communities into cesspools of corruption. Jesus was, no doubt, also thinking about the hundreds of dietary rules designed to keep God’s people healthy and to take care of the environment. Certain laws prohibited eating road kill and bottom feeders. You could only excavate so much land at a time for several environmental reasons. Just like any society throughout the ages, marriages, divorces, inheritances, taxes and travel, were all ruled and regulated by somebody, somewhere at one time or another.

From Jesus conversation in Matthew 15, it seems God’s people had become overly concerned with certain rules, especially rules about what they put into their bodies.  

Today, we talk about whole foods, 

whole grains,

 herbal supplements and medicinal teas. 

We also talk a lot about good food being good medicine. I am sure Jesus would say it’s good to do what we can to keep our bodies healthy. It is good to think and pray about what goes into our bodies.

We hear the controversy of how toxic children’s vaccines may be. History has shown us that corporations have not hesitated to secretly add addictive substances to tobacco in order to increase sales. Medical doctors are doing hard time as we speak for paying each other thousands of dollars in bonuses to up the dosages of opioids for their patients in pain. All in all, the question Jesus would ask is: do we think about our spiritual health as much as we do about our physical health? Isn’t our spiritual health just as important as our physical health?

  Verse 10 tells us Then Jesus called the crowd to him and said to them, ‘Listen and understand: ¹¹it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.’ 

It is interesting that Matthew does not say the crowd came to Jesus. It says Jesus called the crowd to him and he said “listen and understand.” Listen and understand!

Many times, we come to Jesus with a praise or with our needs…at other times, Jesus calls us to himself, to listen and understand. It’s like getting called into the principal’s office…we may be anxious and not in much of a hurry to hear what we assume is unsettling news.

Do you hear Jesus calling you? Is there something he needs you to hear? Or, is a family member calling your name, trying to get you to listen and understand? Do you hear the faint cry of someone in need or someone who cares about you enough to share a word of wisdom? A word or warning? A word that requires you to change and do something or say something you may not yet be willing to do or say?

We can be bold like the Canaanite women who approached Jesus in the verse. The Canaanites had a terrible reputation. If you were from Canaan you were thought to be associated with moral degradation and not worth very much to your fellow and sister human beings. A Canaanite was thought of as having ungodly ways and lacked concern for the ways of kindness and compassion, choosing cruelty instead. It was the mission of God to turn all Canaanite territory into a land flowing with the milk of missions to humanity and the honey of holiness.

Yet here was a Canaanite woman who did not fit the stereotype. She was looking for help from Jesus. She was respectful and God-fearing, realizing God was for her and not against her.  Verse 21 tells us

21 Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. ²²Just 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.

’ ²³But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.’ ²⁴He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ ²⁵But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’

  ²⁶He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ ²⁷She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ ²⁸Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.

I like this story because it tells us that God works some things out instantly. When we come to Jesus with our loudest, strongest voice, not allowing our fear of naysayers to send us away, when we can confidently declare God’s truth that we are worthy even when we have a reputation for being worthless, we are showing great faith and we find help and healing instantly for ourselves and our loved ones. In one way or another, demons leave us!   

Can you hear the voice of Jesus calling you to a deeper faith in the God who is good and wants good things for you?

There are times we have selective hearing on purpose. You’ve heard the story of an elderly gentleman who had serious hearing problems for a number of years. He went to the doctor and the doctor was able to have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed the gentleman to hear 100%. The elderly gentleman went back in a month to the doctor and the doctor said, “Your hearing is perfect. Your family must be really pleased that you can hear again.” The gentleman replied, “Oh, I haven’t told my family yet. I just sit around and listen to the conversations. I’ve changed my will three times!”  This story reminds us that we all use selective hearing to our advantage.

Many times we cannot hear because we are just overwhelmed. Medical records tell of persons who have hysterical deafness. Their ears are fine, but because they are the victims of some kind trauma, their hearing is compromised.

The stress of various traumas affect us in many ways. For years Maya Angelo could not speak for fear that her rapist would fulfill his promise to kill her family if she told on him. I once heard of soldiers and women in a certain village who were traumatized by war in their country and they became blind, though medical examinations showed no physical reason for their blindness.

Just like every church has a mission, every District has a mission. Not long ago, our South District set up eye clinics in the Congo. People would lose their eyesight simply because of contaminated water. A billion people are effected.

Rebecca Shore tells us that in 1998, the Democratic Republic of Congo became part of what some people called Africa's First World War, in a conflict between seven African nations. There are many reasons why the war broke out, she says, including conflicts over minerals, water, and food. After the war, water became an increasingly sparse resource due to the collapse of the DRC's infrastructure during the fighting. Although the DRC use to be one of the wettest nations in Africa, today the majority of rural Congolese do not have access to sanitary water because of the lack of infrastructure. In fact, one study found that since the war, most Congolese have not died from violence, but rather from malaria, diarrhea, and malnutrition, all problems associated with the lack of water (Global Issues).

Though water is contaminating their lives and robbing them of a future, what happened when someone spoke words of war out of their mouth is the root reason that they have been defiled. Like Jesus said, it’s not what goes into our mouth that defiles, but what comes out of our mouths.

It is said that there are certain have rituals, songs, and dances among some people in New Guinea. They work themselves up into a frenzy and the ritual culminates in what are called “the murder songs,” in which they shout before God the names of the people they wish to kill. Those who became Christian, retained these customs and that ritual. However, in the murder songs, they no longer shouted the names of the people they hated, but the names of the sins they hated, and called on God to destroy those sins. A pagan custom had been captured for Christ. 

Would that we would all be as careful about what comes out of our mouth as we do about what goes into it. Amen.

 

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Let us pray. Holy God you know our heart. You know deep in our hearts we want to be holy like you are holy. We want to do good and to be good. Give us strength to be at peace with doing your will, with listening to your voice until we understand, with listening to each other’s voice, until we understand.

We pray as you taught us to pray: Our father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, they will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Next week we here from Brother Ron Moore who will be bringing us the Word. He is a family man a husband, a father and a grandfather who loves God and people and always has a powerful testimony.

If you would like to make your contribution to the ministry and mission of Bethel, the website is  Bethelumchurch.com 

Or you can send to 952 Bethel Church Road, Spring City, Pa. 19475. God bless you!  God bless you.