Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "it is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o'clock on Sunday morning." The more things change ...
So there is
this article from
The Washington Post titled "Community turns to prayer for officer in fatal shooting" about how Southminster Presbyterian congregants responded to the news that their neighbor Darren Wilson was named as the man who shot Michael Brown.
You read that correctly: they prayed for Darren Wilson
I'm not saying that it is wrong to pray for anyone, even a killer. I'm not a religious person but I seem to remember Christ's message being one about caring for everyone. I'm just saying that maybe they could be praying for a dead young man, a grieving family, an embattled community or a divided nation.
The people who came to Southminster Presbyterian in a "muggy drizzle" were scared that rioting would break out in their community. They feared that people would come to do their community harm. They were afraid of the tensions evident in Ferguson erupting in their world.
There was such fear that Rev. Dr. Kurt J. Calkins, the pastor of Southminster Presbyterian, readied the church's gym and multi-purpose room in case there needed to be evacuations.
The Post reports that Calkins' sermon was about "the power of faith and prayer". That is all the paper says.
The reporter goes on to say that some of the congregants were also angry after the service (without implying that they were angry because of what Calkins preached).
Some were angry that Rev Al Sharpton was in Ferguson. They were angry that the residents of Ferguson were angry. They were angry that race was a subject of discussion.
“[Sharpton] is just going to make things worse, it’s lighting the place on fire,” said one man.
“Why is race such an excuse to be mad about everything,”said, a woman. “People are complaining there is not enough diversity on the police force. But they don’t like the police anyway."
According to
Text Week, a tool used by pastors to research the readings for any given week on the liturgical calendar, one of the readings scheduled for this week was
Matthew 15:10-28. That passage is referred to as "The Faith Of A Canaanite Woman".
What I can gather about the passage is that Jesus and his disciples were traveling through Canaan, both a land of Gentiles and a place of antipathy to the Jews. Yet Jesus and his disciples are there to spread their message.
The passage begins with this from Jesus:
It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.
The disciples point out that the Pharisees are angry with Jesus for this position. The Pharisees are concerned with maintaining the kosher laws as a sign of their faith. Jesus, as usual, saw things differently.
He continues:
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.
Meaty stuff there, right? One could go in so many directions with that concept.
But that is not the end of the section. As Jesus and the Disciples leave, a woman asks Jesus to help heal her daughter who is "tormented by a demon". Jesus' answer is that he has only been sent to minister to the "people of the House of Israel".
Funny the contradictions in the Bible. I myself am curious as to why Jesus is in a foreign land if he feels that his mission is only to help the Jews. But that is too much for me to get into here.
The passage ends with the woman convincing Jesus to heal her daughter.
“Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”
So, what is the lesson to be drawn from this? How does one interpret it? And, how does one translate this passage to a congregation?
I, myself, was told that the passage is a lesson in the fact that Jesus was, in fact, human and fallible like the rest of us. Yet he was able to see a common humanity with a Canaanite and work to ease her pain.
How about you? Was this piece read in your church this morning? How was it interpreted by your priest, pastor or minister? Or, alternatively, how do you interpret it for yourself?
As the reporter from the Post puts it:
Sunday in St. Louis can be a stark example of one of the oldest truths of faith and divided communities — that it is possible to send up the same prayers while seeking different answers.