Pastor Sherry’s message for September 8, 2024

Scriptures: Pro 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23; Ps 146; Ja 2:1-17; Mk 7:24-37

The story is told of a rancher in Colorado who received 9,374 notices from a magazine company that it was time to renew his subscription.  This was, of course, a mistake.  The company had changed its software responsible for tracking subscriptions.  Their new software obviously had a colossal glitch!  Imagine if you had been the one to receive 9,374 mailings from the same company?  Would you have been annoyed?

Stupefied?  What had it cost the company to send out so many?  Would you have felt furious?  After delivering 25 separate political and charitable solicitations to my mailbox one day recently, my mail carrier said he would be glad when the November 5th election was over.  (Me too!)

What’s hilarious to me, however, is that the Colorado rancher finally sent the magazine company a letter in which he signed up for a subscription!  He had never even been a subscriber!  But in his letter, he wrote, “I give up!  Send me the magazine.”  Their infernal persistence, like “Chinese water torcher,” had won him over.

(Borrowed from www.sermons.com, 9/5/2024)

Interestingly enough, this tactic is what also wins people over to Christ.  However, it is less about what we say to them and more about how we live our lives, daily, persistently.  Do they see us behaving in ways that are kind?  Do they experience us as listening to them uncritically, or without interrupting them to give our advice?  Do we respond to them with a warm smile, hug, or handshake?  Are we a consistent friend, rather than one who likes the person one day but turns on them the next?  Is our faith evident to them, especially when we go through tough times?  There is an old saying you may have heard before: “You may be the only Bible someone else ever reads.”  As Christians, we have a responsibility to so good at living life that we inspire others to follow Jesus.

Once again, our readings today all focus on living a wise life, one that reflects well on us and is a strong witness to others of the benefits of loving Jesus. 

A.  The book of Proverbs contains many pithy sayings that teach us how to be good at life.  Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23 urges us not to play favorites:  (Verses1-2)—>No matter our differences in race, creed, gender, economic status, or whatever, we were all created by God.

This is an important way in which we are all the same.  All of humankind shares this in common.  Nevertheless, as J. Vernon McGee says, “God created us all but He is not the Father of us all.”  Only those who love His Son may call Him “Father.”

(Through the Bible Commentary on Proverbs, Thomas Nelson, 1991, p.190.)

Verses 8-9 state that wicked people will come to a terrible end, but generous people will be blessed as they bless others.  And verses 22-23) assert that anyone who exploits the poor and the needy will be punished by God.  Remember, our God sees all and knows all.  There are no deeds kept secret from Him.  Our God wants us to live lives that are radically different from our culture due to our love and respect for others.

B. Our Psalm (146) implies that we are good at life when we habitually praise God for His goodness.   This psalm is considered one of several Hallelujah Psalms.  Literally, the word, Hallelujah, means, Praise ye the Lord!  We praise the Lord because He has given us life, and He has saved us.  Verse 3 reminds us—>Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men [or women] who cannot save.  We also praise God because unlike human agents, He is always trustworthy.  And He relates to us with love, justice, and mercy.

The book written by James, Jesus’s half-brother, contains 12 practical teachings on how to be good at life.  Our passage today (James 2:1-17) highlights two of these:  In verses 1-13, he tackles the issue of showing favoritism to the rich and influential.  He warns us not to do this because it springs from evil motives (We honor them so they might reward us somehow).  It also violates God’s command to love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Leviticus 19:18).  And, as Jesus taught in His Sermon on the Mount, if we are not merciful to others, God will not be merciful to us—>(Matthew 6:14-15)—>For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.  We are forgiven in the measure to which we forgive others, just as we are blessed in the measure to which we bless others.  This is God’s economy.

In his second lesson from our passage today (vv. 14-17), James defines genuine faith.  Real, true faith in Christ demonstrates itself in loving actions toward God and others.  In an article entitled, “The Results of Faith,” a commentator on James—Mark Norton–writes—>”Believers ought to be examples of heaven on earth.”   

(Cited on the website www.Filament.com , in his article on the book of James, 9/2024.)

D. As He always does, Jesus demonstrates in today’s Gospel lesson (Mark 7:24-37), authentic Christian responses to two “outsiders” considered “unclean.”  The first person is an unnamed Syro-Phoenician woman.  Some claim she was Greek; others say she was a Canaanite (she lived in present-day Lebanon).  Whatever the case, she was not a Jew. This is important because, as Jesus says, He came to save the Jews (the children of Israel) first.  She is desperate to have her little girl freed from demonic possession, so she seeks out Jesus.  She is humble but also quick witted.  Like the magazine company I spoke of at the beginning of this sermon, she is also persistent.

Jesus appears to be insulting her, equating her with dogs.  Jews then viewed many Gentiles as unclean and as dogs.  Jesus appears to be stating what He knew His disciples may have been thinking.  But she does not take offense.  Instead, she enters into His metaphor and replies that even the puppies get to eat what the children drop from the table.  He rewards the faith of this outsider and heals her daughter.

Next He encounters a man in the Decapolis, a region known for its 10 cities. It had originally belonged to the tribe of Manasseh, but they so intermingled with non-Jews that the area in Jesus’ time was primarily occupied by Gentiles. A deaf mute is brought to Him to heal (due to the faith of his friends?).  Jesus heals him using His saliva, which was thought by folks then to have healing properties.  The man receives both his hearing and his speech is restored to normal rhythm and cadence that he had not been previously able to comprehend.

By healing these two outsiders, those considered by the Jews to be unclean, Jesus was extending His love and mercy to Gentiles. His half-brother, James, would say the Christian who is living the good life is kind to those not like him/herself.  This is how we love others as we love ourselves.

We can learn how to be good at life—living the good life, a life pleasing to God—by following the lessons spelled out for us in God’s word:  (1) Proverbs—>Don’t play favorites but love everyone as you love yourself.  (2) Psalm 146->Adopt the habit of praising God daily for creating and saving you.  (3) James 2—>Again, don’t give special attention to the rich and famous, but demonstrate your faith in Jesus by performing acts of kindness to all sorts of people daily.  And (4) Mark 7—>Our Lord did this.  So should we.  This week, let’s try hard to be good at life. Amen!

©️2024 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams