Sermon - 2014-08-17

When I was growing up, my mom would always tell me to wash my hands. I guess you could say that I was a typical little boy.  I loved to play in the mud.  I loved to play in the dirt.  One of my favorite activities was and still is gardening. I enjoyed gardening with my dad, my grandma, or my mom. Yet, whenever I came inside, I always had to wash my hands.  More often than not, I would ask the question, “Do I have to?”

She would reply 'yes', and so I would. After a while, I no longer asked the question.  She would still remind me, but I just simply did it. Then after a few years, I simply came inside and washed my hands. I have learned the lesson. Yet, there were also times that I would stop and be reminded of the purpose of doing that thing. Wash your hands means to be clean, to care for yourself, and care for those around you.  We need to care for the place in which we live and the people who live with you. It took me a while to learn that lesson.  It's taken me years for it to become a part of my life.  Still, I am reminded of how important it is for me and others around me.

Today in the Gospel lesson, we are reminded by Jesus that everything that our Heavenly Father gives to us is to nourish us, care for us, and to preserve us. All these things that God gives to us: we enjoy, we consume, and we utilize. So perhaps it is time for us to stop and think, what do we do with the things, people, and so much else that God gives to us?

For there is much that we eat and consume.  We eat three times a day, and then add coffee time and snacks.  God gives us so much more than that.  However, it is from our own mouth, from our own heart that we are responsible for these things. It's from our hearts to that we are guided by what we do and what we are. Our heart is something that is often used, and is the very reason just that we do something good or do something evil. It is our heart that leads our thoughts and actions. Yet, there are also times that just our thoughts are used to help us determine how we should move forward and what we should be doing with our lives. Jesus reminds us it is our inside sense of ourselves that determines just how we are led, and how we are guided.  How we view this world and how we care for this world is truly how we shall move forward for the good, or towards the bad. It is often from our hearts and minds that we do not even realize that we are led towards evil intentions of murder, adultery, fornication, false witness, or slander. It is these things that damage not only ourselves, but also those around us. So what do we have to help us focus and guide us so that we do not do these things? How can we care for ourselves, but also for those around us?

God gives his chosen people the 10 Commandments. We are to be reminded of what is important, to be reminded of our relationship not only for our own sake, in our own benefit, but also for those around us, our neighbors or friends or family. It was these 10 commandments that were given to God's chosen people to separate them from all the other nations.  They may go forth and bless the other nations. Now I am not going to recite all the the Ten Commandments for you.  Yet I will remind you of their importance and their meaning for you.  

Even after this great gift, God does not stop there. God sends his own son, to live and dwell among us in our broken world.   He did this so we may be reunited with him.  Just as we gather together here at the Lord's table, we are reminded of the great and abundant gifts that God gives to us through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is our Savior and our Lord.  However sitting at the table of Christ, we feel sometimes that we only have enough for ourselves. Just we have enough for those who gathered here. We have enough just for our own sake our own lives. We are each only given a small portion of Jesus, if we had to share, we would get even less.  

Yet, the woman who comes to speak to Jesus declares that even a crumb from the Master’s table, would be enough to satisfy all that she would need.  For then she would receive grace and mercy from the one who is the source of all great things.  Seeing the gratitude and thirst that this woman has for God’s grace and mercy, but also that she knew that Jesus was indeed given for her, Jesus is reminded of the purpose that he is sent into this world.  That the people who we often regard as “them”, or who we would say are unworthy, are the ones whom God shares his grace and mercy. This woman was not turned away even when she was ignored.  For she knew and believed in the purpose and the promise that God had given to all His Chosen People, and for all nations.  

May we all go forth, being reminded of our calling as disciples and children of God.  May we hold the purpose and promise of God in our hearts and minds.  So that we may go forth to be a blessing to others.  Thanks be to God. Amen.