“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. There are what defile a
person.”
Sometimes
the synergy between the appointed lections and current events is
breathtaking.
It’s
been quite a week in the news, as the events
of Charlotteville, more than dreadful enough in themselves, have
produced wave after wave of horrible responses….
A
clergy eye-witness wrote powerfully of her experience last Saturday
as she knelt with many others praying for peace.
“As
more Neo-Nazis passed the clergy line, they verbally abused us one by
one over the course of a few hours. One man screamed that Jesus hates
us. Another screamed that we hate the white race and are contributing
to white genocide….”
Out
of the heart come evil intentions indeed.
And
that’s before we even think about Friday’s events in Spain….
Lord,
have mercy.
It’s
hard, very hard, to understand where such hatred has its roots,
tempting to just rejoice that we DONT understand – but then that
runs the risk of relapsing
into self-righteousness…
And,
of course, we’re falling into the “them and us” trap
immediately. And that is something today’s gospel reminds us is not
good news at all.
It’s
maybe comforting that Jesus himself seems to need to be taught this.
The
beginning of the passage sees him turning away from the natural
heart-land of the observant Jew, speaking against those purity laws
that have been part of a nation’s identity for centuries...Then he
heads into foreign territory, breaking more barriers – and when he
arrives, finds himself challenged once again, jolted into a fresh
recognition of common humanity by that woman who simply won’t take
“No” for an answer.
But,
dear Lord, that’s hard for me this week.
I
want to put an unscaleable barrier between myself and the far-right,
whose harsh words are reinforced by frightening actions.
I
want to keep all my friends and family safely away from “people
like them”.
But
that’s not the Jesus way.
The
one who healed the Canaanite's daughter, and who also opened the eyes
of the man born blind can deliver anyone --there are no barriers for
Jesus, not
even those I’ve erected inside my own head and my own heart.
Time,
then,
to revisit our own Coventry litany, with its two word refrain that
resists the urge to divide humanity into “them” and “us”.
ALL
have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God….
We
know that when we hear the news
We
know that when we look hard into ourselves.
“The
hatred that divides nation from nation, race from race, class from
class, Father
forgive”.
Amen,
amen, amen.
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