Preaching at Saint Mark's Episcopal Church
Berkeley, California
The Second Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 4
29 May 2016
“The Stranger”
I Kings 8:22-23, 41-45
Psalm 96:1-9
Galatians 1:1-12
St. Luke 7:1-10
INI
There
is something in our culture, I think, that expects the stranger to be
extraordinary or exotic. Lately we seem to be seeing strangers as interlopers
and threats, and yet every day we encounter the stranger. We may not choose to acknowledge them on the
street as they pass us by. Several years
ago someone did a study about civic behavior in San Francisco. It was discovered that most people, when
bumping into another person on the sidewalk did not offer either a “pardon” or
any kind of apology. The sociologist determined that this had nothing to do
with bad etiquette or rudeness, but rather a simple denial that one lived in a
dense community. The stranger crowds us in, limits our perspective, and makes
for fewer personal choices and freedoms according to contemporary thinking.
We
also have a fantastical view of what it must have been like to live in the time
of Solomon or Jesus. I suspect that many of us view the ancient world as disconnected
with the broader world; parochial and separate. That doesn’t seem to be the
case, however. The ancient world was a cross roads of cultures, languages, and
religions, and they all got mixed up. Even the nomads realized that they were
not alone in their wandering, and thus had rather explicit rules and
expectations about honoring the stranger, and hospitality. It is this reality
that gives us a different perspective on two of our readings for today.
Solomon
is at prayer in the Temple in Jerusalem, and we see him in his role as
priest/king – a role common in the ancient near east. In the first part of his
prayer he acknowledges God’s greatness with language that is paralleled in the
psalm for this morning, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in
heaven above or on earth beneath.” Hear the words, “O YHWH, God of Israel.” The
verses that follow the first verses of our reading today are a rehearsal of a
nation, Israel, and the stranger, and they give us clues as to when these
verses were written and from which perspective. What is a reviewed are Israel’s
experience with its God, YHWH, and the interactions with strange nations who
act as God’s agents in guiding Israel, and pointing to God’s will. We move
swiftly through passages that have shadows of Babylon and Persia and the return
of the exile, and then back to remembrances of Egypt and deliverance from
slavery.
It
is here that we begin to see a movement from the God who is Israel’s unique and
personal property to an Israel that ought to welcome the stranger. Solomon bids
God to listen to the stranger, “Likewise when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from
a distant land because of your name -- for they shall hear of your great name,
your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm-- when a foreigner comes and prays
toward this house, then hear in heaven your dwelling place, and do according to
all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may
know your name and fear you,” A religion that welcomes ideas from
without itself – what a concept!
There
are several events that precede and prepare us for what Jesus does in today’s
Gospel. If we look at the previous two chapters, we see a Jesus who is spading
up the ground to plant new seed. He cleanses a leper, and heals a paralytic. He
calls a tax collector to be one of his disciples. He calls himself the Lord of
the Sabbath, and heals a man on the Sabbath. He preaches to people from Judea,
Jerusalem, and the region of Tyre and Sidon. He expounds on our duty to love
our enemies, and to stop judging others.
It
is at this point where Jesus is confronted by the stranger, the stranger whom
he and Luke have anticipated in the previous stories. The stranger has sent emissaries, notable
Jewish men from the synagogue. He has sent them with a request – that Jesus
heal his servant. He is so deferential, that he requests Jesus not to even come
into his house, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you
enter under my roof.” (This, by the way is a wonderful prayer that is said in
the Roman Catholic liturgy and in the liturgy of the Church of England before
the communion).
The
stranger has faith! What enters your mind when you see someone you don’t know
sitting next to you in the liturgy? Apprehension, nervousness, guilt, curiosity?
How about having a sense of hospitality. The stranger has faith, and comes to
us as a gift from God. This is more than just being welcoming for the sake of
Saint Mark’s Berkeley. This is being welcoming because God has so welcomed others
and us. Yes, they may have a different perspective, and they may be unfamiliar
with our ways – but they know God, as do we.
We
need to go back to the centurion for a second, for there is a detail that may
have passed us by – one that might be useful to us. The centurion, the stranger,
does not ask for healing for himself. He asks it for another stranger, his
servant, who is described as one he “valued highly.” We could take a
pessimistic view and discount the centurion’s altruism as just taking care of a
good investment. Or we could take the other possible translation, that the
servant was “dear to him.” It doesn’t matter for the stranger – the centurion –
reaches out beyond himself to two other strangers. The one is Jesus, who he
hopes will heal his servant. The other is the slave/servant, a member of his
household. All of them are bound in an interaction that exhibits the community
of love and responsibility that God expects of those who call upon God’s name.
Lord, we are not worthy to receive you, but only say the word, and our souls
shall be healed.
SDG
