People's Prayers: Prayers of the People: To Gather and Connect ~ 12th Sunday after Pentecost '26 Yr A

For Sunday, August 16, 2063, Readings: Isaiah 56:1-8, Psalm 67, Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32,

Matthew 15:21-28

And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord…will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel: I will gather others to them besides those already gathered. [Isaiah 56:6-8]

May God be merciful to us and bless us…Let your ways be known upon earth, your saving health among all nations…Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide all the nations upon earth. [from Psalm 67]

God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew…For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. [Romans 11:2a, 29-32]

Just then a Canaanite woman from that region…shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord”… He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel… It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs”… She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” [from Matthew 15:21-28]

The Readings for this week are wonderfully and marvelously connected. With the reading from Isaiah, some backstory may be useful. This piece is from the Trito- or Third (section) of the Book of Isaiah, likely written when the people of Israel are returning from the exile of generations in Babylon. Depending on source material, the exile or captivity lasted somewhere between 48 to 70 years. Presumably most of the adults who were originally exiled are dead and so come the descendants who have likely been assimilated to some degree by custom and culture. They would be wondering if they are welcome in the homeland of their ancestors and of their religion. They may have been told that they must dissolve their foreign marriages and move away from their Babylonian wives (and children?). Some choose not to make the move. However, for the many, the prophet Ezekiel and other Jewish elders kept the religious traditions in place in newly established synagogues and community.

Moving to a whole new place far away from where you have been for many years or even your entire life is never easy. Think of the treatment of immigrants to the US and to other countries as well. Those moving into and those already there may be wary and worried, feel threatened or threatening. Yet God says the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord…will be accepted on my altar…says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to them… and then we move to Psalm 67 which reminds us God’s ways are the saving health among all nations and that God judges all people with equity.

Paul continues this almost-theme of people wondering if they are being rejected or, if they should reject those “others” ~ arriving with strange habits, language, food, or cultural practices that go against the local norms. It is strange phrasing when Paul says that God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all. But the clear message comes before that: For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Who of us haven’t been disobedient? Whether we are imprisoned in order for God to be merciful requires greater thought and many extra words. Perhaps he means we who imprison ourselves with our own thoughts and behaviors, but for me, I’ll stick with the God Who is Merciful to ALL.

And then the classic encounter with THE OTHER! Ok, so did Jesus set himself up for this one? By Jesus and his disciples traveling out of Galilee, of course they would come in contact with foreigners. But a Canaanite and a woman, tsk tsk tsk, not good! All the prejudices and religious practices of the Jewish community would clearly see her as not only an unclean outsider but an enemy. When she calls out to Jesus, even with her best recognition of his status, begging for him to cure her daughter, Jesus and the disciples are more than dismissive, they’re rude. Jesus actually insults her by comparing his potential interaction with her as throwing the food of children to a dog. Then she kneels before him, and while risking everything with her feisty remark she tells him, Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ tables. He then commends the greatness of her faith and heals her daughter.

Was it another test for the disciples, was it planned in advance, was it a simple human response to an "other" on his part? We don’t know, we can’t know. But what we can know is that all these crumbs gathered together in these readings are an enormous opportunity for us all to look at all those around us to see the them and the us and who is them to us and who is us to us and most importantly why. And then, we are to remember that God gathers us, the outcasts, and the foreigners, and judges all people with equity and mercy. If God doesn’t reject outcasts, and Jesus heals them, who am I to reject an other that doesn’t seem to fit in my “normal” environment. And remember further, that we each are an other to someone, somewhere, even if only a block away. Let us gather and connect all those crumbs and make a whole community of all peoples. After all, God created us ALL, each and every.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ O God of Equity and Mercy, open the eyes of our souls to see the light of Your Countenance, illuminating our path on this Planet Earth, Your House of Prayer. Gather us together as citizen, foreigner, and outcast, to know and respect each other and ourselves as Your Creation, One People with our One God.