The Quiz
April 6, 2008
Matthew 15: 21-28
Give a little bit. Give a little bit of your love to me.
She had been everywhere, trying, pleading, begging for help for her daughter. She was exhausted from trying and he was her last hope. She was shouting after them, she was shouting at Jesus, she was shouting and shouting and shouting.
Give a little bit. Give a little bit of your love to me.
Jesus the host of this party, he’s invited those who feel broken, cast out, left behind to come into his presence. When they arrive, he opens them to the healing power of the love of God. He touches them, he prays with them, he casts out their darkness that they might find light. But sometimes people come to the party who aren’t welcome. He has his calling and then these others show up, others like this mother. And, she won’t be silenced, she won’t be ignored, she won’t let up. Everyone knows the rules. When someone shows up uninvited to the party, they don’t just get in. They had to earn their way in. They had to prove that they really understood what it was they were asking. The guest had to understand what it was we were offering. The guest had to prove they completely understood and would abide by the rules of the community. Jesus was following this protocol. He was calling this woman out. She kept saying she got it, so he took the challenge. He invited her in through his challenge. She accepted the challenge by showing she completely understood by giving his own teachings back to him applied to her own context. He gives a little bit. He gives a little bit of his love to her. And, her daughter is healed. She is welcomed in. She is affirmed as part of the movement, in spite of where she came from on the journey.
Give a little bit. Give a little bit of your love to me.
We come into this place each week, most of us exhausted. This world we have been born into and have found ourselves is running faster than we can comprehend. This living takes it out of our beings each week. By the time we crawl into this sanctuary, there is nothing left to give. Nothing. How is it we can even great the guest? How is it we can possibly be hosting? Well the good news is, we only have to give a little bit. The good news is, first we come to be fed. The good news is, God is doing this, it is not up to us, all we must be is who we were created and called to be. It is enough. It is enough to allow us to
Give a little bit. Give a little bit of your love to me.
And it is just a little when we give. It’s a small thing of inviting someone in. It’s the small thing of allowing someone to prove their commitment to the witness of Jesus. He didn’t leave the crowd and go with the woman. He didn’t give up what he was called to do, he didn’t sell out, and he still gave a little bit, and that small bit made all the difference to this mother and her daughter. It changed the lives of their family, their experience of God.
Give a little bit. Give a little bit of your love to me.
In the ancient Hindu Vedic tradition they have many gods. One of their gods has a negative or angry disposition. This god is always creating a negative or crazy drama. It appears first as a juicy tidbit, an offer to allow us to do good, to step itno a role as a god ourselves. This juicy beginning is hurled at us hoping to engage and busy our fight or flight compassion. However, coming from a negative force this edge rips into our daily experience like a corkscrew eventually affecting the emotive self, then our physical self finally leaving only a negative attraction in the core. We are instructed in our anceint roots with the practice of Biblical hospitality to avoid this very type of guest. Jesus didn’t just jump in because the woman cried out to him. Jesus didn’t forget his call or who he was because of the crazy drama this woman was engaged in. He didn’t feel badly for encouraging her, or not going with her, or any of that. He simply gave a little bit, and then went on with his work. He would not be sucked into the negative vortex. He gave a little bit. He gave a little bit and moved on, he didn’t allow his giving to drain him, derail him, exhaust him, corrupt him. He didn’t take on what was God’s work. He allowed God to be God and kept himself true to what he was called to do.
Give a little bit. Give a little bit of your love to me.
We here at First have often gotten tangled in crazy negative dramas. We often think we must be God. We can not allow ourselves or this community to become a crazy negative drama. We must shout out when we have a need. But, we should be prepared and even expect a challenge about our needs. Everyone has needs as we found out last week, every one of us has needs. However, one person’s need does not require of us to lose the light. When we share light, our light brightens. When we open ourselves to share God, we receive the Holy Spirit’s blessing. We must know the Presence in order to give. We must be filled with the Presence to share it with another. Fear not, the Lord is with you. You will not be asked to give yourself, that story has been done and will not be asked again. It is over. We instead are asked to live, to be in the Presence of God and live into that witness by knowing, proclaiming, standing, bathing in the loving light of God. We can all rejoince in knowing that all that is required of us is to give a little bit of our love to God. It is when we open to God, that we know the Presence of God’s love with us.
So give a little bit. Give a little bit of your love to me.