The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
August 14, 2011 Proper 15 A
St. Andrew’s Church
The Rev. M. Anthony Seel, Jr.
Psalm 67
Blessed to be a Blessing
On August 13, 1961, Berlin woke up to discover East German soldiers blocking off streets and erecting a wall of cemented paving stones topped with barbed wire. Over the years the wall that separated East and West Berlin and East Germany from West Germany grew in height and sophistication. The roughly 97 mile long wall was augmented with minefields and other obstacles. Soldiers were instructed to shoot to kill anyone who tried to defect to West Germany over that wall.
Over the years, an estimated 5,000 people tried to flee East Germany into West Berlin. ABC News recently reported the official number of 136 dead at the wall. Historians say that between 600 and 700 died there, and victims’ groups put the number even higher.
Yesterday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel laid a wreath at the Berlin Memorial Site in a ceremony that marked the 50th anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall.
Who foresaw the events of November 9th, 1989 when the wall was breached by sledgehammers, other hammers and chisels? Who believed on June 12, 1987, when President Ronald Reagan challenged General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall,” that less than three years later the wall would come down?
In the events that led up to the removal of the Berlin Wall, and more recent events like Arab Spring and the riots in London, a person of faith might wonder what role God plays in any of this. Bill Muehlenberg, who directs a ministry called Culture Watch, asks the question, “how do a sovereign God and morally-accountable human beings coexist.” Furthermore, “how do we understand the rise and fall of nations in light of God’s purposes and plans?” [http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2010/06/26/god-and-the-nations/]
With the hostilities of Arab Spring continuing to rage in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Western Sahara, one might wonder whether God is involved at all.
We know in so many ways and at so many levels that we live in a dangerous world. Our plea as Christians and believers in a sovereign God is voiced by the psalmist.
v. 1 May God be merciful to us and bless us, and show us the light of his countenance and come to us.
We need the mercy of God because left to our own devices our self-destructive tendencies and the malevolence of others takes its toll. We need God’s favor and blessing. We need God’s pleasure and delight, because otherwise the despair of this world infects even people of hope like us.
Life without God cannot yield the answers that we seek for ourselves, our country and our world. Even in a less complicated time, the psalmist prays,
v. 2 Let your ways be known upon earth, your saving health among all nations.
God’s ways are not just for God’s people – those who believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are for the entire world.
We live in a society that believes that
-there is no universal story, only our personal stories,
- no universal truth, only personal truth (i.e. what works for me, and your truth – whatever
works for you).
- no universal purpose, only the purposes that we work out for ourselves.
Our world is divided, badly fragmented, and all too often highly violent. To all this, biblical Christians and Jews say, there is a universal story because there is a God who created the universe and continues to guide it. The God who created all things reveals truth that is absolute and universal. His truth is built right into the cosmos. There is universal purpose because in the design of the universe; God has implanted meaning.
Therefore, we are on a journey that is meaningful and with direction. The culmination of our journey is the fullest presence of God where we will be most fully who we were created to be. This is God’s desire not just for His people; it is His desire for all peoples and nations.
v. 3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
God desires that “every family, language, people, and nation,” come to Him (Rev. 5:9). God wants all people to know and praise Him. The prophet suggests this in our first lesson (Is. 56:1-7). The foreigner who genuinely comes to God will not be turned away.
As the Apostle Paul writes to Timothy, his protégé, God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4). This understanding was the basis of Paul’s ministry. As our second lesson says (Rom. 11:13-15,29-32), Paul was an apostle to the Gentiles. He was engaged in ministry for the “reconciliation of the world” (v. 15), Jews and non-Jews alike. As Paul says in his second letter to the church in Corinth, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself” (2 Cor. 5:19).
In our Gospel lesson (Mt. 15:21-28), Jesus, who understood His ministry as focused on Israel, is approached by a non-Jew. He tries to put her off, but she persists. Jesus says to her that it’s not right to throw the children’s bread to the dogs. Interestingly, Matthew and Mark use the same Greek word when they tell this story. Jesus uses not the word for street dogs who scavenge for food outside. That word was often used as a slur against Gentiles.
No, the word that Jesus uses could be translated little dogs, puppies, or household pets. These pets were allowed around the dining table and they would eat scraps of food that fell on the floor. They were part of the family. The Canaanite woman picks up on this, saying, “even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table” (v. 27). Jesus praises her for her faith and says, “Be it done for you as you desire” (v. 28). Matthew adds, “And her daughter was healed instantly” (v. 28).
You may recall that Jesus healed a Roman Centurion’s servant (Mt. 8:5-13) Jesus also healed a demon-possessed man in Gadara, a Gentile region. When Jesus heals 10 lepers, one of them is a Samaritan, a half-Jew at best. While Jesus believed that His primary mission was to Israel, He did at times minister to non-Jews. Of course, in the Great Commission, Jesus instructs us to make disciples of all nations (Mt. 28: 19). This worldwide mission of God is first glimpsed in the Old Testament, including our reading from Isaiah and our Psalm.
v. 4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide all the nations upon earth.
It is God that makes the nations glad as He exercises His sovereignty over all nations and peoples. It is God’s blessing that causes the nations to sing for joy. That joy is rooted in God’s judgment, because that judgment, that is, God exercising His rule, is fair to all.
It is also rooted in God’s guidance. God’s guidance acts as an invisible hand directing all history toward his perfect future for all that is good, right and holy. This is our Christian hope, not only for us, but for the whole world and entire universe. We can look at world events like the rebirth of Israel in 1948, the reunification of Germany more recently and believe that God is working out His purposes for this world.
As theologian David Wells says, “Christian hope is not about wishing that things will get better…”
[Above All Earthly Pow’rs, p. 206] “The conquest of sin, death, and the devil and the establishment of the Rule of God do not await some future, cataclysmic realization” (p. 208). Through His life, cross, and resurrection, Jesus Christ has already begun the Rule of God.
Since Christ came, the world has lived in a time of two ages, this present ages that belongs to satan, “the god of this world” ((2 Cor. 4:4), and the age to come that is completely ruled by God. The Church on earth sits in both ages – God has not taken us out of this present age of sin, evil, and death. Still, in Christ, God has penetrated this present age with the grace and power of the age to come. As Jesus said at the beginning of His earthly ministry, “The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand…” (Mk. 1:15). In Christ, the age to come, that is, the Kingdom of God, has entered our world.
Even with Arab Spring and the rioting in London, God is still in control. Kings may reign, presidents and premiers may rule, but God alone is sovereign. All the nations of this world are temporal, transitory. Only God’s kingdom and rule are eternal. Revolutions may occur, people may riot, but ultimately God is in control.
v. 5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
Verse 5 repeats verse 3 and it looks forward to the day when God’s kingdom is filled with those who have received Jesus His Son as Savior and Lord from “every family, language, people, and nation.”
v. 6 The earth has brought forth her increase; may God, our own God, give us his blessing.
Every harvest is a fulfillment of God’s promise to bless those who walk with Him (Lev. 26:4). Moreover, every harvest is also a sign of God’s care for all in His creation.
v. 7 May God give us his blessing, and may all the ends of the earth stand in awe of him.
God’s people are right to pray for God’s blessing and seek it. The psalmist’s hope is that everyone in the entire world will see God’s blessings to His people and thereby will recognize His power and majesty. As John Calvin wrote centuries ago,
Every benefit, which God bestowed upon his ancient people, was,
as it were, a light held out before the eyes of the world, to attract
the attention of the nations to him. [Calvin’s Commentary on
Psalm 67:6]
This is still true today, even on the personal level. God blesses you so that you can be a blessing to others.
We live in a time of great unrest and unimaginable cruelty and violence. In American today we live with great uncertainties. One certainty that we cling to is that God will help us navigate through these turbulent times.
God is in control. More than this, God loves His children and He cares for us. More than this, we who know God’s love and care can be a blessing to those who do not. This present age is without God and without hope. Bring God and His hope to your world. Be a blessing.
Pray that more and more people will seek God and receive Christ. This is God’s plan for the nations – that all will be united in His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
