Preference human and divine

Proper 18 B 2009
(Prov 22: 1-2, 8-9, 22-23; Ps 125; James 2: 1-10, 14-17; Mark 7: 24-37)


Preference can create the world we live in.

While we lived in Saint Louis, a prime-time news show filmed an episode there called “True Colors.” Their cameras followed two young men who were also friends from college. The only obvious difference between them was that one was white and the other was black.

The men interviewed for jobs, shopped in a jewelry store, and searched for apartments. The filmed results were stunning. The young white man was treated with warmth and was offered a second interview, while the black man was treated coolly and sent away with no such promise. The white man was shown great courtesy by the staff in the jewelry store, while the black man was ignored except by the security guard who shadowed him the whole time he was there. The white man was offered an apartment immediately, while the black man was told there were no vacancies. And there were.

We’ve heard such stories before. We hear them over and over because preference, favoring the wealthy, the fashionable, the sophisticated over the rest of humanity is an old, old tale.

It’s a problem of wisdom and knowledge, says Proverbs. Choose a good name over great riches, for God made us all. We have the same source, the same family root, the same parent. No one is better because of their blood or their nation or their wealth. If you would be blessed, be a blessing. Share what you have with the poor.

This is easier when we feel we have some extra to share. These days things feel more thin. When things seem thin, our compassion can grow thin as well. Yesterday a small generous group met to continue Brigid’s Table on Saturday mornings. We have $1000.00 to make weekly meals for 40 for four months. A church is many things, and we do need to care for ourselves—many have said that lately. But if we cease to care for the poor, we cease to be a church.

That’s what James says. Be careful of the ways in which we give preference to the rich. We may not rise to our feet to seat the wealthy at banquets. But don’t we admire those who heap up wealth, who some think are smarter than the average because of how much money they can make? The media is full of this daily. God sees differently, and God says a real faith is a faith put on the line. Some call this “walking the talk.” Live God’s life and have God’s heart, God who seeks out those in need. Do something with the faith you profess.

But what happens when we feel like we have nothing more to give? Lately many of us, myself included, have felt like this. How do you get enthused about reaching out when you want someone to just reach in, pour water on the dryness inside?

In the Gospel Jesus pours out God’s love on all who are poor. He pours it out on a Gentile woman, descendant of the ancient Philistines, ancestral enemies of the people of God. She doesn’t accept Jesus’ remark about favoring only the people of Israel. She believes in the outrageous love of God for the poor and she is filled. All we need do is ask, and Jesus is eager to pour out God’s own love into our hearts and souls. Sometimes I think our asking is stingy, and so we feel like we receive little. Perhaps a starting point to ask ourselves how abundant do we believe our God is, and then ask ourselves why we don’t ask for all of God, all of God’s love.

For in the end it is we who are poor, it is we who are empty, it is we who are as much in need as any ragged wanderer on 82nd Avenue.

We are preferred by God when we feel our hearts are empty. We are preferred by God when our souls are parched and dry. We can ask with confidence and be filled by God. In word and sacrament, liturgy and life itself—we can be filled with God.