Holy Vessels: It Takes a Community
Matthew 8:5-13
February 28, 2021
Emmanuel Baptist Church; Rev. Kathy Donley
Note: A recording of the worship service in which this sermon was preached may be found here: https://youtu.be/ywjMMQw3MGc
Jesus grew up in Nazareth, but in adulthood, he relocated to Capernaum. Both towns are in the region called Galilee. It would have taken about 4 days of walking from Nazareth to get to Capernaum, which is further north on the sea of Galilee. Jesus settles in Capernaum at the beginning of his public ministry. By the time of today’s story, he is established and well known.
He has a reputation as a healer, which is why the centurion comes to him. In one sense, the centurion has high status. He commands 100 soldiers of the occupying power. But the centurion does not pull rank. He does not command Jesus. Instead, he appeals to him respectfully. He addresses him as Lord – which is the word that he would use for those above him in the hierarchy, particularly for the emperor. This is the same word used by the man with leprosy we read about last week.
In his own world, the centurion has power, but he is on the margins of Jesus’ faith community because he is a foreigner and an enemy. The primary actors in this story are Jesus and the centurion, but multiple communities are represented – communities formed around identities like Gentiles and Jews, soldiers and civilians, and social classes like centurions or servants.
The centurion has a lot of power when he is centered in his own community, but this story centers on the Jewish faith community in Capernaum, where he is on the margins. He has power in the Roman authority, but he is powerless against the suffering of his servant. That desperate need brings him to Jesus, setting up an unusual intersection between their communities.
Jesus response is “I will come” There is no punctuation in the Greek. Jesus might be announcing his intention – I will come and cure him! Or he might be expressing his reluctance -- I will come and cure him? Jesus understood his primary mission to be within his own Jewish community and this story is set early in that ministry. By the time Matthew’s gospel is written down, Gentiles are an integral part of the faith, but their inclusion was a growing edge for decades.
The centurion’s response to Jesus’ question or statement is “ “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed.”
“I am not worthy”
The centurion knows the boundaries. Jews and Gentiles do not socialize in each other’s homes. They do not eat together. He would not presume that Jesus would come to his house.
But by the time this encounter is over, Jesus has re-interpreted it as a breaking down of boundaries on many levels. He says that this man is an exemplar of faith and that it is that kind of faith which will overcome the current separations. In days to come, Jesus says, people will come from the east and west and sit at table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. The community of table fellowship in the kingdom of God will be wide and long. The centurion’s response is heard in every celebration of the Mass in Catholic churches. Just before receiving communion the people say “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my soul will be healed.” The only change is the word “soul” instead of “servant.” The prayer is a recognition that we are all powerless, that we are all broken and that all of us rely on God’s grace.
I have to wonder what it might have meant for the centurion if he had welcomed Jesus under his unworthy roof? [1] On how many more levels might healing have happened?
The centurion was not seeking healing for himself, but for his servant. He is a person used to giving orders. By his own admission, he sends subordinates to do his errands. But not this time. This one is significant enough that he gets involved. He goes to Jesus himself. He leverages his position to act as an advocate for his servant who is almost without capacity to speak or act for himself. His community functions on orders and rank and authority, so he draws on what he knows about that to explain to Jesus what he thinks Jesus can do. And, for that, Jesus praises his faith. His faith.
You might remember a book called Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam. Published in 2000, it documented the ways that Americans had become increasingly disconnected from family, friends and neighbors over the preceding decades. The title illustration was that more Americans were bowling than ever before, but they were not bowling in leagues.
About ten years later, Robert Putnam wrote another book, this time with co-author David Campbell. This one was called American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us.
One of their major findings was that people who are active in religious communities are better neighbors. They are more likely to work on community projects, more likely to give to secular and religious causes, more like to give blood, more likely to let a stranger cut in front of them in line.
What surprised them was that being a good neighbor seemed to have nothing to do with theology. It was not associated with the content or strength of their ideas about God. The behaviors related to being a good neighbor did not depend on whether people believed in salvation by faith or salvation by deeds, or what denomination they affiliated with. It did depend on how many friends they had in church and how closely integrated they were in their congregation. [2]
We are shaped by our community of faith and our community has the power to shape other individuals and other communities. This is surely why one of the enduring symbols of our faith is the table where, as Jesus said, they will come from the east and the west, from across economic and geographic and religious and vocational boundaries to form a new community which feasts together.
Do you remember the last thing you did out in the world before the pandemic lock-down? The last time I ate in a restaurant was in Brownsville, Texas. It was the last night that we were all together there – those of us who had gone to the border from the Albany area. That was my last mask-less, public gathering with friends. We went to the border to be part of whatever healing might be possible. We went to see for ourselves how to be better advocates. And then we came home to another world, and truthfully I have felt almost paralyzed on this issue since we got home. The group that sent us, Capital District Border Watch has continued to meet, to encourage each other, to take some actions, but I think I have only managed to attend one Zoom meeting since I got home. I have read a few of the stories coming out of the camp in Matamoros and some articles on immigration policy, but mostly I have scrolled right past. A year ago, I would have read every word, but I have not had the mental or emotional bandwidth to even attempt it.
While I was stuck in that lethargy, asylum-seekers in Matamoros were stuck too. They were trapped on the southern side of the border by the Remain in Mexico policy that kept them unable to cross, and then stuck there when the border was even more firmly closed because of the coronavirus.
That camp, which recently numbered about 1200 people, contained communities. Communities of hope and mutual support in spite of everything. Among them was a community of advocates. Team Brownsville was formed in 2018 by a group of retired educators who wanted to be good neighbors to those waiting across the border. They began by serving meals and getting to know people. As more and more people arrived, the needs grew and so did Team Brownsville’s efforts.
They set up a weekly school for children. They partnered with World Central Kitchen to coordinate volunteers to make and serve hundreds of meals. They did all they could to make camp life more bearable at the same time as they were advocating for a change in policy and a restoration of the asylum process. They continued to do that work for the last year, in the midst of a global pandemic, during drenching rains that swept away many tent homes and possessions, during the coldest winter storm in a hundred years. They persevered.
And this week, something changed. This week, the US government started processing asylum seekers, allowing them to cross the border and to go to family members and waiting sponsors across the country. And the communities of suffering and perseverance are becoming communities of joy.
Andrea Rudnik, one of the leaders of Team Brownsville, has organized deliveries and taken supplies into the camp a couple of times a week. She was the official greeter for migrants allowed to cross on Friday. “I was actually the first volunteer, humanitarian person who saw them and their eyes just lit up like ‘we know you. We know you,'” she said. These pictures were taken in the white tents where families first come when they enter. Andrea hosted these families over night at her house as they prepared to go to their own families on the east coast. She said, “such joy and excitement for our brothers and sisters who have waited so long.” [3]
Another volunteer said that she hadn’t shed a tear since her first day, but her eyes were red-rimmed as she greeted migrants at the bus station. She said, “It’s such an emotional moment for every single one of them. Just seeing them for so long suffering so much. Hopeful and yet desperate and now it’s happened. The doors opened wide and they’re walking through with their head held high,” she said. “God hears the cry of God’s people.”
We have mentioned to each other that during the last year, it has been hard to grieve together, to comfort each other we would normally do. I notice also that it has been hard to celebrate and rejoice together. Our joy is muted, but thanks be to God for stories like these. Stories of liberation and healing and the possible of new community. Thanks be to God.
[1] Wm. Lloyd Allen, in Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship, Year C, Volume 3 Joel Green, Thomas Long, Luke Powery, Cynthia Rigby, Editors, , (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2019), p. 49
[2] From an interview with Robert Putnam at https://faithandleadership.com/robert-d-putnam-americas-grace
[3] https://www.borderreport.com/hot-topics/immigration/looking-back-volunteers-who-stuck-by-asylum-seekers-in-mexico-take-moment-to-rejoice/?fbclid=IwAR1F8cvMRjsE3Sbn3EMLKliYk2bfJI-LwzddZP8RMTupSqPFqBVPHi4SHMo