Pentecost 2 C, 2016, Lectionary 9
St. John’s Lutheran, Phoenixville
May 29, 2016
1 Kings 8: 22-23, 41-43; Luke 7: 1-10

“Do according to all the foreigner calls to you.” 1 Kings 8: 43
“I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” Luke 7: 9

I want you to know, these are not the texts I would have chosen for Memorial Day Weekend. Instead of remembering and honoring those who have died for our country, both our first reading from 1 Kings and our Gospel from Luke, break open the relationship between God and country by inviting not only the foreigner, but also an enemy, in. So what’s going on here?

Let’s start with King Solomon who was the second son of King David and Uriah’s wife Bathsheba. If you want to learn more about that rather scandalous relationship, go back to 2 Samuel 11 and start reading the account that makes the most outrageous soap opera seem tame. Anyway, Solomon brought 40 years of peace to the kingdom whose borders his father David fought hard to expand and secure. Instead of the sword, Solomon used royal marriages (he had 700 wives), expanded trade and his own personal wisdom as his leadership tools. Under him Israel flourished. One of his biggest projects was the building the temple. Three stories high, you entered through a soaring porch of Egyptian design that was flanked by two thirty-foot free-standing bronze columns with carved lilies on top. It had cedar ceilings, cypress floors, and olivewood doors, and was trimmed in gold. It took seven and a half years to build. When we meet Solomon today, all the people of Israel have assembled as the ark of the covenant, holding the tablets of the 10 commandments, is carried from the tent of meeting into the temple, the house of God. After blessing those gathered, Solomon stands before the altar of the Lord, spreads out his hands and prays.

It’s a glorious prayer in which Solomon praises God, remembers the covenant God made with his father David and invites God to make the temple, God’s home. Then Solomon asks God to serve as a judge over the people, to forgive their sin and to rescue them in times of drought, famine, plagues and war. About half-way through the prayer, he brings up foreigners. Now think about this – the dedication of the temple was an intimate moment between God and Israel – they are literally moving in with each other, making a home together and Solomon invites foreigners, strangers to be part of the relationship too. Just when it ought to be God and God’s people alone, outsiders are not only welcomed, but respected.

Now why would Solomon do this? He was smart– perhaps it was a means to secure yet another wife, to firm up trade relationships and grow the economy, to encourage tourism and pocket the shekels that come with that or simply to make a name for him self as everyone from everywhere comes to see the Solomon’s temple. All of these could be underlying reasons, yet none of them are mentioned in the prayer. He’s too wise to be that crass before God. Instead Solomon asks God to listen to foreigners so that all the peoples of the earth will know who God is, what God is like and will live in reverent obedience before God. Solomon knows that God is bigger than any nation, bigger than the glorious new temple, that God is the Lord of all creation, including people from other lands, the foreigners.

So what’s going on in the Gospel? You’ve already heard it – Jesus is down the shore in Capernaum at the Sea of Galille. A centurion has a slave who is deathly ill. Word is sent to Jesus through some Jewish elders requesting healing for the slave. There’s some back and forth and without ever meeting the centurion or the slave, Jesus heals the slave. At first reading it’s a wonderful story of healing and faith. But there’s more, too — for the centurion is a commanding officer who over sees 100 soldiers in the Roman Army which is occupying Israel. Yes, he is a good man, generous having built a synagogue, but he is also the enemy. The centurion knows that for he says he’s not worthy to have Jesus come into his house. Perhaps Jesus grants the centurion’s request in mercy for the slave? Or maybe Jesus was breaking open the relationship between God and country by inviting an enemy in? Or could it be the audacious faith of the centurion astounded Jesus and moved him to action?

“What’s going on here?” Raymond Seibel asked me on the Tuesday following Labor Day in 2002. Raymond was our Monday Morning Quarterback. Every Monday, he’d visit with me to review what happened at church the day before. Problems were worked on, joys celebrated. Raymond and his wife Shirley were “down the shore” in Wildwood all summer. Now he was back asking about the two young refugees from Somalia we sponsored through Lutheran Immigrant and Refugee Services who had arrive a few weeks earlier. “Don’t we have enough people in Phoenixville that need our help, why did we have to go all the way to Somalia?” Raymond asked. I replied, “We were asked to help.” Then I explained how I announced the request from LIRS in Church one Sunday and more than dozen people responded, so we said yes and in a few weeks Abdul and Kamal Farrah arrived. “Besides,” I said, “I think when God looks at the world God sees people, not borders.” I then shared how when Abdul and Kamal were young boys, their parents were killed by militants and then they were raised by their grandmother. When she grew ill, she arranged for a man to get them to her daughter in Damascus, Syria. Their aunt cared for them and knowing there would be no future for them in Syria, helped them to apply to the U.N. for refugee status. They did so and arrived in Philadelphia with the clothes on their back each carrying a small bag. “Well, I have to meet them,” Raymond said as I walked him to the glass doors. As we did so, there was Abdul and Kamal. They’d ridden their bicycles to the Church to get some papers copied. I introduced Raymond to them and he immediately invited them to worship on Sunday. Not quite sure what he was saying, they smiled and nodded. I explained that they were Muslims. “They can still come,” Raymond said enthusiastically. “They pray four times a day,” I said. Raymond responded, “Wow, that’s better than me, I only pray on Sundays.” And with that he was out the door.

With Solomon praying for the foreigners and Jesus healing the Centurion’s slave, I thought about Raymond and Somalis. In the uncertain times after 9/11 Abdul and Kamal helped us to see Muslims beyond stereotypes and we helped them to see Christians in a new ways too. Over and over again, all of us grew in understanding of the other and of God. Within a few weeks, they both had jobs, in September Kamal started at Phoenixville High and Abdul worked on his GED at night. By October they were economically self-sufficient. With the closest mosque in West Chester, they often worshipped here at St. John’s and came to the late service on Christmas Eve. That night before communion, I invited everyone to make a manager with their hands so that they could receive the Christ child in the bread. As I worked my way down the communion rail, “The Body of Christ, given for you…the Body of Christ, given for you…” there was Abdul and Kamal, holding up their manager hands. I knelt down and said, “You’re Muslim.” “We want Jesus,” Abdul replied. “Abdul, Jesus, given for you. Kamal, Jesus given for you.” I knew the church rule about baptizing a person before giving them communion, but I thought at that moment to not break that rule was to violate an even more important one and sharing the bread, the body of Christ with all who hunger for it.

Of course they wanted Jesus, for they’d been experiencing the mercy of God since they walked off the airplane. Jesus in the shape of the Refugee Task Force met them at the terminal. Jesus in the form of Hank, Christy and Shawn Bell welcomed them into their home. Jesus embodied in Ginny and Wally Riemet gave them bicycles and took them to get their Social Security cards. Jesus showed up in those who donated furniture for their tiny home and helped them move in. Over and over again, they, we, knew Jesus.

When Solomon prays to God that when a foreigner comes they may know the name of God, it is not to have them become a Jew, but that the foreigner may hear of God’s name, experience God’s mighty hand and be embraced by God’s outstretched arm. When the centurion seeks healing for his slave from Jesus, he knows that he is not worthy, but his example of faith and trust still inspires us to this day. When Raymond meets Abdul and Kamal and they meet him, in the meeting there is God in the flesh, Jesus. And when we, you and me, remember and honor those who have died for our country, let us do so knowing that God is bigger than any nation, that we are not worthy and still God meets us in bread and wine, in water and word, healing, forgiving and redeeming us and the whole broken and blessed world. Amen.