Claimed, gathered and sent

Today's gospel reading is a puzzling one to say the least. There are as many opinions about the exchange between Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman as there are scholars. This is the message I preached today at Bethel in Portville, NY.             In today’s gospel, Jesus has travelled to Tyre, a distinctly non-Jewish city on the coast of the Mediterranean, knowing he would meet Gentiles, or non-Jews. Tyre had an extensive relationship with its Jewish neighbors. It was a rich city, which depended upon the agricultural production of outlying areas like northern Palestine. Galilee fed Tyre. So what is a rural Jew like Jesus doing in a place like Tyre? Jesus always seems to be hanging out with the wrong people—sinners, outcasts, Gentiles—all the people the religious elite did not approve of. The woman in the first story, being a Syrophoenician from the region of Tyre may well have been an urban member of the ruling class with interests directly opposed to those of rural Jews.

It is hard to believe we've been here nearly 3 weeks. We are feeling very much at home in this small community. Being all unpacked and having the parsonage settled has helped a lot. We've even learned our way around enough to feel quite comfortable going to the next town to get things unavailable here. Tuesday night at a meeting, I had the opportunity to hear more of this church's history. Over the years the people have grown in so many ways. Today I started teaching adult Bible study and preached my first sermon for Grace. Grace is such an appropriate name for this community of faith. Here is the sermon I preached this morning: How often have we heard or used the phrase “Timing is everything?”  We might think of this in the middle of hearing funny stories or jokes. Two people can tell the same story using the same words, but one is a good story teller and the other may not tell it as well, with the right pauses and cadence. Then there are some people that have in