So yesterday I received a phone call from a friend of mine in Houston who's a pastor, and he actually started his church a year after us, and he calls me and he says, He says, Happy anniversary.
And I mean literally my first thought was like, oh no, again?
Like I forgot again.
It has happened.
It's a different sermon illustration, but that happened.
I start sweating, and I just don't say anything.
And he's like, Your church! Your church is five years old.
Like, and I I had not even thought about it because again, I don't apparently think much about anniversaries.
And I was like, wow, that's amazing.
That's amazing.
I didn't think about it, number one.
Um, it's amazing he did and he called, right?
Like, that's that's an amazing person or friend.
And it's amazing that actually has happened.
That five years.
And some of you have been here the whole time, some have been here for five weeks, I don't know, right?
I mean, we've been here different lengths of time, but it's not easy to start a church.
I mean, the statistics are not in our favor, we're not in our favor.
And five years ago, there were 25 adults sitting in a circle.
I set the chairs out, I got there early.
The preschool auditorium at Walker Preschool, lots of primary colors, tile floor, the walls were padded, right?
Because it's for preschoolers, um, not for us as the church, but for the preschoolers.
Nobody came in and said, like, man, what a cool building.
People came in and are like, eh, yeah, this might work.
Y'all, you know, churches in preschool can be weird.
Let's let's check you out for a little bit.
That's more of the feeling of what was going on during those years.
I get there, I set the chairs up, 25 chairs instead of a semicircle.
Maybe some of you are there.
And I kind of sat right there in the middle.
I went back and looked at what I said that week.
I went back and looked it up on my computer.
I pulled the document up.
And here's what I told everybody, I'll tell you again today.
I I said this, I said, we will disagree on something.
You and I.
We will disagree.
You and you and you and you.
We will disagree on something.
That's that's not up for debate.
That's gonna happen.
You disagree with the people you love the most in life, right?
We will disagree on something.
So, okay, that's fine.
I might offend you.
I might make a mistake, I might offend you along the way.
You might offend me.
Right?
You might offend each other.
Okay, that might happen.
What's not an option, right?
Then, five years ago, and today, moving in this future, what's not an option is not reconciling.
That's what's not an option.
You may leave the church, right?
That's fine.
That's okay.
But what's not an option is not reconciling.
So I said that, and then we read Colossians 3, we read it out loud, and I said two things.
I said, number one, we keep peace by bravely seeing ourselves.
Meaning, I too am a sinner.
It's just, it's just hard to live in a lot of disharmony and disunity as a church when you're constantly understanding you too are the sinner.
Oh, you know her, you know, she said this, and oh, I can't believe her and how she is.
Oh, him and he's oh, he's so.
But if you're like, oh yeah, me too.
Me too.
Yeah, I see that, but yeah, me too.
We we keep peace by bravely, always, continually seeing ourselves.
I too am a sinner.
And then we keep peace with each other by finding our peace with Christ in Christ.
So that's what I said.
I said it five years ago.
Five years ago, saying it now, for our future.
And then the next week we invited some others, the chairs went from a circle to in rows, and then a little more people showed up, and a little more people showed up, and it's just been a little bit more at a time over the course of the last five years.
And over the past five years, we've consistently been going through books of the Bible with some breaks of some other things.
We do an Advent season, we do a Lent season between before Christmas and Easter and those things.
And what we're doing right now is not that we're never gonna go through a book of the Bible again.
It's not that, but for the next season of time in our church, we're gonna go through the lectionary.
So the lectionary is church historic, but laying out passages week by week for pastors to preach a well-rounded gospel narrative of the Bible.
And so week by week it lays it out.
So if you've noticed the last few weeks we've been in Mark 7.
So again, we're in Mark 7 this week.
It doesn't mean we'll always do the lectionary forever.
We'll still do book studies.
We're still gonna do that.
We're not leaving one for the other, but that's just what we're doing now for the next season of life.
And our goal is always to take the Bible and bring it to life, not take life and bring it to the Bible.
And so we're always gonna look at a passage and get as much out of that passage as we What's this passage say?
What's the context of this?
What's it say for our life?
So that's what we're doing for the next season.
And we're in Mark 7 this morning.
The first time I went fly fishing with my own gear, I had been before, right?
And I'd been before, but I bought my own stuff, and I went down to the Chattahoochee, the mountainous, beautiful river of the Chattahoochee in Atlanta, right?
Under 285, you can actually go.
There's actually people fly fishing there, and I put on my waders and my boots and I get my rod all put together.
It takes me about an hour and a half to do all that.
And other guys are doing about 10 minutes, takes me forever.
I get all suited up, I get my pack on, I got everything, and I go out and I start casting.
I'm working my cast and I'm just working on casting.
I mean, catching nothing, not really expecting to catch anything.
I'm just working on my casting and I'm imagining myself, you know, like in the mountains of Montana and a beautiful river, Brad Pitt, a river runs through, and I'm seeing this image of myself.
I'm sure that's how everybody else is viewing me in this moment.
And then this guy walks out on the river, and he walks out, he has this huge fishing rod, massive.
I mean, it's like maybe you fish like a river in Iceland with it, and he goes out there and he pulls out like a hundred feet of line.
Like I'm over there with like 20 feet, like with all my might trying to like get this thing out there, and he gets a hundred feet of line out and he double-handed spay cast.
You don't care, but it was amazing.
A double-handed spay cast, and he's doing this like figure eight with a hundred feet of line, and he's laying it out perfectly across the river, and the light is catching the line, and he's perfectly posed in the river.
I mean, he he was Brad Pitt, I was not Brad Pitt.
Everybody else on the river stops.
Everybody else on the river completely stops and watches this man cast.
It was amazing.
And as quickly as he starts to do it, I think to myself, look at me.
Like 20, like a 20-foot cast.
Like this is, I'm so ridiculous.
I am so far from that.
I'm so inadequate.
I mean, look how ridiculous this.
I mean, all my might, I can't, I barely get it 25 feet out of there.
He's over there double-handed, spay cast, hundred feet of line, and just a flood of thoughts, right?
This happens in this type of moment, a flood of thoughts.
I'll never be that good.
That's incredible.
And we know these feelings, right?
Whether it's like silly fishing or you walk into somebody's home, right?
You walk into their home, you look around, you're like, oh wow.
Not my home.
You walk into their office, they have windows, you don't.
You know what I'm talking about?
You know these feelings?
You get in their car, you look around, no crystal wrappers on the floor.
We do it, right?
We know these feelings.
Why am I not just a little bit better?
Why can't I vacuum my car like other people can vacuum their car?
We do it with faith.
We walk into a place like this, we look at each other.
We shouldn't do it.
It's a horrible thing to do.
We look at each other.
It's easy to do.
You'll be tempted to do it.
To compare yourself to someone else, you go, oh man, they have their act together.
I mean, look at them.
To compare your faith.
You'll be tempted in these ways to see all your weakness and timidity, and you'll wonder you'll wonder about your faith.
Right?
Like faith is belief in the unseen.
Faith is belief in a God who loves you and redeems you and the work of Jesus and a life of walking in the Spirit, and you'll wonder about all that.
How much belief is really there?
And so often it feels like, right, okay, Lord, I I believe, I believe, I believe.
Yeah, there's so much, there's so much unbelief in me.
I don't feel like some great fisherman, double-handed spay cast.
Not in my heart.
So what does faith look like?
Well, in Mark 7, Jesus, he leaves this Jewish region, he goes into this non-Jewish region, this town.
He's hoping to get some rest.
He wants to be unknown, he's been really busy, lots has been going on.
And this lady who has a little girl, has an unclean spirit in her.
She hears he's around.
There's a powerful healing rabbi in the area, and she shows up.
She's a Gentile, not Jewish.
She just has some faith.
Here she is.
Mark 7, verse 26.
We jump back into it.
And she begged him, she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
And he said to her, Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.
But she answered him, Yes, Lord, yet.
Even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.
And he said to her, For this statement, you may go your way.
The demon has left your daughter.
And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.
So here's this lady.
She has no religious or cultural or racial heritage to like be here.
To come to this rabbi.
She's an outsider.
She didn't have the resume.
She didn't have the record.
And yet she knows.
She knows in every way she shouldn't be there.
She's undeserving.
She knows yet she's here.
Yes, she's there.
So this is point number one.
Faith begins with humility, not self-reliance.
The word here begging is a verb.
It means like she's begging and she keeps begging.
Like it's not stopping.
She's not stopping.
She just keeps begging.
Nothing can stop her.
And of course you know that.
You know that because little Susie, she got sick or she is sick, and you will take her from doctor to doctor, state to state, put her on a plane.
It doesn't matter.
If your daughter's sick, you will find a way.
You'll build a little platform above her bed for the humidifier so the air will come down and land over her just right, right?
Like and you designed it for a week and you built it.
Like you'll do anything when your child's sick.
You'll mix oils, lots of oils, any oils.
You heard about a new oil, you'll get a new oil and rub it all over her.
Doesn't matter.
You'll try anything.
And this is this lady's little girl.
And she hears there's a healing, powerful rabbi that could help her little girl.
Yeah, she shows up.
She shows up.
And it isn't about a lot of faith here.
It's just about some faith and a humility to go and beg.
I have a need.
And I hear that that guy could help.
I'll go.
I'll beg.
It's not about self-reliance, it's just about my humility to go that I'm in need.
Point number two, faith relies upon the goodness of the giver, not the abilities of the self.
So the faith here for her, that's what we're learning from, is this lady.
She's relying on the goodness of the one who can give, not her abilities.
Right?
So this passage is almost like this mini parable that Jesus and her has this conversation about like there's a dog and a table and crumbs.
It's a little parable.
And Jesus isn't calling her a dog.
It's played out as a parable.
The word is more like a puppy.
And he's saying, you know how families eat.
First, the children eat at the table, and afterward, maybe, maybe like a pet or a dog or whoever's around, like the crumbs fall down.
And maybe they get to eat.
Don't violate the order, is what Jesus is saying.
There's an order here.
And if we dig some more, we could go to the Matthew's account, same story.
And Jesus explains it more there.
And he says, Hey, I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.
So he says that there, but then throughout his ministry, he reaches out to all sorts of people, and then when he resurrects, he says, Go into all the nations, to all people.
So what he's saying to the lady is, please understand there's an order.
I'm doing something strategically here.
I'm going to Israel first, and then all the other nations and all the other people second.
And here's what's interesting she doesn't like it.
It doesn't help her.
That method doesn't help her.
It doesn't help her daughter.
She doesn't like that.
And I love that.
I love that.
She's just like, yeah, okay.
But, but that's what she says.
Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.
And then she's saying, hey, hey, like, okay, that's fine.
I'll be like a little puppy under the table begging.
But you know what?
Even they get crumbs.
Like, you're the giver, you have you have what I need.
And that's the point.
It's huge for us.
And it's this her faith is not in her heritage or resume.
That's very clear.
It's in the goodness of the one who gives.
And she doesn't give up on that.
And she doesn't have to measure her faith.
She's not busy measuring her faith or proving her faith.
She's just begging.
Like she's in need and she's begging.
When you know your need, there's just one place to go.
She already knows she doesn't have a place at the table.
She's not arguing that.
She's not arguing her merit to be at the table.
She understands her position of need.
There's no way by merit she deserves the goodness of this giver.
It has to be an act of grace.
And then Jesus says, for such a reply, you may go.
The demon has left your daughter.
And she went home and found her child lying in the bed.
Her child's healed.
Point number three.
God esteems the race and the gender of those who are treated as outsiders.
This is just one story among so many.
This is over and over and over in the life of Jesus.
This lady is a Gentile, and this lady's a lady.
Which at the time both things would have been working against her.
To be valued, to be heard, to be welcomed, don't send her away.
And it is so common to pick a race or a gender or anybody who's different than you and to devalue them simply because they're different from you, so you will feel better about yourself.
It's the cheapest way of feeling value.
It's a method of self-justification that is so easy and we all do it.
Or you can flip it around and simply favor anybody above you on the ladder of life.
And James just destroys.
The writer James destroys this way of thinking.
James 2, 1 through 5, you can just hear this.
My brothers, we say brothers and sisters, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man and shabby, clothing also comes in.
And if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, You sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor man, you sit over there, sit down at my feet.
Have you not then made distinctions amongst yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He has promised to those who love Him?
So listen, I can't get any clearer on this.
If you still think a particular gender or race is lesser in value in some way, in any way, not only are you behaving in ignorance and bigotry, you are far from the way that God views humanity.
Of how he loves that person.
And I don't care about your heritage or what your parents or grandparents believe.
I'm talking to you right now.
That's ignorance is bigotry, is not how God views people.
We all live under the same diagnosis, the same need of God's grace.
You don't have this is so freeing.
You don't have to belittle someone else to feel valuable.
The gift of God's grace to you is that even though you are a sinner by the work of Jesus, you are fully valued already.
You don't have to justify yourself by belittling people.
You are free from that evil.
You don't have to do that.
That's what James is saying.
You don't have to do that.
Don't do that evil.
Point number four, last point.
While you are humbled in need, we all are, especially from point number three.
While we, while I am humbled in need, God heals us and grows us into his grace unto openness.
While you are humbled in need, God heals you and grows you in his grace unto openness.
So Mark 7 continues.
He leaves that town, he returns back into Galilee, and the people bring him a deaf man as a speech impediment.
It would have been an easy moment to devalue someone.
This would have been someone who'd been devalued his whole life by all sorts of religious leaders.
And he doesn't do that, didn't even come close to that.
Pulls the man aside, values him, sticks his fingers in the man's ears.
So strange.
Spits on his fingers, spits on his tongue, and says, be opened.
And the man is healed.
I put his fingers in his head on the tongue.
I'm like, what?
What's going on here?
See, he doesn't just promise life, he he invades.
He invades your dead soul to give you life.
Giving spirit.
And you are deemed perfect by his work and intention and pursuit of you, even while you're imperfect.
That's what it means that our sin is put upon Jesus on the cross and his righteousness is given to us, so we are his beloved, secure, and forever.
That's what it means.
That's the goodness, that's the power.
And what a great image for us to think about when we think about the healing of our hearts, to think about to be opened.
To be open, that the diagnosis is true about you, not just everybody else, you.
That you too are a sinner in need of God's grace.
And you didn't just need it when you were, you became a Christian 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 weeks ago.
You need it today.
You'll need it tomorrow.
To be open to a God who reaches out, right?
We can see it here with the woman.
We see it here with the man who reaches out and loves and touches those of us who hold no record, no deserving, no resume, and yet we need saving because we're not perfect.
Where are we gonna go?
We don't have the merit to be at the table.
We're not perfect.
And yet we receive the goodness of the Giver.
He has more than enough to feed all of us.
My brothers and sisters, fear not if you are of little faith.
Fear not if you are of little faith.
The goodness of God is beyond all our failings, redeeming us and healing us and growing us.
Let's pray together.
God, thank you for your grace and mercy.
That you value each of us.
And while we are not perfect in so many ways, you have deemed us so in your grace toward us in the work of Jesus.
May we rest more in what you have already proclaimed us to be.
May we not live in the shame of our mistakes or failings.
May we live in the victory we have in the proclamation of our identities of secure and valued children of God.
Give us the eyes to see ourselves as you would deem, as you would have us see ourselves as beautiful, yet broken, and yet saved.
And give us eyes to see all people as you would see them, just as you see us.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.