A
Syrian Mother and a Syrian Son: these are extended notes, but not an exact transcript,
for my sermon on the occasion of baptising Sienna, aged 4.
The
other day, Sienna and I were talking about the latest Disney Pixar movie, Inside Out [hold up character bag, to
illustrate]. The story concerns a young girl, and the emotions that exist
inside her. The emotions are called Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear, and Anger.
They influence her actions, and they colour her memories [hold up yellow, and
blue, hi-bounce glitter water balls, to represent memories coloured by joy, and
sadness].
In
the story we heard this morning about Jesus, we met a mother who had a young
daughter. And this story, too, is full of the emotions. Imagine the emotions
inside that woman. Sadness is sad for her daughter, whose plight no one can
help. Anger is angry that this situation should be inflicted on an innocent
child. Disgust does not fail to notice the way other people look at her child,
and judge her. Fear imagines the worst for the future: where will this end? Joy
hears the word on the street – Jesus has come to town. Maybe, just maybe…
The
woman finds Jesus, and begs him to help. And he responds by saying that it
wouldn’t be right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs at
their feet.
Her
emotions look at one another. Anger explodes “Did he call us a dog? Did he actually say that out loud? Why…!”
Disgust answers back “You Jews think you’re
better than everyone else, but you’re not so special yourselves.” Sadness
sighs “Well, we tried. It was always a
long shot. Let’s go. I’m feeling sad.” Fear adds “Let’s go quickly, before they all start laughing at us!” And Joy
says “Did you not see the look in his eyes?
That was a look of love, not hate.”
In
effect, Jesus says, “Why would you even
ask me for help? Don’t you know that my people consider your people to be
sub-human [to be dogs; to be a swarm]?”
and the woman replies, “Yes, but even
your people aren’t completely devoid of compassion, of humanity…”
Following
Jesus means, among other things, training our emotions to look to him, to learn
from him.
You
will have seen in the media this week images of children of around the same age
as Sienna.
Sadness
can respond, “What a mess. But what can
be done?”; or sadness can respond, “Lord
Jesus, you promised that those who mourn will be comforted; would you please
surround these people with your comfort; and show us how we can express that
too.”
Disgust
can respond, “How can these people be so
greedy that they are willing to sacrifice their children?”; or disgust can
respond, “How can we live with ourselves
while we ignore our neighbours?”
Fear
can respond, “They want to take what we
have from us!”; or fear can respond, “Father
God, these people must be very scared. Would you surround them with your
protection, and lead them to a place of refuge; and may we welcome them.”
Anger
can respond, “Who is to blame?”; or
anger can respond, “We must stand up to
injustice!”
And
joy can respond, “Count our blessings
that we live in a pleasant place”; or joy can respond, “We can do something to help; and while it will be hard, it will be fun
too; it will build up our community as we embrace others.”
…
