Isaiah 56:1,6-7        Romans 11:13-15, 29-32             Matthew 15:21-28

All through religious history, the issue seems to exist which distinguishes between those who are “saved” and those who are “not saved,” a religious “us vs. them.” Ancient Judaism was and modern Judaism is still considered God’s Chosen People. Gentiles were the “others” who worshiped pagan divinities. The early Christian Church was very Jewish and therefore at first presumed that the messiah was “for the Jews.” However, as the proclaimed Gospel message was announced every more effectively after Pentecost, the phenomenon arose that Gentile audiences heard the Gospel and were attracted to it, and asked to join the Gospel fellowship. The Acts of the Apostles recounts numerous episodes of this, perhaps most famously in Chapter 10 where the Roman Cornelius summoned Peter to preach, and while he did so, the Holy Spirit of God fell upon Cornelius and his Gentile household. This precipitated a movement among the apostolic Church to enlarge to Gospel target to “the whole world” as the final verse of Matthew’s Gospel narrative put onto the lips of Jesus. Matthew’s narrative today finds Jesus happily changing his mind about ministering to Gentiles when he is engaged, perhaps even against his will, by the Gentile woman in the region of Tyre and Sidon, technically outside of the Holy Land of Israel. Jesus’ recognition that her faith was “great” was a profound shift in his mission and resulted in her daughter’s healing. This is one of the Gospel passages which constitutes the Good News for any who are not of Jewish descent in the Church throughout history. Without Jesus’ broadening his Gospel audience, we would have been excluded. Indeed, this memory of the early Church was not among the most important of the first memories. With Pentecost, the Gospel was announced first and exclusively to “devout Jews of every nation” gathered in Jerusalem for the festival. Only years later did the power of that Pentecostal Spirit managed to get the apostolic Christians to open their eyes and hearts to the hunger of Gentiles for the Gospel. We ought to announce “Thanks be to God!” daily for this gift.

The first lesson today in the post-Captivity books of Isaiah, hint at a great change about to be revealed by God. The words “justice” and “righteousness” (two English words for the same thing in the biblical sense) announce that the Jerusalem and Judah destroyed nearly a century before would be rebuilt and that they would become the center of the world not only for the Jews but also for Gentiles. Justice and righteousness bo beyond measurable criteria for inclusion or exclusion. These are hints that God’s vision and love were much larger than even the best of Jewish visionaries had imagined before this. Now, with the reconstruction of the Jerusalem Temple a reality and the restoration of freedom for the God’s Chosen People, perhaps God’s vision might pervade and saturate their own. Indeed, according to the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the restored Jews reacted in the very opposite way that God seems to have intended by becoming increasingly afraid of non-Jews and all foreigners. But, gradually in history, from the days of Alexander the Great onward, a new hope would arise among Israel with the idea of life after death, and resurrection, and so, the Gospel of Jesus amplified by Paul would eventually enlarge to a universal audience. The beginnings of universal salvation are found here where “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

Paul himself argues passionately for Gentile inclusion in the Gospel mission. He addresses Gentile Christians of Rome in today’s middle reading pointing out how God had in the past used both Jew and Gentile to show divine power and glory. In his own day, Paul wrestles with the conundrum that God’s Chosen People have failed to embrace their own messiah, while those whom Judaism had often considered rejected by God (Gentiles) had embraced the messiah enthusiastically. Paul prayed for both and rejoiced that both were welcome by God. Such is the example which we must engage.

Indeed, today, there is still (sadly) much religious conversation expended on who is “saved” and who is “not saved.” One easily gets the impression that many believers desire and even need for some to be “not saved” by God’s power out of a kind of ignorant self-righteousness. But, self-righteousness is the effective opposite and enemy of true righteousness (God’s justice). When we describe God as “all loving” or “all merciful” or “all just,” then we assert that divine love, mercy, and justice are larger than and more effective than any human sin or failing. This implies that God’s desire is that all be “saved” and that the very Gospel of the Risen Jesus Christ and the early Church (especially in the preaching and writings of Paul) are truly about the Great Commission at the end of Matthew’s Gospel narrative: “Go, make disciples of all nations ... baptize ... teach them ...” The nameless Gentile woman in Tyre and Sidon, the future believers of Isaiah, and the Roman Gentile Christians of Paul’s letter ... all these stand with us today as we embrace, announce, and reflect on God’s Salvation both in this life and in the next!

Thanks be to God!