The Old South Church in Boston
Take It Outside
A Sermon by Rev. Nancy S. Taylor
April 15, 2007
(Second Sunday of Easter & Marathon Sunday)
Based
on Mark 7: 25-30, the
Syrophoenician women
Listen
to this Sermon
"Go outside and play!" Did anyone
ever say that to you? Go outside and play! My mother said that to my
brother and sister and I more times than I can remember. "Go outside
and play," she urged. And within minutes of being out of doors, we
found ourselves absorbed in a world of beauty, mystery and imagination.
I grew up in the country. I experienced the great outdoors as a
world of wonders. As a child, I tended to look at things very closely:
individual blades of grass, tiny purple flowers, moss covered logs,
stones as cool as the earth, the colors and veins of leafs … and all
that moved: winged insects, fury caterpillars, itsy green inchworms
like tiny acrobats pumping and straining on their silvery filaments. I
bit into sour wild apples, chewed on onion grass and relished the
lemony smell of sassafras. I heard the sound of bees' wings as they
darted from blossom to blossom, the wind ruffling branches, trees
creaking, birds chirping and fluttering, dogs barking. From our
backyard I could hear the neighbor's chain saw, passing cars, trucks
shifting gears and, best of all, fog horns on Long Island Sound.
The great outdoors engages the senses in ways they are rarely
engaged when we are indoors.
To be out of doors in a city is very different, but no less
wondrous or engaging to the senses. It is to catch phrases of exotic
languages, to see a kaleidoscope of skin colors and kinds of clothing.
It is to smell ethnic and international foods, to be tempted by exotic
bakeries and coffees, to visit stalls and outdoor markets with a nearly
unimaginable explosion of trinkets and wares. It is to stand rapt at
the antics of a street performer. And, it is to do all of these things
in the company of others, who are both strangers and kindred … unknown,
yet, us.
Jesus spent nearly all of his time out of doors. He was born in a
stable, baptized in a river and tempted in the wilderness. He called
his disciples by the lakeshore, prayed in a garden, gave a sermon on a
mount, taught from a boat, retreated to a mountain, walked through
grain fields and olive orchards, and healed on the streets of villages.
He walked the dusty roads of Palestine, slept under the stars, was
arrested in a garden and was killed outdoors on a hill, in plain view
for all to see. His stories and parables involved planting seeds and
working in vineyards. They included images of sheep and goats, camels
and bread, fish and stones, sun and moon, snakes and foxes, lilies and
sparrows.
Throughout his three years of ministry Jesus spent the vast
majority of his time outside, in large open spaces, surrounded by
crowds of people: the curious, the committed, the needy, the cynical,
the distressed and the threatened.
Part of what people loved about Jesus - what was both shocking and
compelling about Jesus - was the way he brought people together: rich
and poor, sinners and saints, Jew and Gentile, lost and found, scholars
and peasants, princes and paupers, soldiers and slaves, women and men.
Into the highly stratified, rigidly hierarchical, firmly patriarchal
and staunchly nationalistic society of the ancient Middle East, Jesus
introduced the notion of equality.
His conversation with a Syrophoenician woman exemplifies of the
sort of startling, boundary-crossing activities in which Jesus and his
followers engaged. This conversation - between a Jew and a Gentile, a
man and a women - simply wasn't permitted in the ancient Middle East.
It wasn't seemly. And, it is inconceivable that it could have happened
indoors; they simply would not have come across each other indoors.
Perhaps that is why Jesus spent so much time out of doors. After
all, the great outdoors is equalizing. There are no "best seats", no
reserved areas and no entrance fee. There are no signs indicating
members only, men only, whites only, straights only, citizens only,
English only. When you are out of doors, the differences between silk
and homespun, between velvet and polyester just aren't as obvious.
Jesus brought people together, just as he has brought us together
today. In his presence people came to believe that we belong to each
other, because we belong to God. We are responsible for and to each
other, because we are responsible to God. In God's eyes, if not in the
eye's of the world, we are all equal, all beloved, all worthy.
It seems to me that the Boston Marathon is just the sort of place
Jesus would want to be … an outdoor, open-air sort of event where there
are no best seats, and the whole world has come together, with all its
variety and diversity.
If you have been outside in Boston these past few days you
experienced a marvelous, festival atmosphere. The city is alive with
national and international visitors. Passersby talk, laugh and interact
in ways that are untypical for this New England city.
The Boston Marathon invites us to take it outside. It brings us
together across racial, ethnic, religious and national boundaries to
gather around this peaceful and wholesome competition. In this world of
war and strife, of sectarian violence and terror, the Marathon is an
achievement of cooperation and peace.
Now, because the great outdoors brings us together in a special
way … because being outside diminishes the differences between us and
is leveling and equalizing in ways that we rarely experience indoors …
because Jesus spent most his ministry out of doors … I charge you,
therefore: Take it outside! Or, as my mother used to say: Go outside
and play.
But then don't leave it at that: rather, bring the outside back
in. Bring what you experience out there (in the way of kinship and
friendliness) back inside with you … into your everyday lives,
your indoor lives, your work and family lives, your church and
club lives.
Quinn saw a sign yesterday advertising some brand of running shoe.
The sign showed the sole of a running shoe and these words: "Out Is
In." Well, if you know anything about Old South, you know we have taken
that to heart!
The Bible is full of reversals: the last are first, the lost are
found, the dead are raised and the poor have good news preached to
them. And here's another: out is in. So, take it outside! Take it
outside and bask in God's glorious creation.
Copyright © 2007, Old South Church and by author.
Excerpts are permitted as long as full accreditation is made
to Old South Church and to the author.
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