Canaanite Women and Klingons

Sermon 8.14.11

It's hard to say whether the woman who asked Jesus for help in today's Gospel lesson was an insider or an outsider. She was a Canaanite, a Philistine, a Palestinian. Her people were in the land before Moses and Joshua and the Jews moved in. From her perspective she was in insider. She was there first. From the Jew's perspective she was an outsider cuz she wasn't one of them. The Jews and Canaanites lived in the same land, but without dealing with each other. Separate languages, separate customs, separate faiths, separate cooking rules, separate families. Separate planets.

She crosses all those boundaries and asks Jesus for help. Jesus tests her to find out: which is stronger, woman, your belief in the separation of Jews and Canaanites or your belief in my ability to help. She believes in Jesus, she needs Jesus, and with great boldness she asks again for whatever help he is willing to give. The story has a happy ending. Barriers are broken, walls torn down, generations of prejudice and tradition go out the window and a precedent is set for Jews and Canaanites to interact in ways that please God.

Which leads us naturally to science fiction and the Klingons. In the Star Trek series the Klingons are the villains of the universe. Not much was done with them in the original Capt. Kirk series. There were a few episodes, and the Klingons looked a lot like Vulcans. But in the second series, Next Generation, the Klingon empire is much more fully developed, the budget was bigger, make-up and costuming was more extensive, and we have the Klingons like the one pictured on the bulletin cover.

So what does sci fi have to do with religious faith? It's simple. Good science fiction is not about gadgets or space ships or phaser beams. It's about people—about human relationships. A good story creates a new situation, a strange situation, but a plausible, believable situation in which people may one day find themselves, like, let's say, time travel. The interesting part of the story is not the technology, it's the relationships, the human emotions, the overcoming of a challenge, the test of the human mind, the human will, or the human heart. That's what good science fiction does and Star Trek is good science fiction.

In the Star Trek movies and TV series, the Klingons are a force to be reckoned with: will our heroes respond to the Klingons' violence and aggression with violence of their own? Can the whole lot of Klingons be written off as irredeemably, hopelessly, blindly violent? Aren't there any good ones? Well, as Star Trek Next Generation progressed, they had a Klingon on the Enterprise crew, named Whorf. He is highly placed, the security officer, a position of tremendous trust. Eventually the Klingon Empire join the Federation of Planets, which Earth is part of. Now there is regular, peaceful interaction between the Klingons and other races. But there is lingering tension, as the Klingons have a history with just about everyone at some point.

Do you know this story? Even if you've never watched Next Generation you should know this story. It's the story of your own American culture:

• Here comes a boatload of starving Irish into New York harbor. Where are going to put them? Are any of them any good? Are any of them sober?
• Here come a trainload of blacks up from Mississippi to Chicago. Whose jobs are THEY going to take? They better not try to move into MY neighborhood.
• Here come a thousand Mexicans over the border who can't speak English. How much is this going to cost us?
• A mosque in my town? Really?

The issues are entirely the same. The Star Trek movies and TV series are really about US! They always have been. They challenge us to look at our values and decide what it means to be human.

As followers of Jesus Christ we look to Jesus as the ultimate example of what it means to be human: to be loving, forgiving, fearless, inviting, willing to risk oneself physically, financially, socially on behalf of another, to speak out for those who don't have enough power to have a voice, to take responsibility for the well-being of those who have been pushed off to the margins of the life we enjoy. In Jesus we are challenged to look at ourselves, our values, our behaviors, and see if we are human-- that is, if we are living as God intends us to live.

In Matthew 28, in the Great Commission, Jesus tells his disciples to do what? To clone themselves? No. He tells them to “Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” The words of Captain Kirk in the intro to the original TV series are not so out of line with this idea. Do you remember? Say it with me if you can: The mission of the Starship Enterprise, to seek out new life, new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” That's what Jesus did later on in his career, branch out beyond Israel more and more. And that's what Paul did-- take the Gospel message to new lands, to boldly go where no one had gone before with that message.

So what do we do with this in St. Germain?

There are two competing views about how the Church should be the Church. In the first view, conformity is everything. We prove our faithfulness by proving our conformity. There is a strongman at the top of the organization (maybe in Rome, maybe at the local congregation) – and he interprets things for us; tells us what to think, do and believe. The culture of the group comes first, the Gospel comes second. There are very clear lines indicating who's in and who's out. Those who look like the insiders and sound like the insiders can be IN. This is a community turned in on itself. The primary emotion of this group – don't believe the tight-lipped smiles – is fear: fear that your slip might show on your way to communion, fear that God won't find you worthy, fear of the devil, fear of those with different experiences of life, different values, ideas, dress cods, skin colors, fear that the world is just too big and bad for God to handle. Primary loyalty is to the group. Jesus, well, Jesus is something of an afterthought. Jesus reminds us to be nice, at least to those inside the group.

Here's a contrasting view of what the Church should be. In the second view, the only conformity that counts is loyalty to the cross. Any other issue can be on the table for honest people to disagree about. Politics, clothes, music, etc. people can agree to disagree on those things who agree on the Cross. There is no strongman at the top of the organization – the only one who matters is Christ. There is no fear of Christ nor of judgment because we believe what Jesus says about the cross and empty tomb, namely that it works! Resurrection is real. Salvation works. There is no fear of the devil; God's power is much much much greater. There is no fear of the big bad world; the world is full of God's beloved children. This is a community that is not turned in on itself. It is turned outward toward those who are not there yet, because Jesus is to be found, not only on the inside, but also on the outside. The community is oriented toward the stranger, the alien... because Jesus was.

There are two competing views about how the Church should be the Church. One view is a country club, feeling sorry for itself, and covering the windows with stained glass so no one has to look at the world going to hell. The other view is a reflection of Jesus Christ, fearless reaching out with Good News to those who have not yet heard it.

When Jesus spoke his harsh-sounding words to the Canaanite woman about dogs and the children's table he was really asking her this: what do you believe in more?

• The artificial boundaries that separate us?
• Or do you believe in me?

In the way this congregation chooses to conduct itself we answer the same question. Which vision will we follow? What do we believe? The whole world is watching.