Community Church Sermons
Year A
August 14 2011
Pentecost 9
Keeping Up Appearances
Matthew
15:10-28
Rev. Dr. R.
Tim Meadows
My name is Lucy, Lucy Bouquet, spelled B-U-C-K-E-T, but pronounced Bouquet. Mine is a most difficult row to hoe, because despite my sophistication I am constantly surrounded by a horde of the unsophisticated, my FAMILY! I love them you know but there is no reason I should have to acknowledge them in broad daylight, except my sister, Violet, of course, who is filthy rich and has a Mercedes, a sauna, and even room for a pony on her estate. The others, O my, they are so continental, so embarrassing. They do not appreciate my fine china, they insist on engaging in lower middle class humor, usually involving flatulence, and they just do not understand that my boy Sheridan, precious lamb that he is, really deserves a father full of executive stress who properly wears a bow tie.
You may know Lucy Bucket; no she does not live on the water, or the golf course, in Kahite, or one of the Rarity neighborhoods, though there may be people like her there. No, she is the star of the popular British sitcom KEEPING UP APPEARANCES, a woman whose fastidiousness is rivaled only by her snobbery. The crowd Jesus encounters in the first part of our New Testament lesson for today, however, makes Lucy look tame by comparison. This is a tough crowd, concerned about all of the externals of faith practice. Focused intently upon keeping up appearances. Jesus engages this group in a pointed diatribe in which he seeks to remind them of how deceptive appearances can be. While they are concerned and offended by what people eat and the dirty hands with which they eat, Jesus says these things really do not matter. What matters he contends is what proceeds from inside this person, from the core of their being. What matters he contends are people who focus on keeping up appearances externally, but internally are filled with all sorts of evil intentions. For Jesus it is simple, these folks may keep up appearances but if they are rotten at their core, this is what defiles them. Jesus offers a forerunner to our conclusion that not everything is as it appears or we sometimes say appearances can be deceptive. Jesus is not a fan of keeping up appearances, but this is no longer a real problem in our world, is it? I mean we have all reached a certain level of intelligence and maturity that is beyond this, haven’t we? Well, unless you were a part of the crew who started the rumor about where she went the other day, what she bought, how she was dressed, and who she was seen with. Or the Vinophiles who continue to ask “Did you know that he is president of the wine society and still drinks inferior Merlot, often times from a BOX”? Or the foursome I heard at the restaurant the other day after one of their party excused herself, whispering “Can you believe the score she wrote down after that round of golf? If you added twenty strokes you would be nearly correct about her score and by the way, did you see who she was with at the Tiki Bar”? No, keeping up appearances is no longer a problem ---- unless we want to be honest about such.
You might say that keeping up appearances does no real harm, except that it distracts us from what really matters ---- which is the core of our being. When we focus on appearance, it is easy to eliminate those who do not conform ---- but what or who might we miss? Jesus suggests that we might eliminate some who are treasures to behold and we may affirm some whose core reveals them to be less than they appear to be.
In the second part of our New Testament lesson for today, we find Jesus on task ---- moving through his mission, only to be disrupted by a persistent Gentile woman. This is not the nice, inclusive, affirming, Jesus from a love your neighbor congregation, that we are accustomed to. No, this Jesus is ethnocentric, rude, jarring, in his abrupt attempt at dismissal of this woman. What to make of this Jesus who has just taught us not to be concerned with appearances and now seems to be himself. Some say it just proves that Jesus grew in understanding as we must and I have no problem with that. Others say the exchange was designed to teach the woman the value of persistence ---- and while I have a problem with that as the intention of the exchange ---- I suppose it is in part the end result of the encounter. Others say it is a story created by Matthew and placed in the mouth of Jesus to encourage early Jewish Christians who were the first recipients of his gospel to accept Gentiles. I do not buy that ---- I think if that were the point Matthew would have made Jesus look better ---- the appearance thing, yet again! Whatever else the story is, it is the story of the realization of a busy person that sometimes the mission is right in front of you in the form of a disruption that you had not planned for. Sometimes the business plan has to be adjusted to include something that logically does not appear to fit the plan. If nothing else the story is an indication that Jesus grew in understanding, grace, and compassion, in ways he had not planned because of this woman. If that growth was necessary for Jesus, how much more necessary is it for us?
May God give us the grace to look beyond appearances and to grow as Jesus grew each day that we shall live. AMEN!
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Sincere apologies to the writers and watchers of “KEEPING UP APPEARANCES”, due to faulty research, the character Hyacinth Bucket, is misidentified in this manuscript as Lucy, but I think her spirit is accurately portrayed.