Any time something happens in the country or the world you can be sure that someone, somewhere is being criticised for not doing or saying enough about it. This week in the aftermath of the riots in many English cities it is the turn of the Archbishop of Canterbury to come under fire from many who said he should have said more. In fact he did both made a short statement of support and a much longer statement to the House of Lords, not to mention the countless books and articles which he has written in the past.
But still, there is something in us that wants a soundbyte - something simple enough to hold on to and pithy enough to make us think a little. But we have a problem, there is a prophetic element to the Archbishops role - he is both pastor and prophet to this muddle of a Church of which we are part. That means that God is involved, and that means that things can get a little bit unpredictable.
Prophets in the Bible are interesting characters. They are often unwillingly hauled from whatever they are doing onto God’s centre stage. Most protest unworthiness and wonder whether such encounter with God is possible to endure this side of the grave. All are at some point ignored or persecuted and all of them, despite some attacks of nerves and even running away, keep going.
Isaiah, who we encounter in today’s first lesson, is typical of an Old Testament prophet. He is called to his work in the year the king Uzziah died, probably 742BC. We know from the records in Kings and elsewhere that things went downhill with the monarchy after this - although there were some bright spots in the kings of Judah, most turned away from God and pulled the afftection of the people with them. This would spell moral and political disaster.
Isaiah, in chapter 6, is recorded as having a vision from God in which he encounters God on such a level that he wonders whether he should not have been struck down by it. He protests against his calling, I am a man of unclean lips, he says, from a people of unclean lips. But God persists and Isaiah does God’s bidding.
The book in the Bible which we call Isaiah is actually three books in one. It is generally agreed that the first book runs from chapters 1-39 and these chapters are more likely to be the work of a prophet called Isaiah. But the latter two parts of the book are thought to be later, perhaps over a hundred years later for the final chunk and these are likely to be from a school or prophetic thought that bore Isaiah’s name.
This would not have been considered strange to the authors - in fact, most of the Old Testament is made up from books which are composites of various pieces of work. It is impossible to read through the law and history books without realising that there is more than one voice at work, more than one school of thought and this is because the books were edited together from various traditions which sat at hundreds of years distance from each other and reflect the development of the nation from nomadic shepherds to a people settled in one place and living in permanent structures, through various wars and exiles in between.
The passage from Isaiah is talking about allowing non-Jews to work in and around the Temple. It is actually only a little inclusiveness in a world where many Israelites were suspicious and hostile to foreigners. It takes until the New Testament for Jesus to bring in a truly inclusive age - although in Matthews idiom of writing a Jewish Gospel for the Jewish people the testing of the faith looks more like racism than a glorious new age of inclusion.
The message I tale from this passage is partly that presented, of a healing, but also that despite being a Gentile this woman shows more faith that all the Jews put together. Matthew sets up the story to reflect the promise of salvation to God’s chosen people but then the sting in the tale is that this woman, despite apparent rejection, has both the faith and the wisdom to persist and to ask for inclusion in this great story.
There is a stark juxtaposition between the woman’s understanding of just how big what Jesus is offering is and the limited world view of Israel. This idea of salvation flowing out to the Jews and there being enough left dripping off the table for others is important - God is as big as God needs to be and is there for all people - but we cannot take that for granted. We too will require both wisdom and perseverance.
These traits of wisdom and perseverance are prophetic traits. Wisdom which comes from a knowledge and experience of God and perseverance in proclamation when acceptance is never going to be universal. Underlying all this is the heartsong of the prophet - that all of this is true, that god loves God’s people and wants to redeem them. In Jesus this becomes stunnningly clear, God is here and now and real and reaching out more and more and more.
This tenacity of faith is something which we would do well to hold on to in these days. No matter what we do or where we go God is not giving up on us - and that is not true just for the gathered Church, that is true for everyone everywhere. We, as a Church, have to be both pastors and prophets to the world in which God places us and it really is not good enough simply to pass over that task.
When we are confronted with the hopelessness and helplessness of the past few days we would do well to pray for tenacity. It has all been said before. Confessors will tell penitents from time to time that they will not ever come up with an original sin - I wonder whether the same can be said to be true for theologians and preachers - there are no new ideas. God is God is God, whatever our understanding.
But it is not novelty which our nation needs - it is a different sort of newness - a renewing in the Spirit of God - a re-making of covenant and relationship. It is precisely the sort of fetching back from the wilderness of separation which Isaiah was calling people to - we need to discover and rediscover and hold on to our prophetic voice.
