"Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation……..Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canannites were in the land."
In Genesis 12 we have one of the pivotal stories for both the Judaic faith and the Christian faith. It is here that God challenges Abram and his wife, Sarai to finally get going. The book of Genesis tells of the beginning of our story as God's people. The people are making the break from their traditions of polytheism to follow the God of all creation. It is a radical break from all that is, one symbolized in this story as God tells Abram and his family to leave what they know and journey to a new land. It is a long journey, one in a sense we are still walking today. Abram had first journeyed with his father as they left the fertile basin of the Euphrates to Haran which is located in present day Syria. This morning's Hebrew text tells the next part of the story as they are sent to the land of Canaan to make a radical new beginning.
Our preacher this week at Annual Conference spoke of living between the stories. Of how we often needed two completely different stories to tell the whole truth. The creation stories are an example. One story tells us the goodness of creation; the other the frailties of humanity as we disobeyed God's commands. We need both of those creation stories to talk about our reality. This story is the same. As I started reading the texts earlier this week one line kept jumping out at me: "At that time the Canaanites were in the land." I was reminded that as Abram was sent from his own home at God's command, there were people who called the place where Abram was being sent their home. This place where God sends Abram is not a "clean slate" so to speak….it has its own story and people. The text says nothing more about the matter, except that the Canaanites were there. Later in the Hebrew Scriptures the battles over the land of Canaan are dealt with; and we know today that the land and people have suffered much as the battle for place and home continue as we speak. Canaanites came to represent all that was evil and immoral in the land, and hence the Israelites felt justified in their attempt to wipe them out. In the beginning they term simply meant all the non-Israelites in the area.
I am reminded in the statement about the Canaanites that life is messy and confusing…and not often all that clear. God speaks a word, yet what already is doesn't just disappear for us. It is, when you think about it incredible that the line made it through the editing process when putting together the book of Genesis. It certainly would have been much simpler to leave it out, to not mention the fact that the promised land for Abram and Sarai was already the promised land of others. I for one am glad this line is here. It is a reminder of first the complexity of life….and don't we know that to be true! It is also a reminder I think, to look at how we deal with the stranger and to think carefully about how we deal with people who are "not us."
Fancifully I'd like to think that Jesus remembered this one line, easy to miss as it is inserted in this grand story of call and promise. I think he remembered it often as he hung out with the wrong people, made the lost feel at home…gave hope to the outcast…and included those who had no place. We see him doing just that in this morning's text from Matthew. He spends time with Matthew, the tax collector. He is accused of partying with sinners. And then later in the text, two women are healed. Jesus made a place for people who had none.
This morning we gather to remember the place that Jesus made for us. We share a simple meal…a bit of bread, a dip of juice. Yet, those two small things add up to so much more. They are life itself, our home. This church is home to us. Here we find place and welcome. And from here we are sent to the world…our places of work, our homes, our social activities. We are sent to be the body of Christ in the world. And guess what…..there are Canaanites living in the land. People who are not us. People who do not act like us. People who don't think like us. People who don't even like us. The Canaanites are out there! They are the man who yelled at me and called me a choice name because I delayed his leaving the bank when I let a biker cross the driveway. They are the people who cannot seem to find a place in the world, they are the lost and excluded. They are the demonized. Yes, there are Canaanites out there…working and playing, with their friends and families, moral and immoral….they are the "not us."
And what do we do with them? The history of the Hebrew Scriptures does not always deal kindly with the Canaanites. They moved from simply being the people who weren't the Israelites, to the people who had to be wiped out because of their immorality. Today that battle still is being waged for land and place. An amazing sentence tucked away in a story that overwhelms it. There were Canaanites. A long flight from Jordan to NYC. A woman traveling alone with an infant and four toddlers….not a good combination on a long flight. A few in my group helped her through the flight. We walked the baby, played with the children. Another in our group wondered how could we touch such people, the Palestinians! Jesus gives us the example….reaching out to the outcast, the lost, the untouchables, the Canannites….those who are not us. From this meal we are sent to do the same. In the way of Jesus: Go!