Dave Schneider

Central Presbyterian Church, Russellville, Arkansas

Sunday, Aug 17, 2008

Worship Assistant, Cheryl Coffman introduced Dave Schneider to us at the beginning of the service and a portion of that introduction is included in this transcript which includes Dave’s initial sermon here, and our affirmation of faith

Cheryl: I would like to welcome this morning, our new Interim Pastor, Dave Schneider.

Dave comes to us from Oklahoma, but he resides in Texas. We are glad to have Dave fill our pulpit, and at this time he would like to say a few words; so, please welcome Dave Schneider.

Dave: Thank you. It’s good to have a home in Arkansas. I was wondering yesterday what you call people from Arkansas. I asked Theresa, “Are they Arkansassians? And she said, “No, they’re Arkansans. But she blew it this morning when she looked at an animal on a table in my office, and said, “Why do you have a moose in here?” I had to inform her that it was a Texas longhorn. So she blew that one. I am living at 1202 W. 18 ^th Terrace, which I understand is the home of one of your former favorite pastors, and I’ll be renting that house. I want to thank everyone who helped me yesterday to move into the home, and emptied the rental truck, and the folks that provided a wonderful dinner that night—the folks who take the suppers out—thank you very much for that wonderful food, for the hospitality of Betsy and Caral, and all of you folks. I’ve had a wonderful welcome to Russellville, Arkansas. It’s good to be where there’s water and trees and mountains, instead of dust and flat roads. Thank you.

Please pray with me. Lord open my mouth and let me proclaim your goodness in the midst of the congregation. Amen.

Well, I am a cat person, not a dog person, all right? I will admit that a dog generally takes care of his own business, but a cat has an advisory committee—the cat says, “Leave a message and I’ll get back to you.” Now one thing I like about cats, they don’t carry a grudge; a cat is very quick to forgive. I have two cats. One of them is an 18 year old half-breed Siamese. She is my “interim cat”. She has traveled to all eight of my interim churches. The other one is a New Orleans evacuee from “Katrina”. I think dogs are a little more like some church members. They have a longer memory span and they’re less forgiving.

Matthew’s story is about dogs. The word, “dog” in the Bible is not a good word; in many circles it’s like a swear word. Even so, Ecclesiastes 9 tells us that a foolish person is better off living the life of a dog than being a dead lion. I’m also a lion, hmm. In Jesus’ time on earth, dogs scavenged the street for scraps of food or garbage. If a dog was lucky enough to enter the courtyard of a wealthy person, that animal might be allowed to wait under the table for any leftovers or crumbs which fell off the table. In that respect the dog was much better off than the poor people and other folks who were permitted to stand around against the walls, while watching a rich man entertain his guests at his table. But the poor folks never received a single scrap of bread.

This woman was a “dog”—that is to say that she was an outsider. She was Greek; she spoke CyroPhoenician. Gentiles were called dogs by anyone who was a prejudiced Jew. This included Jesus’ own disciples, who told him, “Get rid of this woman. She’s bothering us.” We haven’t changed very much. Many Christians condescendingly dismiss anyone whose brand of faith is not of the same vintage as their own, as a pitiful dog consigned to Hell.

Because she was a woman, of course she was a second-class person. Secondly, she was from Canaan. Among all the gentiles, the Canaanites were hated the worst by the majority of Jews. They were the scum of the earth. Of course, some Jews looked kindly upon minority people like women or Canaanites, but they were very few in number. It’s quite obvious here, that in the day of Matthew’s church, there were Greek folk in the Church. There were single women; there were Canaanites. Here, they were being warned that they needed to have a different kind of evangelistic attitude toward these locals. Most likely, she’s a single parent with her little daughter, another liability. And her daughter is mentally ill, often described in the Gospels as demon possession. So you see these two women have too many strikes against them. There’s no hope; there’s no future. There’s no way to earn a living.

Now sometimes Interim Pastors are viewed as dogs. When church folks ask me, “Well what do you do?” I tell them, “I’m just and Interim Pastor.” A good friend in the last church I served in Guymon, Oklahoma had a going away gift made for me. You might see her gift sitting on my desk. It’s an engraved nameplate mounted on a piece of polished wood. The sign says, “Justin N. Terim”. In years past, Presbyterian clergy who got into trouble and needed to be moved quickly by the Presbytery, were sometimes given a temporary interim position; and so they were forced upon unsuspecting congregations. A retired pastor who wanted a little extra pocket cash might take an interim job, even when he or she had little idea of the special needs and circumstances of a church in conflict, or the church who was getting over the death of a favorite pastor.

In western Oklahoma I was asked by the Presbytery executive if I would consider going to a small church whose pastor had been ill for four years with cancer of the liver. He had undergone a liver transplant which failed; and he died last August, a very sad story. Now the church did not want to hire an Interim. They wanted to hire the local 4-Square Gospel pastor who had just lost his job, because it would be cheaper. They would save money. Also, the church did not think they needed any healing. But they were told that if they did not hire an Interim for at least six months, they would not be allowed to look for a new pastor. So they agreed to hire me; so that was my situation for six months. In one of my interim positions, one church member thought she was complimenting me when she said, “You know, you’re doing a great job here. Why don’t you try to get a permanent position as a real minister?”

In the past 20 years in our PCUSA we have learned that Interim Ministry is a specialized calling, with unique gifts of the Holy Spirit; so we require additional training. We require advance certification. Even further specialization is required in very large churches where there are multiple professional staff. Just as Jesus traveled away from the comfort of his home territory, so every year, the Interim may travel to a new place, to a Tyre, or a Sidon, or a Russellville, where he or she has not been before. You’re kind of like a Captain Kirk and the Enterprise. So, I come to Arkansas, which according to my Texas family, is gentile country. Interims become what a science fiction novel in the 1950’s by Robert Heinlein, labeled “ A Stranger in a Strange Land”.

Matthew tells us that Jesus withdrew to those two towns along the Mediterranean seacoast, one 30 miles from Galilee, the other 50 miles. But, I don’t think when his disciples got there, they had to unload the Penski truck. But this story introduces a new phase in Jesus’ ministry and requires some new insights by Jesus, himself, into how he is going to see his own mission. He has healed gentiles before, but it was always in his homeland. This marks the first time he is asked to heal, outside of his own country. And yet, he tells the woman, “I was sent only to the lost House of Israel”. Should he give to outsiders what he has not been able to give to his own people?

You know, sometimes you can give to a stranger something you cannot give to your own family. Her reply admits that she acknowledges she is in a lesser position. She is undeserving, but she is willing to receive any little scrap he might offer. We also recognize the new way of looking at our ministry as interim people, where together we bring healing and hope and a new identity to a people who might view themselves as orphaned children. Interim pastors very typically minister to congregations where God’s precious children might be viewed by some other congregations as “little dogs”; or where they might say, “Well I’m glad I’m not in that church.”

When an installed pastor leaves, the church might be viewed similarly to that underdog woman in the Gospel of Matthew. In both Mark and Matthew’s version, our storytellers skillfully play around with these words from the Greek language. Jesus uses the term here, “little dogs” (canaria), which may also be translated as puppies. Who among us doesn’t love a playful little puppy? This is to suggest that he didn’t really despise these gentiles, or people in the woman’s situation or plight. Maybe he is just playing with her, testing her, using her as a teaching example for his own disciples who have a very quick tendency to profile or be prejudiced.

We know this Gospel of Matthew is a teaching manual for new Christians, for new leaders in that church. The lost children of Israel are unfavorably compared to dogs or puppies. It’s the puppies who come off better. She’s willing to take Jesus on. She has a quick wit. In fact she wins the day with her repartee. She’s not afraid of being rejected. Jesus may have called her a Canaanite woman, but she addresses him with respect, as the Son of David. George Buttrick, that ageless commentator in “The Interpreter’s Bible”, and I quote him, “She has won him not by her wit, mainly, but by a quickness that was born of love and faith. She was not presumptuous, but lowly. An eager belief in God’s power was her dominant motif; and this brought joy to Jesus in a trying time, and gave an opening to His Grace”.

So now, she’s confident that she is not entitled to be at the same table with Jesus, gentile dog that she is, but even one or two small crumbs are okay, as long as she may feed them to her sick daughter and give her some relief. Homeless puppies sniff around on the floor for even the tiniest dried out morsel, (and so did my cats, for that matter, at Jim Westbrook’s house, as soon as they were let out of their cages). Hers is a simple faith that seeks a simple mercy, and having received it, she says, “Thank you, Lord”. In the end, she is a mother with a mother’s love for her child; and in the Old Testament any mother has a special place in the heart of God. Some of the most profound, some of the most touching passages of scripture are those where God’s own view is like that of a mother for her child. In the end, Jesus heals the girl.

You are an interim people; I am an interim pastor. We have been brought together by God’s nudging, in a very short time—something a little longer than just two weeks. I imagine there are lots of different kinds of thoughts going through your heads.

Some of you are thinking, “Is he gonna end this sermon before 12:00. I was told last night that no one gets saved after 12 o’clock. What is it you want to ask Jesus for? Are you asking for yourself, or for someone else in this congregation? What crumb off the table would satisfy you? What is it that you might be afraid of right now? That I as an Interim Pastor might leave before the new pastor comes? That you’re not going to be invited as a guest at the table of Jesus? Those kinds of thoughts, those kinds of fears are normal, typical in a congregation that has a new Interim Pastor. Where do you see yourself on the spectrum of faith? How would you compare yourself to this begging woman? Is there healing to be done in your life, or in the life of this congregation. Is it physical? Is it spiritual? Is it mental? Is there new leadership to come from unexpected sources that may surprise you?

In the end, I become a member of your family. This becomes my home. In the end, you and I are called upon by our Lord Jesus to be humble in spirit, not proud, not condescending, to be receptive, expectant but not impatient, to be grateful, not demanding, and exactly like that woman, to be persistent in faith. And a good sense of humor and a quick wit will help.

Open yourselves to expanding your horizons and the boundaries of your faith, to gain a new appreciation of our great Presbyterian heritage, perceiving that in this uncertain, sometimes depressing and overly stressful journey, we must, together as one, nurture a simple faith that seeks the simple mercy from our God; and a year from now, perhaps less, God will say to you, “My dear children at Central Presbyterian Church, great is your faith. Let it be done to you as you desire.” In the meantime, Christ may look upon you and be silent, which was his first response to this woman; but he will pray for you as he has so many people, as he looked over the City of Jerusalem like a mother hen for her chicks. He will pray that you and I will come and kneel before him like little puppies, asking for a few crumbs. Amen.

Let us say what believe by using the following brief reprint from our Statement of Faith:

We trust in Jesus Christ, fully human, fully God. Jesus proclaimed the reign of God: preaching good news to the poor and release to the captives, teaching by word and deed, and blessing the children, healing the sick, and binding up the brokenhearted, eating with the outcasts, forgiving sinners, and calling all to repent and believe the Gospel. Amen.