Sermon, Pentecost +11

Matthew 15.10-28

We all know that part of what it means to be a Christian is that God wants for us to be in community. Christianity is not an isolated circumstance: we're in this together - no matter how different we might think we are when we start.

And that is a common theme throughout scriptures: it's a common theme in today’s scriptures. And the scriptures today give us another truth... no one said community was going to be easy.

In today's passage from Genesis, Joseph is revealing to his brothers who he is - he won't deny it any longer; and he wants for them to all be reunited and live as neighbours. But that will mean living right next door to the people who – moments earlier – wanted to kill them, and openly discriminated against them. And the feeling was mutual. These previously feuding tribes will need to sort out a new way to come together.

In the epistle, too, we hear from the start that Paul is different. He's not one of them. BUT, he says, they're still all people of God, beloved of God, worshiping God, receiving mercy of God. That's the glue that holds them all together, when they're looking for reasons to be different and separated and segregated.

Then the Gospel. Right before this passage, we have some Pharisees - known for being exclusionary, looking for any reason to remind someone that they're not good enough, that they don't belong. They’ve just insulted Jesus about his table manners, indicating that he's not good enough for their community, and that he's not good enough for God.

Ouch. But Jesus, with a stronger message, calls together the crowd - unlike the past few chapters where he sends crowds away and goes away to pray, he wants people to hear what he has to say this time, so he invites everyone - indiscriminately - to listen. Using the food analogy, he reminds us that what is of this realm will stay in this realm - we eat is going to literally go right through us. Earthly things do not defile us, but what we say, how we justify our actions, CAN defile us.

Sadly the message of "we're good enough and you're not" echoes through our culture. But we know that this message is not from the kingdom. The message that earthly divisions: skin colours or genders of socioeconomic status or any other arbitrary division – that those could make someone less worthy of God's love? That’s false.

And that's exactly the truth that Jesus wants the people to hear. Come together, he invites. Be community. Be stronger because of your differences. It may not be easy or popular, but it's what loving one another means. It's bold - but Jesus is bold like that.

From there we move on to a part of the bible that seems extraordinarily contradictory. It's a fascinating story, of a woman begging for help... for her daughter’s sake. The interaction between this outsider of a woman, and Jesus, and his disciples, is astonishing. Here Jesus seems to do exactly the opposite of what he's been instructing his disciples - and the crowds - to do. It's very odd.

         We see this horrible, soul-destroying interlude... first Jesus ignores the woman, then the disciples advise him to cast her aside, and Jesus – JESUS! responds that he wasn't sent to save people as unworthy as she. She gets aggressive and kneels before him - thereby forcing Jesus to either change paths around her or touch her (which would make him ritually unclean) - and she begs for help. This supplication is met with further insult, yet she persists in demanding even the tiniest scrap of help from Jesus - what he would throw away it's so small.

And so when we *finally* get Jesus' exclamation "GREAT IS YOUR FAITH!" it's like we can let out this huge sigh, the deep breath we didn't realise we were holding. THERE he is, we can say to ourselves. There's the Jesus we know.

It makes me wonder. I wonder why Jesus treated this woman this way, but I also wonder: why did the disciples do nothing? Have they not learned anything from following Jesus? He's taught them to love without judgement. To see if they will stand up against injustice. To see if they will practice what they preach.

And.... not so much. None of the disciples disagreed. Not one of them intervened on her behalf. No one tried to help her. No one showed her love and compassion and grace. It's as though Jesus was waiting for the disciples to do something, to say something, to defend this woman and show her that she is as worthy of grace and mercy and love as the rest of them. 

But that's the hard part... because the woman is the exact opposite of the type of community that the disciples would choose. They would want someone like themselves, within society's dictated norms, on their side of the cultural divide.

I think, by the end of the interaction, Jesus has determined that the disciples just don't get it. Not yet, anyway. And as this poor nameless woman - and her daughter - have suffered even more while he was waiting for the disciples to jump in, he responds as we have come to know him. It's not what the disciples, in their cultural complacency, expect: but it's enough to shake them out of their comfort zones and into active ministry, building community.

Jesus shows her his beautiful, perfect love.

"Woman, great is your faith." Her faith is great enough to stand up against injustice. To challenge structures that oppress. To risk her own well-being for the benefit of her daughter. To declare her worthiness to receive the crumbs of God’s grace that fall from the table. To seek God’s love as it stood right before her. To see beyond human barriers and barricades to a place where peace and justice prevail. To see love, in human form, and to continue towards that love despite opposition and rejection. Great is your faith indeed, you sassy, outspoken, persistent woman. Let it be done for you as you wish!

Jesus responds with such love and compassion because the woman has suffered enough – not only by her circumstance, but by his insult, and the disciples’ lack of action. "Let it be done for you as you wish," Jesus says, and the subtext is that he’ll try to teach the disciples another time. It's as though he's saying "You understand; they do not: I’ll not allow you to suffer this indignity any longer just because my followers are a little slow on the uptake today."

Jesus heals the woman’s daughter, rejecting all the earthly reasons and rationales why he shouldn't, because love wins, and we are all worthy of God's love. Jesus wants his disciples, from that time to this, to know that no matter what labels, actions, or personal history someone has, they are worthy of love, and compassion, and grace.

Jesus heals her daughter and commends her faith to remind us that we too, are worthy of love (even when we feel unloveable), of compassion (even when we’ve been told we’re not), and of grace – because at some point we all just want and hope, to receive the crumbs of grace falling from God’s table.

The Gospel challenges all of us to look at ourselves: sometimes we’re the Pharisees, harshly judging others; sometimes we’re the crowd hoping against hope to be found worthy of compassion. Sometimes we’re the disciples, trying our best to understand yet failing to respond to the most basic opportunity in front of us. Sometimes we’re the woman, unafraid to speak the uncomfortable truth, in faith. Sometimes we just want to be known and seen and loved; to be free from labels that divide and just be known as a child of God.

And thus we are called, to be community, to be the whole family of God. To love boldly, outrageously, ridiculously, faithfully. Love the way that you have received love – as a wondrous gift from God.