Pastor Detweiler’s sermon from Aug. 17, 2008

”Content with crumbs.”

Matthew 15:21-28

I was getting ready to leave our second-floor apartment, but I could hear our landlady, Phyllis, at the front door being talked at by a Jehovah’s Witness. Phyllis would start to say “Well, thank you, but ...” and the woman at the door would keep right on talking. “And it says right here that only 144,000 will be saved.”

Phyllis tried again, “Well, I’m really not interested. Thank you ...” “... And then there will be a 1,000-year reign of the righteous ...” “I really have to go. Thank you for coming.”

“Don’t you want to be among the saved?” “I’m really not interested.” “But if you just look at the Watchtower here ...” Phyllis was always very nice and polite and she was stuck because some people don’t take polite seriously.

One of the most striking and disturbing aspects of the story that we have as today’s gospel is how rude Jesus was to this Canaanite woman from Tyre and Sidon. She wants something he can provide - healing for her daughter. She even believes in him, calling him “Son of David,” a messianic title. But first he ignores her, then tries to dismiss her by calling her a dog. But she does not give up. I suppose because of the respect my parents taught me for gutsy women, I admire her persistence and her faith.

She made so much noise crying out “have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon” that the disciples wanted Jesus to get rid of her. She was making a scene - like a one-person demonstration. Jesus dismissed their concern by referring to his mission - his sense of his purpose; “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

But the woman was not put off by being in the wrong category of people. She knew she was a foreigner, an outsider, an outcast: a barbarian in Greek thought, and a dog to the Hebrew mind. She knelt in front of Jesus and said “Lord, help me.”

He was still not ready to help her. He reasserted his mission - his purpose - and put her attempt to distract him from it in perspective: “It’s not fair to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs”, he said.

But she was ready for this put down and gave the most self-effacing, but unblinking reply in the gospels: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” She’ll be content with crumbs - that will be enough for her daughter’s healing. She may be a dog in Jesus’ mind, but she could live with that because she believed Jesus was the master from whose table fall the crumbs of life, and salvation from the possession and tormenting of demons. She did not blink in the face of Jesus’ withering gaze.

He was in awe of her faith - her determination to make her request with unflinching trust that he could grant it. “Great is your faith. Let it be down for you as you wish,” he said.

Considering the culture of Jesus’ day, this woman had three strikes against her - there were at least three reasons Jesus could ignore her.

First, she was a Canaanite. This is the only place in the New Testament where this gentile name is used. In the Old Testament, “Canaanite” was synonymous with “sinner,” because the Canaanites were indigenous people who practiced the immoral fertility religion of the Baals. This religion included temple prostitution and other practices that Jews knew were wrong.

But Jews also were to have nothing to do with non-Jews. It wasn’t snobbery, but obedience to the divine law. By touching a non-Jew they became unclean and unable to perform their religious duties. This was part of the reason Jesus’ mission was to Jews - the lost sheep of the house of Israel - not to non-Jews.

The second strike against this Canaanite woman and the second reason Jesus could be rude to her was that she was a woman - a woman who violated Jewish order by not only coming into the presence of a group of males, but then proceeded to yell after them. Women who did this were usually members of the world’s oldest profession, and to be ignored by the righteous.

She was a sinner by birth and gender, and finally - the third strike against her - was her daughter’s ailment. Demon possession was taken as a sign of sin. If the daughter was possessed, the parents must have sinned. Being a sinner was cause for being ignored by the righteous and religious.

So what does this woman and her story have to say to us?

Some people - especially women - find this woman’s plight easy to identify with. Some of the women here today remember what it was like to be alone in a mostly male work culture. Some of you might remember when the leadership of this congregation was exclusively male. But this woman represents all who are excluded or looked down upon by accident of birth: the foreigners, the outsiders, outcasts and strangers - all who are viewed as a nuisance.

Matthew wants us to see that the gospel of God’s love in Jesus Christ is for all who are open to it - all who call upon the name of the Lord. In the first lesson we read from Isaiah; “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Thus says the Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.”

The problem and possibility is for us - the insiders - to be as open to those outside as the Lord wants, because often their faith is greater than ours.

“Are you a Lutheran pastor?” the young woman asked as I walked past on my way out of the psychiatric center. I had other calls to make, so it was tempting to keep walking but I stopped and said “Yes.”

“I would like to take communion.” “Are you a member of a church around here?” I asked - maybe I could call her pastor for her. “No, in Allentown.” (a town about an hour away)

“OK. Your name?” “Beverly.” We found a place to sit. “How come you are here?” I asked. “Sexual abuse - I’m trying to come to terms with it.” “Oh.” “I was abused by my father and after he died my mother remarried and I was abused by my stepfather. I want communion because I want to feel closer to God.”

This is a good reason for desiring Holy Communion, but many people in Beverly’s situation would not be able to make that effort. Jesus said, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish”

Beverly represents the outcasts - like the Canaanite woman - people who call after the Lord, are sometimes inconvenient, but nevertheless desire the love and mercy which God gives in Jesus. Who are these people for us? It might be the friends and families of those who come only when they want something from the church: a baptism, confirmation or wedding, the people who come only at Christmas or Easter. For some it might be noisy children who come to worship and for others the people who come to the church for a hand-out.

This story of the Canaanite woman making a pest of herself to get Jesus’ attention urges us to look beyond the surface and our reaction to other’s behavior:

• to look for and see their faith and trust in Jesus.
• to see it even in the very attitudes or actions that may annoy us.

Jesus was rude to her and justified in being rude by his culture. But as she repeated her request and asked for mercy, he saw more than an outsider and an annoyance. He saw one who trusted in him and was in need of the good news he brings and embodies.

We can see that too, and be the welcoming community he calls us to become.

We can make emotional room for those the Spirit sends to us.

We can do this because we have received more than crumbs. In the bread and cup we receive forgiveness, new life and hope, the promise of eternal life.

We are given all this in this meal that makes us a community of God’s people in Christ, the Christ who says to all who turn to him: “Great is your faith. Let it be to you as you wish.”