Sermons
A Sassy Woman's Faith
BY THERESA MCCONNELL |
August 17 , 2008
Matthew 15:21-28
Matthew 15:21-28
21Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” 23But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” 24He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” 27She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 28Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
You remember what study hall was like? Wasn’t it fun? I only had study hall once but it was no fun. Someone always telling us to be quiet. Most of the time it was boring, and we tried to figure out ways to get notes to our friends to liven things up. “Meet me after class….”. Today the kids would be trying to text each other on their cell phones hoping not to get their phone confiscated by the school. But sometimes the shushing was so loud you couldn’t get any studying done any way.
But the shushings of study hall monitors and librarians aren't common to all cultures.
Lenard Sweet reminds us that the study hall of traditional Orthodox secondary school for Jewish students (yeshivas) is traditionally a very noisy place. Each study is paired with a “learning partner” to verbally battle it out over how to best interpret the texts and traditions of the Jewish faith. You’re expected to have “head-to-head, nose-to-nose debate, dialogue, even shouting-at-the-top-of-your-lungs, is part of the learning process.”
In fact, a yeshiva student won't ask, "What are you studying?" Rather, the appropriate question is "What are you learning?" Studying infers a solitary, sedentary ingestion of information. Learning is a social, active, expectorating exercise - a dialogue that must necessarily engage two or more individuals in order for true learning to be accomplished.
In the Jewish tradition, "learning" is a verb, a never-finished action. (http://www.esermons.com/theResultsPage.asp?user_id=26723, Live and Learn, Lenard Sweet, Collected Sermons, Leonard Sweet, ChristianGlobe Networks, 2007, 0-000-1415)
Now let’s take time travel into the past – say 21 centuries – where Jesus and this Canaanite woman are having a quite intense discussion. In fact one commentator says this woman’s “calling” to Jesus is the same word used to describe a crows cackle: “Jesus, Jesus”! It was a desperate, cannot be ignored calling out for help!
It is in her desperation for her daughter’s return to health that she seeks out this prophet, Jesus. This Gentile woman crosses cultural, historic barriers of long-held tension and hatred between the Jews and Canaanite people because she recognizes that this Jesus is “Lord” and is a source of hope for her daughter. It’s a wonder the crowd didn’t begin to stone her.
She continues to confront Jesus even as he tells her that his mission is to the lost sheep of Israel. He even tells her she is comparable to a dog! Imagine it! I imagine I’d be pretty devastated if that was said to me by someone from whom I was seeking help. BUT did you hear what she heard? This “dog” is inside the house…under the table…was not out of reach of God’s grace!
Rather than hearing rejection from Jesus, she holds up his own words as a source of hope. She has recognized that even in his deliberation with her, Jesus’ compassion has shown through…. “I’d help you if I could but God has sent me elsewhere.”
Hearing the possibility of hope for healing she reaching out to him, acknowledges how right he is that she is “in the house, even if under the table” and Jesus in turn recognizes her faithfulness – her trust in the compassion of God seen in Jesus.
Just imagine -- what would happen in your life if you were to relook at what you imagine to be the rejection of the church, the rejection of God, hurt from the past, challenge in the present… just imagine what would happen if you and I moved beyond our own hopelessness about that secret “situation” in our life and reached out to Jesus for healing.
Perhaps, we, too, might be healed!
Let us pray:
We pray, O God, we know that you know all about us. Sometimes that’s a bit scary. We pray that you might give us the courage to pull out that secret box in our lives and open it so that you might transform it. Remind us that nothing in our lives is beyond your love and compassion. We pray in the name of Jesus who is the Christ our Lord. Amen.
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