20 August 2023 Pentecost 12

He who speaks last, wins.  That was the rhetorical ‘norm’ in Jesus’ time for ‘banter’ between people who did not necessarily agree.  The woman is an outsider.  She is a woman.  She is a Gentile.  Yet she insists that Jesus listen to her and heal her daughter.  On the surface, Jesus’ actions may be hard to understand.  He appears to be ignoring her, and his statement about only being sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel smack of racism at its worst.  But this woman is not deterred and she and Jesus then engage in a ‘verbal sparing match’ and the winner of such a match is the one who speaks last, and it appears the woman wins.  Jesus, who appears to never lose a verbal contest with anyone else in Scripture, concedes the argument to an audacious, female foreigner.  And the woman’s daughter is healed.  Notice this is one of Jesus’ ‘remote healings’, the child is not there, the mother simply reports the child is tormented by a demon; Jesus tells the woman that because of her faith her child is healed, and that’s it.  No proof required.  Faith accepts the good news.

Now I find it intriguing that the disciples are upset about this ‘foreign woman’ asking Jesus for help, and also that Jesus, as way of rejecting her plea for help says that he has come only for the lost sheep of Israel, because we are told that Jesus has intentionally come to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  These are foreign lands; they are not where you go if your prime focus is the people of Israel.  So we should not be surprised that ‘foreign’ people are encountering Jesus.  And maybe Matthew has included this encounter in his gospel to answer the nagging question among his community ‘’to whom is Jesus’ mission and message directed’ and ‘how wide is God’s mercy’.

Now while Jesus’ response to the woman may sound hurtful, and un-‘Christlike’, to faithful Jews, his response is ‘as expected’ for a rabbi of the times.  And the tension in this encounter is released by the woman’s statement of faith – she calls Jesus ‘Lord’, and ‘Son of David’, and it culminates in her declaration of utter dependence on God’s Grace.  And this, Matthew shows us, is what faith and fulfilment looks like.  Jesus is God’s agent through whom God makes salvation and justice happen.  And it recognises that Jesus represents the fulfillment of the ancient promise given to Isaiah for Israel – ‘I chose you to bring justice, and am here at your side.  I selected you and sent you bring light and my promise of hope to the nations’.  And it is this hope that has brought this Canaanite woman to approach Jesus for help.

This story causes us to ask ourselves, do I act or react like the disciples – recognising but not welcoming ‘the other’ in our community when they come near us, or am I willing to hear, listen to, and accept ‘others’ for who they are without trying to make them ‘like me’.  Our communities are changing, we are no longer ‘all indigenous’, neither are we ‘predominately white Caucasian’, our communities are multicultural and multi-faith communities, and we are challenged to accept and welcome ‘others’ when we encounter them.  Next month is ‘Season of Creation’ and I will be having discussions with at least one of our fellow ministers on the Mountain to discuss the possibility of some ‘ecumenical worship’ service/s sometime during that month.  And I hope it becomes a ‘broad ecumenical’ event, and many of you, and many of those who worship elsewhere, and maybe even some who worship nowhere, will come together in common worship.  This coming week in State Parliament representatives of many of the faith groups in our society will come together for the annual ‘Multi-Faith Prayer Service for Parliament’, and I am sad that as I will be at the Regional Conference this week, this year I will not be one of those gathering for this important Multi-Faith event. 

Our God is an awesome God who is not restricted by our narrow interpretations of eligibility and welcome.  The Canaanite woman was willing to ‘call Jesus out’; “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table”; she was willing to ignore the rejection from the disciples and even the implied rejection from Jesus and challenge the society that saw her as ‘unworthy’ of God’s grace.  Can we do the same.  Can we leave our ‘rigidity’ of thought about who is ‘us’ and who is ‘them’ and expand our thinking so we come to a unified, albeit messy, recognition that all people are worthy, all are God’s children, and God’s mercy, love and compassion is gifted to all created persons.  Jesus has widened the gates and thrown open the door to welcome the voice of a despised foreigner.  He has shown us the kind of listening and learning that brings us to our knees.  He has shown us that compassion can be cultivated, and we can grow into greater and more inclusive love.  And he has left us with the bottom line that we ignore at our peril: if it is not Good News for everyone, then it is not good enough yet.