The Canaanite Woman preaches the Gospel Matthew 15: (10-20), Peter R. Powell. Proper 15 The Canaanite Woman St.

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1 The Canaanite Woman preaches the Gospel Matthew 15: (10-20), Peter R. Powell Jesus called the crowd to him and said to them, "Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles." Then the disciples approached and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?" He answered, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit." But Peter said to him, "Explain this parable to us." Then he said, "Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile." Jesus left Gennesaret and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just 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." But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, "Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." He answered, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instantly. What I m about to say is somewhat controversial. I don t mean to offend you but the Gospel this morning enables me to talk about one of my favorite issues with the church. Too often we think the main requirement of Christianity is to be nice. If we are simply nice, and intend the right things, then all will be well for us. For many of you this is the 3 rd week you ve listened to me so you are not surprised that I don t think Christianity is about being nice. Unfortunately for those who promote this understanding of the content of Christianity, including those who say that the entire gospel can be summarized with do unto others as you would have them do unto you 1, Christianity is more complex and textured. As I understand Christianity it is a process. We are constantly learning to be Christian and our understanding of what Christianity expects of us is constantly challenging. I perhaps oversimplify Christianity too because I am convinced that if we are to be Christian then we must care about what Christ cared about, and that means we must care about the poor. However, in my defense I can find a lot more in the bible about our attitude to poverty than our attitude towards being nice. 1 Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:31. See also Lev 19:18 (The Rev. Dr.) Peter R. Powell Page 1 of 6 August 20, 2017

2 Quite simply Jesus was not always nice and perhaps not even especially nice. He begins this morning s gospel by overthrowing the laws of ritual cleanliness. Washing hands does not counteract, Jesus says, the defilement caused by evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. I imagine all of us would agree so this is not, for us, a troubling statement. It even supports the importance of being nice. Nice people do not have evil intentions, so this passage could argue against my stating that being nice is an insufficient definition of what it means to be Christian. Good manners and cultured speech can hide hate, but only hide it. Then we read on. Jesus is in the region of Tyre and Sidon, that is Jesus has wandered some distance from home and is in modern Lebanon. We don t know why he is in Lebanon but since he is there it is no mystery that he encounters a non-jew. The Canaanite woman implores Jesus to heal her daughter and he responds first by ignoring her and then by insulting her. He says: "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." That would be an insult to us but imagine how much more of an insult to people who don t like dogs. What little we know of the time would indicate that dogs were not held in the affection they are today. What do we make of Jesus insulting someone in need? While this reading has been in the lectionary for many years I imagine it has only rarely been commented on to point up the violence an insulting Jesus has on how we regard him. The setting in Matthew tells us that Jesus was tired and trying to escape from the crowds that pursued him hoping for a good work, the crowds that pursued him hoping perhaps for another feeding and the crowds that pursued him hoping perhaps for healing. Jesus has left Galilee and gone to non-jewish lands to escape. But his fame has preceded him. Is being tired an excuse for being insulting? So, what was Matthew attempting to display here? It s probably safe to assume that there is historical memory behind this story because it s impossible to believe that such a story would ve been constructed to display how Jesus interacted with others. One could say that it shows that even prior to the resurrection the Gospel applied to gentiles. This is certainly true. It may also show that in contrast to the Pharisees in the 1 st half of the reading, the gentile woman recognizes the Lordship of Christ. This is certainly true. But it is equally true that Jesus appears to be hostile to gentiles. He has come, in his mind, only to the Chosen People, the Jews, his people. Whether he knows exactly how much time he has left can be debated, but he certainly preaches with a sense of urgency. He is resisting being distracted from his purpose. Of course, one could argue that he s distracted himself by taking this side trip into Lebanon, but in his mind I assume this is a much needed vacation. Perhaps like many of the younger clergy I meet, he has very good boundaries and he inarticulately defines them by insulting the Canaanite Woman? Or perhaps the story is included to drive home to us that the historical Jesus was fully human and was developing as he exercised his earthly ministry? I know that I am constantly amazed at people who refuse to accept the resurrection (The Rev. Dr.) Peter R. Powell Page 2 of 6 August 20, 2017

3 but then talk about what an amazing ethicist or source of spirituality the Jesus of the gospels is. I generally point out that obviously they haven t read the entire gospels and don t realize how much the gospels talk about the importance of deciding now and the ramifications for deciding against the Kingdom of God as Jesus presents it. When we reduce Christianity to being nice we empty it of the central message that our lives are important and what we do with them makes a difference in our futures. I am Christian not because I accept a certain ethical norm or because it s intellectually appealing, although I do accept an ethical norm, the gospel has an absolute preference for the poor, and I find the gospels intellectually appealing and have spent my adult life studying them; no, I am a Christian because I find meaning and purpose to my life by following Christ and accepting that he died for my (our) sins. But, I also find it interesting how Jesus developed during his earthly ministry and today s text reveals how fully human he was and it reveals that sometimes outsiders had more gospel than he did. This is not uncommon in the bible. For instance in Galatians 2 Paul says that in Christ there is neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, and then in the entirety of his epistles shows that for him each of these distinctions is paramount and definitive. Paul has a revelation that he cannot live up to. What I m about to say is radical and I want you to hear it clearly. All I m doing is representing what happens in today s Gospel reading, but we frequently don t actually read what is in the Gospel preferring to read what we think the Gospel is saying. Up to this point in Matthew we can perhaps stipulate that Jesus doesn t fully understand the message he s been preaching but the Canaanite woman does. She sees that the inbreaking kingdom of God is for all of God s people, not simply for the Jews. Her encounter with Jesus causes him to grow in understanding of who he is and what his mission is. She brings the Gospel to him. So the truth in today s text is that a woman-a highly unlikely preacher in his time-who is also a pagan-an even more unlikely preacher in his time-preaches the gospel to Jesus. That s my radical statement. We have the text because the gospels, for whatever reason, are not texts edited only to show Jesus in the best light. They are texts that helped the early church deal with its issues and certainly the assimilation of non-jews into the body of Christ was a major issue. I can imagine someone recalling this vacation or holiday trip to Lebanon and saying, well, I remember when Jesus was in Lebanon and he encountered a woman with a daughter tormented by a demon, and she persuaded him to heal her; therefore, we should welcome non-jews into our congregation. What has that to do with 2017? We live in an age of segregation. Prior to last week we may have thought that the segregation battles were fought in the 60s, and they were, but they continue. Putnam and Campbell s important study of religion in America, American Grace concludes that today the Gospel is increasingly seen as individualistic. I am saved rather than we are saved. My 2 Gal 3:28 (The Rev. Dr.) Peter R. Powell Page 3 of 6 August 20, 2017

4 personal acts of charity and piety define all that is important and it is the role of government, for instance, to get out of the way and permit me to exercise my personal freedom and to work out my salvation with fear and trembling. It is my salvation and my relationship with Christ as an individual that is important. There is no such thing, they would say, as collective guilt or responsibility and no need for the government to skew policies and funding to any group. If the impoverished, or minorities frequently of course the same thing 3, were simply to live as committed as the conservative Christian then they wouldn t be impoverished and their minority status wouldn t matter. That is not what the Gospel says. In the summer I preach in a number of different congregations. Fewer this summer than many others because I m with you for all of August, but since May you re the 4 th different congregation I ve been in. Most summers I spend 1 or at most 2 Sundays in each congregation but because of your vacancy I m with you for 4 weeks. For me the advantage of changing congregations weekly is that I can say something, probably bordering on radical, and then move onto a different congregation so I don t have to follow up on what I said. This comes to mind because I really hoped that I d said all that needed to be said last week about Charlottesville. I certainly didn t intend to revisit the subject with you. However, I m back with you and apropos of being nice let me share some of the reactions to what I said last week. You need to be aware that I share the sermon with many others who are not members of St. Paul s but have been following me for years 4. You probably should also be aware that I remember challenging comments more than affirming ones. The sermon seemed to be appreciated by many if not most of you as well as those who read it later. So the following comments, all challenging to my worldview, are not all from this congregation. However, they help remind me of the challenge we face when we re asking the church to be Nice, a challenge I haven t accepted. I was told that talking about politics is to violate the separation of church and state, and indeed it is violating the popular understanding of the separation, but if you read the First Amendment 5 you ll encounter a different understanding. The amendment was instituted to protect churches from the government establishing a church as for instance, the Church of England is an Established Church. It says not a word about the church commenting on the State. Our popular understanding is based on Tax Law. In the 50s then Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson inserted into the tax code a prohibition on lobbying and endorsing candidates by churches. Churches would lose their income tax exemption if they lobbied or commented on political candidates. This was done because he was tired of being criticized by conservative Texas churches 6. It is 3 I know that there are more whites on assistance including food stamps (SNAP) than minorities but blacks and hispanics are more likely to be on assistance as a percentage of their total population. 4 You may join this list by ing me at petepowell@yahoo.com. 5 "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" 6 Coincidentally on Thursday as I was working on the sermon the following article appeared on The Religious News Service: (The Rev. Dr.) Peter R. Powell Page 4 of 6 August 20, 2017

5 universally ignored especially by the Right to Life movement and the Catholic Church. They ignore it with impunity. In the Episcopal Church preachers hear about it when we preach something critical of a political stance, particularly one that is conservative. The tax law seeks to regulate lobbying and endorsing candidates but does not regulate taking positions on social issues of the day. Being nice keeps us from taking public positions on social issues of the day. A friend who didn t read the sermon said that she would never preach about such a divisive subject because her church is small and she can t afford to lose any members. That s treating you as donors not parishioners. We re in this together and together we have to wrestle with the real issues. We show you no respect when we treat you as donors and not as parishioners who are struggling with us in deciding what it means to be faithful. Another response was that I am obviously embarrassed by my financial security. I live in Westport. I have been well blessed. He assumed that this embarrassed me so I had become an advocate for the impoverished. He supported this by sharing a post about illegal immigrants enjoying outstanding health benefits supported by the tax payer. I responded that I am not embarrassed, but that the benefits I have place onto me a burden to care for those who do not have them. You and I have the opportunity to point out false equivalencies and challenge those in authority over us to care for the poor. At the same time we have the burden and opportunity to unite with the poor and recognize things in our world that make their future in this country fragile. The discussion this week has deteriorated as those who feel threatened by the removal of symbols of the South lash out in violence toward those who support removing Confederate symbols. All violence is destructive and leads only to harm. I cannot excuse the violent reactions of some of those who protested the alt-right, neo-nazis et al. Violence is always to be condemned and repented from. However the neo-nazi, White Supremacist and their allies have a worldview that is counter to everything the church stands for and we must be clear about that. Our Presiding Bishop, our Diocesan Bishops and I are clear that those who protested against the alt-right, the white supremacists and neo-nazis were in the right. Our reflex reaction, like Jesus s with the woman in Lebanon, might be defensive and justifying. An awful lot of our fellow Christians have the need to encounter the Canaanite Woman. They are, in many cases, convinced as Jesus was when he went to Lebanon, that they know the truth. Perhaps it s up to us to be the Canaanite woman, bear up under their judgment and help lead them to a broader understanding of what s required of us to be Christian. Corporate guilt, responsibility and action are central to Christianity. The Gospel this morning reminds me that part of the reason you and I were created is because we may have something to teach God. God delights in us because we can surprise God. We keep life interesting for God. Certainly the Canaanite Woman kept life interesting for our savior. If I were to have more time amendment/?elqtrackid=b50e778f8fc14c0a871a08a209fbab94&elq=72874c23e a65e1492a9ce108 5&elqaid=15195&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=6477 (The Rev. Dr.) Peter R. Powell Page 5 of 6 August 20, 2017

6 with you I would talk with you about Process Theology 7. That is about the belief that God is growing through God s interaction with you and me. God needs us to keep eternal life interesting. So, as we know from reading the laments in the psalms, God desires us to complain because the only thing that troubles God is being ignored by us. He can handle our anger, disappointment, praise and questions. He cannot break through our boredom, self-righteousness or pride if we don t bring them to him. The Canaanite woman broke through, her daughter was healed, she carried the Gospel to Jesus and we can assume helped him understand who he was. 7 Join me beginning Sept 18 at 10 at Christ & Holy Trinity for the study of Matthew in which we talk about this a lot. (The Rev. Dr.) Peter R. Powell Page 6 of 6 August 20, 2017