Please Pass the Crumbs

Transcription

1 Rev. Joan Pell Byron United Methodist Church Sermon: 8/17/14 Series: living outside the box Scripture: Matthew 15:21-28 Please Pass the Crumbs <Read Matthew 15:21-28 CEB> 21 From there, Jesus went to the regions of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from those territories came out and shouted, Show me mercy, Son of David. My daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession. 23 But he didn t respond to her at all. His disciples came and urged him, Send her away; she keeps shouting out after us. 24 Jesus replied, I ve been sent only to the lost sheep, the people of Israel. 25 But she knelt before him and said, Lord, help me. 26 He replied, It is not good to take the children s bread and toss it to dogs. 27 She said, Yes, Lord. But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall off their masters table. 28 Jesus answered, Woman, you have great faith. It will be just as you wish. And right then her daughter was healed. Last week we talked about boxes, and how we want to put Jesus in a box, but how he is always breaking boundaries. In today s scripture, Jesus has put himself in a box. It takes a voice from an outsider to challenge his viewpoint. Jesus is very human in this story and not very nice or kind. Jesus calls the woman in our scripture, the Canaanite woman. The Promised Land that Moses led the Israelites to was Canaan, so the Jews and the Canaanites were historically enemies. But the name Canaan was no longer on the map Sidon and Tyre were now in the region known as Phoenicia. It is a bit like referring to New York as New Amsterdam! Calling her a Canaanite woman emphasizes that she is part of an enemy people. Jesus understood his mission as being to the Jews only and not to the non-jews, the Gentiles. Then Jesus talks about dogs. Dogs were wild animals and were considered unclean. To call a Gentile a dog was a derogatory statement. This is a tough passage to study. Perhaps we can even go as far as to say that Jesus was being racist? When that suggestion came up on a UM clergy discussion this week it turned into a lively discussion! Christianity says that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine, and that he was the one perfect human that has never sinned. Some said Jesus was not racist and he was Jesus just playing along to make a point to his disciples or perhaps -1-

2 he was using hyperbole as he often did to teach us how to show mercy. Others said the story shows us that Jesus was fully human and that part of being human is to have to figure things out and to have our viewpoint challenged and to admit it when we get it wrong. Even Jesus has face his own prejudices, and listen to God s promptings and change, and step outside of the box. We call the Bible the Word of God. And it is. These are God s words to us. But are they the only words that God has ever spoken? How are they a living word? Does God continue to speak to us? The UCC tagline at the moment is God is still speaking with a graphic of a comma. They say never place a period where God has placed a coma. In John 15:26, Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit coming to testify: When the Companion comes, whom I will send from the Father the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father he will testify about me. Clearly Jesus believed that God would still be speaking after he had gone. Jesus scriptures were what we call the Old Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures. And he heard his call to be a leader, a prophet, and a shepherd to the people of Israel, the Jews, whose story is told in the OT. But then along comes the Canaanite woman, the Syrophoenician woman And the Syrophoenician woman was not unlike today s mothers. We talk about mothers being like mama bears protecting their cubs. When a mom is on a mission for the sake of her child, there is not much that will stop her. Moms find the courage to do things they would not normally do especially to get help for a sick child. So the Syrophoenician woman sees Jesus. And she does the only thing she can do. She speaks her truth. And when he compares her to a dog, saying It is not good to take the children s bread and toss it to dogs, she claims her dignity and she courageously nails him giving her perspective on his actions. Yes, but even the dogs get the crumbs. She asks him to see things from her perspective. She asks to be treated at least as well as the dogs. Jesus changes his mind because of an encounter with this woman. God was still speaking, even to Jesus. And Jesus commends her for her faith, for speaking up, for fighting for what she believes, for being prepared to question the status quo. Faith is speaking our truth to those who have the power. Struggling with God is a sign of faith, not of unbelief. Jesus box was enlarged by this encounter. He was transformed. He began to see his whole ministry in a different light. And he passed this view onto those who came after him, until Paul responds with: There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. (Gal 3:28). -2-

3 God was speaking directly to Jesus, not just through the scriptures, and God is still speaking to us too. We are a community here. A community offering hope as it says on our mission statement. We are a community of different people brought here together by our shared commitment to be disciples of JC. Each of us has a story to tell. Some were born here. Others were not. Some are old. Others are young. Some are healthy, some are sick. Some are struggling to make ends meet. Others have savings. Some were brought up in the church. Others have recently found Christ. Some are democrats. Others are republicans. Transformation happens when we listen to someone else s story that doesn t fit with our understanding and we are challenged as to what we believe and how to respond. There s lots of life to be found outside the box and even the leftovers can be nourishing. And this week has been a time when as a nation we ve had to look this straight in the face with the death of Michael Brown and the protests in Ferguson. When Jesus used the dog illustration to talk to the Syrophoenician woman, he denied her humanity. People are angry in Ferguson because their humanity has been denied. An 18 year-old black man, an African American was shot by a police officer and witnesses say he was 35 feet away with his hands in the air, having been stopped for walking in the road instead of on the sidewalk. His story joins a line of other stories of unarmed black men being killed or beaten when they pose no real danger. And our African American sisters and brothers are crying out to be heard. They have been holding rallies and protests to process and express their anger and their hurt and their hopes for something to change. And as white people we have failed to hear or believe the experiences of our non-white neighbors. The Syrophoenician woman struggles to be heard. She cries out. She kneels and begs. Jesus rejects her. Finally she says something that jolts Jesus and he relents and grants her request. What does it take to be heard? When will we be jolted? No, I do not condone the looting and missile and projectile throwing. But do you really think that scenes like this <military> that look like Egypt or Iraq or Israel belong in the United States? Have we learned nothing since 1963? -3-

4 When a Senator gets tear gassed. When reporters get arrested in McDonalds. When an (AME) African Methodist Episcopal Church clergywoman standing between protestors and police gets shot by a rubber bullet. 1 When protesters face assault weapons. When black kids are stopped more often than white kids. When mothers have to teach their kids to fear the police. When our prisons are disproportionately full of black boys. And when unarmed kids are shot dead. It is time, my friends to listen! To listen and respect the humanity of all God s people. And to think about who we are and who we want to be. To hear the stories we don t want to believe. And to examine our own racism and learn about systems of privilege. There was a blog yesterday that brought me up short (called Manic Pixie Dream Mama). 2 She said: [It is] at these sudden, raw moments, in these riots and demonstrations and travesties of justice, White America is forced to gaze upon the emotional roil of oppression, the anger and fear and deep grief endemic to the Black American experience. Black America holds up a mirror for us. And white America is terrified to look. To admit white privilege is to admit a stake, however small, in ongoing injustice. It s to see a world different than your previous perception. Acknowledging that your own group enjoys social and economic benefits of systemic racism is frightening and uncomfortable. It leads to hard questions of conscience many of us aren t prepared to face. There is substantial anger: at oneself, at the systems of oppression, and mostly at the bearer of bad news, a convenient target of displacement. But think on this. She goes onto make some good observations about things that as a white parent of 3 white fair-haired boys that she does not have to worry about. She concludes in this way. For a mother, white privilege means your heart doesn t hit your throat when your kids walk out the door. It means you don t worry that the cops will shoot your sons. It carries another burden instead. White privilege means that if you don t school your sons about it, if you don t insist on its reality and call out oppression, your sons may become something terrifying. Your sons may become the shooters. 1 Yasmine Hafiz, Ferguson Police Reportedly Shot Pastor Renita Lamkin With Rubber Bullet During Protest in Huffington Post, August 14, A Mother s White Privilege in ManicPixieDreamMama Blog, August 15,

5 Yes, a terrifying thought. We all need to be concerned. God is still speaking as we rub up against one another sharing our stories. And it is in those moments as we speak our truth and open ourselves to the words of others that transformation happens. We can change. This nation can change. And people of faith can lead the way. Come and talk to me about what you think we should be doing. Because I hope we are building a community here where we are not afraid to have our faith challenged by listening to another s point of view. A community that listens to the new ways in which God is still speaking. A community where as we share our stories, our witness, our truth, HOPE is given wings, and healing and wholeness happens. And United Methodists have been reaching out this week to Ferguson. Wellspring UMC is predominantly African American congregation and is a block from the police station and less than a mile from the violent clashes. They have been providing counseling. When the schools remained closed, they offered daycare as parents were left scrambling and other UMCs sent folk to help out and the Annual Conference sent financial aid. And their pastor Rev. Willis Johnson was out on the streets and was caught in this photo giving care to one of Michael Brown s friends. Rev. Johnson said, People who are hurting need to be affirmed in their hurt, people who are angry need to be affirmed in their anger. 3 And so we give thanks for the Christians in Ferguson and I ask you to keep them in your prayers this week as they reach out to their neighbors and share Christ s love and mercy. Because God can work through all circumstances and promises justice and a peace that passes all understanding. Now, I ve approached this scripture today with us identifying with Jesus and having our boxed-in thinking challenged. We don t tend to think of ourselves as the underdog. We want to be the strong one with power. I want to finish by having us identify for a few moments with the Syrophoenician Woman. I think that there is something of her in all of us. There are times in our lives when we feel excluded and on the outside, times when we are desperate and fighting for hope, times when we recognize our powerlessness. Times when we are sick, or worried about war, world hunger, poverty, when we have feelings of being lost, sad, angry or fearful, and a sense of helplessness over events in Ferguson. So where do we find hope when things are rough? When it appears that God is silent, which was Jesus first response to 3 Heather Hahn, Church leaders strive to be peacemakers in Ferguson in United Methodist News Service, August 15,

6 the Syrophoenician Woman? When our own power is insufficient? I d like to make two suggestions. First. We can rest and trust in the promise of those crumbs from the table. Those crumbs are for us. And they are not insignificant either. This story of the Syrophoenician Woman comes just one chapter in Matthew after the story of the feeding of the 5000 with its 12 baskets of left-overs. And just after today s reading comes the story of the feeding of the 4000 with 7 baskets of leftovers. Seven being a symbol of wholeness. God hasn t stopped speaking. God isn t done yet. It doesn t matter who we are. We are not outside the circle of God s love and care. There s still a word for us. Crumbs of grace, of love are ours. We have that as a promise. So go and ask for them, claim them. There s a take-out box for us! Second. Hope is found here in our loving community. None of us want to walk through our struggles alone. We all need Christ to be beside us handing us those crumbs. The church is the body of Christ. This community in this place is the body of Christ. We are Christ s hands and feet. So when we reach out to one another, we offer hope. Hope comes as we sit and listen to one another, not necessarily fixing y, but as we sit with and journey with one another. With those who like the Syrophoenician Woman are hurting, bereaved, sick, anxious, confused, and scared. I encourage us all to reach out to one another. To listen. To journey with. To trust in the promise of the crumbs, of the grace, that brings hope. To know that God s grace is sufficient. To experience God still speaking to us in new and powerful ways. To live outside of the box. Thanks be to God. Amen. Let us pray. God of the Jew and Gentile, of slave and free, of male and female, help us to recognize the ways in which you are speaking to us today. We lift up the people of Ferguson and their hurt and righteous anger and we pray for your healing and wholeness to be restored. Build us here into a community of love that demonstrates mercy and compassion and justice as we journey in faith together. May we come to know and trust each other so that when we tell our stories you will transform us. Pass us the crumbs, Lord. Fill us with hope and grace. Speak to us in new and powerful ways. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. -6-