24 November 2017

Sermon Proper 15, Year A, Matthew 15:10-18, 20 August 2017

Who has God created me to be? That is a question the gospel opens for us this morning in two seemingly unrelated passages.
We begin this morning’s gospel with Jesus turning inside out any ideas about what is clean and what is not. In Jesus’ time part of daily life, because it was part of religious observance, was to stay clean, to be pure. Part of this purity, this staying clean, was to avoid touching those things and people considered unclean: outsiders, foreigners, those who had been touched themselves by something unclean.
Surprisingly, Jesus describes purity as coming from within, rather than from without. No doubt he shocked and dismayed his listeners. If purity comes from within instead of by ritual observances everyone can see, how does one maintain purity?
Once Jesus has explained the kind of purity God desires, the gospel shifts. Suddenly the abstract instruction about what things are pure and what are impure becomes real. Purity would not have included the person in the second part of this morning’s gospel: a woman so unclean herself that her daughter has been tormented by a demon. She is an unclean Canaanite woman, an enemy, and an outsider. One would have nothing to do with these persons to avoid the risk of becoming unclean oneself.
 And, this woman, this unclean Canaanite woman, demands Jesus’ mercy to heal her daughter. At first, Jesus does not answer her. When pressed, he explains he was sent only to those who are concerned about purity, the pure themselves. Sure, they may be “the lost sheep of Israel” but they are God’s chosen sheep. There seems to be an edge to his response, no matter what translation you look at, no matter in what language.
There are a host of explanations for Jesus’ behavior. Jesus reflected the disciples’ behavior by demonstrating how they didn’t listen to him. Jesus called the woman a dog affectionately, not angrily. Jesus wanted the disciples to see how persistence would get you what you wanted. I don’t believe these explanations are particularly compelling or even helpful.
Suppose instead we focus on who God created Jesus to be. Jesus was divine, but he was also human. Jesus had all the human feelings with which we are endowed: anger, grief, hope, joy, love. If you doubt this, read the gospels. Jesus got angry. Jesus got frustrated. Jesus wept. Jesus got irritated. Jesus got hungry. Jesus got thirsty. So while we may not like it much, to deny Jesus’ irritation with the Gentile woman is to deny his humanity.
But what is the focus of Jesus’ irritation? I find in this story the focus of my own irritation when I fail to live out who God calls me to be. Could it be that this very human experience is what is going on with Jesus?
Jesus has spent his ministry demonstrating to the disciples and to the crowds that God calls all of us. And in particular, God calls all of us to minister to the least of his kingdom: the children, the poor, the unclean, the insane, the different, the disabled, the imprisoned. God calls us to minister to everyone who is not part of the ruling class, to minister to everyone who is nowhere near the top of the heap and those not even in the heap.
         Is it possible Jesus is caught up in his own “stuff?” That he is tired, and tired of people? That he decides he only has enough energy left for the Children of Israel? Is it possible that our Gentile woman has a job to do with Jesus? Does she show us that even Jesus – precisely because he is human – has those moments when he does not live up to who he’s called to be?
         Yet Jesus allowed himself to be instructed with humor. The woman said to him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” She points out to Jesus that while she may be the lowest of the low, she’s still part of God’s creation. She may be a Canaanite, but even Canaanite dogs under the table are part of God’s creation.
It’s as if she’s saying, “Okay Jesus, fine. I know you’re rejecting me. You think you’re reserved only for certain folks. Even so, I’ll settle for the tiniest crumb of you. For someone like me, that’s plenty!”
         And what does Jesus’ do? He acts. He becomes once again who he is called to be. The woman reminds Jesus he has acted outside his calling. He himself has not only said, but also demonstrated that he is called to all, not just to Israel. Yet in his tiredness, in his irritation, in his humanness, he has forgotten who he is. He has forgotten that everyone is in and no one is out. He has forgotten that he has taught and spoken and acted as though everyone has a seat at the table. This woman begging for mercy has reminded Jesus to act the way God made him to be!
         The struggle Jesus entered with this woman reminded Jesus who God created him to be. Jesus emerged from his encounter with this woman stronger, wiser, tempered by the fire of the God he touched when she reminded him who God created him to be.
This is good news for us. It is good news especially in reflecting on the recent events in Charlottesville. We have forgotten who we are created to be. We have erred and strayed from the ways in which God has created us to act. We have moved away from peace and inclusion to violence and divisiveness. We have failed to speak out and to act.
Let this Canaanite woman this morning be our prophet of what is to come. Let us become who we are created to be. Let us turn toward those things of peace and inclusion. Let us fill our hearts with the Jesus we fell in love with in the beginning of our days. Let us embrace the Jesus we knew before we even knew his name. Let us emerge stronger, wiser, tempered by the fire of God. Let us speak as God calls us to speak, and act as God calls us to act. AMEN.



The Rev Nicolette Papanek

©2017

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