EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2017 I began a new venture as a synodically authorized minister at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. The ride over the past 3 years has been an amazing journey of learning, growing and a deepening of my theological mind. This sermon took place on Aug. 11, 2020. This was the 19th digital service we performed after our church was shuttered because of the COVID pandemic.
Two thoughts immediately come to mind after reading tonight's gospel.
And the first is: Well, isn't that gospel enough for about three sermons. Maybe a few more.
And second, did Jesus ... our Jesus ... did he really just call that woman a dog? ... Really?
There's so very much here to unpack in tonight's gospel, and it seems unfair that we are dealing with almost 30 verses. But there's a reason that the lectionary writers tie those two stories together. And, of course, we'll unpack that a little bit, but I want to start tonight with a story first.
It is the fall of 1998, and I had just been hired as a marketing/public relations guy for the Red Lake Reservation school district. So, for those of you who may remember, I started my newspaper career in Bemidji. For several years during that time, I was a sports reporter. I covered a lot of high school sports. And for those of you who might be sports fans, you might remember back to a year 1997 when the Red Lake Reservation high school boys basketball team made it to the state tournament. And it was big news. It was actually a national event. National newspapers came in and did stories about them. I also happened to be covering that team.
Well, the very next school year, a very savvy school superintendent of the Red Lake schools, came and hired me. And said, "We want you to come work on behalf of our school, and increase the reputation of our schools."
Unfortunately, that was an era in which mandatory national testing had come out, and the Red Lake schools on a yearly basis were hammered because of their lower performing scores. And the superintendent wanted to paint a different picture about his schools.
I was not born in the Bemidji area, of course; I moved there to go to school and had adopted it as my hometown. But yet I was still very ignorant about our American Indian populations in the area. And there are many American Indians that live in that area. So I started asking around to friends and colleagues after the superintendent had approached me about working there, and I asked them about taking this job. And the general consensus in almost every conversation was a look of stark terror, looking back at me. I heard story after story about scary happenings on the Red Lake Reservation; and all of the violence that took place there; and that I wouldn't be welcome; and that I would regret ever taking that job.
My answer to them at the time was: We just had had our oldest son; he was only about six months old at the time; and the pay was about twice as much. And, as many of you will remember when you started out in your careers, as an early parent, those dollars speak pretty heavily.
So, I would like to say that I took the job for altruistic reasons, but I would be lying. I went with all of the anxiety of someone who doesn't know what they are walking into can possess. And on that very first day, I drove to Red Lake; I pulled into the high school parking lot; and the first thing that greeted me was a 10-foot-tall chain-link fence with barbed wired that ran around the fence The entire high school compound was circled in it. And, of course, my very first gut reaction was, "What did you get yourself into?"
Some 25 years later, the beautiful answer to that question today is: I got myself into one of the most life-altering experiences that I've ever had. I only worked for the Red Lake School District for a year. After my year was up, the superintendent had retired; there was a new superintendent; there was a change in direction and priorities. But I did get to spend 10 months there, getting to know this beautiful people. Getting to know their spiritual side, their compassion, and how essentially they would give you their shirt off their back even though they didn't have a lot of shirts on their backs.
I got to know the many untruths I'd heard about these neighbors to the north of us in Bemidji. I got to know the truths that in actually that much of the violence that was talked about often was perpetrated unto the people of the reservation. I got to know that the chain-link fence that I saw when I pulled up to on my very first day, was not so much to keep people out as it was to keep the kids and the staff safe because of the targets that this people were.
Time after time after time, I came to these situations that all of these myths that I had built up in my head, all of these ignorances that I had come to know over the course of my 25 years or so then. And they were just destroyed. Blissfully and beautifully and blessfully destroyed. I learned so much about embracing our American Indian neighbors, the indigenous people of this continent in that year. And I am so grateful because in some ways I trace the beginning of my ministry back to that very time.
It so reminded me of tonight's gospel, when I started to study this passage. Because tonight's gospel feels to me like maybe it was one of those life-altering moments for our Jesus. One of those moments where the course of his trajectory was changed by this one mother who would not be stopped from curing her daughter's sickness.
But as I promised earlier, there is a lot to unpack here, and quite frankly in those 20-some verses that we read tonight, there is far more than we can do in one evening. And I focused on the second parable; that parable of that Canaanite woman who comes to Jesus and pours out her heart because her daughter was possessed by a demon.
In the beginning of this parable, we are told that Jesus goes to the region ... or the district of Tyre and Sidon, which actually is home to the Canaanite people. And we have no way of necessarily knowing this just from reading the Bible, but with some study, we find out the Canaanites were not Jews. And, of course, Jesus is a Jew. So the Canaanites were a people who had previously been conquered by Syria, and we know from the story that this woman is a gentile. So from the very beginning of this story, we have a gentile woman who is approaching a rabbi, a teacher, a Jewish clergy person, if you will. So we have to get some sense of how desperate this woman was.
But again, as our parable tells us over and over, she is a mother with a sick daughter. And to tell you the truth, I know of few more powerful things than a mother with a hurting child. ... I look at my mothers in the audience, and I see some nodding heads! ... This mother, of course, hears that Jesus is in the region, and even though she is not Jewish she is moved by the stories she has heard.
Remember, just prior to this gospel, we had the "Feeding of the 5,000." Jesus has been out and getting about. This is not his first miracle; this is not his first healing; this is not his first coming out. So, the news has spread, and this desperate woman hears that he is in the region. So she searches him out. She's heard about the miracles. So she gets to Jesus, and
she begs, "Have mercy on me, Lord!" ... In those words, we hear this desperate plea. And in those words we hear, "Jesus, I know I'm not one of your flock, but what I am is a desperate mom, and I am desperately seeking your help. So please even though I'm not a Jew, have mercy on me!" ... In that we know that she is asking Jesus to have mercy on her so that her daughter will indirectly benefit.
This mother lays it all out there for Jesus; she's hiding nothing. She goes on to explain that her daughter is tormented by a demon. And we will hear that a lot in our gospels. You know, in the 1st century their understanding of medicine was a lot different than ours. So many different ailments were often chalked up to demons entering the body. So we don't know exactly what it was that was afflicting this young girl. But obviously it was enough to send this desperate mother to go find Jesus.
So what happens after this desperate mother seeks out and finds our Lord? Our Savior? The kind and compassionate Jesus that we've come to know? ... As she beseeches him for help, we're told that at first Jesus ignores her! ... It doesn't seem to compute for us because this isn't the Jesus that we hear about that is known to love; it's not the Jesus we hear about in Sunday school, with open arms to everyone. ... Even worse, the disciples who are hanging around with Jesus are urging him to send her away because she is annoying them with her constant shouting and her begging of the Lord to help her.
I wonder if that scene doesn't sound familiar from just a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about the "Feeding of the 5,000," when again the disciples who surrounded Jesus had urged him to send those 5,000 people away because they just didn't have the food resources to feed them. ... We find a similar theme here where this desperate mother isn't one of them. Not one of those chosen people of the House of Israel; so the disciples' first instinct is to brush her off. ... "She's not your concern, Jesus."
But this is a mother of a sick child, and she won't be denied. She keeps on. And I ask, wouldn't you if this was your child? She continues to beg. And then Jesus delivers this stinging blow to her: "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel." ... Case closed. ... "You're not a Jew; you're a Gentile. I'm not responsible for your sick daughter." ... Ouch!
I can't imagine as a father, let alone a mother, hearing those words from this savior that you've heard about, this savior that does miracles and heals people. But there it is. Jesus rebukes her, and tells her that he only is here to be the shepherd of the children of Israel. ... Well, everyone else, including this woman and her sick child, are on their own. Left up to their own gods. Left up to their tribal priests, whatever it may be.
Again, I don't know about you, but that is a really difficult and challenging line for me to hear from our Jesus. ... "You are on your own." ... How crushing would that be? But again, not for this mother. This mother comes at Jesus again, and this time she kneels in front of him and she begs one more time. "Lord, help me!"
And then even more unbelievably, our Jesus, our loving, compassionate, kind Jesus gets even harsher to this woman, and he delivers this line: "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it away to the dogs." ... Can you believe our Jesus said that?
I think it's important to know that in this spot especially, this is likely a cultural reference that Jesus is making. And 1st century readers would have understood that. The Jews of the 1st century did not have a high opinion of dogs, and they did not keep dogs. But it could have very well been in the Canaanite culture, and most certainly in the Greek culture, where the upper class did keep dogs. And they kept domesticated dogs around the house as as signs of wealth. Because if you're poor, and you're living hand to mouth, of course, you are not going to keep a pet. But if you are rich, and you can afford to feed the whole household, often dogs were in the house and fed from the table. And so it's really important to keep that cultural reference in mind. So when Jesus is using the reference to the dogs, he is rebuking this woman in language that would have been familiar in her own culture.
In a sense, he's kind of saying, "Look lady, I was sent here to feed the children." ... Or in other words, the Israelites, the children of God, the children of the House of Israel. ... "I was not sent her to feed the dogs." Which would be a symbolic reference to everyone else who is a Gentile. And while that knowledge of that cultural reference may make the insult a little easier to swallow, it's still hard to hear those words out of our Jesus, isn't it?
That, of course, is when this story takes on its zenith because this very desperate and motivated mom takes Jesus' very words and she upends them right back him. "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table."
We have to remember if we go back to our gospel readings just a couple of weeks ago when we did the "Feeding of the 5,000," the whole point of that message was about God's abundance. That is when Jesus stands there and reminds his disciples that, "We are going to feed these 5,000 people who are here even those we have two fish and five loaves of bread." ... God's abundance will provide.
This very smart and intelligent woman is taking Jesus' message about abundance, and about how there is always enough. There is always enough food to feed the 5,000. There's always enough grace to forgive those who sinned. There's always enough healing to go around. So, why Jesus, why is there not enough healing to go around for my sick daughter?
I like to picture that at this point in the parable, that even our beloved Jesus had one of those moments where his head the proverbial blowing up because in Jesus' very next line, you can see this awakening in this young leader. Remember, Jesus hasn't been out in his ministry long at this point, and so his self identity may have very well been wrapped up in this direction given to him from his Father, saying, "Go and save the children of Israel." But our young Jesus in this moment, has this recognition that this woman has given him. This epiphany, if you will. And Jesus responds: "Woman, great is your faith. Let it be done as you wish." And we are told that her daughter is healed instantly.
I like to believe that this passage is telling us that Jesus has his milestone moment when his entire life ahead of him changes, when Jesus recognizes that he is called not only as the savior of the children of Israel but as the savior of the greater world as well. I like to believe that if he had one of those life-altering experiences, such as the one when I took that job in Red Lake. And I think this is such a poignant time for us to be reading this gospel. As I think it begs the question of everyone of us as a Christian follower right now: What in these tenuous times, what in these contentious times are we inwardly being challenged with? What beliefs? And what prejudices? And what ignorances? Whether intentional or not are we being called to address in ourselves?
I believe that we are living in one of those moments where we are being called to question everything that were taught. I admittedly, 25 years ago when I walked onto that reservation carrying 25 years' worth of baggage from what I learned Native American people were like growing up. And in a year's time all of that was dispelled.
I think in this time Christ is calling us forward as well. Many of us, through no fault of our own, whether it was in our upbringing or the communities we lived in or events that shaped us, were taught certain messages. And we're being asked, just as Jesus was in this moment, we're being asked to revisit all of that that we were taught. I believe this is an opportunity that as Christ followers we can take this moment and allow it to be a life-altering experience.
And what I take heart in is that it doesn't mean that we are bad people; it doesn't mean that we are racist, even though indeed racism does exist. What it means is that we are walking in the very paths that our Christ walked. He, himself, had a life-altering moment that made him realize that his call was not just to be the messiah for the Jews; he was being called to be Christ to everyone. Just as we are being called to be Christ to everyone as his hands and feet here on this earth. ... And I think that puts us in pretty good company on this day.
And that is the Good News for this Tuesday, Aug. 11, or Sunday morning, Aug. 16. ... Amen.
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