August 14, 2005 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
Isaiah 56:1,6-7 + Romans 11: 13-15,29-32 + Matthew 15:21-28
In an age when fear tightens our boarders,
this Gospel comes with a challenge not to be ignored.
Fear is driving much of our policy, decisions, and attitudes as a nation.
Even as a church, issues of language, sexuality, culture, and life style
threaten to split us into insiders and outsiders.
Gates, Fences, Boundaries, and Borders are getting very important, to the point that some of us are beginning to wonder if they exist to keep us in or keep us out.
The lines between insiders and outsiders always prove to be problematic.
“You don’t belong here.” or “You can come in, but this is how we do things.”
are the sounds of a circle tightening,
and that tight circle may strangle the life out of us.
Exclusivity does not become us.
The privilege of the covenant does not bestow the right to judge and exclude.
It brings a duty to embrace, to welcome, to seek, and search:
the very divine quality that has embraced us in our faults and failures.
The best lesson and revelation of this story comes from an unlikely source.
The teacher today is not Jesus, nor is it the apostles.
The one who proclaims good news today is the woman
who knows more about God than those apostles.
She knows where to go in her need, and she knows how to get relief.
The power of her persistent plea;
the fact that what she asks is not for her alone;
and the humility with which she takes insult and dismissal
is in sharp contrast to the “in group” apostles who want her sent away.
Another challenge to our culture’s prevailing mood of privilege
comes out of Matthew today
giving us cause to think again about the gifts we have.
None of them were earned, no matter how we may try to fool ourselves with that idea.
They were not earned, because we did not choose where we were born nor when.
As a parent willing to endure anything for her child,
this woman is an image of God for us
revealing Divine qualities in this very human moment.
A woman from Canaan teaches us today about God, about prayer, and about humility.
An outsider, she sill believed, and because of it, she was promised,
“Your wish will come to pass.”
She found her place at the table.
Satisfied with crumbs, it is life she seeks.
Even crumbs are part of a loaf that nourishes and sustains.
At this table it is crumbs that sustain us, just a tiny piece broken from the whole.
At this table it is life we seek and life we receive.