Scraps of Faith

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 15 – Year A

August 17, 2014

Matthew 15:10-28
Then he 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 that place 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.

Over the last month and a bit, our house has been quite chaotic. Sure, some of it has been outside of our control. But, some of it was our choice. We have a new animal in our house. Thalie, a now nearly 4 month old boxer mix. She's a delight to have around most of the time; but, she has definitely not made our lives any easier. We've forgotten how much work it is to have a puppy, especially a hyperactive, crazy, shoe and food obsessed one. I've given up trying to count the number of shoes she's either destroyed, tried to destroy or been stopped just at the moment when she was stealing the shoe. I've lost several pair, so has Missy. Our girls have had a few destroyed as well. Puppies can be expensive!

And it's not just shoes she wants to eat. It's pretty much everything. I have never before seen a dog that is so single-mindedly focused on food. When she thinks there is food or anything that is remotely edible coming in her direction she's unstoppable. Try to drag her away from a food dish. On the moments when she has dashed out our door, or through the open gate of our fence, we have been able to bring her back simply by shaking her food bowl.

Growing up, our family didn't have a dog as a pet until I was in high school, and by then I was in boarding school, so I didn't see that dog often. It wasn't until Missy and I got married that I finally had a dog. It's been a new experience for me. I've learned a great deal over the last 10 years that Luther has been a part of our family. Much of my prior experience with dogs came from visiting friends who had dogs.

When I was in New Guinea, dogs were all around. You couldn't really avoid seeing them just about everywhere; but they weren't pets the way we think of pets. Dogs were pretty much scavengers that hung around humans so they could get the stuff the humans let them have, the stuff that fell on the floor, the waste that we as humans are so good at creating. I vividly remember dogs following groups of people around, waiting for them to drop something. I remember seeing dogs gathering just outside the circle of people eating their communal meals. I remember the brave dog here and there that would would make a wild dash into the circle to grab a hunk of meat that wasn't being watched closely enough. Dogs being chased away with sticks and stones, shouts and raised hands. That's the image I have in my mind as I come to this text where Jesus is talking about dogs and scraps and faith. Not the image of the family pet, but the roaming scavenger, more of a nuisance than anything else.

This is one of those texts that can make us squirm; not so much because of the message that the text brings, but the way in which it seems to portray Jesus. What are we supposed to do with that? How are we to treat the words and behavior of Jesus? So often when we look at this passage we have sought ways to interpret it so that Jesus doesn't really say what he says. He was testing the woman. He was testing the disciples. Why? Why not just accept the fact that in this moment, in this text, Jesus was a bit of a jerk and actually meant what he said?

One of the claims, one of the beliefs of traditional Christianity is that Jesus as the Son of God and son of Mary, was fully God and fully human. We tend to emphasize the part that says he was fully God, though. The fully human part is sort of scary, and we don't know what to do about it. The part that makes sure the party keeps going with new wine, the part that cries when his friend dies, the part that gets angry and throws tables around, cracks whips at people. That part makes us uneasy. In this moment, in this text, I think we see Jesus get caught with his god-pants down, and his human side on full display.

As a human, Jesus was well aware of who this Canaanite woman was. The Canaanites were the people who had lived in the Promised Land before the Israelites had crossed the river. They had lived among the Jewish people ever since, part of the population, but not really. A lot like the Native Americans here in the United States, they were here first, then we came and claimed the land as ours. We know they are there, but for many of us, we can live most of our lives choosing to ignore them. The Jewish folk knew what the scriptures said, they knew they were the chosen people, they knew God had promised them this land. So, they lived accordingly. The promise was theirs, no one elses – that meant this Canaanite woman was essentially worthless. To top it off, she was a woman, that made her worthlessness even more worthless in the eyes of the 1^st Century.

Jesus responded as any good Jewish man in the 1st Century would have responded: first, he ignored her. Then, when he could no longer ignore her, he reminded her of her place in society. And she responds by reminding Jesus of who he is. Back and forth they go, and Jesus comes to see that this woman, this Canaanite woman, this worthless person had worth, and was worth paying attention to, was worth blessing, was worth bestowing grace upon. Jewish culture and practice would have taught and said to avoid the Canaanite woman, to not waste your time with them (they are “dogs” after all). Yet, it is in the place where tradition said not to go that faith is found.

As human beings we tend to like things we know and recognize. If we are at a potluck, we tend to pick out the items we've had in the past, the things we can recognize. We tend to stay away from the things that look strange and different. Now, put a list of ingredients next to the pot, and as long as the ingredients aren't foreign, we will probably give it a try. But, what if you were at a potluck where nothing was labeled, and everything looked different? How many of us would go home hungry, unwilling to take a spoonful of that green stuff? Sticking our tongues out at the stuff covered in that sticky, thick white cream?

We tend to steer away from things that seem foreign, unclean, strange, different. We tend to react negatively to those that are not from our area. We hear an accent and we know that they are different. We look to the color of their skin, the types of clothes they are wearing and almost immediately know they are not from around here. There have been numerous times when I was in Europe that without my having once opened my mouth to say a thing, someone would ask me where I was from in the United States. They just knew I was different.

Differentness isn't bad. Each and every one of us is different from everyone one else. Different is good. But, differentness can cause us to act badly. This last week we watched the drama that unfolded in Ferguson, MO following the tragic shooting of a young man by the police. It brought to light the tremendous differences that still exist in many parts of our country. And those differences caused the crowds and police, the public and the news pundits to react in often different ways. A seemingly peaceful protest was responded to by 70 heavily armed officers in full riot gear; rubber bullets and tear gas responded to chants and signs. The crowds were predominantly African-American, the police- all white. Differences took sides, and stared each other down. Who was at fault? When we encounter differences, what do we usually do? We chose sides, and often the sides we end up choosing look a lot like us. Jesus did too, at first. It seemed like the right thing to do. It was the popular thing to do. It was the thing the disciples and those around him wanted him to do. Yet, when Jesus listened to the woman, when he stopped allowing the differences to be chasms, he found a deep and profound faith that recognized and declared him as Lord, Son of God, and Master. She wasn't a Jew, yet she received blessing. She was worthless, yet she was found to be of worth. She was supposed to have no faith, yet her faith was found to be great.

Most of us as Christians come from non-Jewish, Gentile stock. According to Scripture, the blessings we receive from God are the scraps that fall off the table. So, this text is good news for us. God is more concerned about our faith, than our family tree. But, this text is so much more than good news for us Gentiles, it's a lesson, a warning to all of us in the church about how we understand hospitality and faithfulness. How often have we been caught with our 'Christian pants' down? How often have we said or heard – or, sadly, implied – that someone like 'that' would not be comfortable worshiping here? “What church has not paid far more attention to 'washing hands' than to cleansing hearts? What Christian has not claimed religious tradition as an excuse to act in a way far from the heart of Christ?”¹

What would it mean for us as the church, for us as individual people of faith, to allow the words of the Canaanite woman to challenge us to go into the places where we assume there will be no faith, to reach out to the people that the world has cast aside as worthless? What would it mean for us to let go of traditions, about the things we've always done, and instead listen to the voices and cries of those that tradition and culture have labeled as “unclean” or “unwanted”? What would it mean if instead of seeing the “worthless dogs” scurrying around at the edges of our lives as scavengers who take from our pot, we were to see them as future members of our family, as fellow children of God seeking to be blessed?

This text is not easy. I'm not even totally sure that Jesus wasn't giving his disciples or the woman a test. But, Matthew includes this story in his Gospel for a reason. And no matter the basis for Jesus' sharp and harsh words, Matthew cites them to remind the church, to remind each and every one of us, that we should always rejoice that “God's love and promise for Israel is fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Those of Gentile stock, adopted into this covenant tradition, need never forget this, and never tire in giving thanks that, in Jesus, God's covenant promises stretches out”² further than we can see and wider than we think: as far and wide as Jesus' arms reached out on the cross to embrace the whole of creation. How's your reach, how far have you stretched out your arms lately? Amen.

1p. 358, Feasting on the Word, Year A Volume 3 edited by Bartlett and Brown Taylor, WJK Press 2011

2p. 360, Feasting on the Word, Year A Volume 3 edited by Bartlett and Brown Taylor, WJK Press 2011