Synod Sermon August 16, 2020

Gospel: Matthew 15:[10-20] 21-28

(in the recorded sermon, I didn’t read verses 10-20) [10[] called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand:11it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” 12Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the took offense when they heard what you said?” 13He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” 15But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” 16Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? 18But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. 19For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. 20These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”] (I read verses 21-28) 21Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and . 22Just 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.” 23But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” 24He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” 27She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 28Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

Persistent Faith When Your Plea Goes Unanswered

It’s summertime, which means I get to spend time in northern Minnesota on the lake where my parents built a little cabin in 1950 – I was five years old. Over the next 10-15 years we’d go up and one by one my friends along the lake got boats… and motors. We had a little five-horse put-put, and I wanted something to ski behind, race around in. I asked for a boat and motor. I asked again. I plastered my bedroom at home with pictures of Evinrude motors. And I pled some more. I never got that boat and motor. Finally, when I was in high school, I built a little skimmer that would go pretty fast with our motor – we’d moved up to 10 horse by then. But I never got my boat and motor. I never doubted that my parents loved me. But I never did get that Evinrude motor.

I’d bet most of you can tell stories like that from your childhood. And without much trouble, I’d guess you can identify other things you’ve prayed for that haven’t happened. Like freedom from this virus, or a return to worship. You pray your kids stay out of trouble, and sometimes that doesn’t happen. You can name your versions of pleas and prayers unheeded.

The story we just read from Matthew starts out as one of those stories. Frankly, I confess I don’t like this story because Jesus appears to be so narrow and unfeeling – which doesn’t fit the picture we get of Jesus in other settings. • In the verses that come right before what I read (printed in the printed version of the sermon), Jesus says a person isn’t defiled by eating the wrong foods (remember they had lots of religious laws about what you could eat), but by their words and deeds that come from the heart of who they are. • So then in the next breath Jesus is met by a Canaanite woman (modern day Palestinian), who obviously has heard that Jesus has been healing the sick, and she pleads for his help for her daughter – a child! – possessed by a demon. o Now the Jesus I know and love would have done so immediately, seems to me – he’s full of compassion, underserved grace! After all – he healed a Roman Centurian’s servant, didn’t he, and that’s worse than a Canaanite woman! • The disciples urge Jesus to send her away – they’re bothered by her persistent shouting. (But why wouldn’t she – she thinks this is her one chance to help her own child!) • Jesus seems to dismiss her because he’s sent only to the Jewish people, and she’s not Jewish. He insults her: helping you would be like feeding the dogs with food meant for the people at the table. • And she persists – “but even the dogs get the crumbs from the table.” And that get’s Jesus attention! And then – only then – the story moves on to the nice conclusion we were hoping for all along!

I’m struck by two take-aways from this story:

1. Using my example of the Evinrude motor and your examples of whatever pleas may have come to mind that you didn’t get answered… Persistence is a virtue! – it’s rewarded! She was sharply rebuked, but she pressed on. There are other stories that make this point as well – remember the parable of the widow that kept pestering the judge before he finally gave in? To not lose heart, to be persistent, is a virtue. It may not mean that you get what you want in the end, we all know that. But the persistence keeps us in relationship with Jesus, and that can’t help but have a good outcome.

2. But I think there’s also a second lesson to be learned. Most of you who are watching this sermon, like myself, are white American Lutherans. We are in the dominant group, as were the disciples. Especially if we’re male as well. We can’t relate to this story as could someone who is poor, a minority, an immigrant, or a woman – those people would identify with another angle of this story – being discounted by the culturally dominant.

It’s a good perspective to keep in mind in these weeks when we’ve seen pictures – or maybe participated – in the large demonstrations. I’m not talking about the looting and burning – that’s a fringe that is as much opposed by other demonstrators as it is by the rest of us. I’m talking about those who will say things like “it’s time for justice.” What’s that mean?

It’s a common refrain among those who feel powerless. And it’s easy to be unable or unwilling to empathize with people whose experience is different from our own. The disciples were impatient with her constant shouting, and wanted to be done with her. But she saw it as her chance to get healing for her daughter! It’s easy for us to become impatient too… If the injustice or pain isn’t happening in our own house or neighborhood, if it doesn’t affect my race or gender or class or sexuality, it’s too easy to dismiss it as unwelcome or unjustified noise. And initially, that seems to be what Jesus is doing also – he’s a male Israelite and she’s a female Canaanite, and he doesn’t’ hear her. But she persists. Like the freedom riders and the abolitionists and the women suffrage movement, like Rosa Parks and Sojourner Truth – she persisted. And Jesus heard her.

I read someone who observed “maybe faith engenders persistence, or maybe persistence feeds faith. Either way, persistence and faith make a powerful pair.”

Amen.

Peter Rogness