Rector's Sermon - Sunday, August 18, 2002

First Reading	Psalm	Epistle	Gospel
Isaiah 56:1, 6-8	85:8-13	Romans 1:1-2a, 29-32	Matthew 15:10-20, 21-28

     The Gospel for today is heavy with the weight of tradition, customs and social norms. The specific practices of food preparation, diet and with whom one was willing to eat were major issues for Jews and early Christians. Many of the customs reflected humanitarian concerns for the proper care and respect for the life of livestock and honoring that sense in the butchering and dressing of meat. The Biblical dietary laws and the temple authorities who oversaw them were ancient precursors of SPCA's, cooperative extensions, and departments of health.

     The social obstacles prohibiting Jews and non-Jews to eat together was formidable and in Jesus' time very few saw how it would ever be overcome and how people of various traditions and customs could ever sit down and eat together. That is why I suspect the thing that would most astound people of Jesus' time about our culture would not be our jet planes or electric lights, but our fast food establishments like McDonalds and Burger Kings. The fact that there would be places everywhere serving the same food, where thousands would eat without giving it a second thought of who would come and sit next to you, would simply astound the early disciples.

     The story of the woman who came to Jesus to have her daughter healed is one of those stories that makes many preachers squirm. There are ways to make the words of Jesus considerably less harsh and more accepting to the woman who comes begging on behalf of her daughter, but all these approaches really depend on conjecture. Perhaps this story at the very least reminds us that we don't necessarily have the actual words of Jesus as in a recorded transcript. Rather we have the words of Jesus as interpreted, edited and remembered by the community of later followers.

     In the Gospel as we now have it, a representative of the outside world, (Matthew is very specific that this woman is a pagan with no ties to Judaism) calls on Jesus to help her. Jesus initially pulls back. Don't we all? We all know the saying "charity begins at home." We think, why doesn't her family help her, or her own community help her. Our first responsibility is to help those close to us, to take care of our own. Yet the outside world, in the voice of this woman, keeps persistently calling. Finally Jesus recognizes the validity of her call. Jesus accepts her as a legitimate recipient of God's grace and helps her.

     Whatever the original words and actions of Jesus, is this change of heart not the actual experience of people of faith? The call of the outside world helps us grow. This woman helped expand the horizons of the Good News beyond what the disciples ever imagined. She reveals that Jesus is not simply a local yokel healer, but a healer for people of all nations. I suspect Matthew knew that this was a critical lesson for Christians to take to task. We are continually hearing in the news about Moslem extremists, and how tied to ancient cultural customs and intolerant of others they are, but in Christian history there have been significantly numbers of people who called themselves followers of Jesus who were every bit as intolerant, and culturally rigid and violently extreme as any modern Moslem extremist.

     The story of the Canaanite woman is a warning to those who would want us to remain closed to the cries of outsiders, those who would want us to dismiss them and send them back to their own kind. This story is telling us that the Good News and the ministry of people of faith is not simply meant for those who are baptized or belong to our family. God's heart is much bigger than our hearts. The Canaanite woman helped Jesus to reveal the Gospel and strengthen the Good News in a fresh and larger way. She gave Jesus a great gift. She forced the vision of Jesus mission to expand from a narrow parochial one to a universal one.

     We honor the gifts of the magi, representatives of the outside world, who appeared on the occasion of Jesus' birth. I wonder if another outsider, this Canaanite woman, also approached Jesus, somehow knowing that this was his birthday. Her brave request stretched the young muscles of the Gospel and help guide the Gospel to greater maturity. Her gift seems as important and revealing a birthday gift as gold, frankincense and myrrh.

     And I offer this to you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen