Saving Scraps; a sermon from Matthew 15:10-28

Matthew 15:10-28

The Old Turtle and the broken truth. I asked Beth to read this book as the children’s message this morning specifically as an introduction to this morning’s scripture. The story of a world holding up the mantra You are Loved, sounds amazing, sounds peaceful, sounds Holy, and it is, but it is not the whole message.

You are a child of God. It’s an amazing, peaceful, Holy thing. But it’s not the whole truth, not by a long shot.

Let us listen for the word of God.

Read Matt 15:10-28

10 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.

The Word of God, for the People of God.

I have struggled and wrestled and fought with this scripture so much this week that it has seeped into my relationships with other people. I’ve talked about this scripture with friends and family. I’ve fought about this scripture with my Mom, and blessed the truth of these verses and found agreement with my brother. I even considered naming this sermon “Going to the Dogs” but couldn’t bring myself to be bold enough to put it in the bulletin.

I love and have loved this passage of scripture. It is an honest, clear theological debate between Jesus and a woman. And, like most of us in this world, my ears perk up when someone I perceive as “like me” is mentioned in scripture. I’ve had an affinity with this persistent, loud mouth woman who refuses to give up. I’ve admired her tenacity, her spirit. This woman, who gets in a theological debate with the Messiah, has always been my hero.

But there’s been a part that is unsatisfying about her story. Most of my life I have heard it interpreted in this manner.

Jesus is with the disciples, perhaps tiered in spirit if not physically, and this annoying woman makes her plea. Jesus ignores her, then denies her to test her. If she passes this litmus test of faith, her daughter will be healed. If not, well, let’s not think about this too much.

When viewed from this perspective, the woman, and her sick daughter, are turned into an object lesson with little to no actual value of their own. And that bothers me.

It bothers me because it doesn’t jive with the way Jesus acts in the Gospels in general and in Matthew specifically. It bothers me because it dismisses the experience as nothing more than a training exercise. It bothers me because the langue of test is nowhere in this scripture. It bothers me because it isn’t true, to the character of Christ, or to the witness of scripture.

Too often this story is read in isolation, which is why I choose to add verses 10-20 to our reading today. Context is key.

This section comes at the end of a discussion about the Pharisees and their purity culture obsession. They were so concerned about remaining pure and clean that they created an entire system of dos and don’ts and ins and outs. These laws and systems had become oppressive, rather than life affirming. They had been twisted and turned to keep people down instead of uniting God’s people under a shared identity. They had become tools to harm rather than signs of holiness.

Jesus argues against such systems, using words that would make any little boy giggle, saying that it’s not what you put into your body that makes you unclean, it’s what comes out of you that is unclean. Jesus’ potty humor here may make you smile, or may offend you, but it has a purpose. He goes on to say that it’s what comes out of the mouth, the words you speak, that show the cleanliness or uncleanliness of your heart.

Immediately following this we have the Canaanite woman calling out “Have mercy on me Lord, Son of David.” This is shocking and unexpected. Why?

Well a couple of reasons. One, Canaanites had not been around for many, many years. The promised land had been the land of Canaan, and the region had been “cleansed” shall we say by the Israelites as they moved in.

There were not a group of people who called themselves Canaanites at this time, it was an ancient label meant to evoke a feeling, an image. “Outsider, other, Gentile.”

This woman was not Jewish, she was not of the family of Abraham, she was not a part of the family of God.

She however, has heard of this Jesus, this Lord, this Son of David, and as a mother, will do anything, even speak publicly to a man she is not related to in any way shape or form, for the sake of her ailing child.

And Jesus ignores her.

Perhaps he is exhausted from the crowds. Perhaps he doesn’t hear her. Perhaps he thinks one of the disciples will step up. These are all arguments I’ve heard, but they go in the face of what is on the page. He does not answer her at all.

He couldn’t have missed her crying out, described as squawking, and to be sure he doesn’t miss it, the disciples beg him to send her away. Send away this gentile, loud obnoxious women, Jesus. Her begging for mercy is getting on our nerves, we are sick of it. She needs to be quiet and go back where she comes from.

The disciples are uncomfortable. This Gentile woman is making a scene with her asking/demanding for mercy and healing. She should know better, she should know her place.

And Jesus doesn’t seem to disagree. “I was sent to the lost children of Israel.” That’s it. Jesus was sent to the people of Israel and everyone else is just out of luck.

She however, she persisted. She did not give up. She hit her knees in the dirt before him and again cried out “Lord, help me!”

Jesus looks at her there on her knees and says, “It’s not right to take the children’s food and give it to the dogs.”

Yes, this is Jesus here, calling a woman, an entire group of people, dogs. And not in the cute and cuddly, I love that puppy kind of way. Dogs were not pets. They were utilitarian at best, used as living alarm systems. But more often than not, they were scavengers, roaming the outskirts of town and launching missions into populated areas in search of food.

 Jesus say his mission as being to the children of Israel. The chosen people. God’s people. This gentile woman did not fit into the picture. She complicated things, perhaps even made him as uncomfortable as she made the disciples. She didn’t fit into how Jesus saw this whole thing working out.

And that’s a hard thing for many of us to hear. Jesus had to learn. As Jill Duffield points out perhaps at this point, “How can this be? He is Jesus, Son of Man, Son of God, Son of David, divine, Jesus!

But he's fully human too, remember? Without sin, but fully human, and being fully human encompasses grief, frustration, desperation, fatigue, love, compassion and indifference. And I find this messy display of Jesus' complex discernment a relief. If Jesus has these feelings they are not only allowed, but sanctified and holy. It is also a relief to know that our circumstances today, no matter how dire or seemingly intractable, are not destined to be our circumstances forever. God is, after all, always doing a new thing, and Jesus in this story proves that truth.”[i]

The woman does not give up at this point, but instead says “Even the dogs get to eat scraps.” And with those words, in that moment. Jesus learns more about himself, recognizes more about his calling. He sounds joyful to me as he is honestly surprised by this gentile woman’s faith. His tone is celebratory as he agrees to heal her daughter and to step into this part of his mission, as a savior to not only Israel, but to the world.

It is as if she showed him the other half of that truth, you are loved, and so are they.

That is the truth that Jesus, for lack of a better word, learns in his encounter with the Canaanite Gentile woman. There is a wildness in God’s mercy. It spreads farther than we can imagine and is deeper than we can fathom.

Sometimes I am guilty of forgetting that truth. Sure, I know God is no made in my image. I know that God is reflected in the eyes and faces of all nations, races, genders. But it’s not always easy to see.

Jesus didn’t take the easy road here, and neither should we. We need to speak out against the things that are sinful, that harm God’s people, like the sin of While nationalism, the sin of Neo-Nazi attitudes and actions. These things must be condemned in the strongest of ways.

At the same time, we must not become that which we condemn. We must pray for, love, seek to teach those whose sins lead to actions and words of hate. We must not fight fire with fire, because if we keep doing that, the only thing that will happen is the whole world will burn.

The woman could have yelled at Jesus to treat her better. She could have spat in his face, called him racist and shook the dust off of her feet. She could have led a group of demonstrators against him. She could have called for Jesus and his people to be attacked. But instead, she humbled herself before him and honestly spoke of her need.

We need to humble ourselves before God and ask for what we really need. Healing, forgiveness, unity. We must listen when our brothers and sisters tell us what their lives are like. We must acknowledge that, in the words of Will Wheaton “It is a privilege to learn about racism instead of experiencing it your whole life!”

We must be willing to open our eyes, minds and hearts, just like Jesus. And have faith that the God in whose image we are all created, will heal us all.

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[i] Jill Duffield, Looking into the Lectionary

Day 64: Love and the Least of these

Leviticus 19, 20 and Mark 9:30-50

These chapters give us the origin of Jesus’ greatest commandment, to love. They also chow us how Jesus turns things upside down with his teachings by elevating the least of these.

Leviticus 19

This section continues more prohibitions and rules for faith and practice. This is also where we get one of the most profound statements about the reality of God’s character. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love is a key aspect of God and as people who are seeking to become more Godlike we should seek to love. This verse specifically speaks to loving the alien in your midst.

Lending weight to the cultural verses descriptive for all times nature of some of these passages, in verse 20 we get a specific punishment for men who sleep with slaves that are not their property. They will not be put to death, because she was not free, not really a woman but property. It is hard to imagine that this is attempting to bring justice to a situation. The man is guilty and is to offer sacrifices, but the woman is not addressed. We hopefully see women as individuals, as creations of God, and as not property. Unfortunately, slavery is still alive and booming in our world, so would this section still apply to a person in these situations? I would say no, because even if someone else considers slavery acceptable we who profess in Christ’s lordship over all would have to find it detestable.

Leviticus 20

This chapter addresses punishment and penalties for those found to have broken statues. These include death for those who have sacrificed their children to other gods. These punishments serve to focus the people on the establishment of rituals and cultic practices unique to the nation of Israel.

Mark 9:30-50

Jesus speaks again here of his death and resurrection and the disciples do not understand. It makes me wonder how many times God tells me something before I actually believe it as truth?

There is an argument that starts about who will be the greatest in Jesus’ kingdom. This argument shows us a little bit about where the disciples thought things were headed. They expected a revolution and the positions of power that might come with a new regime. Jesus turns the table by telling them that the least of these is the greatest. Children had no special status in the ancient days, no value in and of themselves. I wonder who Jesus might pull forward today to demonstrate this truth to us?

Jesus then begins a litany of sins and actions. I don’t think Jesus is advocating self-harm or self-mutilation. I believe these are hyperbolic in nature. The idea here seems to be that we cannot acknowledge our sins and then do nothing to correct them. We must be prepared to make changes, even ones seen as drastic, to live kingdom lives.

One Bride for Seven Brothers

Luke 20:27-40

The first time I went to Steve’s grandmother’s house I was amazed. There was furniture everywhere. Three dressers in the dining room to hold various linens, curio cabinets filled with choochkies, tables of various sizes and uses. The house was pulled together beautifully, but there was a lot of stuff. It was a lot to take in.

The next time I went I looked a little bit more closely at the items around. And I noticed that there were stickers or labels on almost everything. They said Jim, Donny, Kelly, Heather, Steve, Gladys, Shela, and Cheryl. She caught me looking at them quizzically and explained quite quickly. “Those are the names of who gets what. If your name is on it, when I die, it’s yours.” She didn’t want her children arguing over her things, so she decided in advance who got what, and she expected her wishes to be fulfilled.

The first visit I made to Steve’s parents’ house after we were married was filled with very similar conversations. They told me where the important papers were, just in case. They showed me what furniture was Kelly’s and which was Steve’s. They even took me to the storage building to see which tools would go to which child. And every time we visited after that some version of that conversation would occur.

Some of you may be very familiar with these kinds of conversations. I didn’t grow up with them. I haven’t figured out if that’s because my extended family never really had much to argue over property wise, or if it’s because my Dad and his Dad had the same attitude “You aren’t going to get much of an inheritance,” he says, “It is my intention to watch you enjoy the blessings I can share while I’m still alive.”

Perhaps on All Saints Celebration Sunday it seems a bit odd to talk about inheritances. Isn’t it callous to think of the dead in terms of what they have left for us? And what does that have to do with the one bride for seven brothers scripture anyway?

The answer to the first question is, no. It’s not callus to think of the dead in terms of what they have left us, as long as we are not just talking about material things.

The answer to the second question is, it goes along perfectly with the scripture for today.

In our lesson from Luke Jesus has made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. You remember that entry of course, riding an unridden colt, people laying down their cloaks and waving palm branches? After this he goes into the city teaching and listening all the while heading to the cross.

In walk the Sadducees. We have not heard any other conversation between Jesus and the Sadducees in Luke. This is the first time they have spoken. Why might this be? Because the Sadducees believed that the place to worship God was at the temple, and only at the temple. Therefore, Sadducees were found where the temple was.

They have no doubt heard from other religious leaders the tales of this Rabbi. They have heard of his teaching, of his ability to draw a crowd, of his miraculous acts. A group decides to get close enough to test the mantle of this vagabond preacher so they ask a question.

““Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man^[b] shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. ²⁹ Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; ³⁰ then the second ³¹ and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless.³² Finally the woman also died. ³³ In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”

What an interesting question! It takes a lot of mental gymnastics to unravel, some knowledge of the Old Testament idea of levirate marriage. But Jesus can work this one out in his sleep, right?

Only the Sadducees don’t want an answer to that question, whose wife will she be. They are trying to catch Jesus in an unwinnable argument. How do we know that? Luke tells us right up front, the Sadducees who don’t believe in the resurrection of the dead. These men don’t even believe in the resurrection. They believe that this life is all you get, so follow the rules, worship in the right place, live well and your eternity will be what you leave behind, what inheritance you can offer as a legacy.

Sometimes we can get so caught up in what our legacy is, what we are leaving behind, that we forget to live now. Sometimes we can be so focused on getting to heaven that we forget to live as resurrection people now.

Jesus knew that the Sadducees had no real belief in the resurrection, he saw their question for what it was, an attempt to put Jesus into a box, to pin him down so that they could openly reject him, so they might have just cause to end his ministry.

But Jesus doesn’t play by their rules. He doesn’t get caught up in their question. Instead he makes perhaps one of the most liberating, most amazing, most radical statement that we never hear.

To understand let’s get a bit of a background on marriage in biblical times. Marriage was a contract entered into by a man and another man. Yes, you heard me right. Marriage was a contract between two men. The bride’s father, and the groom. The bride had no legal say in the matter. Very often she was not consulted on her willingness to be married at all let alone to the person she is sold to.

Yes, I said sold. There was a bride’s price paid by the groom’s family for a bride. This was an economic transaction. You paid for the bride a certain price based on age, social status, virginity and these prices fluctuated with the market.

This question the Sadducees asked was whose wife will she be, and at its heart this is a question not of relationship, but of ownership. Who will be her husband? Who will be the one responsible for her in the afterlife?

Jesus’ response is amazing. Marriage will not be an issue in the resurrection of the dead. People will not enter into such contracts with one another. People will no longer marry or be given in marriage. People will no longer be sold. The contractual nature of marriage as was known in the 1^st century will not be needed in the afterlife. Resurrection people will know how to care for each other without looking to profit from that. Resurrection people will understand relationships and mutuality.

Think about that for a moment. Resurrection people will not sell one another. There primary identity will be that of a child of God, not husband or wife, father or mother, but a child of God. The relationship with God will be the primary relationship, all other relationships will stem from that one.

Wow! Can you imagine what that will be like? The first thing you will think when you see someone else will be, family, another child of God. Not, I don’t like his hair, or her teeth, or his politics, or her voice. They are a child of the Living God.

Some scribes reply to Jesus saying “You have answered well.” Note that these scribes are not Sadducees, but rather other teachers of the law. Jesus has not played the Sadducees game and has if fact said that their worry about inheritance is unnecessary.

So, what does this mean for us today in Huntsville, AL? What does this say to us two days from an election that has caused a lot of division and aggravation the past 18 months?

I believe, with all my heart, that we are called to be resurrection people, citizens of the kingdom of God, children of the Almighty, in the present and not yet kingdom. As resurrection people, we should live in the way Jesus describes- not selling people, aware of their inherent value as fellow children of God, fellow image bearers of God.

The legacy we have inherited from those who have gone before us has lead us to this place. We have benefitted from their faith. We have been blessed by their belief. We have been lifted by their prayers. But to remember their legacy is not enough. For God is a God of the living!

I ask, when we think of those matriarchs and patriarchs that have gone before, when we say things like “Those are big shoes to fill” or “We need more people like her or him” what are we saying? Are we standing there looking at the footprints hoping that someone else might step up? Are we looking around expecting another person to become the one that helps?

Let me be frank, if those of us here today are unwilling to step into those shoes, then there will not a be a Christ Church to leave as a legacy to Wyatt and Everett, to Madeline, Genevieve and Aylee.

If we live as resurrection people, acknowledging God’s love for all, then we will reach out to share that love with all. We will give joyfully to our sisters and brothers in need. We will respond with all that we are to God’s call because God is our primary relationship.

In the big things and in the small things, we have the chance to be the people of God. When you vote, if you haven’t already, take time to remember that everyone there, even the people who disagree with you, are God’s image bearers, and treat them as such. Remember that everyone running, yes, even Him, even her, are the image bearers of Christ. Pray for them both accordingly.

When you take these boxes home tonight, remember the children who you will be helping. The boys and girls in Haiti who will receive food and education through these funds, the boys and girls whose hair will grow back once their nutrition issues are addressed. Think of the families that will be reached with God’s love because one of the least of these was shown love.

May we, as resurrection people, carry the legacy of our Father in heaven with us willingly. May we step up and show love in action. Let us not wait to see what people do with what we leave behind. Let us help them enjoy the love of God in the here and now. Amen.