August 6, 2006
“Crumbs from the Table”
Matthew 15:21-28
Dr. Dan Ivins, preaching

Stubborn women come off well in the Bible. Our text features a spittin’ image of a 1^st Century Cindy Sheehan, dogging the most powerful man in the world. This resolute mother who lost her son in Iraq, has moved to Texas to stay. Perhaps something positive will come of her obstinance.

It’s happened before. Cindy doesn’t have a thing on the Canaanite woman. Because Jesus would at least talk to her. Single-minded. Headstrong. She broke every law of propriety. But she’s somebody I’d want on my debate team. Because that girl can argue! She’s the one person in the Bible who makes Jesus look bad, besting him in a conversation. This time the underdog wins. The Teacher gets taught. And the syllabus comes from such an unexpected source! This time God smiles on his Daughter more than his Son.

Jesus was always turning the tables on others. But now the tables are turned on him. That doesn’t happen often. But let’s face it. The Lamb of God comes off like a wolf in this story! Downright rude even. First he refuses to answer a person pleading for help. Then he claims he wants nothing to do with “her kind.” And if that isn’t enough, he compares her to a dog! Before the sheer force of her faith permanently changes something in his soul. Which makes this a story about Jesus getting converted! That oughta grab your attention!

The Syrian woman is one of the great unwashed -- from whom good Jews kept their distance. Because they worship idols and ignore ritual cleanliness laws. Jesus warned his disciples to steer clear of non-Jews, because they’re only concerned with “the lost sheep of Israel.” Which is fine. Except these “lost sheep” don’t wanta be found. No matter what Jesus does, they aren’t responding to his shepherd-call. “He came unto his own and his own received him not.” But everybody else does. Mostly they want what he can do for them. So he’s all used up.

Then this unnamed woman--one more who wants something, loaded down with so many needs, begging him to heal her daughter. Only she calls him “Lord, Son of David.” It’s what he hoped to hear from the Jews. But an outcast saw something in Jesus that his own disciples failed to recognize. What a switch! Jesus hears what he wants to hear most. But not from somebody he least wants to hear it. So he doesn’t initially respond to her. Instead he draws a line. Enough is enough. The banks closed. The doctors out. The preachers tired. Go someplace else. So what if she called him by his messianic title? He won’t waste good energy on a Gentile, while the Chosen go without. “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” he says. And that’s supposed to be that.

But this woman won’t stay on her side of the line! Kneeling at his feet, she implores, “Lord, help me.” And Jesus dissed her. But this tenacious lady is not so easily gotten rid of -- cramming her foot in the door before Jesus could slam it in her face. He was slowly beginning to see that. Cause she’s not about to leave until he hears her out. So this time louder than before, “It’s not right to take the bread of children and throw it to the dogs!” Whoa!

Its unlike Jesus to be cruel to somebody. So I have to think there’s more to it than that. He was discouraged, weary, and misunderstood. That can get to you after awhile. They crowd in on him, but only because of what they could get out of him. Surrounded by all these appetites! Consumers, who want--your money, your time, your magic. But have no other interest in you. The telephone rings. It’s the DAV selling light bulbs, or the fire department recruiting sponsors for handicapped kids. Or the March of Dimes asking for quarters! Each day’s mail brings pleas for lots of causes, most of ‘em lost. You have to draw a line somewhere! There’s just so much to go around.

But this is Jesus! Even Jesus had his limits. And like him, we may lose our tempers when strangers keep trying to cross the line, challenging the limits we place on ourselves to protect ourselves. I mean, “It’s not fair to throw the kid’s bread to the dogs!” It sounds strident, but what’s a healer to do? Only these, and not those? But this lady won’t budge.
It’s like she and Jesus are pitted in a contest. Whose gonna blink first? They gaze into each other’s eyes and Jesus all but claps his hands in front of her face. And she won’t blink! “Yeah Lord, it ain’t fair,” she allows when he called her a dog. “But even the dogs get the crumbs that fall from the table.”

And Jesus blinked! But not before he laughed! I can picture him throwing back his head in deep-belly giggles. His anger dissolved. His tune changed; his tone softened. You gotta love this lady! He did. Something within Jesus rearranged after this encounter. Remember caring for little people always caught his eye. He was moved by her faith and love for her kid. You can detect it in his voice.

One minute he calls her a mongrel and then he’s bragging on her! Almost the same words he spoke to the Roman Centurion. “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done to you as you desire. & her daughter was healed.” The line he drew between him and her was erased. The limits his too-narrow-religion imposed upon him vanished. And you can almost hear the huge wheel of destiny turning -- as Jesus moved from the realm of law to gospel; from ritual to relationship; from doctrine to grace.

No longer is he the Messiah only to “the lost sheep of Israel,” but God’s Redeemer for the whole world! Jews and Gentiles alike...beginning with this Syrian woman. Is this pivotal or what? Because when Jesus healed her daughter, it meant God’s table is for everybody, not just some. Through her persistence, Jesus learned God’s purpose for him is bigger than even he initially imagined.

He discovered there is enough of him to go around. Because once you cross the line, there’s no going back to the limits you imposed, even a moment ago. The old boundaries aren’t broad enough to contain his new vision. Now he’s gotta rub ‘em out and draw ‘em bigger, in order to include this foreign woman that day. And who knows what tomorrow?

There are no more borders, no more guarding against losing himself, or hanging onto cherished notions about how things are “supposed to be.” Her faith worked like a can opener on Jesus--spreading his arms wider and wider until they wrapped around the entire world. Then they were finally fastened to the cross -- without limits. What a story!

If you’re interested in serving God, you better get ready to push aside some old fences, embrace outsiders and give up the idea there’s not enough of us to go around. We can resist, but God won’t go away. He’s as insistent as this bullheaded woman was to Jesus. Until we step over the lines we’ve drawn that restrict our vision and crimp our souls and discover the gracious surprise awaiting us on the other side.

This is a story about noticing when we’re clinging to our limits and when we’re moving forward. It’s about opening yourself to strangers, being the first to extend a hand, attempting new things, changing your mind, widening your circles, growing up.

Rubbing out old lines is painful. As painful as it was for Jesus to hear a misfit call him “Lord,” when his own people wouldn’t. As painful as it was to wipe out generations of religious prejudice and respond graciously to her faith. As painful for any one of us to cross the lines we’ve drawn and explore unknown terrain.

So our word for today is don’t be afraid to risk. You have nothing to lose but your life -- the way it used to be. But there’s a lot more life where that came from. Because life is something God never runs out of. Jesus said he had it in abundance. And if you get scared, which you probably will, and if you get mad, which you surely will, remember this story. Maybe you’ll get converted, like Jesus did.

What’s great about Jesus is he wasn’t too good to change his mind. So open to hearing God’s good news from unexpected places. Do we have the same capacity to be surprised by God? What we must never do is narrow the channels of God’s mercy. Are we not called as a church to step over the lines we have drawn? Not because we have to. And not because we ought to. Or even because we want to. But because God wants us to -- like he did Jesus.

Since God has no problem elevating a woman with the blood of pagan worship under her fingernails, why should we? That way the church becomes a light to the world by bringing together people as different as Christian Pharisees and Canaanite women into the service of God. Think about that.

And this, as we gather around the Lord’s Table, where no one is hungry; no outsiders and nobody cowers or begs for leftovers beneath it. At the Lord’s Table one meager crumb contains enough grace to last you a lifetime...and then some.
Pastoral Prayer 8/6/06

Gracious God, you have blessed us mightily. Make us as eager to share. We can do better than offer the crumbs from your table. Your expectations are so much higher than ours. We’re so guarded about our status. The Chosen liked it when Jesus said, “I was sent only to the house of Israel,” but ignored his next statement to one unclean “O woman, great is your faith!”

The wisdom of the marketplace has been too long with us. In this worship, “We want to see the Jesus who lifted up that foreigner.”

Everywhere we turn Lord, we feel hands reaching out, holding on, begging for healing and hope. People honestly seek God’s help today, as much as the Syrian woman long ago. May the lesson Jesus learned from a foreigner instruct us today.

Teach us not to fear the new things you bowl down our allies -- the surprises you have in store for us. Prepare us for discovering your truth where we least expect it. Show us again that even in the worst circumstances, God is able to bring some good.

In that regard we pray for peace in the Middle East. Where people are still trying to solve their differences with violence. Make our souls burn in this worship. Make us your messengers of peace and acceptance that we might declare an end to the contentiousness that still flows through our veins.

Make us worthy of being called your people. A people not just equipped for work, but for good work; prepared not just for life, but faithful life; united not just in spirit, but a gracious spirit; not just inspired by love but by inexhaustible grace. So that when Christ shows up among us, there will indeed, be found a people of faith in the church.

Jesus touched the untouchable and healed their spirits and diseased bodies, then marveled at their faith. So heal our spirits and bodies, that you may marvel at ours.

May we know a taste of eternal life in the quality of our mutual caring, that we can master the carefree life, and take what comes with courage, fearing nothing, save the loss of Thee.

Make us the kind of Baptists that invite not hinder faith: sharp minds, tender hearts, loving hands, joyful spirits. Until the fever of our life is over, and our work done, and we find our rest in Thee. Amen.