Psalm 133; Matthew 15.21-28
Ever have an uncomfortable encounter?
Someone chides you!
They don’t like what you’re doing, or what you’re saying!
They disapprove of you!
They’re upset with you!
That’s how the 15th chapter of Matthew begins!
An encounter between Jesus and some Pharisees and scribes.
Not all Pharisees and scribes were like this, but in every religion, in every Homeowners Association, in every church, school, and workplace, there are people given to the details …
They cross the t’s and dot the I’s … and make it clear to everyone that orderliness is next to godliness … and you need to follow suit.
A wise pundit observed: In every partnership, there is a person who stacks the dishwasher like a Scandinavian architect and a person who stacks the dishwasher like a raccoon on meth.
We all have our routines …
we get up in the morning …
head to the bathroom …
as for me, take my medications,
shave, brush my teeth, floss every other day, comb my hair, spritz on some aftershave …
then into the kitchen …
nuke a cuppa coffee, do 15 knee bends and 10 pushups while the coffee is heating,
then some balancing exercises …
then some reading, my daily prayer journal, and
then some sketching.
Don’t mess with my routine, ok?
As for church, we have our place to sit …
it takes about 3 or 4 Sundays for someone newly attending to “find a place to sit” … it’s one decision we can eliminate from our busy lives.
So, let’s be sympathetic with the folks who corner Jesus and scold him for violating their sense of order … not just any order, but something religious.
Not hygiene, as we might know it … but spirituality … the way we live with God … a 24/7 experience … from morning prayers and Sabbath Worship to washing up before we eat - because food is a gift, a holy gift, to be handled with clean hands …
Which is why Christians offer a prayer before eating - maybe just a silent prayer, but a prayer of thanksgiving, because food is a gift, a holy gift - from the earth, from the rain and the sun, the birds and the bees … a holy gift, from God.
Nothing wrong with any of that … except …
Jesus knows full well - rules and regulations can get out of hand … when the letter of the law trumps the spirit of the law … as Fred Craddock once said: you can get a straight A in Bible class, and still flunk Christianity.
There are times for rules, and there are times when the rules need to be set aside … artists with brush and paint, organists with notes and tempos, dancers with basic steps and interpretation, poets and preachers …
Picasso said: “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
Jesus disregarded some of these proprieties, broke a few rules, transgressed some regulations … so did his disciples …
The self-appointed gatekeepers scold Jesus for his laxity, his disrespect for the traditions, for the rules, the regulations that govern life. Shame on you, shame on your disciples … shame, shame, shame!
Jesus responds gruffly: Yeah, well, so what? You play with the rules, too, to suit your own fancy. Everyone does, so take a deep breath, relax. You’re a bunch of hypocrites. You honor God with your lips, but your hearts are far away from God.
Jesus is not out to destroy the rules and regulations … Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Which brings us to the story at hand, Jesus and the Canaanite Woman.
Jesus leaves his home-territory for the coast, for Tyre and Sidon, and while there, a Canaanite Woman comes to him - for the sake of her daughter … her daughter suffers - a great emotional or psychological disruption … her mother cares deeply for her.
Parents care for their children!
When our children were old enough to drive and be out, many a night, Donna and I would lay awake, anxious … every siren we heard - was that for them? Were they in trouble? Are they ok? We didn’t rest until we heard them come home, and then we pretended to be asleep; we didn’t want them to know how anxious we were.
The Canaanite Woman comes to Jesus … does she have an inkling who he is?
I think so … his reputation proceeds him … he’s made a name for himself … a man who crosses boundaries, violates borders, does the unexpected.
Jesus remains silent - gives the disciples a chance to make fools of themselves, and they do: the disciples tell Jesus to send the Canaanite woman away.
Jesus says to them the “right words” - I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
These are the "right words,” … boundaries, borders, who’s in, who’s out, who counts, and who doesn’t … but the woman is down on her knees, begging: LORD, help me! She, too, crosses the boundaries, she violates the rules.
Jesus says to her, It’s not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.
The right words, borders, boundaries … in the eyes of the disciples, she’s a dog.
But in that moment, with those terrible words of exclusion and judgment, I think Jesus winked at her …
or whatever it may have been … he made it clear to her - what I’m saying is one thing; what I mean is another … the words are “right,” but what they mean is wrong. Jesus takes the words and turns them upside down.
That’s what a wink does.
The woman knew she could trust Jesus.
Something in the lilt of his voice, the twinkle in his eyes - she knows immediately that he doesn’t mean those terrible words … so she replies with her own wink, if you will: Even the dogs get the crumbs that fall from the table.
And with that, wink, wink, Jesus declares: Woman, great is your faith. So shall it be done” … her daughter is healed.
Love wins that day … yet it’s one more step to the cross for Jesus.
A few years later, the gatekeepers win the day … colluding with the Roman authorities, Jesus is arrested, tried, convicted, crucified, dead and buried … not for what he said, but for what he did … he violated the rules, he broke the law; he snubbed the powerful … for the sake of love.
And thank God for that!
We’re here today, because Jesus crossed the border between heaven and earth … it’s God’s nature to cross the boundaries we make … human beings draw lines; God erases them … for God so loves the world.
There is but one rule of life, one purpose for living, one reality to guide us - to love God with all that we are, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
The Canaanite Woman loves her daughter … Jesus understands such love.
Such is the heart of God … we are all God’s Children, God is our mother, our father, our brother, our sister … God is the primal family, the home - where the light is always on, and the door never locked.
Jesus winks at the woman, and she knows what he means.
The woman winks at Jesus, and he knows who she is.
Amen and Amen.
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