August 20, 2017
The Bible is the Word of God. The Bible is God speaking to us. The Holy Spirit inspired the writers of the Bible 2000 or 3000 years ago, and today the Holy Spirit inspires the readers and hearers and speakers of the Bible. The Holy Spirit speaks to you and to me through these words. He speaks to us as if we are the characters in the Bible stories. You become Moses or Gideon or David or Jeremiah, or perhaps Bathsheba or Jezebel. You become Peter or Paul or perhaps Judas or Herod or the Prodigal Son or the Lost Sheep. There may be words of comfort; there may be words of condemnation. There are words of joy and words that make us afraid of the judgment of God because our sin is revealed, and words of sweet Gospel for the troubled heart.
Who are you in today’s Gospel reading? There are Jesus, the Disciples, the Canaanite Woman, her sick Daughter, the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel, and the pet Dog.
The place to start is with the dog. If you have a pet dog which you keep in the house, you understand this story. At dinner time, our dog sits near the table and waits for us to drop something accidentally off our fork onto the floor and she is there to gobble it up. Or she waits in anticipation for a bit of bread or a noodle or something. It may be very small, but she seems so happy to receive it. Between me and the dog there is a relationship. It is my obligation to take care of her and feed her. She is not human, but there is a bond of love. *** That is the way we are with God. We wait for the crumbs of mercy that come from God. Everything we need for our daily life comes from God. The story talks about crumbs of bread, and I think of the small piece of bread that comes from the Table of Christ. I think of the sip of wine. I think with joy that Christ gave his Body and Blood to me. When I visit shut-ins or sick people in the hospital, I always take my portable communion set. When I ask if they want to receive communion, there seems to be a bit of excitement and anticipation in receiving the body and blood of Christ, because with it comes the forgiveness of sin, eternal salvation, and the mercy of God. And there is also the knowledge and joy of being accepted by Christ as a child of God. Before almighty God I have the value of a dog, but I see that God the Creator loves all in his creation and all his children.
And of course the Canaanite Woman loves her daughter. This daughter is also a precious member of God’s creation and so it is only natural that God takes care of her, that is to say, that Jesus Christ will have mercy on her. It is not that girl is good; after all she has a demon in her. She cannot claim privilege as a Jew. She is an outsider as if with no relationship with God. *** That is the way we come before God. We are not Jews. We have sins and habits that are like being oppressed by a demon. We cannot heal ourselves, we cannot even approach Jesus by ourselves: we need the help of someone to intercede for us.
The Mother intercedes for her daughter. She hears that Jesus is in her town so she goes out to meet him. She cries out to Jesus for mercy. She follows Jesus and keeps shouting. Finally Jesus talks to her, but she will not take “No” for an answer. She knows that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of David, so she knows that he has the power to heal and the love to have mercy even on her. *** That is the way we come before God. We know his power and love. We pray for those whom we love: our children, our parents, our friends, our fellow church members, ourselves. We pray for those who cannot pray for themselves: for the sick, infants, the unborn, the handicapped, and the oppressed of the world. I hope that we all can identify with the Canaanite Woman. She is a model for Christians.
The Disciples try to protect Jesus. Perhaps Jesus is on vacation because Tyre and Sidon are on the Mediterranean coast outside of Jewish territory. And so the Disciples, who are Sheep in the house of Israel, want Jesus to enjoy his time away from the crowds and noisy women. At first it seems like Jesus agrees with them. He dismisses her saying “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” We like to think that Jesus is always kind and merciful to everyone, so we like to think that he is probably just testing the faith of the Woman and the Disciples. He is helping her express her faith so that the Disciples will hear it and lean what great faith really is. The Disciples have to learn how to be good Christians. *** That is the way we come before God sometimes. We feel we are the chosen people of God and so we have to protect the church from outsiders. Sometimes a homeless person drops by on Sunday morning, or a person with a mental problem. We will be nice to them, but we hope they won’t return next week. And then there are crying babies and restless kids. There are people with different religious backgrounds and worship preferences. Like the Disciples we want to keep our church organized and pure. But we also have to learn what the Disciples learned that day. They learned that God loves all the people in the world, as John 3:16 proclaims. We have to learn not to turn people away, but rather learn how to bring people to Christ.
Christ saw the Woman’s great faith and instantly healed her Daughter. Here we see great faith, great mercy, and great power. We see the Gospel in action. *** That is the way we come before God. The Holy Spirit gives us inspiration and power to have faith, mercy, and love.
Amen.
Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church
