"Did Jesus Mean to Call Her a Mongrel or Was He Just Having a Bad Day?"

August 14, 2011   ..   Rev. Phillip R. Fenton

 

Matthew 15:21-28

        ²⁶ He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to mongrels."

        ²⁷ "Yes it is, Lord," she said. "Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their        

             master's table."

 

Did Jesus really mean to call her a mongrel or was he just having a bad day? We're not used to seeing Jesus this way and it's disturbing. And just in case we thought we heard it wrong, the woman tells Jesus he's wrong and he concedes and changes his ways. 

 

By and large the Gospels sidestep the issue of what we might call Jesus' psychological development.  They do, however, depict other kinds of variables that result from Jesus being human, having a body and an emotional life.  We see him grow tired of crowds, need to be alone, and fall asleep.  He grows hungry and eats; he cries out in agony from the cross. Not infrequently his anger boils over at the Pahrisees, money changers and his own disciples. He erupts in grief - over the death of Lazarus at Bethany and for himself in Gethsemane.

 

And there is this one occason that stands out among all of his human moments - where we see him learn something new and, as a result, become someone different.  Both Mark and Matthew record this moment when Jesus is brought up short by an unexpected truth. He changes his mind, makes a 180 degree turn.  And it's a pagan woman who makes him do it.

 

Jesus encounters her outside Jewish Galilee, in the gentile region of Tyre and Sidon - away from the safety of home, away from the purity laws that keep life clean and godly. Enter, as if on cue, "a Canaanite woman from that vicinity." As a Canaanite she is even more unacceptable to Jesus and his kind than the Samaritans we see him deal with so graciously in the other Gospels. He just repeats the common Jewish stance against Canaanites:  she's a dog, a mongrel, an historic enemy, a godless, hardened pagan. And moreover, as a Canaanite and a woman she is meant to be kept at least two arms distance from this pious Jewish man.

 

He responds to her with a bit of received wisdom that no one would hold against him: "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." There are plenty of lost sheep from his own fold to attend to -- let the Canaanites deal with the Canaanites. And besides, it's not right to take the children's food and throw it to mongrel dogs like you.

 

There's an old saying that goes, "If you are already on your knees you don't have very far to fall."  She knows she's less than a human being to Jesus and his kind. She expects the insult. She's desperate for her daughter. She's all the way down.  But a spark of hope has been ignited in her life. It has reached her ears that Israel's God just might be a God of mercy and grace even for dogs like her.  And she is going to press the issue and see for herself.  And even when God's representative withholds that mercy and grace, she presses on.  "Yes, Lord, but a dog is perfectly willing to have the scraps that fall on the floor."

 

Mahatma Gandhi in his autobiography tells how, during his student days, he read the Gospels and saw in the teachings of Jesus the answer to the major problem facing the people of India, the caste system. Seriously considering embracing the Christian faith, Gandhi attended church one Sunday morning intending to talk to the minister about the idea. On entering the church, however, the usher refused to give him a seat and told him to go and worship with his own people. Gandhi left the church and never returned. "If Christians have caste differences also," he said, "I might as well remain a Hindu."

 

Matthew does not give us any indication whether Jesus smiled at her word play and her cunning, or whether he accorded her the ancient Palestinian equivalent of, "You go, girl!" We don't know what he felt at losing an argument. What's clear is that he recognized God's truth when he heard it and saw a gentile ready to be part of a flock much bigger than the one he had been sent to. "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted."

 

In a sense, it is Jesus' own awakening. Jesus does not save face. He is challenged by the woman on his own terms to make room for outcast and alien. It's a profound conversion for him: continue reading in this gospel, and watch how his encounters have a shifted nuance, his stories a new and pronounced bias for the poor and the outsider. There is an insight threading its way through the rest of Matthew that traces back to the argument of a Canaanite "dog."

 

No, it isn't easy to see Jesus like this - a product of his own environment and of the biases of his own religious system.  But the story has such authenticity because of it, and that's how it could reach into the hearts and homes of Matthew's audience, and that's why it can reach into ours today.

 

We know why the story was given to Matthew's audience and to us. One of the most disturbing things about God's grace is that it reaches out to other people too. Grace always seems amazing and wonderful when it breaks through the barriers of guilt or fear that have kept us locked out of God's love and acceptance, but it is much more disturbing when it breaks through the barriers that protect us from people we fear and distrust. When God's grace kicks down those sorts of walls, we can find ourselves shocked, even appalled. Does God have no standards?

 

Good people of St. Paul's, in 4 years it will be 2015.  Do you know the significance of that for this congregation? In 4 years we will be celebrating 125 years of St. Paul's existence.  Your leaders are busy putting together a special team of people that we will call Vision 2015.  They will not plan the party - that will be another team of folks.  But they will be brought together soon to begin a process of determining a vision for St. Paul's:  why are we here, what is God looking to us to accomplish in the next years of our ministry? Or to use Bishop Rinehart's language when he preached here earlier this summer, theirs will be the job of helping us determine "the main thing" and then how to keep the main thing the main thing.

 

I am inspired by today's gospel story to hold up two words for the Vision 2015 team and for all of us - for the way ahead. Let these two words be planted like little seeds in every mind at St. Paul's.  As we move forward, we can take these two words and hold them up and say, "How are we doing with these? Are we paying attention to these as we should?

 

The first word is WELCOME.  What is the point of telling everyone that we are here at 305 W. Third Street? What's the point of being a congregation if not to welcome those seeking an authentic relationship with God? Our good news, our only good news is that here the stranger finds welcome, that this is a house of prayer for all people. No matter what you've done, the mistakes you've made, how rich or poor, man or woman, here you find welcome, the hospitality of God.

People aren't gong to join our ministries if they don't feel what?  Welcome to do so. They won't want to participate in this worship if they don't feel welcome.  There's more than just saying it in a bulletin. What's important is the welcome you personally extend. You never know who is going to walk thro that door.  You never know how different a person is going to be.

 

We bring Mr. Corey Heidt on board in a couple of weeks as our Director of Family Ministries. We continue our search for an Associate Pastor.  I wonder:  what will they discover about us when they arrive?  Will they find a people ready to practice the radical welcome of the Gospel?  People want to feel that they are accepted and wanted and loved. Keep the word welcome. 

 

The second word is WITNESS.  Will we be active in going outside of this sanctuary to work with others struggling to make Brenham a better place? Will we reach out to those who want something more in their life than what they have?  All the studies show that parishes that focus inwardly die - wither. But parishes that stretch, reach out, struggle to love others, are full of life, they've found their mission, and they receive the blessing of Christ. Are we willing to help anyone who wants to make this a better place for everyone?

 

Let our life ahead be this kind of breathing in and out - welcome and witness.

 

Good brothers and sisters in Christ, let's walk into this wonderful future God is promising us. And every step of the way let's work together to make sure these doors are wide open to anyone who seeks the kind of life promised by God through a relationship with Jesus Christ.  May the mark of our lives and ministry be this:

 

The more we are motivated by love, the more fearless and free our actions will be.

 

Amen.