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Sermon August 20, 2023
Canon Robert Schiesler
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A, Track 1, Proper 15
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Pentecost/AProp15_RCL.html
Audio: /documents/Eucharist__August_20__2023
Video: https://youtu.be/3B07oHLfmss
PENT IIA, (Canaanite Woman) Nativity, Newport, Aug 20, 2023
Folks, we have a problem. We are used to a benevolent, kind, even accommodating Jesus throughout the large majority of the Gospels; yet, today we have a dismissive, rude Jesus who seems all too ready to ignore human suffering. Perhaps he was having a bad hair day or just felt tired of accommodation or ready for a respite from others selfish wants. Here he is refusing this Canaanite woman who is suffering high anguish as her daughter is tormented by an extreme stress, a demon that holds her spirit tightly. Not once, but twice Jesus refuses her entreaties for mercy and finally exasperated, he turns her away with crudeness, "It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs."
Matthew's Gospel was written some 50 years or more after the climatic experience of Jesus' death and his glorious Resurrection. It emerged from a faith community that was dealing with two issues: the role of gentiles, that is foreigners of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds embracing the Lord Christ and secondly, the role of women in the early church. The questions were obvious: what do we do with this human influx? Should they totally assimilate in becoming "like us, former Jews of Palestine"? How should we accept and live with others unlike ourselves? What of women who certainly are honored by Christ in his time? Do we change the cultural narrative to include the very presence of and the gifts of women in a highly mysagoninstic society? Such issues sound familiar, don't they? The Episcopal Church opened the door to women with setting aside deaconesses and who knew that we would have a Presiding Bishop represent us as a church, the only woman amidst 38 primates of the Anglican Communion. Daring young priests walked across the line to walk in the civil rights marches and today, that march has taken us to the official welcoming of LGBTQ persons not only in our churches but in our pulpits and cathedrals as an African American Presiding Bishop speaks to and for us.
The Gospel unfolding for us today tells of the struggle that Jesus has with these issues through this encounter with the Canaanite woman — a very persistent woman who is not taking "no" as the answer. At first, Jesus squirms in his discomfort because she is not Jewish; she is from another culture, region and religion. So, Jesus stays with his own, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel". Yet, fairness and justice will not be diminished by this woman; her voice will be heard and honored and will challenge and convince Jesus. And ultimately, her persistence will prick his ears and her deep love of her daughter and belief in the depth of God's love for her and all, will both convince and transform Jesus. It is her faith in a loving God who hears and heals all, that has Jesus turning towards her, not away from her, declaring "Woman, great is your faith!"
The English author C.S. Lewis once wrote an essay entitled, "The Inner Ring" in which he points out the rings that people play within, like on a playground where some play on the "inside" while leaving others to stay on the fringe "outside". Obviously, there are inherent advantages to being on the inside, getting the most attention in class, choosing the best friends, picking the best cafeteria table, living in a mutual admiration environment with the "right" kids.
Yet, ultimately, the existence of such circles is deeply destructive. To gain status and self-worth causes one to constantly compare oneself to others, to feel anguish and resentment if left out and eventually, if once powerful and now impotent, feeling deep anger that can spill into aggressive, violent behavior, especially when someone "less worthy" gets in and enjoys the fruits of that position. Whether it be religious, cultural, or ethnic identity coupled with position and power, once you're in, others must be kept out because it is the exclusivity of a particular group that makes you feel worthy, special, secure, powerful.
Five years ago, we experienced a gut wrenching time in America as neo-nazies, white supremacists, and other fringe groups defined by fear, distrust, and hate, gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia, for a combined "Unite the Right" march. Red and black Swastika flags flew beside the flag of old Dixie. Anti-Semitic and anti-Black chants echoed in the streets of that city that was daring to confront a past grounded in the historic narrative of slavery at any cost, echoing George C. Wallace's words of our own time (1/14/63), "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." And by the end of that Saturday, Heather Heyer laid dead on the ground ståined with the blood of some 19 others injured. Acceptance, honor, respect, and love are the words that Jesus exemplified as he was challenged by the Canaanite woman; those universal words were the same practiced by Hether by her very presence and the hope that she embodied. Hether's last Facebook entry before her tragic death was "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." Her mother would later say of Heather's death that it be "a rally cry for justice, equality, fairness and compassion.
As Jesus broke his circle of defense to hear, heal and love the "other" with that woman and her daughter, may we break apart the circles that hold us back from the other and through recognition and compassion for all as well as our own awareness of fear and insecurity, a community of justice, equality, fairness and compassion may be built. Our faith ultimately, like that Canaanite woman, will lead us through the heartaches and torments of self made and self enjoyed circles, and will overcome our prejudice and give us hearts large enough to welcome one and all. And when we retreat into one of those comfortable, culturally driven circles, embrace Heather's post "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention."
