Looking Ahead to August 23, 2020 -- Jesus and the Canaanite Woman

 The Scripture Reading this week is Matthew 15:11, 17-28

The Sermon title is CLM

Early Thoughts: One day I was describing this passage to one of my daughters. I said that next Sunday we were reading the story where Jesus calls a woman a dog. Guess the reaction I got.

This passage is a challenging one when it comes to our picture of Jesus. Whether we admit it or not we sort of want Jesus to always be the paragon of virtue and loving interaction. A Jesus who has so much to learn does not fit that image.  And in this story Jesus is clearly challenged and made to rethink his reaction.

And yet, in some ways, it is one of my favoured Gospel stories.

For centuries Christianity has proclaimed that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine, even if nobody has ever really hit on a totally satisfactory way of explaining how that is possible. How many times do we ask what it means to be fully human?

For me, being fully human means that you have blindspots and unconscious attitudes, it means you are formed by your context, it means you have edges where you need to learn and grow. For people who want or need Jesus to be perfectly human and totally without sin or error this is a difficult place to be. But if Jesus is fully human Jesus has to be able to learn/change/grow.

In our mind's eye we might imagine Jesus' first response to the Canaanite woman would be along the lines of "certainly I can heal your daughter". Instead Jesus gives an answer that is steeped in ethnic parochialism -- once ignoring her was no longer an option. To her credit the woman is persistent (which we already know since ignoring her did not work). She challenges Jesus narrow vision of how God might be at work in him. And Jesus models that we can change our attitude when we know that the challenger is right.

The verses at the beginning of this week's reading remind us where evil and defilement really come from. They come from the heart. But hearts can be changed. And when hearts are changed the Kingdom comes one step closer to full reality.

Where do our hearts need to be changed? What attitudes and beliefs have we unconsciously picked up from our contexts that need to be challenged? How can our vision of God's action in the world be broadened?

--Gord