"Persistent Faith, A Merciful God"

I pastored in Eugene for ten years, and because we were a large congregation, I started something called neighborhood groups so our people in geographical proximity could get to know each other. There was a team captain in each neighborhood who called once a month and asked for prayer concerns. And then there was a quarterly get-together at the host's house.

I was a neighborhood captain, and in our group was a very classy, dear woman named Sigrid, who was in her early 90s. When we were planning to invite folks over for the first get-together, Susan said, Let's use real china cups and saucers for the coffee and tea. I said, Oh, let's just use coffee mugs. They're so much easier than a cup and a saucer, especially for somebody older like Sigrid.

Well, we went Susan's way, and it was a good thing, because after our very successful afternoon get-together, we received a sweet note from Sigrid saying, Pastor and Susan, thank you so much for the lovely time at your house. I was especially delighted that you used real cups and saucers, instead of those new-fangled mugs that have become so common. I was chastened.

I was pastor there for ten years, and called on Sigrid as she aged and her rheumatoid arthritis worsened and she became bed-ridden. On one occasion when I visited her and asked her how I could pray for her, she said, I am in constant pain, and I have stopped praying for healing and relief. My only prayer is, Lord Jesus, have mercy on me. I have never forgotten that conversation about prayer with dear Sigrid.

We have a version of a prayer like that in today's gospel. A woman comes to Jesus with a deep need. She has heard about this Jewish rabbi who is coming through her territory. She has heard about his reputation as a healer and exorcist. Maybe he can help her daughter. Maybe he can help their family. So as Jesus passes by, she cries out, Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David. And then she spells out the problem: my daughter is tormented by a demon.

We don't have a description here of the daughter's behavior. Maybe it was a spiritual demonic force. Maybe it was epilepsy, which might have been attributed to a demonic force in Jesus' day. Maybe it was some kind of psychosis. Whatever her ailment, the mother is at her wits' end. She's tried everything to get help for her daughter. And she cries out, Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David. my daughter is tormented by a demon. And we are tormented as a family.

Maybe you too have been at your wits' end about something: something about your upbringing that still torments you, a family relationship that brings you to your knees, a health crisis that doesn't seem to be getting better. Maybe you can feel some of this mother's pain this morning. And you have indeed pleaded, Have mercy on me, Lord.

It's crucial to remember where Jesus is in this story. He is in Gentile territory, modem day Lebanon, north of Galilee. When Mark tells this story, he calls the woman a Gentile, of Syro-Phoenician origin. Matthew calls her a Canaanite, the name that referred to the enemy of the ancient Israelites.

What do we know about the Canaanites? Well, remember that God had told Moses in Deuteronomy 7- When you journey into the land of Canaan that I will give you, you need to annihilate the seven Canaanite tribes. If you don't eradicate them, the people will intermarry and be tempted to follow their gods.

By the way, many Christian colonists who came to this land saw themselves as the new Israel, and what do you think they thought of the inhabitants of this land? They were Canaanites in this new world who were to be annihilated. They believed they had biblical justification. We heard in our book study this week about a Mohawk elder who attended one of John Philip Newell's retreats. Newell in his presentation talked about how all people are created in God's image; God's image is what is at the core of each of us. As John 1 says about Jesus, The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

After the presentation, the Mohawk elder stood with tears in his eyes, and said, How different it would have been if the white colonists had seen us as made in the image of God, if they had seen light in us.

Jesus is now outside of Israel among the descendants of the Canaanites. And a descendant of these enemy nations is begging for help. The first thing I want you to notice about this woman is the titles she gives him. She calls him Lord, which is really a Gentile title given to the Roman Emperor Caesar; Caesar was the epitome of power in her eyes. Caesar could do whatever he wanted. So she calls him Lord. And she adds a very Jewish title: Son of David. She is honoring what she has heard of his ancestry. She says, Jesus, I know you have power, I trust you have authority; I believe you can do something to intervene. Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David, and then she connects it with her need: My daughter is tormented by a demon.

That's a pretty good definition of petitionary prayer, isn't it? Petitionary prayer is when we ask God for something, we ask for God's presence and power and love and energy in a situation. I place myself before the God of the universe, before the power and loving mercy of God, and I state my need, trusting in the grace and mercy of God, that God's will would be done in my life or in someone else's life, or of a situation in the world. This woman offers a heartfelt petitionary prayer.

And so, Jesus says, Of course, I feel your pain, and I have the power to help. I'll do what you ask. No! Matthew says- Jesus did not answer her at all. Wait- this is Jesus, right? We know he has a heart of compassion In chapter 8, he exorcises the demons out of two men. In chapter 9- he casts a demon out of a man who is mute because of the demon. In chapter 12- he casts out the demon from a blind and mute man.

Obviously, he could cast the demon out of a little girl. But he doesn't even answer her. This feels a bit like Mother Teresa ignoring a hungry leper on the side of the road, doesn't it? Out of character. Really, Jesus, you don't even answer her?

But if there is anything we know about this woman, it is that she is persistent. She keeps following Jesus, she keeps shouting for him to help her daughter; she will not give up. Maybe you can relate to that too. You have pleaded with God in your prayers, you have sought an answer, and it has felt like silence in return. But this persistent woman do- she keeps persisting. The disciples get agitated. Lord, send her away; she keeps shouting- we can't even hear ourselves think! And Jesus finally replies, probably loud enough for this mother to overhear, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." My hands are tied.

This narrower mission might sound familiar to readers of Matthew. Earlier in the gospel, when Jesus sends out his followers two by two to spread the news about the reign of God, he says, Don't go to the Gentiles- don't even go to the Samaritans. Your mission is only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Apparently Jesus sees his mission this way as well. I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And perhaps looking at the Canaanite woman, he says, You are not on that list.

But what do we know about this mother? She is persistent! Now, she kneels before him, maybe stopping him from moving forward, and pleads with him, Lord, help me. I want to remind you again about what separates her from this Jewish rabbi. There are ethnic, religious, gender differences. Historically she is an enemy of the Jews.

And yet, with all that separates her from Jesus, she does not give up. Lord, help me. And now Jesus gives her an answer but it is not one we would expect. "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." Jesus seems to escalate the ethnic tensions here. He's really calling her a Canaanite dog? But this woman will not take no for an answer. She refuses to be insulted. She de-escalates the tension by using his metaphor, but reframing it- "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table."

Biblical scholar Eunyung Lim tells her students when she talks about this story, When Jesus goes low, the woman goes high. If there are ethnic and religious and gender differences here, the woman blows past them, and say, Jesus, no matter who you did or didn't get sent to, I'm the one here now, and I just need a crumb of what you've got!

And Jesus is swayed by her perseverance, her wisdom, her endurance- And he says, Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish. And her daughter is healed from that moment. This woman had been met with silence, with rejection, with public humiliation- and she persisted. Now she is not one of Israel’s enemies- now she is not seen as sub-human, now she is not seen as the other; she is now seen as one of God's children.

In the Revised Common Lectionary, we are given an Old Testament text that matches up with our gospel in some way. So in our first reading from Isaiah, the prophet gives a new word. He proclaims- Foreigners (people like Canaanites) who join themselves to the Lord, who love God, who want to be God's servants, who keep the Sabbath- they'll be part of God's house of prayer- because, as God says, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Isaiah says, God is more inclusive than we thought!

Eunyung Lim, the theologian I referenced earlier, believes that Matthew's community was realizing that they needed to expand their outreach to the Gentiles, to those who had been their enemies. Matthew quotes Isaiah in chapter 12 when God says, I will put my Spirit upon him, (the one Matthew sees as Jesus) and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. Matthew was encouraging his community to draw the circle wider, to include those folks who previously had been excluded. This was huge news for the early church-the reign of God includes the Gentiles as well, people they formerly shunned.

By the way, the first reading from Isaiah didn't include verses 3-5, where Isaiah says that eunuchs, a sexual minority, if they keep the Sabbath, are pleasing to God. This counters the Law of Moses in Deuteronomy 23 that states that they cannot be part of the community. We see in Scripture a continuing movement to draw wider and wider the circle of God's grace and love.

I have preached this story before, with a different take. I didn't want to believe that Jesus could change his mind, or learn anything new. So according to that interpretation, Jesus knew he was going to help her, but he was testing her faith. Jesus ignored her because he wanted to see how serious she was. He didn't really call her a dog; he used a Greek word for puppy.

I'm not so sure. If Jesus was fully human and fully Son of God, then wouldn't he be learning new things as well? And God was using the persistence of this mother to help him widen the circle. Don't we read in Hebrews 5:8- "Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered"?

Do you see that? He learned obedience. Couldn't it be that God was teaching Jesus here that the mission was going to be bigger than he thought? It had now expanded to the Gentiles. Maybe this woman was causing Jesus to grow in his understanding, to discover more what God wanted.

And Matthew's community was growing as well in their understanding of the wideness of God's mercy. As Eunyung Lim says, Matthew's community knew the Lord's Prayer, (it's in chapter 6) and now those petitions were being actualized in a Canaanite woman's life- What do we ask in the Lord's Prayer? Your will be done on earth- Jesus was asking that God’s will would be done for this mother’s daughter. What else do we ask in the Lord's Prayer? Give us this day our, what?...daily bread… What does the woman say, Lord, even the dogs receive the crumbs under the table… This Canaanite woman was receiving the promises of the family of God.

I stood out in the parking lot on Wednesday as Bridging Cultures hosted a pop-up food pantry. I thank the council for allowing this temporary help to take place in our parking lot while Bridging Cultures finds a permanent site. There were lots of folks there patiently waiting in line. I wonder this morning what their persistent prayers might be? If Jesus walked by, what would they cry out? I wonder what might be tormenting them? Just getting enough food on the table for their kids when affordability is an issue? Fears that their lack of immigration status will cause them to be swept away? Concerns about a son or daughter in the throes of addiction? What is tormenting them? What is their-"Lord, have mercy on me" all about?

I invite you to join with me in prayer. Lord, we pray that we grow in understanding of your will, like the vision of Jesus grew. We pray that we might hear the persistent cries of our neighbors. And we pray that we might find new ways to grow the circle of God's grace and mercy even yet wider. In the name of Jesus, the Savior of the world. Amen.

Persistent Faith, A Merciful God