As I was thinking and praying through the text of the gospel lesson and preparing the sermon for this Sunday, two images or thoughts continued to rattle around my mind. One was of a candy machine, and the other came from C.S. Lewis’s book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Let me explain.
In this passage there was something about this woman in her persistence or perseverance in seeking an answer to her desperate situation. She would not take no for answer.
And I wondered about her persistence. What was it that motivated her?
And I thought of a candy machine. Have you ever been there?
I put the coin, now more likely a dollar bill, into a candy machine or a soda machine, if you like, expecting an immediate response to pushing the button or pulling the lever, and the machine didn’t produce.
if you’re like me you pulled the lever again, harder, and if it still doesn’t produce, you shake the machine, once gently, then again, until you’re almost tipping it over. And, there’s probably some not so Christian verbal undertones impugning the moral character and origin of the machine –or its makers. And when it still doesn’t produce you try to find someone at least to give your money back. Well, that is persistence. You know what you want, and you are not letting go.
But this woman had a characteristically different kind of persistence or perseverance. This woman has a daughter she loved; a beloved daughter who evidently was afflicted with some physical or spiritual malady that was life-threatening. Like most normal mothers she would do anything to bring relief to her daughter. So she stepped way outside her boundaries to find what she believed to be her only solution to her daughter’s situation. she goes to this fellow Jesus.
as a woman, it would’ve been inappropriate for her, in her time and culture to approach a man the way she did. Jesus’ disciples understood this and responded in light of that understanding telling Jesus to send her away. but he doesn’t. she was also gentile; a Canaanite gentile- the traditional enemy of the Jews. it was certainly inappropriate for gentile, to say nothing of a Canaanite, to go to a Jew asking for anything. she was the consummate outsider, the antithetical non-person who comes to this Jewish teacher for help.
Jesus acknowledges this paradox in his response to her. He tells her that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He is sent to the Jews. Then, responding to her persistent supplications, he reinforces this response by saying it is not fair to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.
Jesus acknowledges her “outsided-ness” and makes an analogy to her as a dog; not an affectionate approbation.
in this encounter, both the woman and Jesus are defining reality as it was. She was a Gentile outsider, not a part of Jewish community, not one of the lost sheep he was sent to.
She acknowledges what Jesus affirms: the reality that this Jesus’ ministry was in and through and for the Jewish community. His chosen people.
But she persists. Regardless of the cultural structures she had a sense Jesus was the answer to her need, she had faith in him because she knew who he was.
So she responds: “Yes Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
It is a remarkable response. For, in complete humility, she submits to Jesus, recognizing and admitting her unworthiness on a number of levels. She basically says that all that Jesus has said about her is true, but in that humility she also acknowledges who Jesus is, that Jesus is Lord, son of David, master. One who has all power and authority. She acknowledges Jesus as Messiah and she risks everything to come before him, something many Jews, those to whom he had come, had yet to acknowledge. Some in fact rejected him.
Further she states that the mere remnants of what he was giving to his people, the Jews, would be more than enough to satisfy her in her predicament. Whatever Jesus provided, even crumbs, she had faith that it would be enough-sufficient to her need.
And Jesus affirms her faith and he answers her prayer.
Matthew’s gospel is the most Jewish gospel; it is written to, and for, the Jews. And yet here is the Gentile outsider, this unworthy Canaanite woman, who is upheld as a model of faith and persistence. Which brings me to the second image that I had about C.S. Lewis’s book, the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. if you have read this work, you will know about Aslan, the Jesus figure in this tale. He is not presented as a sweet easy-going character but as someone who is unpredictable, ferocious, and dangerous. Aslan is a lion. I’ve been reading this book to Lilly at bedtime when she stays over the house, but at the rate we are going, I’m afraid I will be 80 before we’re done and she’ll be married with kids. Let me quote about Aslan:
‘Oh yes tell us about Aslan. Who is Aslan? Asked Susan.
Aslan, said Mr. Beaver. Why, don’t you know? he’s the king! He’s the Lord of the whole wood but not often here you understand. Don’t you know who is the king of beasts? Aslan is a lion, the lion, the great lion. Ooh! said Susan. I’d thought he was a man. Is he —-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion. That you will, deary, and no mistake, said Mrs. Beaver, if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly. Then he isn’t safe? said Lucy. Safe? said Mr. Beaver. Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.
I’m longing to see him, said Peter even if I do feel frightened when it comes to the point.
That’s right, son of Adam, said Mr. Beaver bringing his paw down on the table with the crash that made all the cups and saucers rattle and so you shall.’
This Gentile woman certainly had persistence. but it was different from merely shaking a candy machine. She was persistent in shaking a lion; someone she viewed as greater, unapproachable, maybe even dangerous.
She approaches Jesus realizing her own unworthiness, the vast differences that separate them. She maybe even recognizes danger in approaching Jesus. Like the children in Lewis’ story, yet knowing they must, for he is the only answer to their problems. This unworthy outsider would not take no for answer and approaches the lion—for she knows only he can help.
So how do we approach our faith as it applies to life?
Do we practice our faith as if Jesus is a candy machine? You know, we put in our prayers, our tithe, our Sunday worship time, so when we pull the lever we get exactly what we want. And if the candy doesn’t drop we persist, and get angry, frustrated.
Or do we come humbly before a lion, recognizing the vast difference between him and us, realizing this lion owes us nothing, yet offers us everything? That he is, by nature, dangerous, unpredictable—he does things in his time and in his way, for his purpose—not always giving us what we want—-but that he is also good—that whatever he does will be ultimately for our benefit—our ultimate benefit.
In shaking the lion we exhibit persistence or perseverance that arises out of absolute trust, courage, and faith. It’s about knowing the lion. it is not about getting what we want, but getting what he wants us to have. It is the faith of Job—yet though he slay me, I will hope in him.
Today is Rally Sunday, the beginning of the academic year in the church. We sign up for Sunday school, confirmation, other classes and opportunities to shape our souls and lives. it is all part of what we do here this so that we might have the persistence, the faith of the Canaanite woman, like her, when we come to the Lord in worship or prayer. We want to come to the lion, not to a candy machine.
Sermon preached by the Rev. Richard C. Marsden
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
11th Sunday after Pentecost
20 August 2017