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Matthew 15: (10-20) 21-28
The Rev. Cuttino Alexander begins his description of Sunday's gospel lesson this way:
Jesus is walking into the territory of Tyre and Sidon--he's going into an area filled with Gentiles, people who are not like him, who have a different history, who don't worship like him, who don't eat like him.
And he's just had a debate about eating and diet and cleanliness. It's not difficult to imagine that after all that Jesus simply wanted to be left alone, to get to wherever he was going and to turn in for the night.
Yet a woman called out to him--a Canaanite woman. Now, already the disciples were wary. A Canaanite?Those people? Oh no, no, we are not to be associating with Canaanites. They're bad--they've always been bad--they're unclean--they don't worship our God. What could this woman possibly want?
Yet there she is, in the middle of the street, wailing desperately: "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David. Help me! My daughter is not well. She's tormented by a demon." Yet Jesus doesn't say anything. He just keeps going...
But there she is, still crying out, creating a scene. "Get lost, lady!" one of the disciples might have yelled. "Get her out of here. Send her away. She keeps shouting at us."
So Jesus pauses, and he turns back to the woman....
Now, this is where we'd expect Jesus of all people to understand where this woman is coming from. We'd anticipate this scene to play out like a cut-and-dry miracle story: woman cries out, disciples scoff, Jesus heals, and we all learn a valuable lesson.
But it doesn't go like that!
How will the story end?
Come worship at St. Timothy's on Sunday. Let's find out together how the story ends as we lift our hearts and voices in praise and thanksgiving for God's mercy and grace.
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