Homily
by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St.
Francis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC, 20 Aug. 2017, Proper 15
Year A RCL: Genesis 45:1-15; Psalm 133; Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32; Matthew 15:21-28
When
someone throws you a ball,
do
you have to catch it? Notice how Jesus handles what's thrown at him
in our Gospel.
[At
this point, I literally threw 3 balls into the congregation at both services. Our early birds caught some.]
Not
everything life throws at us is immediately clear.
[Folks
at both services caught on, as I tossed & caught the furry ball &
revealed its true identity as a toy porcupine puppet.]
In
Romans we hear Paul struggle with the tension between God's
sovereignty, our human responsibility1
&
our freedom to accept or reject God's love.
How
expansive God's love is! Through Jesus' dying for us, God's love
reaches out to all humans – even us Gentiles.
We
Gentiles are
the dogs Jesus refers to in our Gospel.
Notice: Jesus says plainly “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Only after his dying on the Cross & his Resurrection does Jesus send the disciples to every nation.
Today
we see him focusing on the work he has to do among his people – not
the neighborhood dogs.
The
disciples want Jesus to say something to this yapping dog of a woman
to send her away. I hear anger in their words.
Notice:
Jesus responds differently than the disciples.
How
do you
respond to a yapping dog?
What do you do with a lizard, spider or roach that belongs OUTSIDE your house, not in it?
It's
easy to chase the lizard out with a broom, stomp on or squirt
insecticide on the spider & the roach. It
takes time to hum & be peaceful with them so you can catch them
in a bug bottle
The 1st reaction to stomp or chase brings out the creatures' natural defenses. The 2nd transforms the dynamic, shifts perspective & outcome.
The
1st
offers more death in the world.
The
2nd
offers more life.
Jesus didn't come to offer us less death.
Jesus came for us to have more life.
Jesus didn't come to offer us less death.
Jesus came for us to have more life.
Jesus
demonstrates how to have more life by shifting perspectives &
expected outcomes.
Among the ways he does this is through compassion. Jesus applies the 3 types of compassion we talked about in our Forgiveness Forum: tender, fierce & mischievous.3
Among the ways he does this is through compassion. Jesus applies the 3 types of compassion we talked about in our Forgiveness Forum: tender, fierce & mischievous.3
The type he uses depends on the situation:
tender letting little children come to him,
fierce telling Peter: “Get behind me, Satan”,
& mischievous in today's encounter with this outsider who wants her daughter healed.
Jesus
simply says: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel.” This gives her an opportunity to speak so Jesus can gain
her perspective & see as she sees.
She
says simply: “Lord, help me.”
Her
body language speaks respect as she kneels to ask. Jesus speaks
to her & crosses a cultural divide by speaking to this outcast.4
He
says he has important work that has limits. Life is short, & he
does not have too much time to take food from the mouths of hungry
sheep & throw it to dogs.
I
wonder if the woman suddenly sees herself in new ways with this
playful word picture. I wonder if she sees her life more clearly in a
new light, the Light of Christ, so she can respond about being worthy
to share crumbs.
I
wonder what the disciples learn from this encounter & how they
react to the grace which comes as her daughter is instantly healed because of this mother's faith.
The
disciples want to get this dog – this lizard, this roach, this
spider of a woman – out of their house of Israel & away from
them.
Jesus
playfully speaks peace so she can return to where she belongs to do
the work God has created her to do on this earth.
God
has created you / us Beloved Brothers & Sisters, to tend this
earth & to tend lost sheep where we are.
God
has created this Body of Christ –
this image of God's Love5
– to work so that all manner of thing shall be well.
God
calls us to see the needs of God's hungry children here,
to
offer God's healing grace,
&
to speak peace to trembling dogs
who are lost & hungry
who are lost & hungry
for
God's love.
Bibliography
Barclay,
William. Letter
to Romans: The Daily Study Bible.
Edinburgh: The Saint Andrew Press. 1971.
The
Book of Common Prayer.
“An Outline of the Faith”. New York: Church Publishing. 1986.
Brueggemann,
Walter. The
Prophetic Imagination.
2nd
Edition. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. 2001.
Freeman,
Lindsay Hardin. Bible
Women: All Their Words and Why They Matter.
Forward Movement. 2015.
Harper’s
Bible Commentary.
General Ed.: James. L. Mays. San Francisco: Harper & Row
Publishers. 1988.
Holy
Bible.
New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press.
1989.
Jewish
Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation.
New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
The
New American Bible for Catholics.
South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1986.
New
Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha.
Eds.: Herbert G. May, Bruce M. Metzger. New York: Oxford University
Press, Incorporated, 1977.
Voyles,
Robert J. Restoring
Hope: Appreciative Strategies to Resolve Grief and Resentment.
Hillsboro, OR: The Appreciative Way. 2010. www.appreciativeway.com.
Voyles,
Robert J. “The Three Faces of Compassion”. Forgiveness
Forum: Teach Your Congrgation How to Forgive.
www.appreciativeway.com.
2014.
3
Note: Voyles,
Robert J. lists the 3 types, quoting Psychlogist Stephen Gilligan on
p. 55 of “The Three Faces of Compassion”. Forgiveness
Forum: Teach Your Congrgation How to Forgive.
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