Then he called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth."
The disciples said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?"Jesus answered, "Every plant that God has not planted will be uprooted. Let the Pharisees alone; they are blind, leading the blind. If one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit." Peter said to him, "Explain this parable to us." Jesus said, "Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what make a person unclean; to eat with unwashed hands does not male someone unclean."
Jesus left there and went to the district of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that region came up and spoke to him - "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon." He did not answer her at all. His disciples urged him, saying, "Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us."Jesus said to her "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she knelt in before him, saying, "Lord, help me."
Jesus answered, "It is not fair to take the food for the children, and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Jesus said to her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instantly.
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Yesterday evening, once again, the marvellous movie “Sister Act” was on TV. While this is mostly a movie about church revitalisation, it is also a movie about how people get stuck in particular ways of thinking, and make judgments about those they deem to be “other”. Mother Superior, played by Maggie Smith, is fearful of everything. Her major worry is that the lounge singer, Deloris Van Cartier played by Whoopi Goldberg, is corrupting the other sisters and making them too secular and worldly. She makes a judgment before she knows Deloris, and that judgment colours virtually every reaction she has to every event.
In the reading of today’s story, it is critical to remember that Jesus was born into a society heavily governed by religious rules, and we know that he values its tradition and practices. We also know that he sees the leadership as corrupt, and ingrown. So he sets out to initiate reform, in the tradition of the prophets like Jeremiah and Isaiah. He tries to help people remember what their faith and practices are to be. Against the misdirection and mismanagement of the community by the traditional leaders, he begins to gather and empower new ministers and leaders from among the overlooked lay folk. But it isn’t going quite the way he would like it to, and there is a lot of resistance.
In the first part of the reading, he tries to define for the disciples some of the flaws in the rules of purity and cleanliness - that what goes into the body through the mouth simply comes out again. What comes out of the mouth is what defines a person. Whether or not one’s hands are clean is less important than the things one says.
Then Jesus takes a break. He is probably tired and discouraged, so he goes to the region of Tyre, maybe for a bit of a retreat by the seashore, trying to escape notice and find some time for himself. He doesn’t want to be dealing with people. Here the story starts to sound familiar, much like other parables and stories about Jesus and miracles. Even on retreat, in Tyre, he is found - by a Gentile woman who would be considered “unclean” by the Jewish community. She is a mother, with a sick child. She gets right up to Jesus, past all the others. It is curious that apparently no one stops her. But all she does is ask Jesus for help.
In reading this text, we tend to miss, or overlook, or not even understand, the enormity both of what the woman does, and what Jesus does and says. She is a Canaanite, considered “unclean” by the Jews, under their strict laws about ritual purity. She is a foreigner, a complete outsider, not of the same religious society or community. Above all, the sheer nerve of a woman, approaching him and asking for help. This may seem like nothing to us today - but in Jesus’ time this was jaw-dropping behaviour. Women did not speak to men in public, and to do so could have one branded as a prostitute. The disciples want her sent away, because she keeps asking for help, and she is irritating them.
You can almost feel the indrawn breath of the people around, and see Jesus just sitting there with his mouth hanging open, trying to think of some response to get rid of her. Ignoring her doesn’t work. When he finally does respond, it is a rude, and frankly racist remark. He says that it is not fair to feed the dogs before the children. On the surface, for us, it would seem like not much more than a cryptic statement. That’s because we can’t read the original language. What Jesus really says is “My work and words are strictly for the children of Israel - of the one true God - not for Gentile dogs.” He tells her she is not worthy of the teachings he offers, and he uses a racist epithet common among the Jews.
A Gentile woman, unclean according to Jewish law, unclean by her circumstance of birth, dares to approach Jesus. Surely she had to make her way through the disciples to do this. She knows that she is considered unclean. She is painfully aware of the meaning of the word ‘dogs’. Dirty mutts would be a better translation. She has a sick child, and ignoring all conventions, still she cries out “Lord, help me, help my child. Have mercy!” She would go anywhere, cross any boundary, for the well being of her child - even into a place where she knows she will be unwelcome, treated with disdain, and insulted.
It is almost possible to hear Jesus’ voice, see him turn to her and say those words. And from the woman,"But sir, even the meanest mutts under the table get to eat the children's crumbs." In other words, "I know I`m not much and am certainly not special nor deserving, but surely there must be a little bit - which is more than enough, for people even like me and my daughter." You can almost hear the penny drop, see Jesus’ eyes widen, his posture change as he realises that this outsider in so many ways has grasped something important, and has brought his attention to something important. There is a long moment of silence. I have a vision of Jesus sitting there completely speechless, unable to think of a thing to say. With this simple statement, she puts Jesus in the position of having to re-think his judgment, and his sense of call to ministry.
Feminist theologian Mary Ann Tolbert suggests that it is the shameful request of the woman (it should be coming from a male, not her), and the totally unconventional behaviour, which makes Jesus attempt to dismiss her with such disdain. Then Jesus is faced with the fact that a Gentile woman has just hammered home to him, albeit gently and with grace, the very point he had been trying to teach his own disciples - social conventions are meaningless when there are people in need - and what comes OUT of the mouth is much more important than what goes in.
One of the questions I want to ask all of you today, is where do we locate ourselves in this story? Are we the leaders, Jesus, the disciples, or the woman?
In a sense it’s hard for us to do this - after all, we were born here, are and have been members of the community. We are the church, we know the traditions, we know the practices. But no matter how good a community is, the original vision and sense of mission can be lost. It's possible for what used to be a joy and a source of grace to become a burden and a chore. Look back at the example from the movie - the call to ministry is lost in judgments about the people around, and in fear of the unknown and the different.
And that happens when we let entitlement rather than grace become our reason for being here. It happens when we speak of this place as "our church" more than we speak of it as "God's church." It happens when we forget that *we* are the mutts who receive crumbs dropped from the table.
During discussion of the passage this week, many of the clergy passed on stories of people being dismissed from the church. One pastor reported that a new woman came to their congregation, only to be told by one of the regulars that she wasn’t dressed appropriately for church. Needless to say, that person never returned. In my first pastoral charge, there was a long-time member who would approach new people who came through the door and begin to explain to them how things were done in that congregation. They never returned. It was fascinating to hear people complaining that young families didn’t come to church any more, and then watch them chastise the young families if the children made any noise at all.
In the church, we try to set the table in a place that makes it accessible everyone. Yet we tend to think of the table as “ours”, and not God’s. We put the pulpit above it, as though the minister is somehow that far above error and no longer needing to be submissive to a will and a word from beyond.
Let’s be blunt - we in the church today are as Gentile as that woman. We are part of that large foreign community that has no natural connection to the children of Abraham at all. We are only made part of God's family by grace. Parentage, history, longevity in the community, personality, personal charisma all mean very little in this regard. Far from being entitled, we are all here all the time only by the gracious invitation of God, through Jesus and the stirring of the Spirit within us.
Anna Murdock, a lay leader of Broad Street United Methodist Church in North Carolina, tells this story: ‘It was almost a year ago; our Senior Pastor was on vacation. We would be having Communion on that particular Sunday, and the Associate Pastor had invited a seminary buddy to assist him with Communion. I noticed, after all had received Communion, that the visiting minister bent down on his way back to the pulpit and picked up a large crumb on the floor.
I didn't think anything about it. I just thought he might be a neat freak like the Associate Pastor! After the worship service, I witnessed the most beautiful moment. I saw our Associate Pastor's friend on his hands and knees near the altar rail, picking up crumbs that had dropped to the floor.
I told him that we would clean that up... he didn't have to do it. He smiled and said, "Even I have been made worthy to pick up the crumbs from under the table. This is part of my worship."
My response was, "and so have I been." And with a whispered "Thanks be to God", he invited me to pick up crumbs as well ... and to worship with him.’ Here is the lesson that woman taught to Jesus - grace trumps everything else. By grace all are made worthy, and by God’s grace alone. Even Jesus had to learn that lesson in a real way - that when real people are involved, other things simply don’t count.
We are not acceptable through attendance, or through long membership, or through the size of our contributions, or our history in the community. It is in those words “Help me....” that we come to God. Everyone who comes through the door of the church, searching, is made welcome and worthy by the Spirit of God. Will they find what they need?
Sources:
1. “Crumbs from the Table” by Rev. Brian Donst, Fifty United Church, Winona, Ontario
2. “Lord, Help Me. Crumbs Under the Table” by Anna Murdock, Broad Street UMC, Statesville, N Carolina
3. “Feasting on the Word”, Year B Volume 4.
4. “Crossing Boundaries” by Rev. Fran Ota, 2007, Glen Ayr United Church, Scarborough, ON
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