No boundaries to grace.
Ordinary Sunday 20: 18th August, 2002
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table.
(Mtt 15 :27)
Today's striking gospel appears in both Mark and Matthew. It is striking for two reasons at least. Firstly for the strength of character and persistence of the Syro-Phonecian woman who stands her ground so well. Secondly because of the struggle that is apparent in the text – a struggle about whether this good news and grace is for the children of Israel alone or not. This was also, we remember, the struggle that is engaged by Peter in Acts, when he finally agrees to go to eat with the Roman centurion, even though this is against all the religious dietary laws. Where are the boundaries to be? That is the question. Or are there to be any boundaries at all?
Distinctions, levels of acceptability, first and second class groups of people, perhaps based on class or gender or ethnicity or position – we are ourselves not unfamiliar with these issues.
In the Old Testament lesson from Isaiah 56 we heard it said that all the foreigners 'who have attached themselves to the Lord'; who observed the sabbath and kept the laws of the covenant would themselves be acceptable to God. "I will make them joyful in my house of prayer, ...my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." (Is 56:6-7) So it is possible to find examples of openness and welcome in the tradition. It is just that there are also many examples of the reverse.
So the issue of exclusivity or of the potential particularity of the relationship of God with the people of God remained a live one. The Lord himself was clear in the early part of these gospels. He saw that his first mission was to the house of Israel and then only later to those beyond. The disciples were sent out two by two first to the villages of those who were already of the household of faith. That first stage had happened. What was to happen next? There were huge crowds following wherever they went. There was teaching and healing. There was support as well as opposition.
Now in order to get away from the crowds Jesus himself has gone north into pagan lands. This woman today according to Matthew was a Canaanite and in Mark was Greek. But she knew what she wanted from the Lord and the turning away by the disciples did not deter her. This was a mother desperate for her sick daughter. Here was one who could heal all manner of infirmities. Like the woman in another story, who only tried to touch the hem of his garment, she truly believed that he could help her. And she was a foreigner.
It is a measure of the strength of feeling on this boundary issue in the communities that Matthew and Mark were writing for, that this story is told in the way that it is. Those who were to hear this for the first time were obviously not at all convinced that their God was a God for all peoples. Not at all. This was a boundary dispute of the first order. New converts from Judaism would need to be convinced on an issue such as this because it was indeed such a breach in the mainstream tradition. It was not an easy step to take.
So it was that this careful to and fro, of question and answer, proposition and reply, was followed. It was a necessary way of teaching; a way of leading through this important issue. To our ears though, the Lord sounds uncharacteristically blunt and dismissive. But in the context of that time and place, anything different would have been seen as totally inappropriate.
So she is reminded that she is an outsider, and everyone hearing the story has noted that already. They know and she should know that this spiritual food, these gifts of grace and healing are surely first for the people who are already part of God's covenant and promise. All the insiders would have immediately agreed with that understanding. She is told that she is more in the position of a house dog wanting the food from the table – that is actually the language used. Those hearing this story would have had no trouble with that image. But it is her faith and trust that gets her through and makes the teaching point clearly. Even such alleged crumbs from the table are well worth going for, well worth receiving. And she would be content with that. She is granted what she asked. The foreigner receives God's blessing, grace and healing. this change, this gift, is more widely available than previously thought possible.
But it had certainly been a struggle at several levels. In the first instance the Lord himself would have had the normal reactions of an observant Jewish man – to stay clear from the foreign woman and to have nothing to do with her. All the traditional rules required this. And the hearers of these stories in Matthew's community would have had the same reaction. So to include in the central teaching this radical change, this breach with the mainstream of the past, was very challenging indeed. It did indeed provoke some rather fundamental opposition.
Yet it was also the very basis of the missionary expansion of the faith that began right there at the beginning. God's grace was bigger than all the pre-existing rules. It was going to be different for those who wished to follow in this new way and who previously had observed the old rules and standards. And of course it was going to be wonderfully different for those on the outside who were trying to find a way in. Outsiders in every place and time could look to this gospel and others like it. They could follow this interchange, this development of teaching, and in it find hope for themselves; not as of right but as of grace.
Interestingly, that is exactly the position taken in our much-loved Prayer of Humble Access: the one that begins "We do not presume...." We worshippers joining in this prayer place ourselves in the grateful, faithful place of this woman outsider in today's gospel, who recognised her need and the way that it could be met. We have said these words so often. It is worth remembering that this is the passage of Scripture from which they are derived.
We are not worthy
So much as to gather up the crumbs under your table.
But you are the same Lord
Whose nature is always to have mercy.
The mercy of the Lord, the grace of God is open and available.
Something I find helpful each day is to read the reflections on part of the Sunday gospel coming, prepared by Tom Ehrich, an Episcopal priest. All this comes as an e-mail daily in the series entitled "On a Journey'. I know that a number of us here do this and the link is available to all. Just by way of example, this is one of the reflections this week that relate to this gospel passage:
To comprehend the ministry of Jesus, we need to see that it wasn't just a
light flooding darkness, or truth exposing lies, or water saving a crop. It
was also, to mix metaphors, a sea change on the human landscape. "Normal"
ways were challenged. Comfortable patterns that had guided human
interactions for centuries were dismissed. Inherited traditions were
ignored. Accepted hierarchies were questioned.
It was this sea change that led to death on Calvary. People could take or
leave his preaching and miracles, but when Jesus began ignoring sabbath
rules, embracing outcasts, listening to Canaanite women, treating Caesar as
merely a face on a coin, and talking about a future that bore little
resemblance to the past, he mightily disturbed a well-established
equilibrium.
Ehrich concludes this section:
The challenge of walking with Jesus – in that or any age, including our
own – is to recognize the sea change, to accept it as good, and to allow it
to continue.
One of the clearest examples we have in the gospels of this sea change, is the incident described today.
There are no boundaries to God's grace.
The Lord be with you.
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