By request... a sermon that didn't get audiotaped

Friends ... here's a copy of the sermon I preached on my second Sunday at Calvary.

I've been getting requests for it and decided to just post it here. -- Pastor Cathi

The Cabbie, The Skycap, and the ISP …

A 21^st-Century encounter with the Canaanite Woman

Matthew 15:21-28 – Pentecost 9 A

Matthew 15:21-28 -- The Canaanite Woman’s Faith

21 Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’ 23But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.’ 24He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ 25But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ 26He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ 27She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ 28Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.

Grace, mercy and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sooner or later, it was bound to happen.

Word about Jesus would spread beyond the Jewish community. And people would come looking for Jesus.

People who Jesus’ followers didn’t want him to bother with -- or be bothered by.

People who the good “religious” leaders of the day, the scribes and Pharisees, would be mortified to find in the same room with them.

Foreigners as well as Israelites. Descendants of Abraham and ancestors of who knows who. All clamoring to receive a piece of Jesus’ mind and spirit, and the peace that passes all understanding. Little children and older folks. The sick, the lame, and those who weren’t quite whole in their bodies, minds and spirits.

Even the persistent Canaanite woman who had a demon-possessed daughter and wasn’t about to be turned away, even though no righteous Jewish male would ever have a thing to do with her.

A persistent mom, who recognized Jesus for who he was, her only hope.

She knows who Jesus is: She calls him Lord, Son of David, and she knows he has what she needs. Mercy. Healing for her daughter. Hope.

She’s desperate … desperate enough to take Jesus on in a theological conversation worthy of his closest

Followers and most persistent enemies. And, in doing so, she helps Jesus make a point about grace and faith to his closest followers, those slow-to learn disciples, and to the Pharisees, the self-righteous leaders of the Jewish people, would say when they heard about this.

Last Wednesday at noon Bible study, when we studied this passage, along with the words from Isaiah and Romans, we had to ask ourselves:

Who are the Canaanite Women among us?

Who might feel prevented from approaching Jesus, blocked by the very ones who follow him and bear his name? Are we ready to meet them and be Jesus to them when they do dare to approach?

Which brings me to the story of the Cabbie, the Skycap and the uniformed ISP.

You know who Cabbies are – the men and women who drive us around and sometimes even strike up memorable conversations with us.

You know who Skycaps are: the folks who help with our baggage at curbside at the airport.

As for who an ISP is, I’ll get to that later.

One day, the ISP caught a taxi from the meeting place to the airport.

During the ride, made longer by the last of the morning rush-hour, the radio news carried the usual mix of bad news and commentary about it. Bad political news. Bad economic news. Bad social news.

As the taxi stood still in traffic just shy of the airport exit, the cabbie turned to the uniformed ISP in the passenger’s seat and, in English thick with the accent of his native Nigeria, said: “I don’t know how much longer God will put up with what we are doing.”

As the conversation went on, it turned out that the Cabbie was Muslim, a respecter of Jesus as prophet, and adamantly disgusted with the extremist sects within his own faith.

The ISP replied, “I think the world must be breaking God’s heart. What else can we say, but “Lord, have mercy”? Then, the passenger, went on to tell the Cabbie about Jesus -- not only as prophet, but as Lord and Savior – and the grace that calls a merciless world to repentence, forgiveness, mercy and true peace.

By then, the traffic was moving, the cab was approaching the airport departure zone, and the conversation turned to other matters, like paying the bill.Getting out and heading toward the airport entrance.

“Which airline are you looking for, Ma’am?” the tall, elderly, dignified African American Skycap asked the ISP.

“United, Sir.”

“Let me show you the way, Ma’am. And while we’re at it, may I ask, what are you going to preach on this Sunday?”

The uniformed ISP, suddenly conscious of the clergy collar around her throat, stopped, and said, “Why, the Canaanite woman.”

“And how are your elocution skills?”

Reasonably good, the ISP replied.

“And your exegetical skills?”

Not too bad.

“And your homiletical skills?”

Improving.

“And your preaching delivery?”

Improving, too, by God’s grace and with practice.

“Good. Now, about the Canaanite woman …” the Skycap said. Then, with the certainty of one steeped in scripture from his earliest days, he starting quoting today’s text: “Jesus answered her, it is not right to take the children’s bread and feed it to the dogs …”

And the ISP continued “Yes it is, Lord, for even the little puppies eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.”

A deep laugh and big smile from the Skycap graced that moment, and the uniformed ISP – your Interim Senior Pastor, knew that she had been in the presence of one who was as Jesus to her.

And in that moment, as the questions were asked with great authority and the answers given with a confidence borne only of faith and not of one’s own doing, the tables were turned.

A few minutes earlier, a Nigerian immigrant Muslim cab driver named Manoor was the Canaanite woman to me, seeking what only Jesus could give. And, thanks be to God, I got to tell him about it.

Then, moments later, in meeting Michael, a brother in Christ in a Skycap’s uniform, who questioned who I was as a pastor and what message I would give this Sunday, I was, for a moment, the Canaanite woman. I knew my need of the Lord’s gifts, and not my own wisdom or strength, and I heard an affirmation of call that I will never forget.

We never know when we will run into the Caananite women. We never know what question will be asked, or why we’ll be approached. Who knows?

And yes, some days we may find ourselves being like that Canaanite woman: outsiders who are seeking the Jesus we already know is Lord and approaching him in desperate confidence like that Canaanite woman long ago.

God sees beyond social status, outward appearance, and group affiliation. That’s why he sent his son Jesus Christ, the sacrifice for our sin and brokenness, to reconcile all the world to himself.

That’s why we have good news to share, whether we’re here in God’s house of Calvary, or out wherever our ministries in daily life take us. This is good news for all of us.

We, like the Cabbie, the Skycap, and the Canaanite woman, know our own sorts of hurt, brokenness, sickness and injury of heart and mind as well as of body.

We, like the Canaanite women, long for the healing that only Jesus can offer.

Beloved Church, Let us cry out, in faith and in confidence, “ Lord have mercy upon us. “

Let us turn to our neighbor, beginning in our congregation and going out to our homes, our workplaces, our schools and our neighborhoods, and be as Christ to all we meet.

Let us welcome the exiles, whose faith has been put to the test by turmoil of all sorts, knowing that we too are exiles and long for that welcome in Jesus’ name.

Let us never forget: We too are called to be as Christ to that Canaanite woman, in what ever form she appears … as a cabbie, as a stranger, as the friend, or as the brother or sister in Christ that we are at odds with.

Let us remember, that we, too are the Canaanite oman, for we have no right or privilege save the gift of faith and all that it brings.

I know, for I have met the Canaanite women, and she is me.

And like her, let us trust in those healing words of Jesus:

"Great is your faith!

Let it be done for

you as you wish."

Glory be to the Father, and to the +Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen.

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