Year A
Isaiah 56:1,6-8
Psalm 67
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
Matthew 15: 21-28

May the words of my mouth… O God… speak your Truth…

Joel and I like watching those remodeling shows on Home and Garden TV… like Fixer Upper… and Home Town… shows where the stars… I guess we could call them that… work on a house that’s either been neglected and allowed to get run down… or perhaps abandoned… and they envision what it could look like… and draw up some elevation sketches and floor plans… maybe even program some of those animations where the kitchen cabinets and appliances fly in from nowhere and plop into place… they often plan to knock down a wall or two and create an open concept space… put in some clean-looking subway tile… turn a hallway closet into a half-bath… upgrade some amenities… and roll on some fresh paint… fresh paint is like love… it covers a multitude of sins…

But when they begin to really get in there… when they start ripping things up… when they get close to the bones –– I mean you can almost hear God asking Ezekiel… Mortal… can these bones live… when they hope to breathe new life into that house the way God breathed new life into the House of Israel… they discover things that aren’t in the budget… they discover plumbing that’s not up to code… or electrical wiring that’s a fire hazard… or a rotting foundation which holds up the entire house… that needs to be replaced… and they have to decide whether to compromise on the potential of their vision… and settle for something that’s less than what they wanted… something that’s sub-standard… and in the long run… will really not serve them well… or whether they’ll do what needs to be done… do what it takes to realize their vision so it can become a home for their family… and a place of welcome to others for generations to come… and much of the time… it seems to me… they decide to free up the needed resources to do it justice…

The prophet Isaiah reminds us to maintain justice… and do what is right… even the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord… who love God’s name… and serve God… who keep the Sabbath… and hold fast God’s covenant… God will bring even these to God’s holy mountain and make them joyful in God’s house of prayer…

But did you notice in the citation… that there were some verses that we skipped over… so let me read vv. 3-5…  do not let the foreigner say… the LORD will surely separate me from his people… and do not let the eunuch say… I am just a dry tree… for thus says the LORD to the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths… who choose the things that please me… and hold fast my covenant… I will give in my house and within my walls… a monument and a name better than sons and daughters… I will give them an everlasting name… that shall not be cut off…

You see… the prophet understood that God welcomed into the congregation… two groups… who based on Pentateuchal law… had traditionally been excluded… who had been kept out of community… foreigners and eunuchs… and yet even down to Jesus’ time… for about 500 more years… the dominant notion that the Israelites were God’s chosen people… persisted since this part of Isaiah was written… and for too many years… Israelite superiority made them think they were so special… that salvation was only for them… yet the Gospel of John (ch.4 v.22) affirms that salvation was simply from them…

So here we have this Canaanite woman… and Jesus tells her… what he’s just told the disciples five chapters earlier in Matthew 10:5-6… when he sent them out he gave these instructions… go nowhere among the Gentiles… and enter no town of the Samaritans… but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel… and it raises for some… the question… was Jesus racist…

The Rev. Dr. Joy Moore… associate professor of Biblical Preaching at Luther Seminary asks… how do we interpret this in a way that is consistent with the systems we want to dismantle… it’s hard for me… she said… as a woman of color… to read Jesus as a screw up… and for me… sexist ethnocentrism is a screw up… it’s hard for me to get to the lordship… of someone who needs me… to tell him… that I’m created in the image of the God he claims to be the Son of… Jesus is simply voicing the prejudices of the onlookers… of the disciples… and he’s saying what’s in their hearts when they say… tell her to go away to shut up… but she knows that God’s faithfulness to Israel doesn’t stop there… but is a blessing to everyone else… and if Jesus isn’t keeping God’s promise to Israel first… then how can the rest of us trust this God…

And it may help us to ask ourselves… what blindnesses are we following… because this woman is not asking for special seat at the table… like many people in our time… she’s not asking for special rights… or privileges… because if it’s a right it can’t also be a privilege… she’s just asking for rights that have been denied… the rights that everyone else has… and since she names the truth of who Jesus is… Son of David… she knows what she can expect of him…

And there are several times in Matthew’s Gospel… when Jesus is speaking to people he knows by name… and comments on what little faith they have… and here is an unnamed Canaanite woman who has enough faith to know that God can heal her daughter… and perhaps it is in her vulnerability… in her emptying herself of any status she may have… perhaps it is in her words of need for a child she loves… that Jesus who also did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited… but emptied himself in the form of a slave… and re-cognized that her daughter… possessed by any thing which rejects God’s love… could only be healed with God’s love…

And just as God’s good… was not only for Israel… we are… in our time… beginning to realize that God’s good is not only for Americans… but for all people… and in our country… we need to ask ourselves whether we want to compromise on the potential of our vision… like one of those houses on HGTV… there are physical infrastructures like roads and bridges which need to be repaired… but there are also non-partisan foundational principles which need to be shored up too… so that no one is injured by rights that are neglected and allowed to get run down… or perhaps abandoned… if the prophet affirms that salvation is for all people… and if salvation is not just for heaven… but is for here and now too… maybe especially for here and now… then how can we ensure that no one’s right to vote is made more difficult or denied… that systemic racism… and all isms… are acknowledged and that we at least begin to heal them… that affordable housing is within everyone’s reach… and so is healthcare… and good education… and an environment that’s free from pollutants… and that no one is above the law…

Jesus seeks out the least… the last… and the lost… Jesus comes for Jew and Canaanite… for those in Mosul and Beirut… for those against whom we would discriminate… or to whom we are blind… Jesus would go from heaven to earth… from life to death… through hell and to resurrection life… so that each of us might know God’s love… and he feeds us a rich feast… not just crumbs under the table…

And like the Canaanite woman… we will not be satisfied with less… because we believe in the promise of God’s kingdom coming to our world… but God will not force it on us… the gift of free will that we’ve been given enables us to co-create it with God… and since we’ve been created in the image of God… then that means that we were created to create… so let’s create…