Rev Helen preached this sermon on Wednesday 8 August.
I’m sure many of you will have or have had a pet at some point in your life. In our house when I was younger we were limited to smaller animals, like rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters anything without a tail that was my mums only rule. However I have been round to other friends houses and seen other pets. I’ve never really got on with cats but I do like dogs, they are lovely creatures and very loyal and a very much loved, sometimes though too much and I find you can usually tell how much a pet is loved, spoilt by what it’s fed. I can think of two examples I once saw a tv show about spoilt cats and there was a cat on that which was fed smoked salmon and king prawns three times a day! Yes and I can remember one of my friends telling me that her grandma fed her dog (which was the snappiest Jack Russell you have ever met) steak but not ordinary steak but organic steak, what a fussy dog. I made a complaint to my mum about it because I don’t get fed that well and she said, you’re not a dog are you. I’m still not sure what she meant by that.
One thing I have learn is dogs think with their stomachs. They love coming into the kitchen when the food is being cooked for the family. They love it! Then after the meal there are sometimes scraps left on the families plates and instead of throwing that food in the bin & wasting it they are scraped off into the dog bowl! Their little faces show how much they love those scraps as they gobble them up and they looks at you with those big eyes waiting for more. They don’t worry about whether it’s served on the best plates – they gobble it up very fast and lick their lips, don’t bother if it’s leftovers or anything. But how would you feel if your dinner was put on the floor for the dogs before you got a chance to eat it?
That’s what’s going on in todays gospel and it’s an interesting story isn’t it, you have a canite woman begging for Jesus to save her daughter, she ends up on her knees next to him and Jesus is…well it’s hard and I think a bit awkward to describe Jesus reaction to her as it seems well very cold almost the complete opposite to the message we say Jesus brings. I stand here and say Jesus loves everyone, he came to preach to all, all are welcome in his home then…we’ll you get a story like this which (if I’m honest) I would much rather wasn’t there! but it is so we are going to talk about it. I think the key phrase in this is these two lines:
‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ Let me read that bit to you again ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ And there’s something in there that turns this whole story on it’s head and makes Jesus decide to help her, so what is it? Well as with most of these things a lot of theologians have a lot of different ideas but the one I like, take it or leave it there’s plenty of commentaries on this passage out there.
This is a woman who has been told that the message Jesus bis bringing isn’t for her but she is persistent, she is not letting him get away with that! It’s almost like she’s saying: “Jesus, I understand that the focus of Your ministry isn’t to people like me, I don’t have a special place in God’s redemptive plan. Yet I also understand that Your ministry extends beyond that, and I want to be part of that extended blessing. I’m not asking for the portion that belongs to the children, just the crumbs that they don’t want.”, she isn’t even asking Jesus to come to her child she knows he can make her well (it has echoes of the story of the Roman Centurion healing stories).This is from Matthew’s gospel and if you remember the over all narrative of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus was rejected by those who he came to save but others took him to heart as did this woman someone he didn’t expect. Jesus tells her she has great faith because she has made him question himself, maybe even how he shares his message and this is someone who’s child is ill and she has faith that Jesus is the one who can cure it. She might have just got the crumbs but that was all she needed as she knew they would be enough, her faith is great and she is rewarded and gets more than some of those who are given the full meal, it’s a shame we don’t know what happened to her afterwards. Don’t get me started.
Jesus loved everyone else as well so he shared his love with all of us. Even though the meal was prepared for some people and was not prepared especially for us, let’s be fair the meal was prepared at nearly 2,000 years ago, but to still be nourished and fulfilled by the message of love, forgiveness and Jesus actions. We still receive the message from him and are just as glad to receive it as anyone else, sometimes words can mean more to those they weren’t intended for then those they were, after all we are those who the crumbs from the table were intended for and we’re doing ok aren’t we. Amen
St Margaret's Church Prestwich 