Sunday 20 A

August 17, 2014

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From the very beginning, living as God’s people appears to have been a real challenge for those of us who like things neat, clean, tightly packaged, settled once and for all….

If we need to know where the circle ends, where the line is drawn, whose voice is “legitimate,” today’s readings don’t give us a lot of consolation. 

It seems that, in the divine scheme of things, there are no hard and fast boundaries.  There are no voices unworthy of being heard.  

“Impermeable” is not in God’s dictionary.

Matthew’s gospel reflects the encounter in the early church between Jews and Gentiles, between those to whom Jesus’ mission was presumed to be directed and those to whom Jesus was presumed to have no mission. 

The lines between “insiders” and “outsiders” quickly proved to be problematic.

Some believers were Gentiles -- the outsiders, and not every Jew -- the insiders -- was a believer. 

In today’s reading, the outsider (not only a sinful Canaanite in Jewish thinking, but a woman!) challenges Jesus and the prevailing view about legitimate belonging. 

The insider disciples, of course, presume to know where the boundaries are and assume the role of guardians of the way things are “supposed to be.” 

They think they know who salvation is for, who Jesus is for, where that leaves everyone else. 

They don’t have it quite right.

There is a ring of familiarity about it all. 

The voice of the stranger — the “foreigner” in today’s readings -- is always popping up just about the time things seem to be going smoothly,

 just about the time we have everything in place the way we want it to be.  

Our responses to that voice are usually variations on the response of the disciples--something like: “You don’t belong here.”

Or “you’re taking our jobs.”

Or: “You’re welcome to come in, but you need to know how we do things.” 

Which, roughly translated, means:  “As an outsider, you don’t conform to our definition of reality. 

We may have to include you, but…!”  

                                       And we tighten up the circle, try to plug the holes in the boundaries between the chosen insiders and the outsiders.      

It has been suggested that the purpose of the stranger is to awaken what is dormant within us. 

“Stranger” is related to the Old French word, “estrange” or “extraordinary.” 

 Perhaps the outsider is sent to us by God to shake us up, call out from us something fresh and fabulous. 

Those new members who join our parishes or our country with their own ideas may be sent to stretch us, open us to possibilities we’ve become too complacent to imagine. 

Those voices challenging the institution of the church from the edges (or even the outside) may be divinely-placed burrs under our communal saddle to make us sit up and take notice of something new. 

The Canaanite woman already possessed, surprisingly, the God-given seed of faith when she approached Jesus from the “outside.” 

And you can bet that her bold demand shook things up a bit in that early circle of Christians!

“Foreigners” come in all sorts of packages.  

They may be young and inexperienced; senior and seasoned; male or female; of any economic, cultural or political stripe;

educated in prestigious institutions or the school of life; from anywhere on the theological spectrum. 

The more unlike us they are, the more “foreign” and undesirable we consider them to be.  

And the more they advocate, beg, cajole, or challenge, the more dangerous they appear to us.

It’s easy to disparage the disciples’ reaction  (“Get rid of her—she keeps shouting after us!”) to the Canaanite woman. 

It’s even easier to react exactly that way on the conviction we’re protecting some unchanging reality or truth. 

Those of us on the inside get awfully attached to how we think things are or more shockingly, perhaps, how we think God wants them to be. 

Isaiah offers us a dose of reality.  

Foreigners, who presumably bring their foreign views and ways with them, are also acceptable to the Lord. 

And Paul reminds us that we insiders are really no different from those we disparage.

It might help to take a close look at how Jesus handles the situation in today’s gospel. 

He appears to have had a viewpoint about this woman. 

But he listens to her, and there is an exchange of Near Eastern wit between them.

You can almost see the smile on his face as she matches him in the verbal interchange.  

She is determined to make her case. 

In a moment of humor, gentle sparring and openness, Jesus changes his mind. 

For those of us who want to keep the borders sealed, that’s scary….