Dear friends,
Welcome to this week’s update.
Please find below the text of yesterday’s sermon at St Hilda’s in Egton, the readings we had, and a reminder of our services coming up across our Middle Esk Moor churches.
It was wonderful to see many of you yesterday at The Vicarage – I’m pleased that the weather was good and that we could spend some time in the garden. Thanks for the cards and gifts we’ve received since we moved in. It’s such a privilege to be here with you all, and to be able to journey with you in faith over the next few years.
With prayers and all good wishes,
Anthony
Church Services Coming Up
Sunday 27 August – 10:30 at Grosmont, St Matthew, Holy Communion
Sunday 3 September – 10:30 at Goathland, St Mary, Holy Communion
Sunday 10 September – 10:30 at Glaisdale, St Thomas, Holy Communion
Sunday 17 September – 10:30 at Egton, St Hilda, Holy Communion
Save-the-Date Saturday 7 October 12 midday to 5:00 pm, Egton Village Hall
Where next? Charting the future: a time to reflect on where we are and imagine what a sustainable Middle Esk Moor family of church communities might look like in 2030. There will be a bring and share lunch.
Readings for Sunday 13 August
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? …for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.
Matthew 15:21-28
Jesus went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just 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.’ But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.’ He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ He answered, ‘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.’ Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.
Sermon for Sunday 30 August at St Hilda, Egton
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts together be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock, and redeemer. Amen.
Today’s Gospel reading is another tricky one. The story we’ve heard of the Canaanite woman's confrontation with Jesus is not a comfortable one to hear; it’s not an easy passage to understand. Does it seem out of character for Jesus to reject a distressed woman who just wants her child to get better? Would we expect our Lord to use dismissive words to anyone, never mind humiliating someone in the presence of others? What’s going on here in this short passage from Matthew?
Well, maybe we should start by putting this story into context. Let’s have a quick look at the events which lead up to it in Matthew’s Gospel. At the beginning of Chapter 15, Matthew tells us about the Pharisees and Scribes coming from Jerusalem to question Jesus. Those questions weren’t asked with open minds, ready to accept a new understanding and deepening of faith. No, those questions were challenges thrown at Jesus to discredit and condemn him. The Scribes and Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, asked why Jesus' disciples didn't follow the traditional Jewish rituals of handwashing. Jesus chose not to answer their question. Instead, he launched quite an aggressive attack on the way the Scribes and Pharisees, their very selves, used traditions to undermine the spirit of God's law. He called them hypocrites. He condemned them as people who gave the appearance of worshipping and honouring God. They stood accused by Jesus of putting their own interests first. And in the process they harmed others; they failed to be loving and merciful. And those religious leaders had the audacity to accuse Jesus of breaking with tradition. But Jesus keeps on insisting that he is the One calling people to live according to God's law, not human distortions of that law. Human distortions have got in the way.
After that encounter with his critics, in the passage immediately before today’s reading, Jesus talks to his followers about what makes someone clean or unclean. Jesus explains his teaching in more detail to his disciples. But, once again, they don’t understand him. Jesus says that the food we eat is processed and passes out of the body. The process of eating and digestion is a physical function that happens continuously without us having to think about it: there are no moral implications. However, the way we speak, and act, do have moral implications. Our words and actions affect us and other people. They arise from our hearts rather than our bodies, or the way we eat. We choose to say and do what we do, and those ethical choices have moral implications.
After those thoughts about human distortions and the moral implications of the choices we make, Matthew arrives at today’s passage. Jesus gets to the district of Tyre and Sidon where the Canaanite woman comes to him to beg him to heal her sick daughter. Jesus ignores the woman to start off with. Perhaps Jesus is arguing within himself about how to respond: His compassion and love for all suffering people would surely, and instinctively, move him to heal the daughter? Yes, of course, but isn’t Jesus also aware of his calling as God's Chosen One, the One who has come from, and is for, God's chosen people? Just imagine how difficult Jesus’ ministry was for a moment. An almost impossible ministry.
As Jesus responds, the woman continues her cries for help. The disciples suggest that the best way to silence her is to grant her request. But, perhaps, talking more to himself, and in a questioning way, Jesus says, ‘but, surely, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel?’
That doesn’t go down well at all with the Canaanite woman: she comes right up to Jesus, kneels in front of him and again demands his help. Jesus knows that his critics would reject this woman and would consider him unclean for having spoken to her. So, he voices his critics’ thoughts, again talking more to himself than the woman, saying, "hold on, surely it isn’t fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs?"
Then, the woman’s quick, witty reply, releases the tension: “even the dogs eat what the children don't want!”
Maybe at this point we can imagine Jesus' smile and delight as he finds faith in an "outsider." Jesus had discovered faith in one of the lowest of the low, when that faith had been missing among the "chosen people." Jesus continues to smile. He’s relieved. His love and compassion flow freely once more. The daughter is healed. If we view the passage and the exchange in that way, then maybe we can see that Jesus is demonstrating quite vividly that, while he might be acting in a ritually unclean way, by speaking to the Canaanite woman, His words and actions are loving and healing, reflecting God's gracious acceptance of all people.
Maybe, in the way Matthew has written Chapter 15 of his Gospel, this interaction with the Canaanite woman seeks to emphasise how our words and actions affect us and other people? We choose to say and do what we do, and those ethical choices have moral implications. The whole of Chapter 15, in Matthew’s Gospel, from which our short passage today has come, presents us with challenges. How do we live out our faith in our lives: in our church congregations, in our villages, in the places we belong? Matthew powerfully reminds us that we can say and do all the right things but it’s what's going on in our hearts that matters. What’s going on in our hearts will always be made clear in our lives and in our relationships.
Let’s remind ourselves that God looks into the very centre of our beings and knows everything about us: all our seemingly hidden secrets. But God does that with love and mercy. God always wants to forgive and to heal. God always wants us to live our lives free from guilt. And, I think, above all, God always wants us to love others as we are loved by God. Today’s Gospel reading reminds us that we are called to love beyond all boundaries, because no one is ever outside the reach of God's love and mercy.
Sometimes, when we gather at the Lord’s Table we say, in an echo of today’s Gospel reading: ‘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.’
God’s mercy and love is for all people everywhere and always. May we, like the Canaanite woman in today’s Gospel reading, have the faith and persistence to approach Jesus, to seek that mercy and that love, and to find, there, all that we need.
Amen.
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these two books, edited by Jane Williams, are continuing to be very helpful with planning my sermon writing:
Williams, J (2009), Ed., ‘Lost for Words, A Sermon Resource for the Anglican Three Year Cycle,’ Redemptorist Publications, Chawton, UK.
Williams, J (2011), Ed., ‘Lectionary Reflections, Years A, B and C.’ Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, UK.
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The Reverend Anthony Bennett
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Interim Minister & Deanery Enabler
Middle Esk Moor | Whitby Deanery | York Diocese
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email: [email protected]
landline: 01947 899843
mobile: 07484 735284