Puppy Love

Readings: Genesis 45:1-15, Psalm 133, Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32, Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, August 17th, 2014

 A printable PDF file can be found here

Back in the 1970's, when I was a young pup, there was an American invasion of the British pop charts. It was partly spearheaded by a band of rocking Mormons known as the 'Osmond Brothers'. The particular darling of the Osmond family, at least to all the teenage girls, was Donny. His picture, complete with immaculate hair and more shiny teeth than some us British guys had ever seen, adorned many a teenage girls room. His big hit in the U.K. was a sickly love ballad titled 'Puppy Love.'

'Puppy Love' had nothing to do with puppies but was  about a love between two people that was disapproved of because they were too young. Needless to say, those of us who were young teenage guys, seeking to attract the attention of young teenage girls, were not impressed by Donny Osmond. How could we compete with someone who was so outside of the box we lived our lives in?

Our bible story this morning was about a woman, who as far as Jesus and the disciples were concerned, was an outsider. Almost everything about her life suggested she was not the kind of person who would spend time in the company of a Jewish rabbi and His entourage.

But she had a need. And she recognized that her need could only be met by the love of God in Christ.  So she didn't give up until she had what she needed. Though she was completely outside the box, she talks to Jesus about puppy love. Even the dogs under the table got to eat the scraps that the children left behind.  Wasn't she therefore entitled to a share in the love of God?

This outsider is approved by Jesus for having such great faith. The passage raises the question; What does it take to be a person of  faith? What can we learn from this woman’s approach to God that can help us in our own faith journeys?  How can we deepen our faith?

 PERSISTENCE IN PRAYER

When it came to communication with Jesus this lady was not a quitter.  Prayer is talking with Jesus, being in His presence and soaking up His truth. There are times when prayer can be one of the hardest things to do.  It seems crazy that talking to God should sometimes be so hard, but we put all kinds of obstacles in the way.

We say we don’t have time, we have sneaking suspicions that God may not do as we ask (especially when we know we’re asking with ourselves rather than others in mind!) We sense, like the woman in our story, a reluctance on God’s part to enter into communication with us, that God is busy with a more important project than loving people like us.

But the Canaanite woman wouldn't give up. Though the disciples wanted to send her away, though Jesus ignored her and then said His mission was to Israel alone, she continued to cry out for help. She was like Abraham who wouldn't complacently go along with the plan when God decided to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham haggled with God. Years later Moses ended up bargaining with God when the Lord got fed up with the children of Israel in the wilderness and wanted to destroy them.

This lady- like a lady who in a parable Jesus told elsewhere about a persistent widow and an unlistening judge - wouldn't take no for an answer. She wouldn't be ignored or put off. She pressed her case.  Jesus responded to her persistent pestering cries and helped the woman and healed her child.

Why the delay?  Why does Jesus at first take no notice of her request?  Why is He so adamant in not helping this woman who obviously had a great need?  He tells the woman, “"I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." and that it wasn’t fair to throw food for children to the dogs!

Such harshness in the face of urgent need seems way out of character for Jesus.  There has to be  something else going on in this story. Maybe it is this. Earlier in the chapter Jesus has chastised the disciples for their lack of faith.  Then, at the start of Chapter 15, he has a run in with the Pharisees over their inability to be true to their own man made commandments, calling them the ‘blind leading the blind’. 

This encounter with an outsider provided Jesus with an unequaled opportunity to teach the disciples about genuine, authentic faith. There is an air of playfulness about the whole thing. There is an almost unwritten communication of trust and understanding between Jesus and the woman. 

She calls Him, “Lord, Son of David”, an unusual title for a Gentile to use. She bargains with Him, an action considered way out of line for a woman at that time in history to take with a rabbinical teacher. It's all very good humored.

He seems, by His lack of response, to be coaxing her to reveal just how deep her convictions were that He was the One who could really help.  And it is very effective. Ultimately He does heal her daughter.  We are given a marvelous picture of how faith expresses itself through perseverance. So what does it take to be a person of  faith? Perseverance in prayer. But we see in this passage that it also takes;

BREAKING DOWN THE BARRIERS

There were all sorts of reasons why this woman shouldn’t be bothering Jesus.  Theological barriers. Cultural barriers. Racial and Social Barriers.  Her faith broke them down.  For us to be people of faith we have to break down the barriers that we feel separate us from God.

‘How we understand God’ or to use the technical term, ‘theology’ matters, because it can either be a faith barrier or a faith builder. Because the Gentile woman had the right idea about Jesus her faith was something real. If we get the wrong idea about Jesus, faith doesn’t happen. If we don't understand what Jesus can do, then our expectations of how His Holy Spirit can work in our lives can be at a very low ebb.

It doesn't have to be that way. We can read in the gospels about the things He does, we can open our own hearts to Him and ask God's Holy Spirit to work in our life, we can lay our life before Him in worship - these things are faith builders that break down the theological barriers of unbelief. 

We are all culturally and socially conditioned by the age in which we live.  We have come to expect certain things as rights and privileges, that in the first century just wouldn’t apply.  We are very much encouraged to focus on our selves, on our immediate needs, making ourselves centers of our own universes, on having temporary experiences rather than building long term commitments.  We trust in ‘experts’ to solve our problems, we try and find happiness in material rather than spiritual things. If something is on T.V. we believe it’s true. These things can be barriers to faith. We need to recognize the barriers for what they are, move beyond them and replace them with faith builders.

One of the biggest barriers in our faith journey can be our attitude towards others. It was certainly a problem for the first disciples who told Jesus to send the Gentile woman away - as she wasn’t 'one of them'. Through this woman they were being taught to...

ABANDON ALL PREJUDICE

In the kingdom of God there is no us and them. It’s just us. And that ‘Us’ includes black,white and every shade in-between, rich and poor, male and female, young and old, high church and low church, those we agree with and those we don’t, from every nation, culture, ethnic group and social background you can think of. That’s a lot of ‘us’.

The church has always struggled with the problem of us and them. The disciple Peter struggled with it when God called him to go and preach to the Gentiles.  He had a vision of a blanket full of, what were to him, unclean foods and heard God telling him, “Go eat that stuff Peter, don’t be calling unclean what I say is clean!”

There were tensions caused in many early congregations by those who felt that Christians should be more Jewish than Gentile.  Throughout history there have been battles over slavery and freedom, over ethnicity, over the equality of women and men in ministry.

Often these struggles have mirrored events that were going in the wider world. The voice of God never seems to be limited to the church but resounds throughout all Creation. Currently many denominations are struggling over issues of the sanctity of life and the role of sexuality, a struggle for understanding that has been going on for many years.  The scary thing about prejudice is that we often never recognize it in our self. Harboring prejudice is a faith blocker not a faith builder.  The Canaanite woman went beyond prejudices.

She was a woman.  They were men.  She was a Gentile.  They were Jews.  She had a demon possessed child. They had cast out demons. They were the insiders.  She was the outsider.  She shows that faith can overcome deepest prejudice.  Her story invites us to see life through other peoples eyes, to walk in their shoes... indeed to see all others, those whom we count as friends and those we call outcasts... as people for whom Jesus Christ suffered and died upon the cross for.

This story is a fascinating observation into the nature of truth faith.  We see how a gentile woman, an outsider, has a deeper grasp on the reality of faith than the disciples of Jesus, (who desire for her to be excluded from God's people).  We witness how she uses her wit and understanding to engage Jesus in conversation and how Jesus playfully uses their dialogue to teach a lesson about true faith.

Persistent prayer. She didn't give up! She kept asking. P.U.S.H -  Pray Until Something happens.
Breaking down barriers. Theological barriers, cultural barriers, racial and social barriers. Her understanding of God was that God was bigger than barriers.
Abandoning all prejudice. She recognized that God loved all people. That in God's Kingdom the differences that separate us have no significance. All are welcome!

As a church community entering a time of discernment for the future, take note of this ladies faith. Be persistent in your prayers. Have faith that God can work in unexpected ways, beyond the barriers we self impose. Maintain a big heart that welcomes new insights and new ideas for the future. Don't allow any prejudices to cloud your vision or hinder the work of God's Spirit.

As individuals this passage calls us to be faith focused, barrier overcoming, non-prejudicial witnesses to the love of God that has found us in Jesus Christ. It encourages us to keep asking questions. To be playful as well as prayerful. To engage all our wit, imagination and love in pursuing the things of God's kingdom. May God help us all to have a faith like that of this anonymous Canaanite woman. And to God's name be all glory. Amen

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.