The Rev. Sara Warfield
Scriptures: Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32; Matthew 15:10-28
If you follow me on Facebook, you know I’ve been a little stressed about Paul’s letter to the Romans, especially the passages from chapters nine to eleven that we’ve been hearing the past few Sundays. Paul himself is also pretty stressed in these chapters. He’s deeply worried about the salvation of his fellow Jews who have not accepted that Jesus is the Messiah foretold in the prophets of the Hebrew Bible.
At the beginning of chapter nine, he writes, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh.”
He goes on for the next two chapters anguishing over what might happen to them. Which is exactly what stresses me out. These chapters in particular led some early Christian teachers to conclude that God’s covenant with the Jews was the old way to salvation that had now been superseded by the new way in Jesus, the Christ, which in Greek means Messiah. Martin Luther, as you probably know, is the father of the Protestant Reformation that gave birth to the Church of England and its satellite in the American colonies, which was eventually called The Episcopal Church. This is what he wrote, “Therefore the Jews have lost this promise, no matter how much they boast of their father Abraham. . . . They are no longer the people of God.”
Yeah, that’s bad. But the thing is, whether we’re conscious of it or not, many, if not most, of us here were raised to believe this. In Bible Reflection a few months back, one of our smart, progressive, wonderful, loving reflectors asked, “But doesn’t the New Testament replace the Law?” Now I know there was not a single ounce of bad intention in this question, and I’m sure others in the group were thinking the same thing. Which is another way of saying, “Doesn’t belief in Jesus replace Jewish belief?” And it made me realize, that’s what I believed before I went to seminary, and even my Bible courses there didn’t totally disabuse me of that notion.
But this belief is condescending, at best, and antisemitic, at worst. It assumes that salvation is a who’s in and who’s out situation. It always comes down to that, doesn’t it? It always comes down to either/or. How many wars and persecutions and acts of terror have happened because of someone saying, “nope, my belief is right and yours is wrong”?
Even Jesus defaults to this either/or in today’s gospel. First, he throws the Pharisees under the bus—which is honestly a whole different sermon about antisemitism, but we’ll do that a different day.
But then Jesus says to the Canaanite woman begging him to heal her daughter, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” And she pleads once again, “Lord, help me.” And in what is the cruelest thing Jesus says in the Bible, he replies, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” In that time, by the way, Jews often referred to their neighbors the Canaanites as dogs. It was an ethnic slur. So yeah, the Jews also were not immune to the either/or, the in or out dynamic.
A lot of us here default to this way of thinking, too, but in a very strange way. A lot of us are reluctant to tell others in our lives that we go to church, that we believe in Jesus. Why? Because we’re afraid that people will lump us in with those Christians over there, who we perceive to be judgmental or have “wrong” social or political views. So we choose to be out rather than in—at least in public—as if those are the only two options.
At the end of the day, all of this is a question of salvation. Which people will go to heaven—and who won’t? Which political party will bring our country to prosperity—and which won’t? Which people will experience healing—and who won’t?
But the key words in each of these questions aren’t “who will and who won’t?” Because salvation isn’t about who’s in and who’s out, who’s right and who’s wrong. Salvation is about heaven, prosperity, healing. Salvation is about what brings wholeness to a person or a group of people or a country—maybe in the afterlife, sure. But we are here now. In this broken world now. So why not have salvation now?
That’s what the Canaanite woman opens Jesus’ eyes to. Our poem today says:
I am saying
you can close the door
but I will keep knocking.
You can go silent
but I will keep shouting.
You can tighten the circle
but I will trace a bigger one
around you.
“I will trace a bigger circle around you.” Salvation isn’t limited to who even you think it’s limited to, the woman is telling Jesus. And you know what Jesus says? “You’re right.” And not only that, he tells the woman, “your demand for healing is what faith looks like.” Right then, Jesus recognizes that salvation isn’t about being a Jew or a gentile. It isn’t about being in or out. It’s about a deep need for wholeness, for belonging, for healing. And Jesus gives it to her. He heals her daughter.
I imagine that’s exactly what heaven looks like for the Canaanite woman. Not eternal life. Not endless joy. But healing for someone she loves. Right here. Right now.
Y’all, that’s Good News, That’s the best news. That God has salvation ready for us right now. Even if you feel like you’re on the outside, that wholeness, belonging, healing is coming for you. And if we are the Body of Christ, which is what we remember when we take communion, if we are now God’s hands and feet in the world, then salvation could be coming from anyone, anywhere. It could be coming from you giving wholeness, belonging, or healing to someone else. Our world is bursting with opportunities for salvation.
But I don’t want to just toss aside what salvation means after we die. I know that thought weighs on many hearts in this place. It weighed on Paul. Paul believed Jesus’ return was imminent, and he desperately wanted all his people, the Jews, to know the joy of salvation, and he was anguished that some of them may not. But in today’s verses, he comes to peace. In the verses from parts of this chapter that we didn’t hear today, he quotes from Isaiah and Job:
O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are God’s judgments and how inscrutable God’s ways!
‘For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been God’s counsellor?’
Paul’s peace comes when he decides he doesn’t need to understand how salvation works, he just needs to trust in the mystery of God’s love and faithfulness—a love and faithfulness that extends beyond his wildest imaginings.
I ask, then, has God rejected God’s people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a Jew, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected the people whom God foreknew. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Yes, for those who are Jewish. Yes, for those who are Canaanite, those who may live and believe differently. And yes, for you, right here, right now and also when you pass through that mystery we call death.
Amen.
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