Claimed, gathered and sent

Here are some thoughts on Sunday's gospel reading. What do you think when you read it? This was shared with the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church. Gospel: Matthew 15:21-28 21 Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 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.” 23 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.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26 He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” 27 She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 28 Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed insta

Today's gospel reading is a puzzling one to say the least. There are as many opinions about the exchange between Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman as there are scholars. This is the message I preached today at Bethel in Portville, NY.             In today’s gospel, Jesus has travelled to Tyre, a distinctly non-Jewish city on the coast of the Mediterranean, knowing he would meet Gentiles, or non-Jews. Tyre had an extensive relationship with its Jewish neighbors. It was a rich city, which depended upon the agricultural production of outlying areas like northern Palestine. Galilee fed Tyre. So what is a rural Jew like Jesus doing in a place like Tyre? Jesus always seems to be hanging out with the wrong people—sinners, outcasts, Gentiles—all the people the religious elite did not approve of. The woman in the first story, being a Syrophoenician from the region of Tyre may well have been an urban member of the ruling class with interests directly opposed to those of rural Jews.