Grace and peace from God our Father in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
You know the Bible makes some incredible promises in regard to prayer.
Here's just one of them. Jesus says, if you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
I find the reality of prayer to be a bit different.
Not quite the straight line between asking and receiving.
It seems to me some prayers go unanswered or even rejected.
It's not quite as easy as simply asking in his name and you get it.
I find that prayer is less like placing an order at a restaurant and having your meal delivered
and more like Pastor Bob Hiller describes. He says prayer is more like a grueling wrestling match
in which the outcome is in doubt. But this morning we have the story of a Canaanite woman
who overcomes the common challenges we face in prayer.
And she does so by clinging to a promise that for us is 4,000 years old.
The easiest explanation to my struggles in prayer and not always getting the answer that I want
is simply that I'm unworthy.
I read Psalm 15, which says, who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord,
who may enter your presence on your holy hill?
In other words, who is worthy to present their prayers to you?
The psalmist answers, those who lead blameless lives and do what is right,
speaking the truth from sincere hearts. Those who refuse to gossip or harm their neighbors
or speak evil of their friends, those who keep their promises even when it hurts.
Such people will stand firm forever. Uh-oh.
I read that list and I think I'm not sure I measure up.
It makes sense, perhaps, why God may answer the prayers of others and not mine.
I don't qualify.
The Canaanite woman certainly didn't qualify.
She was a Gentile, outside the chosen people of God,
considered unclean by the Jews, but worse than a Gentile.
She was a Canaanite.
A Canaanite, the people who lived in the promised land before Joshua
and Israel invaded and took over the land.
The Canaanites were declared by God to be driven out of the land.
And finally, she was a woman.
It would be very inappropriate in that culture for a woman to approach and initiate with a rabbi.
The woman was certainly not worthy.
And yet she still comes.
The Canaanite comes and says, Lord, son of David, have mercy on me.
She recognizes it's not she who is worthy that grants her standing.
It's the Lord who is the son of David, the Messiah, the one sent by God who welcomes her.
It's a good reminder we don't pray because of who we are or our own worthiness.
We pray because Jesus commands us to pray and he promises to answer.
The writer of Hebrews reminds us that because Jesus
is our high priest who has passed through the heavens and sits at the right hand of God,
we can with confidence draw near the throne of grace,
that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
We don't come because of our worthiness.
We come because he has commanded and promised.
And so the Canaanite woman approaches Jesus and loudly cries out,
have mercy on me, Lord, son of David.
My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.
How will Jesus respond to this bold faith of a mother pleading for the life of her daughter?
But he did not answer her a word.
Silence.
He didn't respond.
We have a phrase for this in regard to prayer.
It feels like my prayers are bouncing off the ceiling.
You ever felt that?
The prayers go up, but there is the sense that they never even escape the room that I'm in
and certainly never approach the throne room of God.
Prayer, at that point, can feel powerless, hopeless, empty.
Wouldn't it be nice if you at least got an immediate message back saying,
hey, we got your request.
It's going to be a minute, but just hang in there.
That would be helpful.
But sometimes we get silence, just silence.
But the silence doesn't silence the Canaanite woman.
She keeps crying out, so much so that the disciples are irritated with her.
And so the disciples intercede on her behalf with Jesus.
The disciples came and begged him, saying, send her away, for she is crying out after us.
Make no mistake, their concern is not for the Canaanite woman.
It's for themselves to get relief from her loud crying.
Just like the crowd in the wilderness that lacked food,
the disciples again tell Jesus, get rid of this problem.
At this time, they seem to be saying, based on how Jesus responds to their request,
give her what she wants so she can go away and quit bothering us.
Jesus responds to the disciples' request,
I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
This is consistent with what Jesus has told the disciples five chapters earlier
when he sent them out on a mission.
He told them, you are to only go to the lost sheep of Israel, not outside of Israel.
Consider those words from the point of view of the Canaanite woman.
Jesus still has not addressed her directly, but indirectly she
hears as he gives a word to the disciples that, yes, indeed, Jesus is on a mission,
but she's not included.
That's tough.
You see God respond to others.
You see others celebrate in the same way that Jesus did.
You see God respond to others.
You see others celebrate in answer to prayer.
It seems others have a direct line to God, but not you,
at least not on the one thing that matters most to you.
That's painful.
How does this woman respond to the pain of, first, God's silence and, second, his rejection?
She keeps coming.
We're told she came and knelt before him saying, Lord, help me.
The second time she's called him Lord.
And this time she gets an answer and an insult.
Jesus says it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.
There have been many attempts to lessen the sting of Jesus's words
but there's no getting around it.
In that culture, a dog was not a cuddly, family, beloved pet.
A dog was typically a wild scavenger.
Clearly, in the Jewish culture, a dog was a term the Jews used of Gentiles.
It was a term of rejection, a term of disgust, a term of declaration,
a term of declaration of unworthiness.
Jesus could have just told her, no, I'm not going to heal you today.
But she gets worse than a no.
She gets an insult.
It sounds cruel.
You know, in our day, we've become a fairly prideful, thin-skinned people.
If someone disagrees with you or says they have a different perspective,
don't be surprised if the response is to say you're being hateful.
Which makes the Kenyanite woman's response all the more remarkable.
She doesn't go off in a huff.
How dare you speak to me this way?
She doesn't respond in kind with whatever the Gentile equivalent would be to curse a Jew.
She takes it.
She doesn't disagree.
She says, yes, Lord.
She receives his words, even though they seem harsh.
And then, and then she holds him to his words.
Listen to her faith-filled response.
She says, yes, Lord.
Yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table.
You know, in our house, Bailey is trained that the food on the table is not for her.
During her dinnertime, she goes and lays on her mat,
and she's learned not to expect anything from our table until the grandchildren come over.
She still goes and lays on her mat, and she's as patient as a dog can be.
But once dinner is over, she knows there's a couple chairs,
that there's going to be some scraps under that table.
It's as if the Kenyanite woman understands this.
It's as if she's saying, yes, Lord, you call me a dog.
I know who you are, though.
You're the Lord.
You're the son of David.
You're the Messiah, the one sent by God to Israel.
I understand not sent to the Canaanites.
But even so, the Messiah has come, and he comes with an abundance of bread.
We've heard the story of 5,000 men and women and children in the wilderness fed on five loaves.
And two fish.
And not only that, God's people were fully fed.
And the disciples collected 12 baskets of leftovers.
Yes, indeed, the Messiah has come for Israel, and yet he comes with an abundance of bread.
So much so, perhaps, there's plenty for those outside of Israel.
Martin Luther, commenting on this text, says, thus, she catches Christ in his own words,
and he is happy to be caught.
Happy to be caught, because this has been the plan from the beginning.
The Lord promised Abraham, and he promised Isaac, and he promised Jacob,
and he promised the descendants to follow.
The descendants to follow.
That he would bless them, that he would make their name great,
so that they would be a blessing to all the families of the earth.
Yes, God chose Israel as his chosen people, his instrument,
to make his name known to the nations.
That was always the plan.
We heard it in the Old Testament reading from Isaiah 56,
where God says, for my house should be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
The Lord God, who gathers the outcast of Israel, declares, I will gather yet others.
The Messiah is sent first to Israel, but the redemption of Israel will be the salvation of the
world, including Canaanites, including you, including me.
So why the harshness of Jesus's language?
Why the words that land as cruel to this desperate mother trying to save her daughter?
I think, once again, Jesus is not testing the faith of the Canaanite woman,
he's testing the faith of the disciples.
Jesus's words represent both what they have been taught,
hey, right now we're sent to Israel only, Israel comes first,
but his words about the dog not being worthy of the scraps,
that represents the common view of the disciples and all Jews of that day.
Jesus puts those words on the table and tells the disciples, pay attention,
you want her to go away, you don't see her as a part of our mission,
you don't see her as a part of God's blessing, I understand you view her as a dog,
I understand you view her as a dog, but listen,
Jesus shares his delight at being held to his words, he says, oh woman, great is your faith,
let it be done to you as you desire, and her daughter was healed instantly.
For the disciples, it was another revelation that, yes indeed,
God has a plan and that plan centers on Israel, but it doesn't end with Israel,
Israel is to be a blessing to the nations, and though Israel has failed in that calling,
the one true Israelite, the Messiah, has come, and through this one Messiah,
the blessing will be granted to all the nations.
He tells the Canaanite woman, great is your faith, this follows on the heels of Peter walking
on the water and yet stumbling and falling and Jesus saving and telling Peter, you have little
faith, here the disciple, the Jew, the chosen of Israel has been called a little faith and yet
here the Canaanite is recognized for her great faith. Jesus delights in the prayers of his people,
it's true, at times in God's wisdom that we don't fully comprehend,
we hear silence, perhaps even a no that seems cruel, Jesus has been there,
he's cried out from the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
He knows that silence, he knows that cruel no in the moment,
but he knows that God's word remains true, and so like the Canaanite woman he calls us to cling to
his word, when Jesus says ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will
be opened to you. Chad Bird describes this, he says this is exactly what the psalmists do when they
lament, they call on God to be faithful to his promises, reminding him, not because he's forgotten
but because this is just how biblical prayer works, reminding him of what he has said.
Faith clings to the word of Christ, faith clings to Christ even in the face of his apparent no,
faith clings to the forgiveness of Christ even when we experience guilt and condemnation,
faith clings to the gospel in the presence of the law's accusations, faith clings to his word when
we come to this table and we receive just a crumb of bread, just a sip of wine, and the devil says
what can these little things do? We cling to Christ's word and we say Jesus you said, you said
you deliver forgiveness through these gifts, you said you would strengthen my faith, now Jesus
I'm holding you to your word, strengthen my faith. When we intercede for those we love,
particularly for those who have drifted far from the church, we say Jesus you said you called them
by their name in their baptism, you granted them forgiveness, you gave them your spirit,
now I beg you awaken their faith. You said you gave them faith, now awaken that faith that they
might walk and live in that faith. And we pray and we pray and we pray and we trust that behind
the silence, behind the apparent no, there is our Savior interceding for us and with us with a yes.
Luther says let us therefore never doubt that we have a yes in heaven,
embedded in the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ and that in his time it will be revealed.
Jesus doesn't merely toss this Canaanite woman a crumb, he pulls out a chair,
he welcomes her to his table as a daughter of his kingdom, feeding her not the scraps
but a full meal of grace, healing, and restoration.
That's what God's come to do, he delights to bless you in every way that is a true blessing.
And his yes to your personal prayer isn't just a yes to personal prayer,
it's a yes to a cosmic promise made 4,000 years ago that God would send one to bless Israel,
but not just Israel, to bless the nations. That promise is still being kept today,
right here in our presence as he continues to meet with us, he continues to give his gifts,
he continues to bless for our blessing and for the blessing of those both far and near
that they too would hear of Jesus the Messiah. We pray.
Father, we give you thanks for the picture of such great faith.
Father, would you give us faith through the preaching of your word, through the singing
of your word, through the reception of your body and blood, Lord, will you have promised
to deliver your gifts to us, would you give us the great faith of the Canaanite woman
that we might trust you, that we might trust you both for eternal life and for life today.
This afternoon, whatever challenges, whatever trials await us, that we would not waver,
that we would not turn from you, that we would not turn from our idols,
but Lord, we would hold you to your word with the full assurance that you delight
to be held to your word. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. I invite you to please rise.