Love is not blind to flaws, but kindles tender mercies around those flaws.
Love puts its focus on what we are, rather than what we are not.
Love is unconditional.
It gives and gives…and, then it gives some more.
To make rules for love would be to dilute it.
Love is love, it is not dependent on the ‘if/and/or/but” of its performance.
Loving words have the power to make the plain beautiful, the poor rich, and bring new life and hope to those who despair.
These are the words of Fay Angus, author of the book, Heartstrings. This understanding of love seems to describe what I gleaned from the lessons and Psalm for today, God’s irrevocable love for us. The understanding I have of God’s love is that His mercy and compassion reaches beyond ourselves, our families, our communities, our faith, our culture, our race, our socio-economic situation, our prejudices, and our world view. Our lessons seem to also call us to reach out beyond what or who we are, or, what or who we know, allowing nothing to separate us from one another or our Lord.
Of course, we have a prescription for how we are to live our lives so that we might be able to live as God has called us to live. As is written in Isaiah, we are called to “Maintain justice and do what is right….” Isaiah 56:1 Our Psalm reminds us to praise God, what is also required to receive God’s mercy and blessing. And, St. Paul shares his perspective from someone who was a Christ hater who became a faithful believer in God’s love and gift of his precious Son. He expresses that God’s love is constant, that when we fall away from God, we are not rejected, but are able to receive mercy, as His love is unconditional.
The Gospel story from Matthew of the Canaanite woman really spells out what God’s ever-present love is like for us, we who are filled with smallness of vision, and who erect barriers to protect ourselves from the larger world, a different, sometimes seemingly hostile world.
As we step back to the time of Christ, we see a world firmly divided between Jews and Gentiles, a narrow worldview that was solidly in place, even for Jesus. The Canaanites, who were Gentiles, were considered by the Israelites to be a sinful race, exemplifying what was wicked and godless. So, for a Canaanite woman to have the audacity to speak out to Jesus , a Jew, regarding healing her daughter was unheard of and totally unacceptable. Yet, it was apparent that Jesus’ reputation for reaching out beyond the barriers of race, culture, socio-economic conditions, or faith traditions for healing ministry preceded him in the region. She was persistent while, at first, Jesus ignored her telling her, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” Meaning that his own nation who worshipped and praised God had first claim on the blessings God brings, not those who were considered unclean, wicked, and godless, as she was considered.
This brave woman continued to shout to him, even calling Jesus “Son of David.” She then admitted that Jesus’ own nation certainly has first claim on God’s love, however, she also noted that through one’s belief in Christ and his healing Grace, even an impure foreigner may claim a few “crumbs” of the blessings the Covenant people receive. And, she was right!
Jesus, at this moment, stepped beyond the small world view, crossed the barrier of exclusive values and prejudices to express Divine Compassion to ALL who suffer, Canaanite or not. He exclaimed, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done as you wish.”
Jesus reached out beyond the previously defined community into another culture, another faith tradition, another gender, another world. He showed us that God had made a commitment to live with us, to share our sorrows, fears, disappointments, joys, frustrations – no matter who we are, what color our skin, or where we dwell. We are asked, only, that in return we believe, with our hearts and minds, in God’s irrevocable love, in our God who asks nothing of us except we love Him in return.
There are many examples today of how we have begun to reach through or overcome the many barriers we have erected through the years to share our love, to share the “tender mercies… by giving, and giving, and giving some more,” as Fay Angus wrote. I just saw the movie, “The Help,” a story that takes us back to a time of terrible racial prejudice. I felt pained, embarrassed, sad, shamed, and guilty as I remembered the days of segregation, the time when many, many barriers were erected to keep our worlds separated. We, by God’s Grace, have since learned this barrier between us was so wrong, so un-just and un-merciful, and have worked at overcoming those walls of separation, for the most part.
With God’s help, we will be able to follow the example that Christ taught us in today’s lesson. Through gratefulness and praise of God, doing what is “right,” and sharing Christ’s example of justice, we shall be able to reach out beyond our own narrow vision in love, compassion, and mercy to those from whom we have been separated. Just as Christ reached out to the Canaanite woman, I encourage each of us to reach beyond our walls into the world of hope in God’s irrevocable and inclusive love.
It is life saving. Amen.
The Rev. Carol Sims
Church of the Epiphany, Norfolk VA
Sunday, August 14th, 2011
Pentecost IX, 2011
Isaiah 56:1,6-8; Psalm 67; Romans
11:1-2,29-32; Matthew 15:21-28
