I love the Bible, but…
Never thought you’d hear your pastor say that, eh? I love the Bible, but some passages are difficult. I’m not talking about vocabulary. I’m not even talking about the teaching. I’m talking about certain verses that I understand clearly. I just don’t like what they say.
Take today’s reading. Is it just me, or does Jesus seem like a jerk? This lady comes to him for help, and he calls her a dog. First he ignores her. Then he says, “I didn’t come for you people. I came only for the lost sheep of Israel.” This is not the savior I signed up for.
It is, however, a perfect fit for his times. Rabbis of his day did not associate with foreigners, and especially not women. If you dig through some older Jewish Orthodox prayer books, you can still find the prayer, “Thank you lord, that you did not make me a non-Jew, that you did not make me a slave, that you did not make me a woman.” Don’t grumble at me. I didn’t write it!
That’s the culture Jesus lived in. When his enemies wanted to challenge him, they brought him a woman caught in adultery. Last time I checked it takes two, but the Pharisees only brought the woman. When his disciples found Jesus talking with the Samaritan woman at the well, they didn’t say, “Why are you talking to a Samaritan?” They said, “Why are you talking with that woman?” So, if Jesus is being sexist or racist, he’s only acting just like a normal first century rabbi.
When a Roman soldier asked Jesus to heal his son, Jesus talked to him, offered to come to his house, and publicly applauded the man’s faith. But when this woman asks for the same thing, he gives her a hard time. It doesn’t make sense! Or maybe it does, and I just don’t like it.
Our other text today offers a possible solution. How many of you have seen the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat? Exactly, you know the story. This is right at the end, when Joseph finally meets his brothers, only now they’re starving and he’s the prince of Egypt.
Joseph says, “Don’t be distressed or angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you… So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God.” Betrayed, beaten, sold as a slave, falsely accused, thrown in jail, and now he says, “It was not you who sent me here, but God.”
You heard me tell the kids that this story is about you controlling you. You can’t control what happens, but you can control how you react. That’s true. It’s powerful advice, which is why you’ll hear it from self-help gurus and motivational speakers. If that’s all you hear today, it will do you good. But there’s more.
Is Joseph really the hero of the story? Yeah, he’s clearly the protagonist who succeeds against all odds. But let’s reframe the question. Does Joseph secure his own victory? No. The unseen hand of God guides the entire story, planting the seed of victory in the very first chapter, when he gives Joseph prophetic dreams and the ability to interpret. It was the dreams that catapulted Joseph from the prison floor to the throne room.
This is going to sound strange, but I think it’s true. Joseph doesn’t win. He repeatedly avoids defeat. This story could have ended horribly at any time if Joseph had just given up. All he had to do was quit working so hard, quit trying to be good, quit dreaming, or quit living. The whole world was against him. It would have been so easy to quit. Defeat was always completely within his reach. He just didn’t accept it. How did he do it?
How did the martyrs hold on to their faith? How did the saints of old succeed when so many others failed? It’s about identity. If you haven’t heard of Henri Nouwen, look him up. He’s an amazing writer, one of the greats of our time. He has this to say about identity:
“Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection…When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, “Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody.” … [My dark side says,] I am no good… I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned. Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the “Beloved.” Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.”
Brennan Manning says: “Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.” As a pastor it is tempting to me, to try to convince to you center your identity in the church. Obviously, there’s some self-serving going on there. But it’s a strong temptation specifically because it does you good too. It does us all good.
Imagine we’re all over in London right now, and there are rioters running through our neighborhoods stealing what’s valuable and burning what’s not. Who do you think is going to do better? The person who is out there alone, or the one whose identity is grounded in a committed group?
We don’t have to wonder. We already know. London’s Green Street is a high-end shopping district. Over 200 retail showrooms including jewelry stores. Sounds like a prime target, right? Nope. Because hundreds of Asians, the friends and family of local shop owners, stood together and sent those looters running. On Kingsland High Street, it was the Turkish community standing strong. You might have heard about the three men that got run down by a car in Birmingham? Their neighbors called them heroes for defending their neighborhood. They were Pakistani.
Are you sensing a pattern here? Identity beats chaos. Random anger can cause a lot of damage, but tight-knit community pulls people through. It’s the moral of every great sports movie. Random individuals become a team. They work through their hang-ups, learn to rely on each other, and succeed against all odds. Together, we are building something to survive whatever may come.
As beautiful as that is, it is not the goal. Remember, “Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.” Which may be the solution to our very first problem. Is it possible that this woman knows exactly who Jesus is? Is it possible that her identity is secure enough that there is even room for laughter? She asks for help, and he pretends to be just like any other rabbi. But she doesn’t quit. His disciples try to send her away, but she doesn’t quit. Jesus says “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” And she contradicts him! “Yes it is! Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
Jesus just got done teaching “his people” about real faith that comes from the heart, and his holy people rejected his teaching. Well, if the kids are too stuck up to eat the meal, what do you do? Give it to the dogs! She takes the racial slur and turns it into a badge of honor because her identity is not grounded in what anyone else thinks. Her value is not lessened by what anyone else says. She can face what comes because while everyone else was arguing, she was listening.
So when the rabbi ignores her, she is brave to approach. When the disciples shoo her away, she is undaunted. When he spouts the usual tripe about Jews and Gentiles, she calls him on it, because her identity is rooted in the radical, relentless love of God. And at that moment, her daughter was healed.
First preached at First Congregational Church of Saugatuck on August 14, 2011.
Texts: Matthew 15:10-28
You Control You: Identity and Victory is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Link to revsmilez.com.
