We have certainly had our fill of stories about bread this summer. Back in June, we heard the gospel about Jesus feeding the 5000. Then in July and August, we had several lessons about how Jesus is the bread of life, how Jesus is living bread, how the bread that Jesus gives for the life of the world is his flesh, and about how Jesus is the bread that came down from heaven. So today, I come back from vacation and what's the Gospel lesson about? BREAD! Actually, it's about crumbs of bread, the crumbs that fall from the table of the "chosen people."
Of course, the Jews are God's chosen people, aren't they? Didn't God say to them, "you will be my people, and I will be your God?" The Jews are the people of the Old Testament, whom God freed from bondage in Egypt. They are the people who wandered the desert for forty years before arriving at the Promised Land. They are the people who became a great nation under King David, and Solomon. But they are also the people were were conquered by the Assyrian Empire, and then again, later by the Babylonians. They were the people who were sent into exile, forced to live far away from their homes and their loved ones. And yet, time and again, God demonstrates his love for them by protecting them, and sending them all kinds of prophets, and finally, sending them Jesus, himself. Jesus was sent to the Jews, to proclaim the kingdom of God.
Now, I have to admit that there's something about that that sits the wrong way with me, not that I have anything to say about who God chooses and who he doesn't choose. But, speaking as someone who is not a Jew, as someone who is a Gentile, there's something that just doesn't seem fair about the notion that God plays favorites. After all, aren't we all God's children? Can't we all share in the kingdom of God? Don't we all deserve the same blessings from God that anyone else gets?
Well, no.
Today's Gospel lesson is about what happens when we don't get what we deserve. Today's Gospel is about what happened when Jesus meets a woman, who is not a Jew; a gentile woman with a sick daughter. Jesus has traveled to Tyre, a city in what is now Lebanon, a gentile city. We don't know why he's gone there – perhaps it's to get a little rest and relaxation after the grueling schedule he's been keeping. But while he's there, a woman, who had heard about his ministry, approaches Jesus, bows down at his feet, and begs him to cast out a demon from her little girl. And Jesus looks at her and says in not too subtle language, that she is not worthy.
"Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs."
Here is Jesus, telling a woman that his blessing, his healing, needs to be saved for the children of Israel. Now in and of itself, this would not be too remarkable. After all, Jesus had a mission to proclaim the kingdom of God to the Jews. And as anyone knows, when you have an important mission, and when you have just a short amount of time, you don't want to waste anytime on "side issues." But what was worse was the way he declined the woman, by suggesting that she was no more worthy than a dog, who is trying to take food out of the mouth of a child.
These are hard words. Anyway we look at them, this is a difficult passage of scripture. Our hearts go out to the woman; she's the victim here. She's the one who's struggling to care for her child, who's approaching a holy man without the benefit of a husband or father to help her, who's risking becoming an outcast by speaking to a man who is not a relative. We are outraged at his response to her. Doesn't she deserve the same blessings from God that the chosen people get?
Again, no. God is free to bless whomever God wants, and the woman knows this. So the woman doesn't respond with outrage. She can't do anything about the fact that she is not a Jew, that she is not one of God's chosen. But she also knows something that perhaps Jesus has forgotten. "Surely," she says, "this is true. But even the dogs get to eat a few crumbs. Surely, even someone who is as unworthy as I am, should be able to get even the tiniest part of your blessing."
The woman realizes that God's economy doesn't depend on supply and demand; it depends on abundance. She knows that within Jesus, who fed 5000 people with a few loaves of bread and two fish, there is more than enough power and grace and blessing being poured out that she just needs to get a crumb for her modest needs. She sees, perhaps before even Jesus does, that his mission is to heal the whole world, and not just a select few chosen ones. The Gentile woman points out that there's plenty of food for everyone. That even after Jesus heals children of Israel, even after they are brought fully into the kingdom of God, there is plenty of room for the rest of us – for the outcasts, for the homeless, for the poor, for the sick, for all of us sinners who are willing to turn their lives around and live with God. And Jesus realizes she's right, that she's getting the same benefit by sitting under the table as everyone else. And so he invites her to the table, too.
In the Rite I liturgy for Holy Eucharist, one of the prayers that we say is called the Prayer of Humble Access. It is a prayer that always reminds me of this woman, because it goes like this:
We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy. Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.
God's economy is not based on who is chosen or who is worthy, because none of us is worthy. God's economy is not based on supply and demand, where the more people want something, the more costly it is. God's economy is based on abundance, on "more than enough for everyone." The table is open to all who are baptized members of Christ's body. It is open to all who, like the woman, is willing to ask for even a crumb of God's grace.
In just a few minutes, we will be baptizing Caroline Joy Neal to be the newest member of the body of Christ. She will be able then to take her seat at the table Christ himself has set for us. Like each and every one of us, she will never be worthy of the gift she receives. Yet she will still be fed out of the love and abundance God has for us all.
Thanks be to God.
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