Isaiah 56:1,6-8; Psalm 67 Romans 11:1-2a,29-32; Matthew 15:21-28
The Rev. Drew Brislin
I have mentioned before that one of mine and Allison’s favorite things to do here in Montgomery is to support our local neighborhood theater The Capri. Having run into some of you there, I know we are not alone in our affinity for this activity. A couple of weeks ago we attended the viewing of the indie film The Miracle Club. The movie was set in a suburb of Dublin, Ireland in the 1960’s and centered around four women of which included the powerhouse trio of Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates and Laura Linney and a lesser-known actress named Agnes O’Casey. The basic premise of the movie is that Smith, Bates and O’Casey form a group to perform in a talent show at their local parish to win tickets for a trip to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Lourdes in France, so that O’Casey’s son who does not speak can visit the baths that are said to hold healing powers. As the story unfolds, we learn that Bates character has a lump in her breast, Smith has one leg that is longer than the other and Linney has returned to Dublin because of her mother’s death that leads her to confront a trauma that has plagued her for nearly forty years. Each woman is traveling and seeking to pray for their own miracle.
This sanctuary in Lourdes began in 1858 when it is said that Mary the Holy Mother of our Lord appeared to a fourteen-year-old peasant girl named Bernadette. Bernadette saw a vision of Mary in a grotto while playing with her sister and friends. At the time this site was located outside of the city and was not known to be a pleasant site. It has been said that it was even a dumping ground. Bernadette told her sister what she had experienced and not to tell their parents, but she did anyways. Bernadettes parents instructed her not to go back. Bernadette, however, continued to return despite her parents’ objections and saw the same vision eighteen times. The story continue that Bernadette was given instructions to go and drink and wash from springs that would appear and to tell the priests to build a chapel where people could come and visit the springs.
Humans seem to long for sites of healing and health. These holy sites and sites of healing are not new to us. Ponce de Leon explored Florida looking for the elusive Fountain of Youth, Franklin Roosevelt sought healing in Warm Springs, Georgia or searching for the grail from the Last Supper or visiting the river Jordan seeking some sort of spiritual experience or healing. This morning in our Gospel reading we hear the story of the Canaanite women who comes seeking help for her daughter who is being tormented by a demon. Jesus’ response is rather off putting and makes him sound prejudice. However, I don’t think the reading is really about Jesus though. I think Matthew is challenging us this morning to rethink faith. To rethink what faith is and what we do when we think we do not have enough of it. In speaking to this Canaanite woman in rather derogatory terms we are being invited to place ourselves into the role of the other. The gentile woman acknowledges Jesus as Lord and son of David and calls Jesus out saying, “even dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.” Matthew is inviting us to struggle with God and to struggle with our preconceptions of other people. It is this struggle with God that we call faith. In all our readings this morning there seems to be a common theme of inclusion. Our Gospel almost seems to prelude for us the inclusion of Gentiles into God’s plan. Isaiah and Romans gathers the outcast of Israel and imprisons all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all. The Psalm proclaims, “Let your ways be known upon earth, your saving health among all nations.”
We must be careful though to guard against the thought process of “What if I had only prayed more or prayed harder.” What do we do when we think God has not heard our prayer. What do we do when the result is not what we want? How do we re-engage our faith when Jesus doesn’t respond to us in the way we are expecting? In this movie while all the women sought some sort of miracle cure in the baths, they become rather disenchanted when they discover that the miracles are not as they had expected, hoped for, or prayed for. When I pray “Thy will be done,” do I really mean it? I think so often I have offered up prayers hoping for a certain result, like giving God a honey-do list. When we genuinely seek God in prayer, seek to respond to him, seek his presence then we must be willing to accept that he is working in our lives. Jesus’ love and grace is overflowing and all too often when we spend time in prayerful reflection we can discover where God truly is working miracles. It made me wonder how often God is working in our lives unbeknownst to us as we are not paying attention. What gifts and grace does God bestow on us expecting nothing in return. For the women of The Miracle Club, I believe their miracle was found in relationship with each other and those renewed relationships helped to renew their situations at home. They did not get the miracles they were longing for and instead received a miracle in the restoration of relationship. Throughout our readings this morning, it seems as though God is calling us into relationships with those whom we might not normally interact with on a normal basis. He is calling us into a community that more fully reflects the radical love and inclusion that is the Kingdom of Heaven. As Christians we learn that our faith is exercised in community. The Holy Spirit moves through each of us, and like spiritual mirrors we reflect the love of Christ off of each other. Jesus did not respond to the Canaanite woman the way she wanted and so she pursued him relentlessly. When Jesus doesn’t respond to us in the way we want, what does our pursuit of him look like? Are we willing to accept the miracles he gives and continue to pursue him even when the miracles he gives are not the miracles we expected?