August 16, 2026 - Peter Wilson, Seminarian

All right.

Um so it's very interesting that we're going to be talking about the gospel passage.

And uh as I was talking with Mother Erica about this about a week ago, we said, Oh, it's so interesting how why does a lectionary have this parenthetical portion at the beginning before?

And is it okay if I preach on that parenthetical portion?

And uh we'll make sure that you know I refer to that section because the Canaanite woman story is actually only the second half of the reading.

Um so apologies to all who didn't get a chance to read their lectionary reading before coming, but I'm referring actually to a lot of the stuff we didn't get to read uh that came prior to that.

Um, in fact, I'll I'll take a moment to read some of this to you, um and uh it'll give us a little bit of a setup here.

All right.

Uh I'm gonna read a few passages here.

At the beginning of Matthew 15, the Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, Why do your disciples break the traditions of the elders?

For they do not wash their hands before you eat.

And he answered, Why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your traditions?

You honor your father and your mother, and whoever speaks evil of his father's mother must surely die.

But you say, Whoever tells his father or mother, you may have supported me, you may have given me what was from God.

So, for the sake of your tradition, you nullify the word of God.

You hypocrites.

Rightly Isaiah prophesied of you, and he said, This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

In vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts, as if they were doctrines from God.

And the crowds came to him and said, Listen and understand.

He said, It is not what goes into the mouth of the defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth of defiles.

And the disciples said, The Pharisees were offended at what they said, at what you said.

I'm going to skip a little here.

And Jesus said, Do you not see that whatever goes in the mouth enters the stomach and comes out into a sewer?

But whatever comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and that is what defiles.

For out of the heart comes evil intentions, murder, adultery, immorality, theft, false witnesses, slander.

These are what defile a person.

But to eat what is unwashed with unwashed hands does not defile.

So in that portion, which again, if you guys go back and take a look at your lectionaries, you'll find that's a portion of it.

Um I would uh I would encourage you to do that because it really does set up the story of the Canaanite woman.

Let me explain a little bit more of that as we move on.

Um, I enjoy sharing these sort of things.

Biblical studies is my jam.

Uh and and from an academic perspective, I started this journey thinking I was going to be an academic about biblical studies.

God had other plans, which he had shared with me for many years and I had tried to ignore.

But given the bent that I have, I get to have wonderful conversations with my wife.

At least I think they're wonderful.

She may disagree.

Um, I have a very intelligent wife.

I need to brag on her.

Dr.

Wilson is just an amazing person, which is really good that we can have great conversations because that whole death to you part vow we made would be very, very boring as we waited the time out if we couldn't talk.

But we will have discussions about things, especially when it becomes to church practices, etc.

Like, why do some people practice this ritual and some people do not?

Why are some rites viewed by some people as more sacred than others?

And whether God really cares about the religious ritual that we hold so dear anyway.

Spoiler, no, he doesn't actually, uh, which is what my wife will correctly point out.

For the record, I still believe that if we put the horse and the cart in the right order, we will find that lessons behind the symbols we use, or in any other religion, express deeper truths in an artistic way.

But we need to have a clear recognition that we are not just following the rules about these rituals just for the rules' sake.

We are using the symbols, the rituals, the rules to teach deeper principles.

We who practice high church especially need to remember this.

So, with that in our minds, let's go back to the gospel passage that I read a portion of here.

And in our reading, we find that this popular sect called the Pharisees is offended at Jesus because he taught that ritual purity is not as important as purity of heart.

In fact, that's not all Jesus said.

Alright?

In one of those verses, he says, The people honors me with their lips, their heart is far from me, in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.

It's understandable the Pharisees might be upset with Jesus.

He basically told them the traditions of their elders were worthless in worship of God.

He was not only insulting them, he was insulting their whole religious philosophy.

If I can explain the religious philosophy of the Pharisees, it was born out of the religious trauma that they had experienced during the exile centuries before.

And the elders believed the only way to prevent another exile was if they extended the ritual purity laws originally given just to the priests, to all of Israel, to all the Jewish people.

See, if God's protection relied on the priests keeping the temple cult going, how much more could it be if the nation remained pure and every person kept God happy by following the rules?

Pretty logical, right?

Of course, they also had this other tradition that built upon it to make sure that no one accidentally broke the rules and became ritually impure, they would have several extra rules added to those prescribed in the book of Moses.

This ensured that there was no way the instruction of the Torah could be broken, and God couldn't possibly get upset and exile the people all again because they performed some Canaanite ritual.

This philosophy became known as placing a hedge around the Torah.

In this case, Jesus is referencing this when we read in the passage right before our lectionary reading today.

The Pharisees cite traditions about washing hands ritually before eating food.

That's because there was a rule given about not eating unclean things.

So the elders created an additional rule that was designed to protect from anyone ever coming close to eating an unclean thing.

And that was a ritual, washing of the hands before you eat anything or touch any food.

And that will, of course, keep it ritually pure.

But unfortunately, the Pharisees had become so focused on keeping the rules about purity that they had completely lost sight of the fact that the fool rules that God gave weren't unto themselves, not an end to themselves, but were meant to teach us something more.

Rule keeping for rule keeping sake is not the way of the Torah.

But the Pharisees had fallen into that trap.

And Jesus in our passage was hitting the Pharisees' fixation on human-made rituals and rules, reminding them that God wanted to use the rules in the Torah to teach principles, not command blind obedience to those rules for their own sake.

And Jesus said to them, Why are you teaching rules that were made by men as though they are principles that God wants to teach?

This distinction between a rule in a principle, and some translations we read it precept or doctrine, other word doctrine, doctrine comes from the same root as doctor, which is the Latin word for teacher, in case you're wondering.

A doctrine is meant to teach, not to be an end to itself.

And that difference between these rules, these principles we are being taught, is really what lies at the center of Jesus' dispute with the Pharisees that we see here.

You see, rules are precepts that are commanded by an authority, but principles come out of a heart that knows to do things that it's taught.

Rules restrict us, sometimes protect us, of course, from bad things.

But principles are the heart's way of knowing how to do good things.

Rules can fall apart and be broken when complexities arise that don't fit the prescribed rules.

But principles that have been taught to us become our heart's guide through any circumstance.

Chaos, anarchy.

But I'm not saying rules that are imposed on us, or even that we impose upon ourselves, are necessarily bad in themselves.

I need to make rules about my dietary intake so I stay healthy.

I don't always follow them, as you might be able to tell.

But we need to recognize that rules are not the point.

Rules are not an end to themselves.

Rules are tools.

Rules are tools to teach us principles, to help us develop habits and shape our minds as we develop into people with hearts conditioned to produce good, merciful, and loving lives.

Once we have the true principles engraved upon our hearts, the rules become almost inconsequential.

Really?

If the rules that helped teach us are no longer the necessary, it's okay to re-examine them or even let them go.

That is why Jesus confronts the Pharisees on this.

They're only thinking of the rules as ultimate and not learning the principles that God wants to teach.

In this case, Jesus says it's not about the ritual cleansing before you eat, it's about learning the value of a clean heart from God.

And on examination, most teaching in the Torah about ritual purity is not an end to itself, following the rule for its sake, but it's meant to instruct us on principles of setting appropriate boundaries for ourselves and for others, or practicing self-discipline so we can stand in the face of temptation, or recognizing that being part of the kingdom mission requires that we lacked out of a heart of pure love.

These are principles being taught by these purity rituals.

But Pharisees, in this case, had lost the point of the rules as a means to instruct toward a goal and had started making rules the goal themselves.

Jesus even goes so far as to say it's time to get rid of the rules around food for good, since the people are missing the point.

Do you see that whatever goes in the mouth enters the stomach and goes out through the sewer?

But it's not what goes into the mouth, but proceeds out of the mouth, out of the heart, which is what defiles.

In Mark's version of this gospel, that's where Mark says, by this Jesus made all foods clean.

In case you're wondering why we don't keep kosher.

Now, this is not to bash the Pharisees.

All right?

We should not be so naive to think that a fixation with rules and the neglect of heart-changing principles doesn't find its way into all religious traditions, including our church.

Nor should we be so arrogant to think that we personally could never be tempted to be taken in by this philosophy of making rules an end to themselves.

I mean, perhaps you know enough about our church history to know about people who are killed over what vestments to wear and which way to face when they're standing at the altar.

We can find that we sometimes are no different from the Pharisees that Jesus confronts.

In fact, I'd like to give a little biblical studies advice.

This is some biblical literacy 101.

If you want to learn from the scriptures, especially the gospels, always read yourself as the people being confronted in the story.

In this story, we're not Jesus.

We're the Pharisees.

That is really the best way to learn from the Gospels.

And all of Scripture, really.

God, what do you want to teach me about what I can change and how I can grow?

I'll give you another good tip on reading Matthew, and this is going to bring us back around to what Deacon Michael read.

Matthew does this great thing about giving a teaching of Jesus and then giving a miracle story right afterward that shows us something.

In this case, the healing of the Canaanite woman's daughter.

For right after Jesus tells the Pharisees off about their misguided love of rules and ritual purity and missing the point, he meets a woman who is ritually impure, a foreigner, a Canaanite.

Interesting that Matthew uses that word Canaanite.

That ethnic label was not really common in the time of Jesus.

By the time of the Roman era when Jesus lived, the inhabitants of Palestine were usually known by other names: Phoenicians, Sidonian, Syrian, etc.

And the word Canaanite had long fallen out of use.

But Matthew chooses this ancient term to deliberately call back to the way the Torah speaks about ritual purity in the face of Israel's neighbors, the Canaanites.

The Canaanite was the term used back then in the Torah to distinguish anyone who wasn't Israel, not the chosen ones, the ones who were not ritually pure, the ones who were outside.

Matthew wants us to see this woman in the way most religious people of the day would see her.

Ritually impure.

Against the rules.

When this ritually impure, irreligious, against the rules, Canaanite comes to Jesus to beg for mercy for her daughter.

The rule followers would know exactly what Jesus should say, right?

And the disciples say, Stay away, don't help her.

She's not ritually fit.

She's the embodiment of the things we don't touch or eat or like.

Those are the rules.

Now, first Jesus answered her in the way the Pharisees would.

He says, I'm here for Israel.

Aren't you considered a dog compared to his ritually pure people?

Now, there are some people who would read Jesus' words to conclude he was being unkind or even cruel.

I've heard lessons on, oh, Jesus was really tired at the time, so he snapped back and he couldn't control himself.

No, I really think it's very clear from the rest of the context, Jesus was doing this on purpose for the people around.

He was not ignoring her, please.

He was saying these things for his disciples' benefits.

The disciples who said, send her away.

He said, Oh, so I should follow the rules about staying away from Canaanites and show disdain for this woman?

Is that what you want me to do?

But then she responds, with such a level of humility and faith, how could even the most hardened rule follower deny her petition for mercy?

The miracle Jesus performs for her is out of a heart that is filled with pure love and even admiration for this person that the rules would say is not worthy of his time.

So he performs a miracle.

Even if he had to work around some of the rules.

So having heard Jesus' teaching and seen this example, let's bring it to heart.

Are we ever so focused on rules that we neglect to try and live out the principles they were intended to teach us?

Do we ever neglect to show love, mercy, kindness, the purity of our own heart toward another, because we have some rule somewhere that keeps us away from those people who need our love, our mercy, our kindness?

Or do we understand that rules are only meant to teach us the principle that shapes our heart to one that will love those very people?

Love for our neighbor, my friends, for those in need, for those requiring our help and our mercy, is the deepest principle.

And that should flow freely from our hearts.

That's what the rules are meant to teach us.

Can we put them in the right place and follow the law the principle of the way we have to do that?