The Pagan Woman and Jesus

Father, we are both very good at flattering ourselves too much to detect or hate our own sin,

and we're also very good at not seeing it.

And we're also very good, Father, at sometimes we just really look down our nose at others,

and sometimes we beat ourselves up.

And, Father, we're not as balanced and as whole as we think we are.

We fool ourselves.

We thank you, Father, that we can come to be in your presence this morning.

We come, Father, as maybe seekers, some maybe as skeptics, most of us as redeemed sinners.

But, Father, we are so glad we can come into your presence this morning to receive from you and receive grace from you.

And we ask that the Holy Spirit would fall with might and power and deep conviction as we think about Jesus

and who he is and what he has said and what he has done for us.

And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.

Amen.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Some, because I'm ancient of days, at least 30 years ago, when I was still in the Anglican Church of Canada,

there was an official publication of the Anglican Church of Canada that went to all,

I think it, I'm not sure if it went to only clergy or it went to everybody,

but it was a very official publication.

And one of the writer of this one article in the publication was the secretary or the assistant to the primate,

so very high up and influential.

And he wrote an article about this particular story, the first one which we just read.

And the story was entitled The Conversion of Jesus.

And the point of the story was that Jesus had suffered under the racism and misogyny that was typical of men of his day,

and that this was a very important story in the Bible because it revealed a time when Jesus is confronted by the other

and is convicted of his sin.

And it's an important turning point in his life that he now begins to be less racist and less misogynistic.

When this was written about 30, at least 30 years ago, when I was still in the Anglican Church of Canada,

it didn't create any type of stir amongst the clergy.

Ideas like that had been very common for quite a while.

Some of you who follow progressive Christian blogs and tweets and Instagram posts

are probably aware that over the last couple of years,

this idea has emerged amongst progressive Christianity,

that this is a story which is significant because it shows the racism and misogyny of Jesus.

And once again, that it's a type of a conversion moment for Jesus,

that he would now look at things from the eye from a different point of view.

So is this true?

I mean, at least, I don't know how many of you were paying attention.

We're going to look at the text again.

But it is, at first glance at least, a troubling story, I think, for most Canadian Christians.

Probably not the story they'd pick to share with their co-workers,

that we would pick to share with our co-workers for the first time at looking at the Bible.

But let's walk towards it.

So it would be very helpful if you get out your own Bibles and turn to Mark chapter 7,

Mark 7:24–37

verses 24 to 37.

It's really two stories.

We're going to spend the bulk of our time on the first story.

The second story is weird, right?

You know, the spinning and all that type of stuff.

But we're going to spend most of our time on the first one.

And it's worth spending our time on.

And just to sort of give it a bit of a context, what's just happened before this,

because we are preaching through the book,

what's just happened before this is Jesus has had a conflict with the, I guess,

the cultural gatekeepers, the religious gatekeepers, the intellectual gatekeepers,

the elite, the one that, in a sense, tried to help the whole society,

the Jewish society, to understand themselves and how they're to live.

And he's had a conflict with them over uncleanness or cleanness.

And it's really a conflict about what allows you to connect to God

and what disconnects you from God, what allows you to approach God

and what keeps you far from God.

And the heart of the story, which has just gone on before this,

is that they tended to think of things in terms of the barriers were racial,

they were cultural, they were linguistic differences,

and there were also differences about how you ate and other types of rituals.

So, in other words, their emphasis was on externals.

And Jesus confronts them.

And at the heart of his message is that, in fact, what keeps you far from God,

what, in a sense, yeah, what keeps you far from God

is something that emerges from within your own heart.

That it's out of your heart that pride and envy and sexual sin

and coveting and greed, it emerges from within.

And that's what keeps you separate from God.

And so that's what's just happened.

And now the story of Mark continues with chapter 7, verse 24.

And from there, he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know,

yet he could not be hidden.

But immediately a woman, whose little daughter had an unclean spirit,

heard of him and came and fell down at his feet.

Now the woman was a pagan, a Syrophoenician by birth.

And she begged Jesus to cast the demon out of her daughter.

It's a very good request, right?

Cast the demon out of my daughter.

And he said to her,

these are stinging words to the modern Canadian ear.

Let's just be honest.

Let the children be fed first,

for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

Now that's a hard saying for a lot of us today.

Just as a bit of an aside,

one of the commentaries that I consult in preparation of my sermons

was written about 150 years ago.

And I consult it every week.

And so I'm looking forward to reading it to see how he's going to address this issue.

He never mentions this at all.

Not at all.

I think it's partially because for those of you who read old things,

especially things from the 19th century and earlier,

it was very common for people to use very,

what we would now call abusive and insulting language.

It's just how they talked, right?

And so he doesn't even talk about this.

He gets to the other stuff,

the fact that there was a demon and the deliverance and all that.

But for us, it's a hard text.

And it's not made actually easier by what happens.

Look at what happens in verse 28.

But she answered him,

Yes, Lord,

yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.

And he said to her,

For this statement you may go your way.

The demon has left your daughter.

And she went home and found the girl lying in the bed.

And the demon gone.

And we're going to pause and sort of camp on this a little bit for a while.

Now, one well-meaning solution that's often suggested by Christians defending the text.

And the defense is sort of half right, but only half right.

So it's in the right direction, but it's not quite phrased the right way.

But it's well-meaning.

And the well-meaning part of it is,

Well, look, at the end of the day,

he delivered the demon from her daughter.

So the stuff that goes before doesn't really matter,

because what really matters is how the story ends,

which is that, you know,

he sort of says,

Well done to the woman,

and the demon goes away.

So that's what really matters.

And that's,

the ending of the story really is important,

but not without doing some other thinking first,

because here's how I think

the average Canadian would respond.

The average Canadian would respond,

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, time out.

That's exactly how abusers treat people.

Isn't it?

Like, abusers just dump on people and call them names

and just really go after them.

And what they really want is they want the abused person to agree with them.

And then when the abused person agrees with them,

then with a smirk,

they let them have what they want,

because they've won the battle,

and they're helping the abused person to be even more abused.

They're maintaining abuse.

Like, isn't that,

that's,

that's how abusers work.

And now she's entering into his abuse,

acknowledging his abuse,

submitting to his abuse,

and says,

Oh, yeah, yeah,

like he lets her go.

So that actually doesn't seem to help the problem at all.

So,

so the first thing we have to do is,

that's a good response, by the way.

We can't dismiss good response.

We can't really dismiss,

it's a very,

it's a good observation,

if that's all that we know,

and we need to think about it.

So here's the first thing.

Part of the problem we have reading the text is,

we have a particular imagination about what's going on.

And so the imaginative problem would be that if you were to come to,

to see me at a family gathering,

and every time I saw one of my sons,

I went,

Whoa,

strong,

good looking,

smart.

And for my daughters,

it's,

you know,

your dogs.

And if you saw me treating my kids that way,

my sons one way,

and my daughters another way,

you'd all,

you'd call me on it.

If you didn't call me on it,

I'm giving you permission to call me on it,

like you should.

That would be terrible.

And that's sort of on one hand,

what we see going on here would be the same thing as if I had,

you know,

if I meet people throughout the day that are all like me,

and I'm very,

very friendly to them.

And I'm,

I'm,

I'm,

you know,

using very,

you know,

positive language to them.

And I meet people who aren't like me,

and I use very insulting language to them.

Then you'd want to call me on that.

That's very,

very clearly prejudice that I might not be aware of it,

but it's very clearly prejudice.

And that's sort of what we hear when we see the text.

We,

we,

we see this and,

yeah,

that's,

that's how we see it.

And,

actually,

I,

I,

I missed something that's sort of important that I want to go back to.

You know,

the story about the abuser and the abused,

and also this other language about,

you know,

the imagination,

the way we work.

One of the reasons this is a very important story to us is it touches at a very,

very deep fear that Canadian Christians have,

and Canadians who aren't Christians definitely have.

It's a human fear.

And it touches on a human fear that God will ultimately hurt us and demean us,

that God is a threat.

So,

whether,

whether you follow the,

you know,

Jordan Peterson is from a long line of scholars that looks at the stories in the book of Genesis,

as,

as,

you know,

Freud did this as well,

that,

that they're profound,

Jung did this as well,

they're profound insights into the human psyche,

the stories.

Or,

or whether you would be like me and say,

well,

they're also,

they are profound insights into the human psyche,

but they also happened.

But regardless of which approach you take,

Genesis chapter three is this very,

very profound story after God has made everything good.

And,

uh,

Adam and Eve choose to make themselves God,

choose their word over God's word,

and,

um,

and,

and choose to defy God in the process of choosing their word over God's,

and choose to defy God in the process of wanting to show that they're at least as equal,

but probably is better.

And the result is what we Christians call the fall.

And,

and you know that what happens is that after this,

God is going to do his customary thing where he's going to walk with the Adam and Eve in the garden of the cool of the day,

just to enjoy conversation with them.

But he comes and they're not there because they're hiding.

They're hiding because they're afraid of God.

And they,

their solution is even when they are forced to come out for God is that they try to cover themselves.

They continue to hide.

And this very ancient story shows that we do have this very,

very deep fear.

We have a fear that if we get too close to God,

if we get too close to Christ,

he's going to hurt us.

He's going to demean us.

He's going to make us,

he's going to belittle us.

He's going to make us less.

And it's a very,

very deep fear.

And it comes out really and fully in types of the imagination that we have around this particular text.

But let's have a different type of imagination when we look at the text for a second.

And this is an imagination that actually follows the text.

It's not imposed on the text.

Mark opens a door for us to imagine a very,

very different thing.

But before that,

I'm going to have to share a story with you of something that happened quite a few years ago,

and I was still part of the Anglican Church of Canada.

And it was very common for the clergy to dismiss people like me as fundamentalists.

They would do it right while I was in the room.

And they would make fun of fundamentalists.

They would see fundamentalists as the source of all their problems.

And one day,

for one of the people who used this language all of the time,

I was having coffee with them,

or at some gathering it was just me and him.

We'll call him, you know, Bob,

because all guys in my stories are Bob.

And I said to Bob,

because he was going on a little bit about fundamentalists,

and I said to Bob,

by the way, you know, that's a pejorative term.

That's an insulting term,

a prejudiced term against people like me.

And it was one of those moments,

it was long enough ago that phones,

there was a time that phones didn't have cameras.

For you younger folks,

hard to believe.

But there was a time when,

first of all,

there weren't phones that you carry around in your pocket.

But if you did,

they didn't have cameras.

Anyway,

I wish I'd had a,

one of those times would have been great to photograph it.

I think he actually,

if I remember correctly,

he actually had glasses.

And I said that to him,

you know,

that it's actually quite insulting

to be referred to that.

People like me,

you know,

who believe the Bible,

who believe that Jesus actually rose from the dead,

believe in the virgin birth,

believe in miracles,

and,

you know,

all that fundamentalist stuff,

right?

And he actually took off his glasses

and looked at me in complete and utter surprise

and said,

it's not prejudiced or insulting to say that.

And I said,

it is.

He said,

every single person I know

uses language like that.

Now,

here's the thing.

He was an impeccable part

of the Toronto elite

in terms of his education and formation.

He'd gone to University of Toronto

for his first degree.

He'd gone to Trinity College,

to sort of the elite seminary

in Anglicanism.

And he very,

very definitely traveled

in those high elite circles.

And part of it,

of course,

it was just the complete shock

because,

you see,

people who are like him,

who are liberals,

cannot,

by definition,

be prejudiced.

By definition,

I can't be prejudiced.

So he's not being prejudiced.

He's not putting me down.

He's not calling me names

because my sort of people

don't talk like this.

And I say this

as a bit of a,

to give me some mercy

because I might offend

some of you here

and I might offend

some of you here.

What's a better way

to imagine this story?

And I'm going to show you

why it's a better way

in a moment with the text.

There was recently

a little bit of a protest

in Ottawa.

Do some of you remember it?

In fact,

for those of you

watching online,

you might not realize,

but for the first weekend

of the truckers,

the Freedom Convoy,

throughout the entire,

throughout the latter part

of the service,

you could hear the horns honking.

So that's where we are.

Okay?

And,

um,

now,

the truckers

had,

uh,

a signs up

that had three words

and the first word

rhymed with truck

but began with F.

Um,

and you,

you know what the word is.

And,

uh,

and there were other

types of signs,

uh,

that they would display.

They,

they weren't innocent.

This isn't a story

between people

who are completely innocent

and people who are

completely guilty.

But on the other hand,

even before they arrived,

we were told

that they were

racist,

fascist,

misogynist,

anti-gay.

They were deplorables.

They were

coming here

to occupy

and to take over

the city.

This was said

by the political

elite of our country.

It was said

consistently

by all of the elite

and just mainstream

legacy media

of this country.

It has continued

to be said

by the mayor

and the media

of this,

of this,

of this country.

In fact,

actually,

it's very interesting.

One of the,

the columnists,

because I,

I read the citizen

every day.

I mean,

the six days a week.

And one of the,

the columnists

who was very,

very,

very filled

with all of this

language,

consistently

used freedom

in quote marks

and all that.

Her,

her last column

was actually

on the importance

of kindness.

I'm not making this up.

Her whole column

was on the importance

of kindness.

Now,

I would bet,

especially if,

if this,

you're a,

if you're a citizen

reporter

and you're here,

I'm really glad

you're here.

And I'll,

gladly have a coffee

with you,

if not after the service.

I'll,

I'll take you out

for lunch

and you,

you can push back

at me.

That's fine.

But I,

I get,

I'm guessing

that everybody,

like this columnist,

I'm guessing

everybody in the citizen

was like my friend

Bobby.

And they would just say,

we're not being

prejudiced or divisive.

Like,

everybody we know

talks like this.

And we're good

card-carrying liberals,

so by definition,

we're not prejudiced.

Like,

they'd probably be

puzzled.

Especially as evidenced

by the columnist

after three weeks

of name-calling,

saying that she's

a huge believer

in kindness

and bridge-building.

I'm not making it up.

So it's unconscious.

Now,

okay,

whoa,

whoa,

whoa,

whoa.

All of a sudden here,

this story's going to take on

a bit of a different spin.

You see,

because imagine,

and it's actually

not that hard to imagine,

that Jesus socially

was part of the main group

that was behind

the Freedom Convoy.

He was lower working class.

That he'd probably

have been among them.

Not with the FU,

but he'd be among them.

So imagine Jesus

was a part of the

Trucker Convoy.

And for those of you

watching this

who weren't from Ottawa,

you might not get this

city analogy.

But he decides

to go and spend

two days in the Glebe

at an Airbnb.

He leaves

the Trucker Convoy

and walks down

and stays in the Glebe

for a couple of days,

two days.

And in his first day

of staying in the Glebe,

a well-off woman

from the Glebe

with a rainbow flag,

her green party button,

and a little button

telling us her pronouns,

another appropriate

dress for somebody

who lives in the Glebe.

Nothing wrong

with any of those things

per se.

And she comes

to speak to Jesus

because she wants

something for him.

How does that conversation go?

Now we're getting into

what's actually happening

in this story.

Now why am I putting

Jesus with the weak people

and why am I putting

the woman

as a Glebe person?

Well, it's because

of the text,

not because I'm trying

to make a political point,

which I'm not.

Although obviously

there are some

political consequences

of what I've said,

but I don't want this

to be...

Listen to what goes on

in the text again,

verse 24.

And from there he arose

and went away

to the region of Tyre

and Sidon.

Now the big mistake

that all of the people

talking about this,

they talk as if somehow

the Jewish people

are powerful.

If you had gone back

in time to the Romans,

the people reading Marx

that the Jewish people

were powerful,

they would have laughed

at you.

Jewish people were excluded

from everything.

If you wanted to advance

primarily in the Roman world,

you had to be a pagan.

Like guilds were set up

around the worship of gods,

like cultural celebrations

to be part of the Roman legion.

It all involves

being willing to be a pagan,

to worship many gods.

And the Romans

were very, very good.

Whenever they went

into a region

and conquered an area

like Tyre,

and I don't know

if particularly they did this,

but they go into an area

like Tyre and Sidon,

they look at the range

of gods and goddesses

that the people

of Tyre and Sidon have,

and the ones that basically

look very similar

to the Roman gods,

they just rename them.

They say,

no, no, no,

this god and this god,

they're the same god.

And if the people

in Tyre and Sidon

have some gods and goddesses

that the Romans don't have,

they just adopt them.

Because if you believe

that there's lots of gods

and goddesses,

it's no big deal

if you discover another one.

And everything in civil life

revolves around,

if you want to advance

in the guilds

and politics

and anything,

you fundamentally have

to accept the pagan worldview

and live like a pagan.

The Jewish people

were oppressed,

powerless people.

They weren't the,

they were more like

the truckers

and not like the people

who live in the glee.

But there's nothing wrong

with living in the glee.

Like,

if you're important

in the government

and you can afford money,

praise God.

Nothing wrong with that.

And you know,

the other thing is

is that the people

of Tyre and Sidon

were the ancient enemies

of the Jews.

They were.

So a Jewish man

goes into an area

that are the ancient

enemies of the Jews

and a native of that land

comes to ask him

for some help.

I could have started

with this analogy,

but if I did that,

then Canadians

could just get left

off the hook.

It would be like

Jesus going to spend

some time

in the Gaza Strip.

How would that

conversation go

if somebody from Hamas

wanted to have

a conversation

with Jesus?

Wanted some help.

How would that

conversation go?

So she comes

and she falls

at her knees

and she wants

her help

from Jesus.

By the way,

that's a very long

journey

for a native

pagan,

which

maybe in heaven

we'll discover,

we'll meet

this woman

and we'll

get a bit

of her story

as to what

led to this

very long

journey,

even if it

was maybe

just walking

three houses

down.

But we all

know that it

would be as

if there was

a church

in a Muslim

neighborhood

and even if

the Muslim

house was

only two

doors away,

the journey

from the house

to the church

would be a

very long

journey.

And in many

ways a very

significant

journey.

And so she

makes this

significant journey

and she comes

and she asks

this Jewish

man to

heal her

daughter.

And Jesus

says,

now by using

the language

of the

truckers

and the

citizen

and by using

Hamas

and Jewish

people,

you understand

that name

calling goes

two ways.

That's what's

usually forgotten

when this

story is

interpreted.

because they

use the

imagination

of me

with my

sons and

my

daughters

and not

the story

which is

being told

here.

Those of you

who know

the Bible

very well,

Jezebel,

the archetype

of the

wicked

queen,

she's the

daughter of

the king

of Tyre.

And so

Jesus says,

let the

children be

fed first,

for it is

not right to

take the

children's

bread and

throw it

to the

dogs.

Now in

English,

here's one

of these

cases where

knowing the

original language

is actually

very,

very helpful

to understand

the story

because in

a sense

what Jesus

does,

he does

take some

of the

language

that is

used by

Jewish people

to look

down their

noses at

the time

of people

like this

particular

woman,

but he

actually

transforms

the language,

he uses

something which

is similar

but very

different,

and he

uses a

story which

believe it

or not

opens a

door to

the woman

without

in a sense

him giving

up any

ground.

The fact

of the

matter is,

is that as

Jesus says

in John,

salvation is

from the

Jews.

I mean,

my

forebears

stripped

themselves

naked,

painted

themselves

blue,

called

them on

their own

gods as

they fought

the Romans.

Those are

my heritage.

I mean,

wait,

that wasn't

my parents,

I mean,

way,

way back,

right?

Centuries.

And so

what Jesus

does here,

so it is

true that

the children

are to be

fed for,

I mean,

Jesus comes

from the

Jews,

it is the

Jewish people

who are

important in

understanding,

defining,

rejecting,

all of that

all comes

within the

Old Testament,

it's very

important.

But then the

language that

he uses about

this thing about

the children

and the

dogs,

he uses a

different word

for dog,

he doesn't

use the

normal word,

which is a

wild dog,

he uses the

word for a

pet.

A household

pet.

Now that

things are

about to

open up,

hopefully some

of you can

come to our

house at

some point

in time,

and if you've

never been to

our house,

we happen to

back on to

some green

belt,

and at

different times

there's coyotes

in the green

belt,

right behind

our house.

At night

sometimes you

can hear them

howling.

If our

neighbors found

out that we

were throwing

food over the

fence to

feed the

coyotes,

they'd be

very mad at

us,

and they

should be.

We'd be

mad if we

found out that

our neighbors

were feeding

the coyotes.

But you

all know how

important Rocky

was to our

household.

And we

fed Rocky

all the

time.

I mean,

many of you

who've had

dogs,

you understand

at a very

deep level

how the

death of a

dog is an

important change

in your whole

household.

world.

And Jesus

doesn't use the

language of

feeding the

coyotes.

He uses the

language of

feeding Rocky,

who would,

by the way,

sit under the

table waiting

for something

to fall,

as well as

our other

dogs.

people.

And one of

the things

which is very

unique about

this story

is that she's

the first

person in the

entire gospel

of Mark to

understand a

saying of

Jesus.

The first

person.

She doesn't

answer Jesus

from outside of

his saying,

his parable,

above it,

critiquing it.

She enters

into the door

which he opens

up and

answers from

within it.

And she

answers from

within it by

saying in

verse 28,

yes,

Lord,

even the

dogs under

the table

eat the

children's

crumbs.

And what

she's saying

is,

and for

some of

you who

are very

narcissistic

and proud,

and we all

know who

we are,

it's hard

for us to

understand that

there's some

people who

come to the

Christian faith

and they

really have

such a,

they've been

so rejected,

so abused,

so neglected,

so overlooked,

so beat up,

that they

really never,

it's hard for

them,

if God,

if God,

if Jesus

would just

accept them,

and you know,

even if you

don't accept

me as your

child,

but if you

just sort of

let me in,

Jesus,

just off on

the side,

you know,

Jesus,

I'm not

worthy of

it,

you know,

nobody

accepts me,

nobody,

you know,

my parents

don't like

me,

I've always

been overlooked,

I'm not

very important,

I'm not

very good,

I'm not

very skilled,

I'm not

very powerful,

I'm not

very good

looking,

and all

of the

things,

and with

all of

their knots,

they would

just be

really,

really happy

if Jesus

would just

let them

slip in

and quietly

be at a

corner,

and for

some of us

it's very

hard to

imagine that

that's how

somebody would

think,

but there

are people

who think

and this

story is

for them,

and really

what this

woman is

saying,

Jesus,

I just

want to

be part

of your

household,

even if

it's only

as a

pet,

take me

in your

household,

even if

I'm just

your pet,

and that

would be

good enough

for me.

You see,

in many

ways this

story is

equivalent to

the story of

the prodigal

son in the

gospel of

Luke,

and for

those of

you who

know the

Bible,

you'll know

the story,

but very

simply the

son who

wants the

father dead

gets half

of his

inheritance,

blows it

all in a

foreign land,

and he's

reduced to

complete poverty,

and one

day while he's

feeding the

pigs,

and he

wishes he

could eat

the food

that the

pigs are

eating,

and he

comes and

he says

to himself,

this is

nuts,

my life

sucks,

maybe I

can go

back to

my dad,

because my

dad's

slaves eat

better than

I'm eating

right now,

and I

don't deserve

to be part

of the

family,

I don't

deserve to

be a son

anymore,

but maybe

he'd accept

me as a

slave.

And the

story goes,

he comes

back and the

father welcomes

him as way

more than

a slave.

And the

point of

this story

is that

Jesus welcomes

the woman

as way

more than

a dad.

And it's

pointing to

this profound

change which

is going to

happen as a

result of the

life and death

and resurrection

of Jesus.

That when

Jesus dies on

the cross at

the end of

Mark,

the first

person to

recognize that

he is God

dying is the

Roman soldier

who crucifies

Jesus.

That the

death of

Jesus on

the cross

is for

pagans and

Jews and

gays and

straights and

suburbans and

downtown people and

rich and poor and

the fit and the

unfit, the

popular and the

unpopular.

It's for people

in China and

Korea and

Russia and

Ukraine and

Rwanda and

Uganda and

Argentina and

Colombia and

New York City,

Manhattan and

the annex in

Toronto.

Jesus died for

all.

He is the

king who

creates a

kingdom by

his death upon

the cross and

the good news

is that the

king who will

make you right

with almighty

God is inviting

you to be part

of his

kingdom and

what is needed

is repentance

and what is

needed is

faith.

Now note,

if you could

put up the

first point,

Jesus doesn't

in a sense

meet her

halfway.

You see,

here's the

thing.

Since Jesus

is the

savior, he

is the

Lord and

he is the

true God

incarnate,

there is no

middle ground

between him

and any

other way

to God.

There is

no middle

way between

him and

any other

way to

God.

If that

sounds,

just a

minute, I

mean, there

isn't a

cure for

COVID-19

yet.

There are

things which

mitigate

symptoms.

But if

there was a

cure, next

month there's

a cure for

it.

You get

this, you

will never

transmit it,

and you

will never

get it.

it.

You will

never

transmit it,

you will

never get

it, and

it covers

all the

variants.

If there

is a

cure, and

it's

announced, and

the scientific

literature, the

double-blind

control studies

with no

seboes and

placebos and

all that, and

it all proves

that this

works with

100%

effectiveness.

If anybody

said, no,

no, no,

no, no,

you've

got to

need, I

have this, my

own little

home solution

of mixing

honey and

baking soda and

alfalfa sprouts

and wheat germ,

and you need

to mix these

two.

You say, are

you foolish?

Like, you

don't mix the

two.

There's no

middle ground.

No matter

how much you

think your

organic wheat

germ will

help, there's

no middle

ground, and

that's what's

shown in

the story.

Now, one

of the

things, there's

two things, and

I had other

points.

I think I'm

going to just

end the

sermon with

these other

two points,

and I'll

put on the

online what

I was going

to say about

some of the

next story,

but just

looking at

the time, I

want to end

with these

two points.

The first

challenge in

this text is

there's a

challenge for

us as

Christians to

be so gripped

by this story

in the

gospel, that

when we see

people who

really differ

from us, we

fight the

urge to

call them

names, and

we call out

to God and

say, Lord, how

could I have a

conversation with

this person?

How could I

reach out a

hand of

welcome and

conversation with

this person?

In our flesh, we

want to zing

them and get

them and win

politically and

culturally.

And by the

way, I'm not

saying that there

aren't, I mean,

there aren't

Christians who

might be

called to

work in

the area of

being a

pundit and

involved in

cultural things.

That's fine.

That's your own

vocation, but for

the average

Christian, a

story like this

challenges us

that if we

meet somebody

who obviously

has a

worldview and a

culture that's

very opposed to

ours and in

fact actually would

really look down

their noses at us

and actually even

think that we're

evil, the

challenge of this

story is not

to get mad and

not to want to

punish them, not

to want to get

power so that we

can put them in

their place.

No.

The challenge of

this story is how

can I have a

conversation with

this person that

could lead them to

Jesus?

Like, Lord, help

me.

Help me to fight

my flesh.

Help me to fight

my desire to make

political and

cultural points and

engage in

conversation.

And the second

takeaway from this

story, and you'll

all have your own,

is that from the

point of view of

Jesus' disciples and

the Jewish people,

this woman was a

completely, like,

you don't even pray

for people like her

because she will

never have anything

to do with the

Messiah.

Wrong.

And one of the

challenges for this

is it's not only

important to figure

out how we have

conversations with

people who are

very different than

us, but it's also

really important that

we pray for

unlikely people.

In fact, I haven't

written a blog for a

while.

The blog that will

come out tomorrow

is a bit more on

this.

But we need to

fight the tendency

to think, no, no,

I can't pray for

this person to

become a Christian

because they'll

never become a

Christian.

You don't know

that.

In fact, I bet if

you knew the

stories of some

of the people in

here, you'd say,

well, there's no

way somebody like

you would ever

become, like,

what are you doing

here?

I remember I'm on

the Council of the

Gospel Coalition

Canada, and I'm

part of the

founding council

members, and they

went through the

biography of all

the different people,

and they all went to,

like John MacArthur's

school and this

school and that, and

then they came to me,

and I happened to be

alphabetically the last,

and the guy, he's a

really wonderful guy,

John Mahaffey, looked at

me and smiled.

He said, George, because

we all had a sheaf of our

biographies, one of the

people in here is not

like the others, referring

to me.

We need to fight that.

We need to pray for the

unlikely people.

Like, pray for your

children, pray for your

family, pray for your

neighbors, pray for your

loved ones, pray for the

people who are like you,

pray for them that they

come to a saving faith in

Jesus, but make sure you

look and say, Lord, who

do I know that I think

there is never in a

hundred gazillion years

that they would ever

become a Christian, and

then pray for them, and

pray for more than them.

Pray for the unlikely.

Waste your prayers on

them, in quotes.

Let's stand.

Bow our heads in prayer.

Father, we have to confess

before you that often we

look at your word and it

makes us afraid, that often

we look at your word and we

judge it.

And Father, we're not even

aware often that we're

afraid of your word or that

we judge your word.

It's just sort of an

unconscious thing.

Father, we confess before

you that we're more fallen

than we realize, and we're

more Canadian than we

realize.

And Father, we ask that the

Holy Spirit would help to

bring your word and your

gospel home to us at a

very, very deep level.

And we ask, Father, that you

put in our hearts to pray

for people that we think

would never become

Christians, that they would

become Christians, as well

as pray for others that we

think there's some hope for,

whether we would pray for

them, for their conversion.

And Father, we know that

some of us, as part of our

jobs and our vocations, have

to deal with some of the

cultural and political wars.

And Father, we bless them.

We ask that you grant them

great wisdom and discernment

as to how to do those

things, because there are

some cultural matters that

they matter greatly.

And Father, we don't want to

dismiss them.

And we ask your blessing upon

them if they're in politics

or certain areas of the media

or other culture-forming

groups.

We ask that you help them

to engage in those things

wisely and well.

But Father, for us as

Christians, for most of us

as Christians, we ask, Lord,

that you help us to put to

death our flesh and our

desire to pick fights and

focus on political things.

And Father, we ask that you

would grant us instead that

we would be slow to speak,

that we would be slow to

anger, that we would be

quick to listen.

and that you grant us ears to

know how we might say a word

to a person that might be that

little pebble, Father, that

goes in their boot or goes in

their shoe and ends up leading

them to become a Christian.

Father, grant us that ability to

not be afraid and not to be angry

and to say that one little word

that you then use to bring them

to Christ.

Christ.

And we ask all these things in

the name of Jesus, your son

and our savior and all God's

people said, amen.