A bad morning....

From Helen 

Have you ever had one of those type of mornings ?  I certainly have, the kind of morning where you really don’t feel like getting up and ready for the day. The kind of morning when you just have this strange sensation which suggests that you just should stay in bed.

Well, when I was in University I had one such morning that was so bad it sticks out in my memory.  I woke up early, it was a Monday morning and I had an early lecture, by early I mean that I had to leave the house at 7:00 am please I deserve an aahh for that. Then I rushed to my train, which was late, when the train finally arrived it was packed full, so I a 19 year old student had to stand up for a 30 min journey.  Please can I have another aahh ! Well if that wasn’t enough some very handsome young men, this obviously should have been a happier moment, tried to convert me to another religion. When my train finally reached Cardiff I realised I was going to be very late for my lecture, now I had two options. The first meant missing my lecture- but then getting up early would have been pointless. The second meant paying money for a taxi to my lecture.  Well I went for option 2, and arrived in the nick of time for my lecture, for my lecturer to be 30 mins late. Then when he arrived I went to get a drink out of my bag. It was kiwi fruit and strawberry flavoured water, which had exploded in my bag so that my bag and all my notes were soaking. A final aahhplease !

That was a bad morning at that stage in my life. We all have moments like that in life, when we just wish we hadn’t bothered. I wonder whether the Canaanite woman in our gospel reading this morning felt like that after her first encounter with Jesus. This woman who was from outside of Jesus’ area, a woman who would have been seen as not only an alien, but worse still someone whose very presence would be offensive. A woman who had heard about Jesus and was prepared to risk rejection from Him because she knew that He could heal her daughter. A woman of great faith.

This woman whom Jesus seemed at first to reject harshly was a woman whom He found to have great faith. This faith could almost be translated as Jesus saying, “Woman you have mega-faith.”

This passage is in many ways quite confusing, as Jesus is portrayed in a way that seems to be harsh and judgmental. Rather than Jesus being different to everyone around it is as if He has joined with the people of His nation in a total disdain for anyone who was a Canaanite, that is the lowest of the low, yet Jesus who brings life and hope changes His mind. This seems really strange, there is almost the sense that Jesus is so impressed with this woman’s faith that He accepts her. The way He talks of the children’s food thrown to the dogs, could have been meant as the dogs being the Canaanites and the Children being the children of Israel. Or it maybe could have been a jokey retort that is lost in translation to us. Whichever way this is taken, it is not the main point.

The main point is someone went honestly to Jesus with all their fears and concerns and asked Him for help. Jesus responded by noting the faith of this woman and offering her acceptance and love.

The reading is important for us for two reasons.

Firstly, in this reading Jesus shows acceptance and love, He shows the power to heal and a reward for great faith.  It is one of my favourite things to hear that Jesus loves me, and all I have to do is to go to Him and have faith in His power to heal me. Wow- that’s incredible. Faith is hard sometimes but God is always there waiting for us to go to Him, to celebrate our faith with Him and in Him.

Faith is hard, God is always there ready to accept us, to love us and to help us.

The second important thing is that God is for everyone. Jesus didn’t just welcome one of His own people, He welcomed someone that as a Jew He was not supposed to.

God welcomes everyone. This is an example for us to follow as well.  If we were to be honest there are probably people that we would not really view as the kind of person who would go to Church, yet they are the type of people God wants us to welcome.

There is a story of a Church one Sunday morning where the priest was late.  No-one thought anything of it and waited for the service to begin trusting that the priest would arrive. Whilst they were waiting a homeless man came in to the Church all dressed up in a warm but shabby coat with a huge hat on. The people at the door of the Church were trying to find somewhere for this man to sit where he would not offend the sensitivities of anyone and particularly not the Priest.  They were horrified when this man went to sit at the front of the Church, so they tried to stop him but to no avail. They were even more surprised when the homeless man, lifted his hat and turned out to be their priest.

The last time I told this story was when we were in Llandrindod and as I told the story a man came into the service and announced his arrival. He sat at the front commenting on my sermon and it was to be honest quite a surprise! However, he had a very good welcome after – helped by the story I imagine. The way he arrived and the fact that I kept preaching made people assume that I had pre-arranged a visitor to make a point, I hadn’t but it is true that God really does move in mysterious ways.

What a lesson in welcome and acceptance of others. This Priest had tested his congregation and they in turn had not done well in the test.  I am sure Ian won’t be doing this, however it is a challenge to all of us, are we prepared to welcome and accept even those who don’t seem as if they belong ?

We have all had bad days, like the Canaanite woman, however also like the Canaanite woman we have met Jesus and we know that His love is great enough to accept us wherever we are and whatever we do. All we have to do is to have faith in that love of God, that faith which is prepared to go and accept His love. It doesn’t end here though, we are to reach out to others to welcome themknowing that the love of God is that wide, wider than we can ever imagine.

May we be ready to reach out in love as people who have been accepted byGod. May we have the faith to know, to truly know that God is for us so who can ever be against us. AMEN.