Streams of Mercy

Sometimes Sunday School lessons published months ago, and sermons simply following the common lectionary speak directly to our circumstances of the moment, as spirit and truth. Add to that an experience at the Presbyterian Women’s Fall Gathering, and there’s no doubt God was speaking to God’s people in our time and place last weekend. We were reminded that love and justice are not just words in the Bible on a shelf, but a kind of life we are called to live day by day.

The Sunday School lesson came from I Corinthians 4, and addressed struggles of the early church in Corinth as they ministered to a diverse society. The dangers of showing favoritism and passing judgment were explored. Paul spoke of leaving the judgment to God. I was reminded of what Mother Teresa once said- that if we spend so much time judging, we have no time for loving, and that is what we are called to do.

The lectionary passage for the day was the story in Matthew 15, telling of the Canaanite woman who came asking Jesus to heal her daughter. Matthew tells how the woman was annoying and persistent in asking for help, and how Jesus tried to dismiss her, saying he was sent only to the “lost sheep of Israel.” As she persisted in her pleading, Jesus recognized her pleas were coming from the depth of her love for her daughter, and he healed her daughter.

It was as though Jesus heard God speaking to him and to his disciples through her: “Don’t focus on whose sheep you’re tending. You keep crossing the boundaries and removing the barriers; you keep pouring out your healing love on all who call for it. I will do the rest, because my love knows no boundaries, and this is what it means to be my Son and my followers in the world.”

We were challenged to ask the question: “Where is the Canaanite woman today? Who is she?” Perhaps she’s part of the one in six Americans who don’t have enough food to eat; maybe she’s one of the millions who face daily violence and abuse; perhaps she one of the countless many who live with addiction or mental illness; perhaps she’s a woman in Jackson Springs or a man in Robbins, or a little child in Candor.

Today’s text encourages us to reflect on our relationship with those outside the bounds of our normal circles. Often “outsiders” hold us accountable to our best insights about who we are and what we ought to do. They help us to overcome our blind spots. In performing such a function for us, they, like the Canaanite woman, help us to act in a manner consistent with whom we claim to be.

And that PW Fall Gathering- the keynote speaker was a “homeless woman” who used drama, stories and songs to share laughter and to communicate truth and deep insights. At the end of her “talk” she began singing: “Not far from you, someone is down to their last dime…… Not far from you someone is running out of time…. won’t you open up your heart….”

Never has a message come right when we needed to hear it most, as we deal with the “Canaanite women” in our lives. May God help us to widen our circle of concern by making ourselves vulnerable to the needs of the stranger, especially those who have been pushed to the side.

Elizabeth