Nevertheless, She Persisted: Words of Hope after Charlottesville

Remarks shared at The Community Lament and Hope Gathering
“We Stand Together: We Remember Charlottesville”
Second Baptist Church, 1717 Benson Avenue, Evanston, IL


If you prefer to listen to some of the service - and I hope you will - this video includes Cantor Susan Lewis Friedman of Beth Emet Synagogue singing "From a Distance," followed by readings from the Holy Writings of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  My words follow (14:28-21:33) and then the words of Dr. Nancy Bedford from Reba Place finish out the video. Thank you to Second Baptist Church choir member, Wendy Weaver for the video.
The gospel reading for this Sunday in many of our churches will come from Matthew’s Gospel It is the story of a Canaanite woman –a woman from the region we now know as Syria.  This non-Jewish woman came to Jesus seeking healing for her sick daughter.  But, as the story goes, Jesus ignores her.  She then begins shouting after Jesus’ followers for help.  So, they come to Jesus – not to ask for help on her behalf but to ask for help for themselves.  “Jesus, send this woman away. She is bothering us.” So Jesus tries to do so. Yes, Jesus tries to push this woman aside saying, “She is not one of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. She is not one of my people.  She doesn’t look like me, she doesn’t talk like me, she doesn’t have her papers in order, she doesn’t love the right kind of people, her skin is too dark – no, she is not one of mine to care for.”  But she cries out again saying, “Lord, help me.”  Then Jesus calls her a dog – yes, Jesus calls her a dog.  Nevertheless, she persisted and said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”  And Jesus answers, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
Now this is an odd story isn’t it?  It’s a story that doesn’t show Jesus in a very good light.  Sure, he comes around in the end. . . but not until he has already ignored this woman and then, even worse, hurled insults at her.  Jesus hurls insults at a woman who wants nothing more than the same compassionate love and healing which Jesus offers to his fellow Jews. 
Now, I have a bag that reads, “Equal rights for others does not mean less rights for you. It’s not pie.”  Problematic grammatical construct aside, I think the message is right on.  Rights are not a zero-sum game. And this Canaanite woman knows this.  She knows that if Jesus offers healing for her daughter there will still be healing available for Jesus’ followers – and then some.  What’s more? She knows that all she needs is a crumbs’ worth of Jesus’ healing – she is willing to settle for the scraps-from-the-table healing of Jesus - in order for her daughter to be made well. She knows, she trusts, she believes that there is more than enough of God’s loving compassion and healing available for all.  And this Canaanite woman has the courage to look Jesus in the eye and teach him what she knows to be true.  And Jesus learns.
Now in the Christian tradition, there is one primary thing we are told we should do.  Just one thing.  Follow Jesus.  And what I love about this odd passage in Matthew’s gospel is that it shows us that part of following Jesus is being willing to learn.  Jesus learns because of his interaction with a woman who is completely unlike himself.  And herein lies our hope.  Look around you tonight. There are not two of us here who come from the same circumstances.  We may have more similarities than differences, but tonight I want you to see the differences because those differences are what open us up to the possibility of new insights, new ways of being in the world, new ways of acting and reacting in the world, new ways of creating in this world – creating community, creating beloved community together.
And we can look at what happened in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend and – if we’re willing to be honest – what has been happening throughout our nation’s history -  whether it is through an uprising of white supremacist neo-Nazis, politicians trying to pass transphobic legislation, the words of a President which seem hell-bent on division rather than unity, or the more subtle yet pervasive daily oppression that is the result of deep-rooted systemic racism in our own neighborhoods. We can look at it, we can name it for the sin that it is and, if we are willing, we can listen to and learn from the different voices around us and discover that we all are seeking the same things –safety, love, acceptance, peace.  And like Jesus, we can learn from someone else that these are not limited commodities.  Safety, love, acceptance, peace – not pie – there is enough for all of us.  And there is hope.  Because look around you.  There, in the face of the person next to you, there is hope.  There in the hands and feet of the person in front or behind you, there is hope.  There, within your heart, within your mind, there is hope.
I want to conclude my comments tonight with the words of a 16th century Christian mystic, Teresa of Avila:
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours.
You and I. We are the healing, the love and the hope. And we are more than enough.

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