WEBVTT 00:00:05.929 --> 00:00:09.050 Kia ora and welcome to the St Francis Church 00:00:09.050 --> 00:00:11.570 sermon podcast. We're so glad that you've joined 00:00:11.570 --> 00:00:14.970 us. Our prayer is that as you listen, you would 00:00:14.970 --> 00:00:17.910 encounter God's presence. Be refreshed in your 00:00:17.910 --> 00:00:20.769 faith and equipped for everyday life with Jesus. 00:00:21.629 --> 00:00:24.289 As a church, we are learning to faithfully follow 00:00:24.289 --> 00:00:27.879 Jesus by practicing His way at His pace. For 00:00:27.879 --> 00:00:30.899 more info about who we are and what God is doing 00:00:30.899 --> 00:00:36.799 among us, head to stfrancis .co .nz. Grace and 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:45.899 peace. Morning everybody. So today, as Gwen has 00:00:45.899 --> 00:00:48.840 read out, we hear in Matthew's Gospel that Jesus 00:00:48.840 --> 00:00:52.899 left Gennesaret, so that's a bit small here, 00:00:53.259 --> 00:00:55.359 but there's the Sea of Galilee at the bottom. 00:00:55.689 --> 00:00:59.289 Gnessaret is on the Lake of Galilee, and he left 00:00:59.289 --> 00:01:03.649 to go northwest. And he went to the area of Tyre 00:01:03.649 --> 00:01:06.450 and Sidon in modern day Lebanon, which is about 00:01:06.450 --> 00:01:10.510 an hour's, sorry, a day's walk away. So up to 00:01:10.510 --> 00:01:13.170 that time, Jesus had concentrated his mission 00:01:13.170 --> 00:01:16.890 on what's modern day Israel, and now he shifts 00:01:16.890 --> 00:01:20.549 to a very different territory where Gentiles 00:01:20.549 --> 00:01:24.340 live, non -Jews live, called Canaanites. And 00:01:24.340 --> 00:01:26.640 these Canaanites were viewed with great suspicion 00:01:26.640 --> 00:01:29.459 and disdain by the Jewish people looked down 00:01:29.459 --> 00:01:33.180 upon. And what happened in Canaan that day marked 00:01:33.180 --> 00:01:38.219 a significant shift in Jesus' ministry. Because 00:01:38.219 --> 00:01:41.500 what Jesus did was effectively to challenge one 00:01:41.500 --> 00:01:44.459 of the most deep rooted human characteristics 00:01:44.459 --> 00:01:49.340 and that is tribalism. So that's the belief that 00:01:49.340 --> 00:01:54.819 one's own country or race or culture or society, 00:01:55.299 --> 00:01:58.859 or politics, or religion, are better than anybody 00:01:58.859 --> 00:02:03.400 else's. We are the best. And the psychological 00:02:03.400 --> 00:02:07.019 drive for this is the innate need for support, 00:02:07.500 --> 00:02:12.840 safety, and community. But as we know, tribalism 00:02:12.840 --> 00:02:17.219 can lead to closed -mindedness, an us -versus 00:02:17.219 --> 00:02:21.400 -them mentality, injustice, discrimination written 00:02:21.400 --> 00:02:25.020 large in South Africa to the law, conflict as 00:02:25.020 --> 00:02:28.460 we see in the Middle East. And the way Jesus 00:02:28.460 --> 00:02:31.919 dealt with tribalism of his own people provides 00:02:31.919 --> 00:02:35.659 a lesson for us all I think. So now I enter this 00:02:35.659 --> 00:02:40.419 Canaanite woman. So what did she say? Well her 00:02:40.419 --> 00:02:42.719 loud voice certainly made her presence felt. 00:02:44.159 --> 00:02:47.639 But curiously for a Gentile woman living outside 00:02:47.639 --> 00:02:53.120 Israel she respectfully calls Jesus Lord son 00:02:53.120 --> 00:02:58.159 of David. She asked Jesus to have mercy on her 00:02:58.159 --> 00:03:02.219 with this heartfelt plea for her daughter who's 00:03:02.219 --> 00:03:05.240 tormented by a demon. And in those days by a 00:03:05.240 --> 00:03:09.979 demon could mean deafness, blindness, some other 00:03:09.979 --> 00:03:12.580 problem within the child. Like one of my grandchildren 00:03:12.580 --> 00:03:16.780 has eyesight and deaf problems, deafness problems. 00:03:17.539 --> 00:03:19.580 Similarly could have been seen to be possessed 00:03:19.580 --> 00:03:24.340 by a demon. So objectively, how could Jesus resist 00:03:24.340 --> 00:03:27.780 this call? Jesus who had preached kindness, love, 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:30.419 especially for children, how could he possibly 00:03:30.419 --> 00:03:33.680 resist this call from this woman? But Jesus knew 00:03:33.680 --> 00:03:36.800 that one thing stood in the way of a positive 00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:40.360 reception, and that was the tribalism of his 00:03:40.360 --> 00:03:43.300 own people. The Jewish people saw themselves 00:03:43.300 --> 00:03:47.860 as the chosen race. Everybody else was inferior. 00:03:48.900 --> 00:03:52.509 What does Jesus do? He doesn't get on a soapbox 00:03:52.509 --> 00:03:56.270 and preach at his disciples. What he does is 00:03:56.270 --> 00:04:00.289 gently lead them through four steps to a better 00:04:00.289 --> 00:04:03.849 realization of where the truth should lie. First 00:04:03.849 --> 00:04:09.530 step, Jesus simply stays silent. Says not a word. 00:04:10.689 --> 00:04:14.349 And in the silence, he allows space for his disciples 00:04:14.349 --> 00:04:18.829 to play out their tribalism. Send her away, she's 00:04:18.829 --> 00:04:21.180 a lesser being, send her away. for she keeps 00:04:21.180 --> 00:04:26.319 shouting at us. Jesus' response is not to send 00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:30.899 her away, not explicitly reject her plea, but 00:04:30.899 --> 00:04:33.540 neither does he scold or correct his disciples 00:04:33.540 --> 00:04:39.259 openly. Second step. Jesus presents to the woman 00:04:39.259 --> 00:04:44.040 his formal commitment to his own people. I was 00:04:44.040 --> 00:04:47.240 sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, 00:04:47.639 --> 00:04:50.000 like a lawyer sticking to the letter of the law. 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:53.720 Again, he doesn't explicitly reject her plea. 00:04:54.579 --> 00:04:57.839 And she is then prompted to reinforce her respect 00:04:57.839 --> 00:05:01.980 for Jesus and her humility before him. She comes 00:05:01.980 --> 00:05:07.180 and kneels before him, repeating, Lord help me. 00:05:08.339 --> 00:05:12.399 Third step. Jesus uses a rather playful image 00:05:12.399 --> 00:05:15.639 and teasingly says to the woman that it's not 00:05:15.639 --> 00:05:18.199 fair to take the children's food, the Jewish 00:05:18.199 --> 00:05:20.769 people's food, and throw it to the little dogs, 00:05:21.269 --> 00:05:25.509 Canaanites. Again the woman is prompted to show 00:05:25.509 --> 00:05:30.170 her courage and her humility and she says, yes 00:05:30.170 --> 00:05:33.129 Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall 00:05:33.129 --> 00:05:37.290 from the master's table. So what did Jesus do? 00:05:37.610 --> 00:05:41.569 He allowed the beauty of this woman's humanity, 00:05:42.089 --> 00:05:46.750 humility, personality to be on full display to 00:05:46.750 --> 00:05:50.259 his disciples. How could they then resist her? 00:05:51.500 --> 00:05:54.079 So Jesus could then comfortably take the fourth 00:05:54.079 --> 00:05:58.480 step. Woman, great is your faith. Let it be done 00:05:58.480 --> 00:06:01.180 for you as you wish. And the daughter was healed 00:06:01.180 --> 00:06:05.060 from that moment. This is the great breakthrough 00:06:05.060 --> 00:06:09.040 that Jesus had led his disciples gently towards. 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:13.540 That Jesus' loving, healing mission is to reach 00:06:13.540 --> 00:06:18.220 out to all people. And remember that Matthew's 00:06:18.220 --> 00:06:21.839 Gospel ends with the direction of Jesus. Go therefore 00:06:21.839 --> 00:06:25.319 and make disciples of all nations. Just last 00:06:25.319 --> 00:06:29.300 week in court I was shown in a very small way 00:06:29.300 --> 00:06:33.120 a path beyond my own tribalism, my own comfort 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:37.420 zone. I had to hear a case where a school principal 00:06:37.420 --> 00:06:41.399 asked for a restraining order against a man who 00:06:41.399 --> 00:06:44.899 posted a series of videos on social media about 00:06:44.899 --> 00:06:48.629 the principal. So in preparation for the hearing, 00:06:48.730 --> 00:06:52.009 I watched the videos. I heard the man shouting 00:06:52.009 --> 00:06:54.649 abuse in a very strange voice about the school 00:06:54.649 --> 00:06:59.230 principal. So my immediate reaction from my English 00:06:59.230 --> 00:07:03.750 culture, which stresses quiet and civility and 00:07:03.750 --> 00:07:06.709 being polite to people, was to react against 00:07:06.709 --> 00:07:10.110 the way this person was operating. So we came 00:07:10.110 --> 00:07:13.009 to the court hearing. As a judge, I have to listen 00:07:13.009 --> 00:07:17.699 in silence, like Jesus did. What emerged then 00:07:17.699 --> 00:07:21.100 that the man as a boy had been subjected to bullying 00:07:21.100 --> 00:07:25.000 when he was a child at school because of a speech 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:29.720 defect? It also emerged that the man's son who 00:07:29.720 --> 00:07:33.139 had a close relationship with his father had 00:07:33.139 --> 00:07:37.079 recently had a really scary experience by being 00:07:37.079 --> 00:07:39.439 apparently bullied at the hands of another boy. 00:07:40.779 --> 00:07:43.819 The principal had investigated the matter, had 00:07:43.819 --> 00:07:46.290 prepared a letter of apology, But by mistake, 00:07:46.329 --> 00:07:49.810 this was never sent to the man. So what did the 00:07:49.810 --> 00:07:52.629 man think? He thought that his child had been 00:07:52.629 --> 00:07:55.290 bullied as he had, touched a very vulnerable 00:07:55.290 --> 00:07:57.870 spot, and that the principal had then ignored 00:07:57.870 --> 00:08:03.009 it, condoned it possibly. So this man's cry like 00:08:03.009 --> 00:08:06.670 that Canaanite woman was a cry for help, reaching 00:08:06.670 --> 00:08:11.449 deep down in the personality. And in court last 00:08:11.449 --> 00:08:17.689 week, I felt Christ's mercy flowing beyond my 00:08:17.689 --> 00:08:19.970 own tribalism, my own prejudice.