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.
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,
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,
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 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,
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 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.
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 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,
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.