Column by Mary Lee Talbot
The Canaanite woman fought past the men trying to prevent her from getting to Jesus. We don’t know her name, just her nationality; that her story made it into the gospel of Matthew is a miracle.
“She gives all women of all time permission to challenge authority when lives are at stake. She was blocked, but nevertheless, she persisted,” said the Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde. Budde preached at the 9:15 a.m. Tuesday morning worship service in the Amphitheater. Her sermon title was “Even the Dogs Eat the Crumbs from the Master’s Table,” and the scripture reading was Matthew 15:22–28.
When Senator Mitch McConnell tried to silence Senator Elizabeth Warren during the hearing for Senator Jeff Sessions to become attorney general, she persisted in speaking until the Senate, along party lines, voted to silence her. McConnell famously stated, “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.” The phrase “Nevertheless, she persisted” quickly went viral, becoming a famous slogan. Journalist Valerie Schultz wrote that “persistence is what [women] do.”
“Women feature prominently in Jesus’ parables,” said Budde. “The woman who persisted in asking the judge for justice showed us how to pray and not lose heart.”
Other women made their presence known in looking for healing for themselves or loved ones; think of the woman who wanted to touch Jesus’ cloak or the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet at a dinner. “The men were horrified, but Jesus was in awe. She could see what they did not,” Budde said.
The Canaanite woman was a foreigner, outside of Jesus’ realm of concern. First, the disciples told her to stop bothering Jesus. She persisted. Then Jesus told her, with unsettling words, that he had not come to heal her people; it would be like throwing food meant for children to the dogs. “Like today, when someone in power decides that compassion belongs only to some,” Budde said.
The woman argued strategically and used Jesus’ own words against him. She told him that even the dogs eat the crumbs from the master’s table and Jesus understood her point. He also heard a deeper meaning to his mission and was grateful.
“Whenever we challenge authority, it is not just the mean-spirited people we challenge. We challenge our loved ones when they are wrong, when we see something that others don’t,” said Budde. “The Canaanite woman trusted Jesus to be true to himself, so she made a point he could hear.”
Budde shared the story of Stacy, a woman who was raised by her grandmother. Stacy came to faith as a child but as a teenager she realized that she was attracted to girls. She knew it was a sin and in various foster homes and even living with her best friend’s family, she was encouraged to pray to be forgiven of her sin and healed.
Stacy told Budde, “I always felt Jesus’ love, and when I joined an evangelical church I tried to pray the gay out of me.”
When she grew up, Stacy became a foster mother to a four-year-old girl. The girl attended the daycare at the church where Stacy belonged. One day the daycare authorities said her daughter could no longer attend “because the child was bad.”
Sitting in Budde’s living room with her wife, Stacy said, “I knew she was not bad. I knew the church was wrong about her and about me. I learned that loving women was a part of me, not a sin to be forgiven, that I was loved by Jesus. I realized the authorities misrepresented Jesus, because Jesus would never reject a child.”
Budde told the congregation that there are times when we all are on one side of the conversation to have our understanding of Jesus and faith broadened, or on the side where we dare to believe that what we see is greater than what others see, and we challenge authority.
“Sometimes, faithful persistence changes the one who was asking. Sometimes the change is in the one who is being asked. In Jesus, both are possible. So we needn’t despair or give up on one another or give up on the church. But like the women surrounding Jesus, to persevere in hope and to persist in what we know,” Budde said.
The Rt. Rev. Eugene Sutton, senior pastor for Chautauqua, presided. Alicen Roberts, intern in the Department of Religion, read the scripture. The prelude was “Retrospection,” by Florence Price, played by organ scholar Owen Reyda on the Massey Memorial Organ. The Motet Choir, singing a cappella under the direction of the Interim Director of Sacred Music Sonya Subbayya Sutton, sang “ Let the Life I’ve Lived Speak for Me,” music by Gwyneth Walker, words by G. Walker, altered. Sutton played “Choral Varié sur le thème du Veni Creator. Support for this week’s chaplaincy and preaching is provided by Week One Presenting Sponsor Erie Insurance and the Gladys R. Brasted and Adair Brasted Gould Memorial Chaplaincy.
