Sermon for Sunday 16th August 2026, Trinity 11

Rev Petra Elsmore

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OLD TESTAMENT READING

Isaiah 56.1,6-8

 

This is what the Lord says:

‘Maintain justice
   and do what is right,
for my salvation is close at hand
   and my righteousness will soon be revealed.

 

6  And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord
   to minister to him,
to love the name of the Lord,
   and to be his servants,
all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
   and who hold fast to my covenant –

7 these I will bring to my holy mountain
   and give them joy in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
   will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
   a house of prayer for all nations.’

8 The Sovereign Lord declares –
   he who gathers the exiles of Israel:
‘I will gather still others to them
   besides those already gathered.’

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GOSPEL READING

Matthew 15:21-28

 

21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.’

23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, ‘Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.’

24 He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.’

25 The woman came and knelt before him. ‘Lord, help me!’ she said.

26 He replied, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.’

27 ‘Yes it is, Lord,’ she said. ‘Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.’

28 Then Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.’ And her daughter was healed at that moment.

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INTRODUCTION

Before we begin, you can see that I have a l rope here, and I will make a small circle.

 

I need couple of helpers to stand inside it (invite children or young people to come forward, ask for help from other members of congregation if needed):

“Imagine this circle means: these are the people who belong.”

Then invite another child in. Make a little more room. Then another.

Ask:

“What happens when more people want to belong?”

Hopefully someone will suggest making the circle bigger.

Make it bigger, and then ask:

 

“What about somebody who has never been to church before? Someone who comes from somewhere completely different from us? Someone we don't understand very well? Someone other people don't particularly like?”

 

Eventually open the rope out completely.

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“I wonder whether sometimes we spend too much time deciding who should be inside the circle,  And leave the rope there as you begin.

 

SERMON

 

One of the things I find fascinating about the Gospels is how much we learn about Jesus through the encounters he has with individual people.

 

Of course we do learn a great deal from his teaching, but some of the most revealing moments happen when Jesus meets people, really “meets’ people.

 

Think about the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus should probably not, according to the conventions of his time, have been having that conversation with her at all. She was a woman, a Samaritan, someone from a different religious and cultural community. Yet Jesus talks with her. He listens to her questions. He takes her seriously.

And we learn something about Jesus: he crosses boundaries that other people regard as important.

 

Think of Zacchaeus, the tax collector whom everybody despised. Jesus does not begin by giving him a lecture about everything that is wrong with his life. He notices him, calls him by name and goes to his home and they share meal together. And we learn that Jesus does not simply define people by their reputation or by their past.

 

Think of Bartimaeus, the blind man beside the road. Everyone else is telling him to be quiet, but Jesus shows him compassion, he stops and asks him: “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus allows a man whom others are silencing to speak for himself.

 

Or the woman who had been ill for twelve years with bleeding, who reaches through the crowd and touches Jesus' cloak. Jesus could have allowed her to slip away unnoticed, but he stops. He looks for her. He calls her “Daughter”.

What we learn here about Jesus is that his concern goes really deep, by healing the woman he also restores her dignity and her position in the society.

 

Think also about the children whom the disciples try to send away because, presumably, they think Jesus has more important things to do. But Jesus thinks otherwise, he thinks children really matter, “Let the little children come to me,” he says, “and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

 

Through all these encounters we see that Jesus notices people, that he truly listens to them, that he is deeply moved by their circumstances, we see that he is ready to cross boundaries that others would not cross, that he sees people whom others overlook.

 

And all these encounters matter, I think, because they remind us that Jesus was genuinely human.

 

At the very heart of our faith is the Incarnation: the extraordinary belief that in Jesus, God truly came among us and shared our human life, something we properly celebrate at Christmas, but need to remember throughout the year.

When Jesus lived, he experienced human life in its fullness; the Gospels tell us that Jesus grew in wisdom. We see him hungry and tired. We see him weeping. We see him angry. We see him moved with compassion.

 

And we see that the people he meets matter to him.

 

As we think about the humanity of Jesus as we see it reflected through the Gospel stories, we also learn through those stories something important about God. Because all that we notice about Jesus reflects to us something important about the nature of God.

 

So in Jesus we see God who takes notice and listens, who is not afraid to cross the boundaries created by us, we see God who is full of compassion and mercy, who restores dignity and welcomes all because we all are made in the image of God.

 

God’s love reaches people whom respectable religion might have placed outside the circle. And so with this knowledge we come to today's encounter of Jesus with the Canaanite woman.

 

There are couple of stories in the Gospels, where my first reaction is, ‘hm, I am not sure I like this Jesus….” The stories where he shows anger or is being dismissive, like in this case and it takes a moment to get my head around it. But there is an extraordinary depth to this story.

 

What seems more difficult about this story, is that this time the boundary does not seem to be drawn by the disciples or by the crowd but rather by Jesus, how can it be?

 

The woman comes to him because her daughter is suffering terribly. She cries out to him and Jesus does not answer.

The disciples want her sent away but she persists.

Jesus says that he has been sent to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel”. But still she comes. “Lord, help me, she says.”

And then comes that exchange about the children's bread and the dogs.

She could have walked away then, her dignity was likely hurt, disappointed. Many would have walked away in her place. Instead she takes Jesus' words and answers him: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.”

 

And something changes, because Jesus says: “Woman, great is your faith.” And her daughter is healed.

 

There are different ways people have understood this passage. Some have said that Jesus knew all along what he would do and that he was simply testing her.  To me this answer often comes because people could not reconcile themselves with the idea that Jesus could have decided to change his mind, that the encounter might have helped him to understand better the purpose of his mission, that he allows himself to be challenged.

 

This woman knew God and had a deep faith and so she would not accept that God's mercy should stop at the boundary between Jew and Gentile. And it is through her faith, and persistence and because of the deep love for her daughter that Jesus is challenged to see the scope of his ministry differently.

 

And as always Jesus listens and because he listens, he changes his response. And that brings us directly to the reading from Isaiah. Because what is being revealed here in the Gospel reading is not actually something completely new. Centuries earlier Isaiah had spoken of foreigners, those who traditionally might have been regarded as outsiders, being welcomed by God.

 

The Lord says:

 

my house will be called
   a house of prayer for all nations.’

The Sovereign Lord declares –
   he who gathers the exiles of Israel:
‘I will gather still others to them
   besides those already gathered.’

 

The vision that God has for his creation, for all people, was always bigger than what people themselves imagined.

The mercy was always wider too. Religion has often been very good at drawing boundaries.

 

Who belongs? Who does not?

Who believes the right things? Who behaves in the right way? Who is acceptable? Who is good enough?

 

Who is of the right age, the right gender, the right race or class, who has the right partner….

 

Going back to thinking about Jesus' encounters with people, perhaps as we consider them, we should stop asking the question about others. “Do they belong?” Instead we should ask ourselves “Can I see them?”Can I listen to them? Can I recognise their dignity? Can I allow their experience to challenge me?

 

Because sometimes the person standing outside our circle may have something to teach us about God. This story and the reading from Isaiah help us see that God's mercy is always wider than the boundaries we are tempted to put around it. That does not mean that everything is the same, or that there are no difficult questions of right and wrong which we may need to wrestle with. But hopefully, it means that before we decide who is worthy of God's love, or even our own kindness, we might remember this woman, and the encounter with Jesus and we may learn to listen, to notice, to turn to others with compassion and mercy.

 

In Isaiah we read: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

 

Perhaps our task as the Church is not to keep wondering who may come in, whom to extend welcome, but allow ourselves to be challenged by the differences we fear, and to trust that there really is a wideness in God's mercy — wider than our prejudices and the boundaries that we draw to keep some people on the other side…

 

May God help us to truly listen, to show compassion and mercy and to welcome those who try to draw closer to God, who try to belong. Amen.