I believe!

The Gospel reading this morning (Matt 15:21-28) is perhaps one of the strangest we can find anywhere within the four gospels, strange because it seems to be totally out of character for Jesus to behave as he did.

As he is approached by the woman whose daughter is sick, Jesus just ignores her – he is only persuaded to listen to her because she perseveres, and even then he doesn’t give a very favourable response – saying he was sent only to help the lost sheep of Israel.

Not to be put off, she eventually comes before him, kneeling and says, ‘Lord, help me’. Even then, things don’t get any better. Jesus says, ‘It’s not fair to take children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ He is speaking in a language that was common to the Jews at the time, describing non-Jews as dogs. But the woman carries on saying that she doesn’t the food from the table, but that just some of the crumbs that fall off it will do.

So what is happening here ? The first thing to realise is that Jesus is remaining true to his calling and the promise of God to treat the people of Israel as a chosen race. Though they had rejected their calling so many times, God had not made the promise of a Messiah to Israel conditional – they remained the chosen people of God.

What Jesus had done however was to widen the message – his mission was first to put the Jewish people back on track, but they would then be expected to share the message with all.

But why did Jesus have to speak quite so bluntly? Well it might have been to get the message across, alternatively, it might have been exaggerated by Matthew as he wrote the gospel – Matthew was a Jew himself and realised the importance of trying to win over Jewish support for Jesus.

It seems that even Our Lord needed to have good Public Relations at some stages in his earthly ministry. It doesn’t make it any easier to read though.

Nothing’s new though, in recent days, I’ve been disappointed at the lack of a response from the church in relation to the riots in England. It seems that every English Bishop and Archbishop has nothing to say, apart from a speech in the House of Lords that Archbishop Rowan made.

I wanted them to condemn the widespread criminality, I wanted them to offer prayers and sympathy for those who have lost so much in the nights of violence, I wanted them to encourage churches to organize practical ways of helping rebuild their communities.

I have wanted our leaders to call for calm and peace, and then make a commitment to finding the causes of the riots, and understanding the many and varied difficulties that people live with in Britain today, and I wanted them to say that how precious a thing ‘community’ is, and we should be using all the resources we have to live in community.

I also wanted to challenge some of the statements I have heard that haven’t been helpful, stigmatizing whole groups of people and calling for the families of those who have rioted to be evicted and pilloried, encouraging communities to turn against them.

I’ve worked with people in inner cities and I’ve worked with people who feel they have nothing to live for and I can tell you that there is only one thing that creates calm and peace in our communities. It is an honest attempt to get them to feel some sort of pride for their area.

I’ve been gardening in a green patch in the middle of a housing estate, making a quiet area for the use of the community. I’ve been painting murals with people who are having their ideas put in ten-foot high artwork, I’ve sat alongside those who are proud of their community shop which acts as the centre of almost everything that happens. I have seen the pride people have in the things we take for granted, I have seen the love with which people try to glue their broken community together.

The English Bishops are silent, most politicians are silent, but I’m not.

People will have their pound of flesh, but we all know, deep down, that the only way we can stop the violence, the criminality, the loss and the upset is to listen to what’s really happening. “It’s an issue for society as a whole and not a question of who is the strongest. More police won’t solve this, but more understanding will”

As Christians we are called not just to attend Church on a Sunday, not even just to love God, and to pray to him and worship him – we are not even just called to love and care for those we meet – but we are called to make a difference for good.

The real hero of the Gospel is the one who had the least! The woman had no doubt about who Jesus was, and she had no doubt that he had the power to save her daughter, and that he would save her daughter. First, she was ignored and then she was argued with, but none of that made her go away or give up, and Jesus tells her that it is her faith that has healed the girl.

My simple prayer is that we can all work together to understand the importance of ‘community’, not just as something that brings us together, but something that gives us purpose, pride and belonging too.

I’d like to finish with one quote as we think about faith and it’s a quote that was found on the walls of a bomb blasted air raid shelter in Germany after the Second World War : ‘I believe in the light, even when the sun doesn’t shine. I believe in love, even when it isn’t given. I believe in God even when his voice is silent.’ I’d like to add, ‘I believe in community, even when our cities are burning’.