Sermons

Last Saturday, a week ago from yesterday, the presidential election was called, finally. It had been a long week filled with anxiety, foreboding, and hope. But it followed an even longer four years of worry. A four years of many people worrying about their immigration status; their ability to marry the person they love; our ability, as a nation to deal with big issues from police reform to climate change to the daily toll of gun violence. Not that we were doing such a great job of dealing with these issues more than four years ago, but last week, it seemed space to breathe and act opened up. And there was joy. More

We have to be careful here because Jesus initially treats this woman very, very badly. There is nothing that can take away how painful it is that Jesus calls a woman in need a dog. And it’s not particularly soothing that she uses that same dog language to expand his thinking. It’s insulting and baffling, and I don’t think we should easily move on from that stumbling block. I do want to say that the Rev. Dr. Joy Jay Moore[3] reflected on this text by saying that she did not think it was ok that a woman of color or a minority woman had to argue for her humanity, argue for the fact that she was made in the image of God to God itself. Instead she preferred to interpret the text that Jesus was voicing the prejudices of his peers, knowing, all along, the humanity of the woman in front of him. More