Have you ever noticed that Jesus never tells a joke or that we sometimes miss the irony of his statements to the people around him? We don't get a clear picture of what every single conversation was like with Jesus. So it makes me wonder if we aren't really "getting" this conversation between Jesus and this woman.
Let's look again. A Canaanite woman approaches Jesus and asks for her daughter to be healed. She is an outsider--not a Jew, not a follower of Jesus (as far as we can tell), and she's a woman. Based on what we know about how Jesus interacted with outsiders, she makes a perfect candidate for getting Jesus' attention! And she even addressed him as the Son of David--in other words, she acknowledges him as the answer to the hope for a Messiah.
But the disciples, in normal fashion, tell Jesus to send her away. Perhaps they find her annoying and too demanding. Perhaps they are turned off by her because she's a Canaanite and not a Jew. Perhaps it's the shear fact that she's a woman...not worthy of Jesus' time and attention. And what does Jesus say? "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel".
Now here's where I want you to consider a new way of reading this text. What if the lost sheep are the disciples...those followers of Jesus who never seemed to get it right. Those folks who fought over who should sit at his right hand. Those folks who until the Crucifixion didn't always understand who Jesus really was. If we were to understand Jesus' statement as directed to the disciples, then the "test" that Jesus gives to the woman is not to really test her faith, but to set an example for his lost sheep disciples. And that test is really all about God's inclusive love and healing power. Who are the disciples to decide who is worthy of that?
Who are we to decide who is worthy of God's love and healing? So often we get caught up in doing the "right" thing...those societal norms and expectations, that we end up excluding people. Recently, a friend asked me if the church was going to vote about whether or not to allow gays and lesbians in. She asked with tears in her eyes because she had raised her gay son in the church and just couldn't imagine that he wouldn't be welcome. Are we in the business of determining who's in and who's out? Who's worthy of God's love and who's not? I would argue that in the past we sure did think we were! The Civil Rights movement and the Women's Liberation movements have all shown us the terrible reality of what happens when God's children are excluded. And in many ways, we're still dealing with these issues.
At last year's Diocesan Convention, the question was raised about open communion. Were non-baptized people welcome to receive communion. Last time I checked, Jesus wasn't checking IDs at the door. As a matter of fact, Jesus seems to have eaten with everyone, and often used table fellowship as a teaching tool for how we should live together as children of God.
So I invite you to consider if you've been trying to shoo God away from noticing someone, somehow making them feel unworthy of God's love and healing. But also remember, God can never be shoo'd away...and everyone is worthy.