February 28, 2021 By Fr. Spencer Fr. Sean’s Sermon for Lent II </iframe> <p class="has-text-align-center"><em>“O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.”</em></p> <p>This week’s readings both focus on the same theme of perseverance unto holiness. The call to perseverance comes at the right time, too, within our Lenten walk. Already, we have probably struggled to keep some of our Lenten disciplines. Last week’s call to use abstinence of fasting to subdue our flesh to the Spirit seems like a high call day after day for forty days. So, it is no surprise, that this week is a call to perseverance in holiness, and one that is tempered with Godly wisdom. We are continually tempted as humans to think our sanctification is all up to us. To persevere is just to tough it out on our own until God recognizes the good job we have done.. Of course, that is just silly. The Collect for this week openly reminds us that we have no power to help ourselves. Rather, God continually works with us to grow more and more <em>into</em> the gifts that He has already granted us. In Latin, the verb “persevere” meant the same as English, as to adhere strictly, or to continue steadfastly. But the verb was often used for ships, as in, the ship kept on its course, and I like to think of that metaphor as we steer ourselves into the way of holiness by following Holy Mother Church and not turning against the Holy Spirit.</p> <p>This is what Paul is telling the Thessalonians in the Epistle. It might seem at first glance that the Thessalonians were struggling to keep their course, but in fact, Paul has just spent the first few chapters of his Epistle praising them! In fact, the Thessalonians are not falling into heresy like the Galatians or torn asunder by sexual sin like the Corinthians. Rather, Paul is taking this chance while they are still afloat to urge them to continue towards holiness and not steer away from the will of God. Though he is not calling the Thessalonians to repent, he is still just as urgent in his call for this church to abound more and more. For Paul, the direction of their spiritual growth and life is, in some sense, more important than their current state–this is why his encouragement to Thessalonike seems just as urgent and intense as his calls for Corinth and Galatia to repent. As John Keble, the great Anglo-Catholic divine, commented on this passage: “one indispensable mark of true repentance is a daily, unwearied endeavour to improve.” You can see this in St. Paul whether he is writing to the churches that need to repent or to the churches he is encouraging to continue: do not weary, but endeavor to improve.</p> <p>The Epistle, though, still leaves us with the question of how do we go about persevering, and to answer that question, we now turn to the Gospel.</p> <p>The area of Tyre and Sidon are far from the normal action in Matthew, and an area not under Jewish influence. Here a Canaanite woman approaches him, begging him to help her. Her initial requests are met with silence from Jesus, and when his disciples push him to respond, he says, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel”(Mt 15:24). The response is not meant to be harsh–Jesus knows his ministry and to whom he is sent: the lost sheep of Israel, a significant word choice. This passage echoes Ezekiel 34, a passage highlighting the promise of a messiah, a savior for Israel:</p> <p><em>And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them.(Ez 34:22-24)</em></p> <p>Jesus is the new David, the Good Shepherd whose mission on earth is to bring salvation to the people of Israel. Jesus’ silence towards the woman and his declaration of his mission is as scandalous as God declaring that Israel was his special nation in the OT.</p> <p>What is incredible is that this woman not only recognizes Jesus, but names him as the Son of David. She is acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah for Israel. Therefore, Jesus’ reply, ” It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs” is not ridicule. Jesus’ use of the word dog is not pointed at her directly, but was a common term Jews used for Gentiles. This might surprise us that Jesus is using a racial slur, but in the least it should remind us just how Jewish Jesus was. He is surprised that this Gentile knows his role for Israel.</p> <p>The Canaanite woman is not deterred and proves her humility and faith. She knows that she does not deserve the miraculous healing of the Jewish messiah and accepts her position as a Gentile, separated from the Jews. In her humble reply, she has accepted that position, her own being, does not merit healing. It is as if she says, “Yes, Lord, I am considered a dog. I know I am not your child. I do not merit your full blessing as your children do, but what I ask is small.”</p> <p>This cry of hope looks for the healing of her daughter, the restoration of sickness and power over the devil. But it also is a hope in God’s love for all people, including the Gentiles. It is a hope that her prayers will be heard and that she will changed from a dog to a child. It is hope that God’s plan includes an ontological change for all people. This is the hope of the Church: the anticipation that God’s will, that His finality will be done for us and all creation. It is not a wishful hope (Oh, I hope UVa will win this year…) but a grounded assurance, an anchor for our faith. This is the hope we foster during Lent. We repent knowing that God seeks to forgive. We fast knowing that we are freed from our lusts. We abstain knowing that Jesus provides for us. We pray knowing that we are heard. We hope knowing that Jesus has the authority to change us from dogs to become children of God, heirs of his kingdom.</p> <p>The Canaanite woman is a great example for our Lenten approach for we see the virtue of Hope as the ground of her perseverance. In Lent it is easy to focus on our sins and shame (which are undeniable). It is easy to think of ourselves as dogs, trash, useless. 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