Jesus' Prejudice - Still Doesn't Make It Right

Due to our Vacation Bible School activities, I was not able to write a St. B’s News article last week about the troubling events that have been occurring in Ferguson, MO since August 9th, and while we had a good group of parishioners at the 8:30 service, many of you did not hear my sermon in response to the events of the week.  I do invite you to listen to that sermon, which is posted on our website – www.stbarnabas-sbnj.org.  The Gospel lesson that it refers to is Matthew 15:21-28:
Jesus left Gennesaret and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon." But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, "Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." He answered, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instantly.
I love the story of the Canaanite woman because she stands up for herself and her family in the face of prejudice.  I love this story for how utterly human Jesus is,  so caught up in the moment that he can’t see the big picture, when he is usually the ONLY on that sees the big picture.  And I love the fact that Jesus is healed just as much as the woman’s daughter by this encounter, transformed forever because he listened and was moved to change his way of thinking.
Too often in race relations in the United States, we are so busy talking, yelling and shouting that we forget to listen.  There is such a desire to defend and protect a perception of one’s way of life that hearing another point of view is anathema. The situation in Ferguson did not start with Michael Brown’s death.  His death is the result of years of systematic oppression, for which there are no easy answers or fixes.  It will take years for any antiracism program to do some good work, but it first has to start.  And it can’t start while everyone is so sure they are right and the other is wrong.
Each of us can start on ourselves in our own context by being aware of our prejudices.  We all have them – the difference is how we response to them.  Do we build ourselves up in order to tear the other down, or do we admit our brokenness and frailty, and them do what Jesus did and listen to what the other is saying in order to change how we live?

While the answer seems obvious, it is hard to do – so hard that our society has yet to actually catch up with the laws that have been effect for 50 years.  And, as we see from the reading, prejudice as been around since Jesus’ time, and indeed well before then – remember the story of Cain and Abel.  That doesn’t mean prejudice is meant to exist or continue.  I believe that a true sign that the Kingdom of God has come near is when prejudice is irradiated.  I believe it is possible.  Do you?

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