Dare to risk! CANON GRAEME WINTERTON
A Canaanite Woman’s Faith
HOLY TRINITY KEW
17TH. AUGUST 2014
Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” 23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” 25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. 26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” 27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” 28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment. Matthew 15.21-28
Of all the prayers contained within the Book of Common Prayer, perhaps the most cherished of them all is the ‘Prayer of Humble Access.’ It is a prayer that everyone instinctively knows they need to pray as they approach the Holy Communion to meet with the Lord in faith and dependence. The images stirred by the words transport us directly to the account in today’s Gospel of the Canaanite woman who with great determination, a fair degree of audacity and an unshakable strong faith approached Jesus on behalf of her suffering daughter. ‘We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table.’ are words drawn directly from the repartee which took place between her and Jesus and it drew his admiration. “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” The Character of Faith One of the most off putting things one can say to modern people is "Have faith!" Faith is viewed by many people in our time as a foolish thing.- a 'cop out'. Faith, some say, is an escape from reality. Yes Faith may be a cop out! I would agree with the sentiment if it is not based upon substance and is considered as a blind leap into the dark, as an escape, and an excuse for lazy thinking -‘a cop out!’ However on the other hand - Faith may be an expression of something very powerful indeed - Faith may be something founded upon a reality tested in the crucible of ·life which has emerged as immovable and unbreakable. The scripture states that ‘Without faith it is impossible to please God’ The statement is making clear the necessity for us to prove God to know God, and to remind us that such knowledge comes through trial and testing. Faith is known by Christians as something based upon hard tested reality. The woman who sought healing for her daughter is one of very few who were commended by Jesus for their faith. More often than not he was saddened, and often amazed at the lack of faith of the people. Do you remember what he said to the Roman Centurion who asked for his servant to be healed? Jesus remarked upon the strength of his Page 1 of 3
faith and said, ‘I have not even found such faith in the ·whole of Israel.’ Faith Defined The writer to the Hebrews defined faith in some length in chapter eleven. He introduced his exposition of the subject in these words: ‘To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see.’ The whole chapter then gives examples of this practical gritty earthy faith that is not for the fainthearted or fickle. The writer has us look at the whole picture gallery of our ancestors in the faith, giants of faith who were so certain of God that they counted their lives of little consequence. The line is traced from the beginning of biblical records - From Abel through to John the Baptist and in so doing makes the point that ‘There has never been a time when people have not been sure of God!’ The witness is constant. The message is : * God is real! *. God is to be trusted! Here are two Facts about Faith. First, Faith is profoundly reasonable. Second, Faith is a human necessity. Faith is reasonable Faith's foundational facts are the record of the intervention of God in human : history. The facts are recorded in well authenticated and attested documents and in collaborative experience by people in every generation. ‘Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.’ Rom 10 17 God formed humankind in the Divine image. with the capacity to reason, to think, to participate in a universe of order and law. God expects that we should question, and investigate. Push to the limit before we place the whole weight of our trust in him. When I visited Norfolk Island, the place of Bp. John Paton's ministry I learned about the problem he had whilst translating the Bible for South Seas Islanders. He discovered that they had no word for trust or faith. One day one of the people who had been running hard came into his house, flopped into a large chair and said, "It's good to rest my whole weight on this chair. Bishop Paton translated 'faith" as resting our whole 'Weight upon God! What a powerful, and practical insight this translation provides. Its a challenge too - I found myself asking ' Is my faith such that I really trust to the extent that I truly place my whole being, body soul and spirit, in the hands of God? Faith is a human necessity Faith is essential for wholeness of personality. Where would we be without faith in the word of other human beings ( even though we can fail each other) Without faith we would be subject purely to animal instinct and cease to function rationally and become cringing anguished beings filled with self-pity and fear. Faith saves us from self centredness for it directs us outside ourselves. Faith is essential for intellectual integrity. Openess to God means that we open' the door to a whole range of information which can enrich and expand our thinking. If we Page 2 of 3
deny the possibility of Divine presence and order and insist upon working only within a closed system of cause and effect we become guilty of a terrible narrow minded bigotry which shuts the door upon truth and the possibility of further discovery and fulfillment. Faith in God completes and fulfills us! Faith – A Gift The bible speaks of faith as a 'gift from God.' ' Faith stops us from going insane when our whole world turns mad. It sees that purpose exists within the universe. It lays hold of the continuity of life even in the face of tragedy and death. It is heart 'rending to see those whom we love suffer- but it is even. more tragic if we ‘sorrow as those without hope.’ For some time I had a screen saver on my computer. When the screen blanked out a message scrolled from right to left It read: ‘Dare to Risk!’ I placed it there to remind myself that ‘to Risk’ is at the centre of faith. The Canaanite woman who dared to approach Jesus risked exceedingly. Her faith was not a last desperate throw of the dice, a blind leap into the dark for she believed in Jesus on the basis of testimony and observation and was determined to risk racial discrimination, rejection, scorn, and failure in order to speak with him. I came across the words a university Chancellor in his charge to graduates during the conferring of degrees which underlined risk as a practical expression of real and authentic faith • • • • • • • • • • • •
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To laugh is-to risk appearing the fool. To 'Weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach for another is to risk involvement. To show your feelings is to risk revealing your true self. To place your ideas, your dreams, before a crowd is to risk their loss. To love is to risk not being loved in return. To live is to risk dying. To believe is to risk despair. To try is to risk failure, But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The people who risk nothing, do nothing, have nothing, are nothing. They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, or really live. Chained by their attitudes they are slaves; they have forfeited their freedom. Only a person who risks is free. see: Acts 15:25-26; Rom 16:3-1; Phi1. 2:29-30
"Without faith it is impossible to please God. For whoever comes to God·must believe that he is, and that he reveals himself to those who diligently seek him’ Heb.11:6
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