Matthew 15:22-28 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.” 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.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.
Ibram X. Kendi defines racist ideas as “an idea suggesting that one racial group is inferior or superior to another racial group in any way.” To be Canaanite was to be part of a wicked people group – marked for destruction as “Gentile dogs.” Initially, Jesus refused to interact with her because she was not one of the lost sheep of Israel (the superior group), but after she reminded Jesus that dogs eat too, he changed his position and extended the blessing of Israel to her as well. This story challenges the racist ideas deeply embedded in Jesus’s Israelite culture. In the past, our culture has only lifted up the stories of “white success” while erasing (or ignoring) stories of accomplishments by people of color. What is a story that has changed or challenged the dominant story of “White Supremacy?” How has that story changed or challenged your ideas of race/ethnicity?
Prayer: God of all peoples of the earth: we pray for an end to racism in all forms, and for an end to the denial that perpetuates white privilege, and for your support for all those who bear the struggle of internalized racism, and for wisdom to recognize and eradicate the institutional racism in the church, and for the strength to stand against the bigotry and suffering that inhabits the world; for all these and all your blessings we pray, O God, Christ Jesus, Holy spirit. Amen. Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook, from Race and Prayer: Collected Voices Many Dreams edited by Malcolm Boyd and Chester L. Talton (Morehouse Publishing, 2003), 50.
Tongue on Fire 