"At Your Limit?" | Rev. Dr. Donovan Drake preaching | 08.16.26

"At Your Limit?" | Rev. Dr. Donovan Drake preaching | 08.16.26

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SPEAKER_01 0:06

Well, about eight hours ago I was landing at BNA, so uh pray for me this morning. Uh the gospel of Matthew is the only gospel that mentions an organization by name, that organization being the church. It is a gospel that is written some fifty or sixty years after the resurrection, which is probably about two generations at that time, if you think about it. And while Matthew may have written his gospel to provide a historical narrative about Jesus, this is what happened with Jesus, Matthew also has an aim of teaching his congregation. All the gospels have that aim of making a point, of teaching a congregation. He pointed his narrative to address the situation at hand in his community. His church. And he does this right from the beginning of his gospel with the genealogy of Jesus. And for most folks, the genealogy is a list of names, but to Matthew's community, those names are stories. Matthew writes to Jews who have become followers of Jesus. He begins his genealogy with Abraham, and you know that that isn't just a name, but it's stories, stories on stories. Of God telling Abraham that one day he will have children as many as the stars in the sky. We are children of Abraham. That's who we are. But Matthew does something unconventional for his time. In that genealogy, he also includes a few women. All of them are foreigners, and two of them are Canaanite foreigners. One, Tamar, who played the prostitute in order to get justice, and the other Rahab, who was a prostitute, who hid the spies who came over the walls of Jericho. All of them have a story that runs, as Stephanie likes to call it, I think, spicy. These are spicy stories. Stories of women who saved the day. Well, I tell you all this because Matthew has us encountering another Canaanite woman in our scripture this morning. And it is this scripture, a text that pushes our understanding of who Jesus is. But remember, Matthew is writing to a Jewish congregation who may have been at their limit as to how far the gospel could reach. Listen. From the Gospel of Matthew, the 15th chapter, verses 21 through 28, hear the word of God. Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre in 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. Jesus 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 master's table. Then Jesus answered, Woman, great is your faith, let it be done for you as your wish. And her daughter was healed from that moment. And this is the word of the Lord. Limits. There is a Canaanite woman who is at her limit. She is at her wit's end. Her daughter is sick. Canaanite means nothing to us unless we are able to substitute Canaanite with some nationality that we think less of. Hopefully that task is difficult to come up with a group of people we think less of. I know people in our own congregations who have flown their child to the best hospital in the world. Because when it comes to your child's health, you do the research, you spend money without thinking, you do anything you can to help, no limit. This woman, no limit. She's done her research, she knows about Jesus, she identifies him. None of this good teacher stuff, none of this, oh, I can see that you're a very religious man stuff. No. Have mercy on me, Lord. This foreign woman knows him as Lord. Son of David. She's read his genealogy. I know where you come from. Can I call you cuz? You have a little Canaanite in you. Remember? Son of David, my daughter is tormented by a demon. Have mercy on me, Lord Son of David. My daughter is tormented by a demon. Have mercy on me, son of David. My daughter is tormented by a demon. What should happen next is what always happens next. Jesus should say, Take me to your child, and upon his arrival, heal her. What should happen next is what always happens next. Jesus should say, Because you spoke the truth about who I am, your daughter has been made well. What should happen is what always happens. The child is healed. Matthew says, Jesus did not answer her. That's not Jesus. It is, however, me. I have an aversion to complicated ministry. I simply don't have time for it. For example, a few Sundays ago, Jessie, who is on our youth staff, our blessed youth staff, came up to me after worship and said, Donovan, I want you to meet this woman. And I can't remember her name. I think her name was Carol. We'll call her Carol. And I smiled and I shook Carol's hand and she smiled back at me. Jesse said, Carol has come to this church, and she has no idea why she's here. And I said, Well, she'll fit right in. I didn't say that. What Jesse was trying to convey to me was that Carol was losing her memory, and for some reason, unknown to Carol and to all of us, she ended up on our doorstep. To lose your memory. So sad and so frightening. I know the call that says, Dad has taken the keys, and he's been gone for quite some time. We don't know where he is, and we think he doesn't know where he is. The senior alert. Can you help me find my father? There in the parlor, Jesse looked at me and said, What should we do? Now you have to understand, I have preached a couple of sermons, and I had to talk to people, and as an intro, that is an exhausting day. And as I said, I have an aversion to complicated ministry, so I said to Jesse, you have me confused with the associate pastors. We did, for some reason, have some address that we thought maybe was her address, and I looked it up, and it just so happened that her address matched up closely to where Ashley Higgins, our associate for young adults, lived. And so I yelled over to Ashley in the parlor, hey Ashley, can this woman follow you home? We think she lives near you. And once I handed this ministry off to my capable staff, I went off to a deserted place to pray. And what I can tell you about this story is somehow Carol found her way home. What I can tell you is, I really didn't have to be involved. What I can tell you is I shouldn't be that way. But I'm that way. But Jesus can't be that way. Jesus is better than that. Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David, for my daughter is tormented by a demon. Have mercy on me, son of David, for my daughter is tormented by a demon. Jesus was silent. She was not. Have mercy on me, son of David, for my daughter is tormented by a demon. Have mercy on the Jesus. The disciples were not silent. Jesus, send her away, for she keeps shouting after us. It is the affliction of the church. People shout at us and want something all the time. They need something. They think they should get something because we're the church. What do they take us for? The body of Christ? Send her away, for she keeps shouting us, we have our limits. We're not God. But Jesus is. And Jesus keeps his silence to the woman. He speaks to his disciples, and the words he speaks are theological. I love this. I love a good theological answer. They are so high and lifted up, they soar without limits, they're way up there. They are so high up there that they are no earthly good. A theological answer can say to a hungry person, as the Bible says, lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands make for wealth. That's what the Bible says. A theological answer can see a person stuck on the side of the road and say, as the Bible says, no harm befalls the righteous, but the endless, but the endless are the misfortunes of the wicked. That's what the Bible says. A theological answer can see a woman whose daughter is possessed by a demon and says, as the word of the Lord says, I was sent to the lost sheep of Israel. Jesus has set a limit. And if you're not the woman in this story, the fact that Jesus set a limit is good news indeed, isn't it? You know the gospel's for us, but it's not for everyone. We have a well-defined ministry. We are to focus on the lost sheep of Israel. That's good news. We can deal with people who look like us, talk like us, like the same food that we like, vote like us. The only difference is they're lost. Come out, come out wherever you are. Come out, come on. Well, they know where to find us. I was sent to the lost sheep of Israel. That's good news indeed. Now we know the parameters. We know our limits. Good news. Unless you're the mother of that sick child. And she comes and kneels at his feet. She won't leave him alone. Not because she's a mom. She won't leave him alone because she has a theological answer and a good theological answer. For this theological answer gives a damn about the people of the earth. It's a theological answer that knows that mercy has no limits. And maybe she knows her scripture. Maybe she knows the story of Elijah who came over the border to the widow of Zarephath during the drought, a widow who was making her last meal for her son so that they could eat and then die. And as she's making that meal with that little bit of flour and that little bit of oil, the knock on the door, and guess what? An old prophet shows up just in time to take from their food. But she welcomes him in. We're just having a last a last supper here. And you know the story. The jar of flour never empties. The jar of oil is always full. She's got she's got a bakery on her hand. It doesn't end. No limits, plenty of bread, no limit. Maybe she knows the prophet Isaiah. Arise, Jerusalem, all the nations of the world shall come to your light. Arise. No limits. Maybe she knows your scripture, remembering King Solomon prayer at the dedication of the temple. Lord, when the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel, but has come from a distant land because of your name, for they will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm, when they pray at the temple, do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the people of the earth may know your name and fear you as your own people, as your own people. She knows, Lord, have mercy. She knows God isn't into small things, belittling things. Even the dogs get the crumbs from the master's table. And there's the truth. She knows. Jesus knows that's the truth. Let it be done for you as you wish. Great is your faith. And those in Matthew's congregation who are celebrating this limited ministry, oh, lost sheep of Israel, good for us. Suddenly they have no limits. And Matthew, from now on, really hits it home. For this woman sets the table for what will happen in the very next paragraph. Great crowds of the lame, the blind, the maimed, the mute. They will be put at his feet. And Matthew says, Jesus healed them. And the great multitude becomes so great they've been following for three days, and Jesus says, I have compassion on them, for they have nothing to eat. And just as he fed five thousand Jews in a wilderness, he took some bread and he broke it and lifted his up eyes into heaven and said a prayer, and he gave the bread to his disciples. And they took up twelve basketfuls, and five thousand people were fed. Well, this time he does the exact same thing. Takes a few loaves of bread, looks up to heaven, blesses and breaks it, and gives it to his disciples. It sounds like communion. This time it's four thousand Gentiles. Seven basketfuls left over. Left over. There's plenty. Stuff yourselves. We are human. We are human. We have our limits. There's a time to be born and a time to die. We are limited souls. What's in between the time to be born and the time to die is life. And you can fill it with crap. And the world is doing that. Teaching us, begging us, inviting us to get smaller and smaller and smaller.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Talking to people who look like us, sound like us, vote like us. No. We have a call.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

Taste and see that the Lord is good. During this school year, we are going to focus on that psalm. Those little words, taste and see that the Lord is good. We're going to encourage each other to put the discipline back into discipleship, to go a little farther, to go a little over our limit. We all have our limits each and day, every day. We have our limits as to what we know about Jesus and who Jesus is and how much we pray. We have these limits. We have this life. The world demands more. Enough of the crumbs, we have a banquet. Taste and see that the Lord is good.