After all I have done for you, how could you turn away from
me? The Lord reminds His people that He
brought them out of Egypt and delivered them from the Moabites. They have not experienced that for themselves,
that was an earlier generation and they, like we, are a "what have you
done for me lately" generation. The
question of what does the Lord require is an important one. We want to believe that if I put the money in
the slot then I get what I want. The important
thing is not to atone for sin, but to live as the Lord commands, to live by the
Spirit and do justice, love kindness and walk humbly before Him.
The Canaanite woman has only one thing on her heart, the
healing of her daughter, and she is willing to suffer any indignity in order to
receive what Jesus has to offer. The
disciples tell Jesus to send her away so she will stop crying out after
them. Jesus responds with a statement
that says, you are not important to my mission, you are an outsider and I only
care about the lost sheep of Israel. He
next calls her a dog, expressing the attitude of many Israelites, and possibly
the disciples, towards gentiles. She,
however, is desperate and also believes Jesus can do something about the
situation so is willing to play along and continue her entreaty on His terms,
even dogs get scraps from the table. Our
prayer of humble access in the liturgy picks up on this idea, "We are
not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table." That
is walking humbly before Him and her faith is rewarded in the healing of her
daughter.
It 's good to be
you. That is Paul's argument here, that
the Corinthians stand on the sidelines and enjoy life while he and the other
apostles do all the work and suffer all the pains of rejection and
humiliation. He is calling the
Corinthians to battle, to get their hands dirty and to share in both the work
and the disapprobation. Apparently the
Corinthian church has much in common with today's church where we tend to let
the professionals do the work while the congregation congregates. I am certainly not complaining personally but
there are many voices out there calling the church to re-engage in mission and
outreach rather than simply gathering for worship and sending in the tithe
checks. The Lord has called and equipped
us all for the work of ministry. Part of
walking humbly is giving our lives for His service.
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