She Sits Alone - A Sermon for Sunday August 16 2026

Gospel: Matthew 15:[10-20] 21-28

The holy gospel according to Matthew.

Glory to you, O Lord.

Jesus teaches his disciples that true purity is a matter of the heart rather than outward religious observances. Almost immediately, this teaching is tested when a woman considered to be a religious outsider approaches him for help.

[10 [Jesus] called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand:11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” 12 Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” 13 He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” 15 But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” 16 Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach and goes out into the sewer? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. 19 For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”]
  21 Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 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.” 23 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.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26 He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” 27 She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 28 Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that moment.

The gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

For my house shall be called a house of prayer
  for all peoples.
 8 Thus says the Lord God,
  who gathers the outcasts of Israel:
 I will gather others to them
  besides those already gathered.

There’s a woman, a mother of two children.

Let’s call her Mandy.

Mandy is a faithful Lutheran,

bringing her children to Sunday School,

worshipping more regularly

than some others twice her age.

But she sits alone.

I’d noticed her,

Maybe that’s part of the pastor’s job,

but I made a point of sitting with Mandy.

She sat alone in her pew.

She sat alone at the potluck lunch.

Then she sat alone at fellowship time.

It was a pattern - she almost always sat alone,

but I don’t think it was her choice.

Mandy had two kids,

she had to get them sorted for lunch,

and they’d sit down first,

with room for others to join.

The tables would fill around her,

one by one,

and once all those gathered had filled their plates,

and found their chairs,

Mandy still sits alone.

But somehow, for some reason,

she kept coming to church,

bringing her kids,

walking past the “All Are Welcome” sign,

even though she sits alone.

She is faithful.

She believes in Jesus,

She hungers for the sacrament,

she listens for God’s voice.

Yet she sits alone,

outcast in her own house of faith.

Why was Mandy an outcast at church?

what did people have against her?

Mandy had every reason to shake off the dust from her feet

and leave that church in the dust.

But even though she sits alone,

she still comes.

Jesus came to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

This is not Jesus’ home,

it is just north of the Galilee.

The Canaanite - Syrophoenician woman

belongs to a race and religion

that was not well tolerated by Jews,

and she dares ask to ask Jesus - a Jewish Rabbi

for the demon to be cast out of her daughter.

She has two reasons to ask Jesus for healing:

1. because her daughter needs it

and 2. because she believes Jesus

has the power to heal.

She also has plenty of reasons not to ask Jesus:

She’s the wrong gender,

wrong race,

wrong religion -

and her daughter is possessed by a demon to boot.

Plenty of reason not to ask Jesus for help.

But she asks anyway.

Great is her faith!

I should pause and say this part is hard for us,

and maybe it should be hard for us.

The Canaanite woman asks Jesus for help …

and Jesus called her a dog.

Ironically in this story,

it is Jesus who is the outsider -

Jesus is the one who travelled into her land

and insulted her.

Jesus, completely God and completely human -

completely ignored her at first.

Finally, with the disciples urging Jesus to dismiss her,

Jesus responds with an insult:

“It is not fair to take the children's food

and throw it to the dogs.”

Let that sit for a second:

The Saviour you trust to heal your daughter

calls you a dog.

This word “Dog” - κυναρίοις (Koon-air-ee-oys)

in Greek was most certainly a common insult

that Jews gave to Syrophoenician people -

but it was no mere insult.

Their conversation was driven

by racism, sexism and prejudice.

In those times, dogs were not

the lovable pets they are today.

Women were not viewed as equal with men.

Jesus did not call her a pretty puppy.

Jesus came into her home town,

and called her a female,

scavenging,

begging dog.

The best English translation

would be calling someone a five letter word

for a female dog

with a racial slur before it.

I wont say the words out loud

because I really like my job,

But I think you know some of the

insult-cuss-word-racial-slurs that I’m talking about…

And the fact that we’ve all been able

to think of some of these slurs

should be proof enough that we have all

learned racist tendencies,

we have learned gender insults

and we all can easily hold prejudices.

It’s time for us to recover from our racism & prejudices.

Jesus did.

You’ve heard the adage before: God does not change.

Well, yes and no.

We’ve learned from the prophets and stories like Jonah

that God’s mind changes sometimes.

God’s character does not change,

God is always faithful and just,

but God can change God’s own mind.

Today’s Gospel declares it.

There are two main historical interpretations

for Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman:

Either Jesus was creating

some kind of test of faith for her,

or this woman persuaded Jesus - changed his mind.

I’m not convinced that this is the ever-wise God

testing this woman’s faith

through cultural and gender insults.

That is not how God works -

Our God is not in the business of parlour tricks

and showmanship.

Silly Christian, tricks are for the devil!

Jesus is completely God,

and completely human,

and to be completely human,

Jesus had to have the human experience.

To learn to crawl before walking on water,

to learn carpentry before taking on the cross,

For Jesus to be human,

means Jesus had to learn and grow just like us.

We all are given opportunities to change and grow -

and even the best of us needs to be put in our place 

every now and again.

This unnamed woman turns Jesus’ insult around -

“even the dogs wait for the crumbs from the table.”

She believes that just a crumb

is enough to heal her daughter,

and she’s right.

All it takes is a little crumb from the Bread of Life.

This outsider, unclean, unnamed woman

had a better grasp on who Jesus is

than the disciples who asked her to be dismissed!

The ones the disciples say to dismiss

are the ones God brings in.

The Christ is not just hope for Israel,

but is hope for the whole world!

Even Jesus, Hope of the world,

the perfect One, the one without sin,

had to learn and grow in understanding.

If only more people today responded

like this Canaanite Woman in the face of prejudice.

I sure have trouble responding with grace and faith

when I am insulted.

In Mark’s Gospel,

after Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman,

Jesus returned to the Galilee,

but not before going to the Decapolis,

going to non-Jewish territory first,

and Jesus healed a deaf man there.

Jesus used the words “Ephphatha” which means

Be opened.

The Canaanite woman opened Jesus’ heart

reminding Jesus that the Christ is the Christ of all people,

even the one he had just called a dog.

May we too be opened.

We experience God in our relationships

and in my experience,

we learn the most about God

from the people who differ from us the most,

Like the Jewish Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman.

I also believe that we,

individually and as the church,

have trouble learning from the ones we label

“the outsiders.”

We too need to be opened by the Spirit

and the outcasts, alike.

It is apparent these days

that there are more people outside the church -

than inside -

and there are many different reasons why.

People have all sorts of reasons

for not going to church,

but it’s most often the behaviour of Christians

that is to blame.

It is part of the reason why our parking lot sign declares:

“All are welcome in this place”

It is why we have the guiding principle:

Living in God’s grace,

all are welcomed, included and treasured here.

There is a place at the table

for you, for any,

in the kingdom of God,

and we are doing our best to include any,

but sometimes we too need to grow.

There is a place at the table for you, for any,

but no one wants to sit alone.

The Communion Table is only the Communion Table

when I am not alone,

when I can sit or kneel or stand

with my sisters, brothers, and siblings in Christ,

even if it is just 2 or 3 gathered.

There aren’t too many of us who will keep coming to Jesus,

keep coming to church,

when we sit alone,

or when we face insults or prejudice;

Maybe just the Canaanite woman,

and Mandy and her children.

In my experience,

I’ve only met two women like Mandy,

who continue to come to church,

to seek out Jesus,

even though they sit alone.

I’ve met many more people

who sit alone,

and then don’t come back.

Many of God’s children find themselves outside the church -

because of the church,

because they’ve been emotionally abused,

or mistreated, or shamed,

by people like you and I - the church.

Sometimes, we Christians are the ones who speak

what we believe are words of wisdom

but are really just insults.

In today’s Gospel,

Jesus declared

“it is not what goes in the mouth that defiles,

but what comes out!”

Wise words … that greatly offended the religious folks.

I still haven’t told you why Mandy sits alone,

why Mandy was outcast in her own church.

All I’ll say is it was a thing or things

that were out of her control.

We can’t control our ethnicity, gender, sexuality, race,

we can’t control our age, physical ability, neurodivergence,

height, skin colour -

there are parts of our selves that we just can’t control,

parts that just are -

parts of our selves that God made intentionally,

and often those are the things people view prejudicially.

Jesus learned and grew from this interaction

with this Canaanite outsider.

We have so much to learn from todays outsiders,

from those who no longer sit alone in our buildings.

I’ve heard from many of you

about your sadness

over people whom you love and care about

who don’t worship with us anymore.

Perhaps it is time for us to start asking them ‘why?’

even though we might not like the answers.   

God is alive and at work in our world.

God is constantly entering new territory

and breaking boundaries.

This God is in the unsettling business

of meeting outsiders

and granting them not just a crumb,

but a place at the table,

so that no one sits alone.

No one is an outsider in the Kingdom of Heaven.

We all belong - side by side - at the Lord’s Table.

At this table - we are all beggars,

this is true,

but our hands don’t stay empty long.

The righteous and the unrighteous are fed here,

women and men and any person of any gender

is fed here.

Even the ones you’ve called a dog

have a place in the kingdom of God.

As we prepare to meet Jesus at the Lord’s Table today -

may you know in your heart

that indeed all you need … is a crumb -

but Jesus offers you more than you could ever ask or imagine.

May our eyes and ears be opened by God’s Spirit,

that in this community of faith,

no one need sit alone.

And should it come to pass that you are the one who sits alone,

trust and believe that

you are never alone with Jesus at your side.

Thanks be to God. Amen.