Scripture Reflections for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Year A, Lectionary 118
Jesus is addressing us as he speaks to the Canaanite woman of great faith. He remains silent as the woman pleads for pity and healing for her tormented daughter in order to hear how we will respond to the cry of someone we label as an outsider. Often we lose patience with such people and even beg God to remove them away from us. But Christ is showing us that those 'others' deserve healing and love as well. How we can learn a great deal about faith from others and to extend the same compassion and mercy as Jesus did.
Hate feeling lost on Sundays at church? Searching for a better explanation of the Bible than what you hear from your pastor's sermon? Check out the following collection of audio, video, and text commentaries from various Christian experts for a better understanding of today's scripture that deal with: Border • Boundary • Canaanite • Chosen • Conversion • Cooperate • Cross • Dialogue • Disciple • Division • Dog • Evangelize • Exclusion • Faith • Gather • Gentile • Grace • Healing • Inclusion • Initiate • Listen • Mercy • Ministry • Mission • Outsider • Paul • Persevere • Persistence • Perspective • Prayer • Prejudice • Reconciliation • Salvation • Silence • Understand • Unity • Welcome • Wind • Wisdom • Women •
“if that becomes the catalyst, the springboard for the gospel going out to the pagans then what will their acceptance of Jesus' messiahship mean but life from the dead”
“we must be committed to take the time to be open to that sweet Holy Spirit, that spirit of healing and transformation that guides us and can soften a heart of stone, that builds bridges not walls, that helps to change systems of oppression and hatred and that propels a person to speak truth to power”
“She's coming to Jesus and begging him for mercy and using the title, the royal title 'Son of David' when she is addressing him, honoring him in a sense as king, as Messiah, as the ruler of the people of Israel which is a lot more than Jesus got from some of his contemporaries living in the holy land”
“Jesus came for the purpose of reconciliation. The horizontal and the vertical parts of the cross show that Jesus came for both vertical and horizontal reconciliation. He came to reconcile humanity to divinity vertically and he came to reconcile humanity to humanity horizontally.”
“if you don't think you are prejudice in any way just know that the disciples didn't think they were either before this moment. Everyone has a bit of prejudice in them and Jesus is challenging us to explore those prejudices.”
“This story invites us to see all the different layers of Jesus. In this instance it invites us to look at the human Jesus, the one who is like us”
“today Jesus teaches us how to grow in wisdom but we have to do as Jesus did and not as the disciples. We have to stop, listen, ponder, and be open to people of great faith that we haven't encountered yet.”
“the interesting thing is those who were being challenged the most that day, it wasn't that woman, it wasn't her daughter, who was the lesson for? His disciples.”
“Let us pray to God to give us the holy eyes of love to look at people, to look at things, to look at situations through the eyes of God and may the same grace help to change every stumbling block on our way into stepping stones”
“How many times have we wanted God to just shoo somebody away because they just bothering us?”
“today’s gospel reminds us that the “outsider” is just as capable of great faith as the “insider””
“so often times, people of God, we think that faith is only about information. That's only one side of it. Faith is also about discipleship.”
“How often do we, even card-carrying Christians, tell people in need 'leave us alone'? Jesus is looking at his friends, he's trying to teach them 'wait until you see.' They walked off confused whereas she walked off with a healed daughter.”
“this Gospel reading...has much to say to all of us who feel like we don't fit into a box and who sometimes feel tormented by a demon like the daughter in need of healing. In other words it speaks to everyone. And so it tells us all to be dogged, persistent and, like the Canaanite woman, of great faith.”
“As far back as the Old Testament itself we begin to see an expectation that one day, in the future, at some point, the nations of the world, the families of the Earth, the Gentiles, the pagans are going to convert. They're going to begin to worship the one true God.”
“Is your faith so strong that you can come back with love instead of hate?”
“we have the invitation to be in the house of prayer together, to experience compassion together, to share what is most important to us and to experience that mercy of God. Along with this invitation is a promise that our requests will be granted in God's time and in God's way.”
“And for all who are seeking Christ, all, you and I are the ambassadors of Jesus Christ”
"we're not immune to tragic events or to illness or to anything. We just have a different, I guess, we just have a different way of approaching it and that's through the lens of faith."
In the latest episode of the 1 Christian 1 Topic Podcast "Faith Amidst Tragedy," we have a conversation with Liz on faith, suffering, and prayer. More