not yet.... not yet

Friday August 22^nd, Matthew 15: 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession." 23 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." 24 He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."  We are dealing with record runs of red salmon this year.  It seems as if everyone is gone fishing on the weekends.  Today’s gospel is sort of a fishing story.  Have you ever gone fishing?  Jesus has just finished “the Kingdom is like” discourse where the mustard, leaven and net are equated with the kingdom in that they are common, unclean, and get into our lives.  Jesus just finished demonstrating the Kingdom in the feeding of the 5000 where a little goes a long way when there is sharing and people are not worried about what is clean and unclean.  Jesus just rescued Peter from sinking like a rock when he tried to play god and walk on water, teaching him it is not about playing god, but about being there for one another.  Now in today’s gospel we have this outsider woman, this Canaanite woman, this unclean woman who is not of the faith or the family or the tribe, and she comes crying.  You can just read Jesus’ mind, not yet, not yet, don’t pull up yet.  The disciples ask to have her sent away, she is annoying, she is other, she is unclean.  Jesus responds with a justification for injustice and judgmental cruelty by narrowly interpreting his mission as only to the lost sheep of Israel.  Jesus sweetens the pot by referring to her as a dog, a dirty, disgusting, not one of us, dog.  In Jesus mind however he continues with, not yet, not yet………… let the bait sit there a little bit longer…… let the disciples grab the bait and swallow it…. not yet!!!!!!  (continued on August 23^rd )