Where do you find yourself at this time in life? In general, younger people tend to look forward to the future, to what opportunities might lie ahead, what decisions to make that will impact life, relationships, and faith. Conversely, those later in life tend to look back in time, reflect on what has been, successes and failures, opportunities seized and those missed. Of course, throughout life, we engage both in looking forward and looking back; the foundation of meaning and purpose.
I once met a woman who had outlived her spouse, most of her friends, and all but one of her children. She expressed spending less time looking forward or backward. This woman simply continued to develop new relationships and engage in issues important to her with strong voice and opinion. She lived as best she could in the present moment, expressing, “I live now as though I have nothing to lose” and “wishing I would have learned this lesson earlier in life.”
In the Gospel text for this week, a gentile woman encounters Jesus during the middle years of his ministry. Some scholars suspect this may be the first time in the Gospel that Jesus explicitly interacts with a gentile woman. Thus, there is a tension we seldom experience with Jesus’ encounters. Although not of Jewish heritage, this woman boldly takes a risk of faith, asking him to show compassion and heal her daughter. Several layers of tension arise from the ethnic, religious, and gender differences between Jesus (and his disciples) and the Canaanite woman. Yet, she actively and boldly dismantles ethnic, religious, and gender barriers. This woman’s respectful persistence in the face of silence, rejection, and humiliation prompts Jesus to change his mind and praise her great faith, enabling her daughter’s healing. This woman had nothing to lose; an unwavering resolve.
For each of us, as people of faith, whether we are looking to our future or reflecting on our past, opportunities are always present and before us to express and share our faith, to speak boldly in the face of inequity and injustice, and to engage our whole self in the world around us, “as though we have nothing to lose.” Jesus is with us and will provide what is needed.
Pastor Brian