16th August 2026 10.30am – 11th Sunday after Trinity – Eucharist

The Readings

Romans 11.1-2a, 29-32

I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?

for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.

Matthew 15.21-28

Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 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.” 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.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

The Sermon
Prepared by David, Reader at St Mary's.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Today’s readings are likely to challenge us at least as much as they comfort us.

Our Gospel paints Jesus as a callous, sectarian, judge. Someone whose attention, mercy and grace are for an elect few. His description of the Canaanite women, her daughter, and by extension all non-Jews, as dogs, would have been offensive. The Canaanite woman persists, indeed she takes Jesus’ insult and turns it back against him. One has to wonder what Jesus makes of this. He is normally the one delivering the pithy retorts, not receiving them. Jesus appears impressed with the woman’s faith and her daughter is healed.

This interaction raises a number of questions for me. Any of these could be the subject of a whole book, nevermind a sermon.

Did the woman change Jesus’ mind? Did her persistence, quick wit and ultimately her faith, move Jesus to a healing he wasn’t already going to perform? Or was Jesus going to heal the daughter regardless? Neither of these readings is particularly palatable. Neither sound like the Jesus I have come to know and follow.

If Jesus’ interaction with the woman changed his mind, how does that feel to those of us whose loved ones have not been made well, despite our persistence, theological sparring with God in prayer and our faith?

If Jesus was going to heal the daughter regardless, why make the woman jump through a rather degrading interaction? Something doesn’t make sense.

I find it helpful to approach this episode by recollecting that Jesus’ disciples are on a learning curve. That’s part of how we get to learn with them. And that the Gospel according to Matthew is written with a contemporary Jewish audience in mind.

But let’s not fall into the trap of thinking that because Jesus was Jewish, and his disciples, and the audience of this Gospel, that Jews (in any time) have a monopoly on xenophobia and boundary-keeping. Many nations, including all of ours, have put themselves at the centre of the universe.

The disciples have asked Jesus to send the woman away. She is a Canaanite, she’s also making a lot of noise. They attempt to exclude her. It doesn't work and she gets what she wants, her daughter is healed. Regardless of the exact mechanism, God’s mercy and grace are extended to both her and her daughter. Both the disciples and the early recipients of Matthew’s Gospel are challenged to recognise the extension of God’s mercy and grace to the gentiles.

Our reading from Romans acts as a counterpoint to our Gospel.

The lectionary misses out a large chunk of Paul’s argument—admittedly a rather rambling one. Paul uses the metaphor of vines, just as Jesus did. He speaks of grafting branches onto roots without removing the existing branches.

Has anyone here ever grafted a tree onto root stock? No, I haven't either/Okay, well you may know this next bit better than me. It's a process that's delicate and requires a lot of care and skill. We have in our garden an apple tree my uncle has grafted in order to preserve a particular variety -- a favourite of my grandmother -- using suitable root stock. When this is done, typically, all the existing branches are removed so what is grafted can benefit from the vigorous roots. The new flourishes at the expense of what was there before.

It is much rarer to leave existing branches in place. That's why Paul's metaphor is all the more powerful. It goes against conventional wisdom and makes us stop and assess what's being suggested. There is clearly something of worth in the existing branches and fruit can be borne from them as much as from the new branches.

Paul is using this metaphor to talk about the relationship of the Church to the Jewish people...

He is making clear that Christianity does not eclipse or replace the people of the first covenant, people God chose.

Why is this an important message for us to hear today?

The history of Jewish Christian relations is a turbulent one. Some New Testament texts, including the Gospel according to John, have strong overtones of anti-Jewish attitudes. It is easy to fall into the trap of othering a group of any kind. Christians have a particular history of derogatory attitudes and actions towards Jews, including blaming them for Jesus’ death. Paul is clear that that's a mistake. If we spend more time sitting with the Passion story, we see how nearly everyone deserted Jesus. We must accept that we occupy the place of Christ's accusers due to our own rejection of his ways.

Being branches of the same vine, we are siblings under God.

If the Canaanite woman teaches us that God's grace and mercy exists in abundance and there are enough crumbs to go round, Paul reminds us that it is not the sole preserve of Christians. These are deeply theological texts, wrangling with a complex inherited relationship. The pushing at boundaries can and should remind us to be thoughtful about how we relate to others in society, and to be careful not to let our prejudices translate into habits of violence and exclusion.

St Marys Walkley

The Church on the Road: inclusive, eucharistic, a safe place to be with God

16th August 2026 10.30am – 11th Sunday after Trinity – Eucharist