Advent Lutheran, Pastor Jeff Wild   

Compassionate Compromise     Matthew 15     August 17, 2008

The Canaanite woman kneeling at Jesus’ feet deserves a gold medal for her Olympic faith.  She overcomes insurmountable odds and refuses to be denied.  She summons Jesus to compassionate compromise.  We know what compassion means but the word compromise carries some baggage and needs to be unpacked.  As a noun, the word compromise is a settlement of differences by mutual concessions.  Compromise has negative and positive connotations.  In a negative sense, compromise may be referred to as capitulation in the process of negotiating an agreement.  In human relationships, compromise is often said to be an agreement that no party is happy with.  In a positive sense, the word compromise is derived from two Latin words; com meaning together, and promittere meaning promise.  Thus, a compromise is a mutual promise. 

Bill Bishop is the author of The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing us Apart.  Bishop frames a compelling argument based upon cultural trends of the last twenty five years.  The book jacket offers this summary, “America may be more diverse than ever coast to coast, but the places where we live are becoming increasingly crowded with people who live, think, and vote as we do.  This social transformation didn’t happen by accident.  We’ve built a country where we can all choose the neighborhood-- and religion and news show-- most compatible with our beliefs.  And we are living with the consequences of this way-of-life segregation.  Our country has become so polarized, so ideologically inbred, that people don’t know and can’t understand those who live just a few miles away.”

Reading the Big Sort was troubling because sometimes the truth hurts.  Like you, I value and celebrate cultural diversity.  Our lives are enriched by a diversity of traditions and opinions.  What’s troubling is people of Christian faith have sorted themselves into like minded communities of faith.  Rather than being diverse congregations have become increasingly homogenous.  I believe this is true of Madison Christian Community and I am aware how my own political and theological convictions have influenced homogeneity of this community.  Members have left the congregation because they thought they thought a service of lament and hope with crosses on the prairie was inappropriate and unpatriotic. When the state of Wisconsin was debating the merits of a constitutional amendment stating that marriage is between a man and a woman, I was not shy in stating my opposition to the marriage amendment.  The reality of the Big Sort places us in a quandary.  We value diversity, yet we hold strongly to our theologically and Biblically formed convictions. 

So, I got to tell you, even though the way Jesus responded to the Canaanite woman who came asking him to cure his demon possessed daughter is unsettling, I am consoled knowing that Jesus also had to work through issues related to the big sort.  Jesus did not live in a cultural vacuum.  The deep polarity between Israelites and Canaanites came to a head for him when he journeyed into Canaan and was confronted by this Canaanite woman.  Jesus is in a quandary.  He was focused on his mission of saving the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  She summoned Jesus beyond his comfort level to compassionate compromise. 

Jesus is not nice to the Canaanite woman.  This hardly sounds like the same guy who said, “Let the little children come to me,“ and took them in his arms and blessed them.  This hardly sounds like the same guy who said, “Let whoever is without sin cast the first stone.“  It sounds so out of character to hear Jesus infer that this woman is a dog by virtue of her Canaanite ethnicity.  But what is even more out of character than Jesus not being nice, is that his is not one to compromise with anyone.  He was never swayed an inch when the religious elite took him to task over the question of true faithfulness to God.  He was never deterred by the masses of people when they wanted to rally behind him as a revolutionary to overthrow the oppressive ruling powers of the Romans and ruling class.  Jesus was unwavering in his conviction that he must suffer, be crucified and die when his closest friends tried to dissuade him from this course of action.  But the Canaanite woman summons  and moves him to compassionate compromise. 

Granted, it sounds far-fetched that Jesus would compromise with anyone at anytime in any place, but God has been known to work out a few compromises along the way.  More than once God was on the verge of punishing the Israelites for their disobedience of his commands while they were in the wilderness and Moses intervened on their behalf.  God withheld judgment and had to find a new way of working out the issues.  God has been known to work out a compromise along the way because God is a relational being.  God is committed to being in relationship with humanity and non humanity.  Therefore, God gives power over to humanity and is influenced by humanity’s decisions and behaviors and pleas of prayer.  God has been known to compromise because, at the core, God’s compassion for humanity overrides God’s sorrow, anguish and anger over human disobedience and rebellion. 

So, even though it may come as a surprise to us that the Canaanite woman summoned Jesus to act at a deeper level and move beyond big sort issues to compassionate compromise, his true character is revealed.  Acting in God’s character Jesus healed the Canaanite woman’s daughter.  Compassion overrides all the big sort issues that divide. 

I made a mistake while I was working on this sermon last week that led to a meaningful insight.  I wrote down the meaning to the word compromise from the dictionary on Thursday afternoon.  When I was reviewing my notes on Friday morning I realized that I misspelled the word concession by accidentally changing the second c to an f.  My definition of compromise read that it is a settlement of differences by mutual confessions.  The Canaanite woman and Jesus come to mutual confessions.  She said, “Jesus, son of David, heal my daughter.”  He said, “I have come to save the lost sheep of Israel.  It is not right to give bread to the dogs.”  She said, “even the dogs get crumbs from the master’s table.”  He said. “Woman great is your faith.”    Jesus is summoned, and he responds.  If we share a mutual confession that Jesus is God’s revelation of the way, truth and life and seek to order our lives accordingly we will make concessions for the sake of compassion.

Perhaps this helps us through our quandary of being captivated by the big sort.  We who gather around the table and receive the promise of Christ’s compassion along with crumbs of bread and drops of wine are called to be ready to move beyond the big sort to respond and reach out compassionately to people we are deeply divided from. When push comes to shove our deeply help convictions are secondary to living out Christ’s compassion in relationship to others.  Amen.