Sermon for the 12th Sunday after Pentecost
By The Rev. Christie Webb -
There is nothing quite like a momma bear protecting her cubs. Tenacious. Strong. Determined. Ferocious. Stopping at nothing to ensure the safety of her offspring.
In our gospel text today we witness the Canaanite woman in full momma bear moment. Her daughter is tormented by an unknown ailment, which in that day and time they classified as being tormented by a demon. The basis of it is that the daughter is sick, struggling. And when your child is sick and struggling, a parent’s heart aches, hurts, is tormented in its own way. And this mom expects that Jesus can heal her daughter. That this Jesus can take away the pain and the struggle and restore her daughter to wellness. With that hope inside, there is nothing that could stop this momma bear.
She comes out shouting. Have mercy on me! Save me! Help my daughter! This momma get’s loud. So loud. Her anguish in her voice. Her hope raising the volume. Have mercy on me! She shouts so much the disciples want to send her away. She just keeps shouting. She will not be sent away. She kneels at Jesus feet. “Lord, help me.” She will not take no for an answer. She won’t let an insult stop her. Her witty response- Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs- earns her acknowledgement. Earns her what she seeks. Healing for her daughter. Instantly. Because of this momma’s faithful tenacity.
There are parts of this story that are hard to accept- Jesus isn’t painted in the best light. I don’t like his insult. I don’t like how much work it takes, how loud the woman has to get to receive the healing she seeks for her daughter. But I can let go of all this to focus on the faithful tenacity of that momma and marvel at it. There is nothing quite like a momma bear protecting her cubs.
Last weekend I was reminded that the momma bear protecting her cubs is a biblical image for God. I was reading a book to my son Sam called Mother God by Teresa Kim Pecinovsky. I purchased it this week and will have it available if you would like to take a look. In it there is a beautiful image of a momma bear with wide open mouth, sharp teeth on full display, roaring to protect the two innocent wide eyed bear cubs who hide behind her. The words read “She protects Her cubs from danger, God the great Mother Bear, as fierce as she is tender, She guards them in Her care.” It's a reference to Hosea 13:8 where God is compared to a momma bear robbed of her cubs, attacking those who took those cubs away, speaking of God’s protection of God’s people.
The momma bear roars. The Canaanite woman shouts. They get loud to protect, to cry out, to claim justice and health and peace. And as they do so, they are living faithfulness in full, a display of God’s own character in God’s fierce work for justice and mercy, healing and wholeness.
I wonder if you can look back at your life and see when you have gone into full momma bear, papa bear, friend bear mode for someone in your care. I wonder where you can recognize yourself or another person getting loud so healing might come, justice might be done, mercy might be lived. I wonder where you have lived this kind of faithfulness.
As I looked back at my life, it wasn’t a moment when my own momma bear instincts were activated that I thought of, but when my own mom went into momma bear mode. I’m sure she did so for me, but the time I recognized it most was for my sister, 2 years older. In her junior year of high school my sister made what we would all acknowledge as a bad decision. And the repercussions for that decision were pretty extreme. She was off the cheerleading team. She was no longer to claim her role in student government for her senior year. I’m sure from some perspectives it might have seemed right to take those things away, but it was a lot for one bad decision. And so my mom went to work, went to bat so to speak, for my sister. She met with school officials. She argued. She stood strong. In ways I’d never seen before. My mom, not a loud person by nature, GOT LOUD. A momma bear protecting her cub. Her advocating for forgiveness, grace, and understanding paid off in part, my sister restored to some of her activities. I’m really proud of my mom for her momma bear work. I see the very image of God in her for that work. I hope when such action is needed for my own children I will have her same courage.
Friends, sometimes faithfulness looks like getting loud. (And if you are singing the Jennifer Lopez song “Let’s Get Loud” in your head every time I say those words, know that I was too, and may have even listened to the song as I prepared the sermon for today.) Faithfulness looks like getting loud, speaking up, speaking out, advocating for healing, for justice, for mercy. Faithfulness looks like this kind of tenacious courage. The kind of tenacious courage it takes to speak truth.
You know, I’ve heard stories of how recently you all have lived this out. I’ve heard of your great courage to speak your truth in your recent Graceful Engagement conversations. All of those who spoke, whether you agreed with them or not, drew on great courage to share their heart, to speak their opinion, their hurt, their hope. I know it couldn’t have been easy. And I know that it leads to more work to be done. That healing for us isn’t instantaneous like it was for the daughter of the Canaanite woman, but it has begun, because people got loud, for justice, for advocacy, for standing with the marginalized, for healing and wholeness for this community. I’m proud of you all for that. It confirmed something I had felt and hoped to be true of this place: that you will do the work to be community together. That you will do the work, get loud as you need to, in order to work for justice in this community, for your neighbors.
Which leads to this question I will leave us with today. Where is God calling you to get loud? Where is God activating your momma bear, papa bear, friend bear, neighbor bear tendencies to shout, roar, courageously call for healing and justice, challenging previous assumptions, using your wit and skill to make change happen? Where is God calling each of you? And where is God calling us, as this community of Mount Olive, to unite our voices, to bolster our shouts by working together to make a loud, joyful, courageous, heartfelt, justice seeking shout to the lord?
God give us the courage to be the momma bear.
Amen.
The Rev. Christie Webb
Pastor - Mt. Olive Lutheran Church
Santa Monica, California
Sermon for:
August 20th, 2023
