Picking up the Crumbs

Matthew 15:10-28 11th Sunday after Pentecost August 20, 2017 You Have Judged Yourself A story related to this text [summarized from Sunday and Holyday Liturgies, Cycle A, by Flor McCarthy] has a group of the very pious waiting in heaven for the judgment. As they are waiting and complaining about the wait, they begin to see some of the "sinners" they knew on earth coming into the waiting room: a corrupt politician, an itinerant woman who had been convicted of shoplifting numerous times, a prostitute, a drug addict, a man who spent most of his life in prison, etc. With each of these arrivals, the feeling of hostility increased in the first group. They glare at the others. They talk among themselves. Within a short time, words were spoken to those others, "What makes you think you're going to get in with that evil, sinful life you lived on earth?" "We’re relying on the mercy and grace of God. What makes you so sure you're going to get in?" "Our good lives, of course." They turned their backs to the others. Time began to drag on for the first group. They began to complain to one another. "If those other people get in, there's no justice. After all the sacrifices we've made. It's not fair." The Lord arrived. He turned towards the first group, "I understand you've been wondering why there has been no judgment." "The judgment has already taken place. You've judged yourselves. By judging these, the least of my brothers and sisters, you have judged yourselves. In rejecting them you have rejected me. You have shown yourselves unworthy of the kingdom of God." [pp. 151-3] Hare says something similar in his conclusion to this section: "We are defiled, Jesus tells us, by the unloving words that spring so readily from our mouths." [p. 176] Brian Stoffregen, Exegetical Notes It is so easy for us to see the actions of other people. But how many times do we look at ourselves, our thoughts our actions. I told you that I always preach from the lectionary, and I have found that any issue that needs to be addressed, can naturally be addressed in the scripture - and today that is more than so. It seems that our nation is more fractured and divided today than ever. I think more accurately, our nation has always been fractured – there has just been time when we could buy into the illusion that our differences didn’t matter. And now it is in our face, and we are forced to deal with the fact that they do matter. Whenever a major crisis comes up, the pastor grapevine blows up and we are told that we have to stop the sermon presses and address the issue at hand. I don’t always agree with the notion. And last week, I intentionally decided that I was not going to address the present reality of our nation with a ten foot pole. But as luck would have it, Jesus hits the nail on the head. He is an Isrealite (There was no such thing as Jews until after he died). And he has an encounter with a Canaanite. Jesus himself says that Canaanites hate Isrealites, so they do not even talk with one another. But once Jesus starts bringing healing to the people, he simultaneously starts to make enemies and friends at the same time. The religious leaders want to kill him, and the masses can’t get enough of him. So in order to be able to travel with a little peace, Jesus heads out of his way North in order to get to Jerusalem which is south. On a years journey to get to Jerusalem, this detour takes him six months. Now in Matthew’s gospel this is actually the only encounter that Jesus has with foreigners. But it has life changing consequences for himself, the lady he encounters, the disciples and even us. If Jesus had not talked with that woman, none of us would be in church today. Matthew calls her the Canaanite woman, Luke calls her the Syrophonecian woman. It’s the same woman, it is just that Matthew is Hebrew and Luke is Greek. This encounter with this woman creates one of the most controversial parts of the bible. Is Jesus really so prejudice that when a foreigner asks him for help, he refuses based on her nationality? Would Jesus really do that? I cant speak for Jesus’ true intentions, but I do think we need a little background on the subject. First I want to say that Matthew may have been a little prejudice. Matthew was very proud of his Hebrew heritage. The whole point of his writing his gospel was because in the second generation of Christianity, there were a lot of people who were born of Jewish heritage, but because they were Christian they did not have to perform Jewish rituals. Matthew was appealing to these people not to forget their Hebrew heritage just because they were Christian. Matthew was speaking just to Hebrews, in order to reclaim the Hebrew heritage in a changing world. So a lot of the references that he makes would only be of interest to a Hebrew. The other thing that we have to keep in mind is that prejudice for Jesus was a little different then the racism of today. The whole premise of the Jewish religion is the difference between sacred and profane, holy and unholy, clean and dirty and pure and unpure. So the cleaner you were the better access you had to God. So in the good Samaritan story, the priest bypassed the person in the street without helping because he was on his way to the temple to work. Touching blood would have made him unclean and unfit to serve in the temple. So he needed to keep himself clean. Just by virtue of being a Hebrew and honoring Jewish laws and practices, you were so much more pure and holy then the rest of the world. Everyone who was not a jew was a nasty dog in relation to God. Men were more purer and cleaner then women. Priest were purer and holier then lay people, those who worked in the inner temple near God were purer and holier than everyone else. So when Matthew’s Jesus tells the Canaanite woman that he only comes to save the Jews, he is telling her that she is dirty, unclean, unholy and not worthy to have access to God. As a matter of fact, if you think that this scripture is difficult for us modern day Christians, it was double hard for the Jews who would have heard it. First of all Jesus says not to worry about the things that come in your mouth and come out as poop on the other side. Worry about the poop that comes out of our mouth as a reflection of your heart. Talking about bodily functions to a crowd of people obsessed with being clean would have automatically offended them. But he goes on to attack the whole jewish religion by saying that it is not rituals that make you clean, it is your where your heart and soul is. He tells the disciple if you really want to get close to God, don’t worry if you took a shower this morning, but did you pray and prepare your spirit. Access to God is not about what you have on, it is about your intention. God does not look at the skin color but at the heart. As a matter of fact, when this Canaanite woman approaches him, he does not even see her. He is not concerned about her or her needs. Even when she starts babbling like a dog he ignores her. Jews and Canaanites does talk to one another. Canaanites have no access to God. But she continue to plead. And it makes all of the difference in the world. I do think that Jesus was changed by the conversation. Because he came to realize the power of God. He came to realize that the only way that anybody was going to be saved was if God showed grace. And people don’t have to perform rituals in order to be saved. God gives grace to all people freely. It does make me sad to see the tension in the nation today. And it seems that things are getting worse and not better, we are more divided than ever. I feel that I have to measure every word that I say- because I realize that I come from a very different social location than most of you. When the district superintendent appointed me here, he made the comment that he felt that now at least I would be safe. I looked at him and scratched me head, and I thought to myself, how is putting a single black woman in an isolated white community safe. I have lived in predominantly white communities before, but I must admit that walking around town and knowing that there is no black community in the area is a very bizarre feeling. But for the last two Sunday I have intentionally worn my favorite stole – with hands of all colors joined together, as a reminder of why I am in ministry. As a child of the sixties and the civil rights movement, I work to create a world in which we can hold hands inspite of our cultural differences. That we can look beyond our difference and see that we are all children of God. I truly believe that at the end of the day beyond race, beyond culture, beyond politics, we have the same needs, desires, and need to be close to God. So I strive to live in the world that I strive to create and not the world as it is today. And that is not a safe place to live. The good news is that with this encounter – Jesus opens up the door to a world where all of God’s children can live in harmony. Jesus may have only wanted to save the Hebrew people. But as he say the love and faith of this woman – he realized that God’s grace covers all people. Jesus tells her that her faith has made her whole. The fact that she loved her child enough to step out of her world and ask for help, the fact that she truly believed that even though she was a nastier that a jewish dog, that she still has access to God’s healing grace. Made all of the difference in the world. Turn to God’s Church John M. Buchanan, Pastor of the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago tells a wonderful story about Elaine Pagels. Pagels is a distinguished professor at Princeton University. She is not a seminary professor. She is a humanities scholar who studies and knows a lot about the human phenomenon of religion. Her specialty is early Christianity, and she is widely respected for her scholarly research and books. She is not particularly a church person. In fact, she had pretty much given up on the church as an institution worthy of her time and attention, not unlike a lot of thoughtful people. But she begins her book, Beyond Belief, with an unusual anecdote and a very powerful witness. On a bright, cold Sunday morning in New York, she interrupted her daily run by stopping in the vestibule of a church to get warm. Two days earlier, her two-and-a-half-year-old son had been diagnosed with an invariably fatal lung disease. Two-and-a-half years' old. Barely born and already dying. Imagine the pain in her heart, if you can. But here is how she describes that scene in the church that day: "Since I had not been in church for a long time, I was startled by my response to the worship in progress--the soaring harmonies of the choir singing with the congregation; and the priest, a woman in bright gold and white vestments, proclaiming the prayers in a clear resonant voice. As I stood watching, a thought came to me: Here is a family that knows how to face death . . . "The day after we heard Mark's diagnosis--and that he had a few months to live, maybe a few years--a team of doctors urged us to authorize a lung biopsy, a painful and invasive procedure. How could this help? It couldn't, they explained; but the procedure would let them see how far the disease had progressed. Mark was already exhausted by the previous day's ordeal. Holding him, I felt that if more masked strangers poked needles into him in an operating room, he might lose heart--literally--and die. We refused the biopsy, gathered Mark's blanket, clothes, and Peter Rabbit, and carried him home. "Standing in the back of that church, I recognized, uncomfortably, that I needed to be there. Here was a place to weep without imposing tears upon a child; and here was a heterogeneous community that had gathered to sing, to celebrate, to acknowledge common needs, and to deal with what we cannot control or imagine." Can there be a worse hell than to know that your own small child is dying? Where does a person turn in such times? We turn to God. We turn to God's church. King Duncan, The Gates of Hell I really don’t know what to say to address the current unrest in our nation. What I would say in Englewood is definitely different than what I would say here. I really don’t feel that I am the right person to say anything. But for us to trust in God. I have found that even in the most tense of situations, the light of God has a way of shining through. And sometimes it takes going through those time for us like Jesus to realize God’s true intentions. Even a crumb of God’s grace is sufficient for us all. Let us pray….. Other illustrations…… Belief in Hell According to a Harris Poll taken a few years back, more than one-third of adults worry "a lot" about not having enough money and health insurance. However, fewer than 10 percent worry that they will go to hell. In fact, while the majority of Americans believe in heaven and eventually expect to end up there, studies show most people today do not believe in hell. It reminds me of a P. D. James' story. A young woman discovers that she was adopted. Almost immediately, she begins looking for her biological mother and father. She is stunned to discover that as a baby she had been taken from her parents when they were sent to prison for the murder of a ten-year-old girl. Although the father subsequently died in prison, the mother was soon to be released on parole. After getting acquainted with her mother, the young woman arranges for her mother to move into an apartment with her. Interestingly enough, the mother wants to attend church services, something the daughter was not accustomed to doing. But out of friendship she accompanies her mother to services. One Sunday the minister says something in his message about Hell. Later, as the mother and daughter talk, the daughter says with exasperation, "But you can't believe in Hell." The mother responds gravely, "You can once you've been in it." She spoke from experience. There are people who know what it is to live in hell, for they have been there. King Duncan, The Gates of Hell A Mother’s Faith Augustine's mother, Monica, was a fervent believer who prayed constantly for her son's salvation. She devoted her whole life to praying for Augustine's conversion. At one point, when Augustine was becoming devoted to the Manichaean philosophy, Monica begged a holy man to speak to Augustine, and show him why their beliefs were not true. The holy man refused because Augustine was known to have a great intellect, and would likely try to savage the holy man's arguments. The holy man assured Monica that he, too, had once been a Manichaean, and that Augustine was too smart to deceive himself much longer. At this, Monica began to cry. The holy man sent her away, saying, "Go, go! Leave me alone. Live on as you are living. It is not possible that the son of such tears should be lost." The holy man was right. After many years and a fierce inner struggle, Augustine was touched by a revelation in Scripture, and became a Christian. When Monica learned of her son's salvation, she remarked that she had nothing left to live for, for the greatest desire of her heart had been fulfilled. Nine days later, Monica died. And the son she had spent her life praying for, went on to affect the whole world. Monica never quit asking. "Live on as you are living," said the holy man. "It is not possible that the son of such tears should be lost." You are concerned about someone you love? Keep on asking God for help. Don't let your tears quench the flame of your faith in God. It may seem like God is ignoring you, but I assure you that is not the case. Don't give up. Keep asking. And keep on trusting. King Duncan, When You Need Help, adapted from Ruth Bell Graham, Prodigals and Those Who Love Them. Learning to Be Like Christ A householder keeps faith, keeps care, of all those in his household. This is what the Canaanite woman learns from Jesus' example. And this is what she reveals back to him. In other words, Jesus "learns" to hear his own words through the ears of her faith. That's why ultimately Jesus declares, "Woman, great is your faith" - not, "You are very clever." This is how philosopher Dallas Willard puts it, as he defines exactly what is a disciple: "One of those who have trusted Jesus with their whole life, so far as they understand it. Because they've done so, they want to learn everything he has to teach them about life in the kingdom of God now and forever, and they're constantly with him to learn this. Disciples of Jesus are those learning to be like him" (Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ, 241). Leonard Sweet, Collected Sermons,www.Sermons.com A Strong Woman A strong woman works out every day to keep her body in shape, but a woman of strength kneels in prayer to keep her soul in shape. A strong woman isn’t afraid of anything, but a woman of strength shows her courage in the midst of fear. A strong woman won’t let anyone get the best of her, but a woman of strength gives the best of her to everyone. A strong woman walks sure-footedly, but a woman of strength knows God will catch her when she falls. A strong woman wears the look of confidence on her face, but a woman of strength wears grace. A strong woman has faith that she is strong enough for the journey, but a woman of strength has faith that in the journey she will become strong. Author unknown Sermon Opener - Live and Learn - Matthew 15:(10-20), 21-28 by Leonard Sweet Is anyone's memory of study hall a fun one? Either you were the studious type, who really wanted to use that hour of enforced peace and quiet to get some work done, or you were the kid that was bored, trying to think of ways to sneak out, send notes, shoot spit-wads, or otherwise somehow liven up that deadly hour. But the shushings of study hall monitors and librarians aren't common to all cultures. At traditional Orthodox yeshivas, the bais midrash, the study hall, is filled with noise. Not just noise, but debates and sweat, as matched chavrusas - learning partners - verbally battle it out over how best to interpret the texts and traditions of the Jewish faith. The "bais midrash," the study hall or library that holds all the necessary reference books for the yeshiva students, was NEVER quiet. The traditional study of Talmud is with a partner, your "chavrusas," with whom head-to-head, nose-to-nose debate, dialogue, even shouting-at-the-top-of-your-lungs, is part of the learning process. These face-to-face exercises, testing the depth and breadth of the students' knowledge, is what the yeshiva call learning. In fact, a yeshiva student won't ask, "What are you studying?" Rather, the appropriate question is "What are you learning?" Studying infers a solitary, sedentary ingestion of information. Learning is a social, active, expectorating exercise - a dialogue that must necessarily engage two or more individuals in order for true learning to be accomplished. In the Jewish tradition, "learning" is a verb, a never-finished action. The apostle Paul, a learned Pharisee, well-schooled in the Torah, in the learning traditions of the rabbis, bolding preached Christ's imminent return throughout his early letters. Yet as time went by, as the Christian message began to spread, as Christian churches were planted and began to grow, and Jesus still did not return, Paul's learning curve began to deepen. The communities he was now addressing had second, even third generation Christians in their midst. The first believers began to pass away. Somewhere between Paul's writing of 1 Thessalonians and 2 Timothy, a span of about fourteen years or so, the apostle gradually came to a new understanding. In short, Paul changed his mind. Christ's return may NOT be imminent, and Christians should be prepared to live and die as a faith community without ever experiencing that event. Yet changing one's mind has gotten nothing but bad press. In the feeding-frenzy of political campaigns, any evidence that any candidate re-positioned, re-thought, or simply re-considered their original views on any given issue is lambasted as flip-flopping or wishy-washy. In the Main Stream Media's (MSM) judgment, any adjustment of one's stand, or one's understanding, over the course of twenty or thirty years is deemed a sign of weakness and used as evidence of a morally and/or intellectually deficient mind. Learning, continually interacting with and challenging the experiences and informational input that surrounds us, is a life-long process. Gerontologists are now recommending that as we age we intentionally set up new, unexpected circumstances or encounters for ourselves every single day, in order to keep our brains fit and flexible. Such simple learning exercises as taking a different route to the store, doing a crossword puzzle, planning and executing a sewing, building, or other creative project, all help contribute to keeping our neurons firing, our brains healthy, and strengthening our mind's ability to learn. In fact, there are really only two questions to ask yourself. 1. Am I learning something? 2. Am I contributing something? If the answer to either is no, then get out of there. If the answer to both is yes, you're right where God wants you to be… _______________________ Don’t Take No for an Answer A story came across the wires from the Reuters news service about a family of ducklings that fell down a sewer grate in Vancouver. Their mother did what any parent would do. She got help from a passing police officer. The mother duck grabbed the policeman by the pant leg while he was on foot patrol. The policeman shoved what he thought was just a goofy duck away, but she persisted, grabbing his leg again when he tried to leave, and then waddling to a nearby sewer grate where she sat down and waited for him to follow and investigate. The policeman came to where she sat and saw eight little baby ducklings in the water below. Police removed the heavy metal grate with the help of a tow truck and used a vegetable strainer to lift the ducklings to safety. Mother and offspring then departed for a nearby pond. That mother duck did what the Canaanite woman did. She persisted in seeking help until she got it. And that is just what Jesus wants us to do. Be persistent in getting the help you need. Do not be intimidated by authority figures. And remember, we have a Friend who can help us even when human endeavors fail. Christ is waiting to help you today. King Duncan, Worried About Her Child, www.Sermons.com Savior of All People Jesus is not a generic savior, an anonymous Superman from a distant planet somewhere in space. Jesus is a Jew; indeed, he is the Jew who stands as the culmination of all of Israel’s history . . . Jesus can be the savior of all people only by remaining faithful to God’s chosen people Israel, even in the face of their rejection of him. Thomas G. Long, Matthew: The Westminster Bible Companion With a Grateful Heart Dr. John Rosen, a psychiatrist in New York City, is well known for his work with catatonic schizophrenics. Dr. Rosen moves into the ward with them. He places his bed among their beds. He lives the life they must live. If they don’t talk, he doesn’t talk. It is as if he understands what is happening. His being there, being with them, communicates something that they haven’t experienced in years—somebody understands. But then he does something else. He puts his arms around them and hugs them. He holds these unattractive, unlovable, sometimes incontinent persons, and loves them back into life. Often, the first words they speak are simply, "Thank you." In this gospel story we are invited to place ourselves in the role of the "other", of this "outsider" woman. We are invited to struggle with Jesus. We are invited to struggle with our own perceptions of all who are labeled "other." Our faith, your faith and mine, is not based on how we feel. It is founded on the facts of history, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the faith into which all are invited. This is the faith possible for so-called "outsiders." This is the faith made real for people like you and me. For the promise of the gospel is that it doesn’t matter where we are on the journey of life. We can be loved back into full and complete life. And we can say with a grateful heart, "Thank you, God." David Beckett Sometimes You Need to Grab Their Attention It seems a man was headed up to bed one night, when his wife told him that he'd left the light on in their shed. She told him she could see it from the bedroom window. He told her he hadn't been in the shed that day. When he looked out the window, he saw that there were people in the shed, stealing things. So, he phoned the police. The police told him that there was no one was in his area and consequently, there was no one available to catch the thieves. He said "OK," hung up, counted to 30 and called the police again. And he said, "Hello. I just called a few seconds ago, because there were people in my shed. Well, you don't have to worry about them now. I've just shot them all." Within five minutes there were half a dozen police cars in the area, an armed response unit. They caught the burglars red-handed. One of the policemen said to the man, "I thought you said you'd shot them!" And he replied, "I thought you said there was no one available." Sometimes you just feel like you need to get somebody's attention any way you can. There are times when you feel like you want to grab somebody by the collar and shake them until they wake up and notice what's really happening. Billy D. Strayhorn, From the Heart ___________________________________ Pray for Yourself In 1989, former President George Bush, our current president's father, was entering St. John's Episcopal Church to attend a worship service. A homeless man, William Wallace Brown Jr., stopped him and asked for prayer. The President's answer must have shocked onlookers. He replied, "No. Come inside with us--and pray for yourself." From that day forward, William Wallace Brown Jr. regularly attended St. John's Episcopal Church. This man in ragged, smelly clothes sat in the pews alongside the rich and the powerful. At offering time, he put a dollar in the collection plate. One usher reports that many of the rich members also gave only a dollar to the offering. These people were humbled by Mr. Brown's example of generosity. King Duncan, The Gates of Hell Keep on Asking. Keep on Trusting. A young pastor sat beside a hospital bed in which his wife lay. It was nearing the time for them to become parents. Soon this young couple would bask together in the glow of the announcement: "It's a boy." Later, however, they would begin a desperate search for some specialist who could help the child. They were unsuccessful - little Ronnie was born mentally impaired. The entrance of this father into the school of suffering taught him many things. Recalling that first grief-fraught summer, Ronald Meredith wrote, "Grief teaches lessons that joy can never know. We discovered that there is a comradeship in pain." Unlike the Canaanite woman, Ronald Meredith did not see his son healed. But he has not quit trusting. He now looks forward to that great day when God's plan for us will be perfected. He believes that one day he will look at Ronnie and say, "Hi, Son," and for the first time Ronnie will respond, "Hi, Dad." They will need a lot of time to talk, for Ronnie has never been able to speak a word. The Canaanite woman saw Jesus heal her daughter immediately. It may be that Ron Meredith will have to wait until that day he and his son are united on that distant shore, beyond this world of limitations and adversity, when he will see his son fully healed - but he has not quit trusting....and neither should we. Keep on asking. Keep on trusting. King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com Divisions in the Church As a seminary intern in St. Louis, Missouri, I was part of a Jewish-Christian Dialogue group. We were seeking to understand one another's traditions, work together for the good of our neighborhoods, and promote tolerance and respect in society. I had been invited into the group by a member of the church at which I was serving. She grew up Jewish, and in recent years had, in her words, "completed my faith" by gaining an understanding that Jesus is the Messiah foretold by the prophets of Israel. One of the dimensions of religious life that we all found we had in common across faith traditions and denominational lines was the incessant divisiveness that split our seemingly monolithic communities into dozens of similar yet tenaciously varied subgroups. A Jewish professor of psychology said of his tradition, "If there are ten Jewish males in a city, we create a synagogue. If there are eleven Jewish males, we start thinking about creating a competing synagogue." A Baptist police officer had a similar tale. He said, "One Baptist family in a neighborhood witnesses until they bring another family to Christ. Then they form a church, and start witnessing to the rest of the community. When another family joins, they have a schism and form a rival church." According to a Presbyterian homemaker, her communion was a little like vegetable soup. "We have," she said, "the OPs, RPs, BPs, and Split Peas!" And a Methodist businessman complemented these tales with an apocryphal tale of a man from his faith community who had been shipwrecked for years on a small island. When found by a passing ship, rescuers asked him why he had constructed three huts, since he was there by himself. "Well," he replied, "that one is my home, that one is my church, and that one is my former church." Wayne Brouwer, Political Religion, CSS Publishing Company Children’s sermon….. Theme: Helping others; sharing. Visual Aid: A saltine cracker in a plastic bag. Lesson: This is a difficult text even for adults. In order to help the children make some sense out of it, I have brought a saltine cracker in a baggie. I begin by asking the kids, "Do you know what a crumb is?" No one is sure enough to describe a crumb to me, so I take the baggie with the cracker out of my pocket, hold it up and ask, "Is this a crumb?" "No!" I am told, "It's a cracker!" "That's right. It's a cracker. But what if I do this...?" With those words I crush the cracker (still in the baggie to contain the crumbs). "Now," I continue, holding up the crunched pieces, "do I still have a cracker?" "No, you have a bag of crumbs." "Aha!" I respond. "So, now we know what a crumb is. It's a piece of something -- a very small piece. Crumbs are what is left on your plate when you finish eating a piece of cake. Crumbs are what fall off the loaf when the bread is broken during communion. Crumbs are the little parts no one really misses or cares about, except ... I wonder, do any of you have a pet?" Many of the children indicate with nods that they do, so I begin asking what these pets might be. As luck would have it, every single one of the children present has a cat. Being particularly fond of cats myself, this would normally not be a problem. But this morning, in view of the lectionary text, we obviously needed to talk about dogs. "Do any of you have a friend who has a dog?" Several children indicate they do. "Are these dogs allowed to come in the house?" Again, the response is affirmative. "Well, if one of these dogs was in the house while the family was eating dinner and if a crumb of food dropped off the table to the floor, what do you suppose would happen to the crumb?" "The dog would eat it!" comes the instant reply. "Yes," I agree, "that's what I think would happen too. Now, we've already seen that a crumb is a very small piece of something, so small that usually no one wants it. But we weren't thinking about dogs. Sometimes dogs are very happy to have the crumbs from our tables -- the scraps no one else wants. "We're talking about this today because of a conversation Jesus had with a woman who asked him for some help. Jesus told her, 'It's not right for me to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.' Then the woman replied, 'Even the dogs get to eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table.' "What she meant by saying that to him was that she didn't need very much. All she was asking for was what no one else would want or miss -- just a crumb. So Jesus gave her what she needed. "You know, sometimes we have things in our lives we don't want -- not crumbs exactly, but toys we don't play with anymore, clothes we've grown out of and don't wear anymore, things we might throw away that someone else might use. Things that seem like trash to us may be a real treasure to someone else. This story about Jesus and the woman tells us we need to be aware of how little it takes sometimes to fill another's need; sometimes just a few crumbs are enough." CSS Publishing Company, Inc, Cows In Church, by B. Kathleen Fannin