Genesis 45:1-5
Matthew 15:10-28

You are the God’s gift to the world!  As God breathed life into us, so God expects each of us to become all we were born to be!  So what were you born to be?  How can you effectively grow into yourself as you are becoming that person?  The bible stories for today give us some huge hints.

Trust faith to transform you!

There was a character in the Gospel who Jesus once described with four immortal words: Great is your faith. She was a Canaanite woman who came from the country to the north of Palestine, a country hostile to the Jews. She was presumably married, she had at least one child; but that’s all we know about her. We don't know whether she was a good woman or a bad woman. We don’t even know her name. All we know of her is that in this single encounter with Jesus he spoke to her this four-word epitaph: Great is your faith.  In this encounter, something amazing happened in Jesus.  He was startled by faith.  His faith shifted as he recognized that salvation is for all people, not just for the chosen ones of Israel.  He learned from the faith of one who was not even of his own religion.  He knew she loved with all her soul.  That was her faith.

We know that Jesus always was on a search for faith in others.  He helped his disciples to recognize faith in themselves and to know how to grow into that faith.  But he also challenged them with words like “O ye of little faith” when they limited their self understanding and their understanding of the power of God through them.  The gospel writers only share with us one other occasion when Jesus praised a person for his faith, that was a Roman soldier stationed in Capernaum.  Faith is a gift which is always discovered with some surprise.  He too loved with all his soul – through the power of the gift of faith.

Christians often miss this truth that faith transcends religion and even moral or cultural standards.  Christians sometimes have little faith when they insist that the chosen ones are only those who think as they do.  Today, churches are leaving the Presbyterian family because the Holy Spirit inspired the delegates to the last General Assembly here in San Jose, to welcome persons who are gay and not limit marriage to opposite sex.  We need to be open to the startling discoveries that faith offers contrary to much that we have been taught. 

By faith our minds are changed.  Why is it that the political process wants us to believe that changing your mind is such a bad thing?  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.  They try to convince us that when over the course of twenty or thirty years we change our mind, it is deemed a sign of weakness and used as evidence of a morally and/or intellectually deficient mind.  We deny the evidence of faith in us, unless we are continually open to changing our mind.  We should also be open to surprise at discovering the faith of others.  Why is it that we often have a mind set that discounts faith in others whom we look down upon as inferior?

The place was a suburb of Detroit. The speaker, Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel. The subject: "After Auschwitz, Can We Still Believe!" Jews and Gentiles alike filled the great synagogue to listen to the recollections of one who survived the furnaces of Dachau. Thin and fragile, Wiesel stood at the podium for nearly an hour telling one story after another of the horror and despair of those bleak days in the '30s. His stories were of people confused with their imprisonment and sometimes destroyed with their release.

Painfully, silently, the audience relived the events of Wiesel's young life when he was the only surviving member of his family. Finally the stories ceased. His eyes dropped to the floor. There was no sound at all in that mammoth room for what seemed an agonizing eternity. Then he repeated the question, "After Auschwitz, can we still believe?" He shook his head slowly, sadly, "No, no,..." before concluding powerfully, "but we must!"

Concerning whether or not to have faith, there is no choice. There was none for that Canaanite mom, none for Elie Wiesel, there is none for you and me. The message of this wonderful mother is "Chose to believe anyway!" You may not feel you are allowed to have faith, have it anyway. You may not feel God loves you, believe it anyway. You may come to understand that you are not included, include yourself anyway. Even the dogs get the crumbs that fall from the master's table.  Allow faith to transform you.  That is the only way we live into the love of Christ.

Remember the ultimate pattern for life!  'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself

That leads us into the second hint from today’s scripture:

Grow into your right mind.

As we grow into the self we were meant to be, we pay attention to our mind and our mental health.  In doing so, we also discern spiritual health.  Paul states in his letter to the church at Rome: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”  and “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”  What is this renewing of our minds?  It is none other than a different mind set which allows us to test and approve of what is God’s will vs. what is simply cultural or what Jesus calls the mind of men.  In our cultural mind, we measure ourselves by what others say about us.  Therefore, we try to look good to others.  We are always in competition with others and we are easily hurt by the words of others.  We give others power over us by giving authority to their words and judgment.  When Jesus says that what condemns us is more what comes out of our mouths than what we put into it, he is talking about hurting others with our judgment calls.  The flip side is that we have the mind of Christ measuring ourselves only by God’s standards.  That is what Paul means when he says that we learn to measure the faith that God has given us that we may think of ourselves with sober judgment. 

By faith we know that God is present with us.  We don’t have to impress others and certainly don’t have to impress God.  By faith we determine how we are to respond to others.  We pay attention to those whom others discredit and disregard.  We don’t secretly delight in others failures that we might feel better about ourselves.  We know forgiveness because we constantly experience the love and forgiveness of God.  We are not driven by guilt and shame but rather by hope and vision.  Life has meaning because our faith tells us so.

By faith, Joseph is able to forgive his brothers by being in his right mind.  You remember the story that Joseph was the favorite of his father and the youngest son.  Out of jealousy, they sought to get rid of him by selling him into slavery in Egypt.  So as they stand there in shock recognizing that he is alive and with great authority, he tells them: “do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.”  How does he know that God sent him ahead of them?  How does he know that it is by God has given him the ability to interpret dreams?  By faith he knows that.

In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus is talking about being double minded or what we call talking out of both sides of your mouth.  Jesus said what comes out of your mouth defiles you worse than that which goes into your mouth.  This of course enraged the Pharisees whose law specifically labeled certain foods as forbidden.  They would make you unclean.  They had a legalistic mind about what pleased God.  Yet Jesus said that they were double minded.  They often thought of themselves as above the law.  Their behavior betrayed their mind. 
Earlier Jesus had challenged Peter about his mind set.  It was just after Peter acknowledged Jesus as the Christ that Peter told Jesus that he would not allow his Savior to be tortured and killed.  So Jesus replied: "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."  What does it mean to be double minded or to have in mind the things of God? 

Once again we find the struggle between having in mind the things of men rather than the things of God.  Growing into ourselves is allowing faith to give us the mind of God.

Finally, we get a hint about the strength and courage of faith. 

Paul writes: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  But do you believe it?

"You will go to prison for six months," said the Judge.  So John Bunyan went to prison for nothing worse than preaching in the little Bedford Baptist Church. "Baptist" preaching was against the law. But Bunyan persisted in breaking the law. He told Justice Keeling, "If I was out of prison today, I would preach again tomorrow, by the help of God."  So it was back to prison. This time for twelve years. And again for six months.  John Bunyan, who gave us the great classic, Pilgrim’s Progress, spent one fifth of his life in jail.  This was not an easy decision for him, to break the law for the sake of his conscience. John Bunyan was poor. He had a wife and four children who were dependent upon him. He had little political clout and virtually no status. All he had to do to avoid prison was to quit preaching because the law said that preaching could only be done in the established church.

Martin Luther told the courts of the church, "Here I stand! I can do no other!" John Bunyan refused to give any promise that would bind his conscience, and because of it, remained a prisoner for the best part of his adult life.

What gave this Canaanite woman the courage to talk back to Jesus?  Was it merely her love for her child or is it possibly the mind of God speaking when she refuses to be dismissed by Jesus as unworthy of his healing grace.  What gave Elie Wiesel continued faith to hope and believe in the face of such overwhelming evil experienced in the concentration camps?  What gives you the courage of faith to keep on going when it seems that your world is caving in all around you? 

Perhaps you understand the promise that nothing can separate you from the love and faith of God. 

Perhaps you allow your mind to be renewed by the power of faith in you. 

Perhaps you have the knowledge of God’s will in your life and the strength of faith to be assured that God turns victims into victors by the renewing of their minds through faith! 

Praise be to our Lord and Savior, who gives us that victory.

1 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, "Have everyone leave my presence!" So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh's household heard about it.
3 Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Is my father still living?" But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.
4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Come close to me." When they had done so, he said, "I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives as a great band of survivors.
8 "So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. 9 Now hurry back to my father and say to him, 'This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don't delay. 10 You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me—you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. 11 I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute.'
 12 "You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you. 13 Tell my father about all the honor accorded me in Egypt and about everything you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly."  14 Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. 15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him.

10Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean.’ “  12Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”  13He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14Leave them; they are blind guides.  If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”
 15Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.” 16”Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. 17”Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ 19For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean.’ “
 21Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.”  23Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”  24He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”  25The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.  26He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”  27”Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
 28Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.