Our Gospel text for this coming Sunday is from Matthew 15, in which Jesus encounters a Canaanite woman who is quite insistent that Jesus heal her daughter. The disciples are appalled that this "heathen" would even approach Jesus and urge him to send her away. Jesus carries on an interesting debate with the woman about why he shouldn't bother with her, but ultimately verbally acknowledges her faith and heals her daughter.
As I read that text in preparation for my sermon this week, I couldn't help but think about some of the ongoing public policy debates regarding terrorism and illegal immigration. On the one hand, we want to recognize the dignity of all human beings. On the other hand, we're afraid. Like the disciples, it's difficult for us to look at people who are different from us or who have different value systems than we do and see anything but a bunch of "heathens." Because we are driven by fear, we want to lock them all up or send them all away. Better yet, we want to keep them out by building fences or adopting restrictive city and state ordinances.
But Jesus calls us to look at things differently. He calls us to step outside of our comfort zones and offer his love to all people regardless of who they are or what they believe. Maybe if we can look beyond our fears, we will see what Jesus sees, which will help us clarify our public policy positions.
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