Today I'd just like to make some brief remarks on the first half of the Gospel reading that we just heard, the story of the Syrophoenician woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit. We'll begin with some details about this story. So Christ's main ministry in the Gospels was to the nation of Israel and to the people of Israel,

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the Jewish people. It's only later in the story of the Bible, at the time of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit would come upon the disciples and they would be sent out into all the lands of the Gentiles. So here in the Gospels, there is actually a unique happening, a unique moment,

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because Christ goes to a Gentile that is a non-Jewish region for the only time in the whole of the Gospels, a place called Tyre and Sidon. So it's not entirely clear why he goes there, but it appears that he wants to have some rest. Even Jesus needed rest.

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He had a very, very busy life, a busy ministry with lots of demands being placed upon him. So we're told that he entered a house and he did not want anyone to know. And yet he could not be hidden. Mark tells us that immediately a woman hears of him and she comes to him to beg him

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to cast a demon or an unclean spirit from her daughter. I want us to understand something of the situation of this woman. She's got this demon-possessed daughter, which, as one can imagine, is a terrible thing in itself. But did this also mean that she was a social outcast?

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She's got a very serious problem there for more than one reason. We can also observe that this woman was indeed a woman and it was perhaps inappropriate in that culture for her to approach a man in the way that she approaches Jesus. She would have been lower down the social pecking order than a man in any case.

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We're not told of her husband or the father of this daughter. Is she perhaps a widow or some kind of outcast? And then as I was implying earlier she is a Syrophoenician, a Gentile, and therefore she was outside the remit of Jesus' ministry. He was sent first to the children of Israel. Did she know that?

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And did she approach him anyway? The point I'm trying to make in saying all of these things is that this woman who approaches Christ demonstrates extreme boldness. as a woman who was possibly a social outcast, a woman and a Gentile, she comes to Christ with boldness,

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even though any one of these things could have discouraged her from coming to him. And at first Christ's response is not encouraging. Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. What did Christ mean by that? Well,

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The children here refers to the people of Israel, and the dogs is a way of referring to people not from Israel, to the Gentiles. So let the children be fed first, let the people of Israel be fed by my ministry first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the Gentile dogs.

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Now that looks on the face of it like quite a harsh thing to say, but it's not necessarily the most insulting thing or the most dismissive thing that Christ could have said. Because the implication is that at some point, the dogs, that is the Gentiles, that they will be fed just after the children at their appropriate time.

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But look at the woman's response. Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. And it's as though she's saying there, sometimes even the dogs get fed at dinner time. It might be appropriate for the dogs to be fed after dinner, but sometimes they get fed during dinner. Now,

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this is an especially relevant Bible passage for me and my family at the moment because we are actually looking after a dog. He's my brother's dog. She's my brother's dog, I should say. And I've noticed this. She has an appropriate time. to be fed which is her meal time frequently after dinner but she knows that if she

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hangs around the dinner table my two-year-old son Alex is likely to give her some of his food sometimes he even gives her some of his drink as well and it all gets a bit messy but the dog knows if she hangs around at the table she might get something even though it's not her time to do so

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And so in this story, this Syrophoenician woman with this very serious problem concerning her daughter is asking for something like that. She understands that she might get something from Christ eventually, but she needs it now and she's asking for it now, even though it might not be necessarily the ordained moment. And Christ's response is,

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for this statement, you may go your way, doesn't quite carry what Christ is trying to say here in the translation for this statement you might translate that something like such an answer such an answer is this that this woman is given that she may go her way the demon has left her daughter and she has

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received what she has been asking for what she has asked for with boldness and persistence and indeed faith and humility to accept Christ on his terms yet to imaginatively and boldly persist in asking him to answer her plea. Some things we can learn from this story. As we see with this woman, she would let nothing disqualify her.

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And friends, we too can have the same kind of boldness and persistence and strength and courage when we approach God. Many of us think that there is an aspect of our identity or some sin or failing in the past that renders us unacceptable to God. And in a sense, this is actually true for all of us.

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There is something that prevents us from coming to God. It's called sin. It's our waywardness. It's our lack of love for God, our lack of care for the things of God. And yet God, because of his compassion, because of his love, demonstrated his love, demonstrated his compassion in sending Christ to this earth to show us his love,

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to show us his compassion, as we see in this story today, and supremely and above all, in having Christ die for us upon the cross and make a way for us to come into his presence. So we're encouraged in every way through this story today to come to Christ and to not let anything disqualify us.

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He displayed compassion for this woman. He will display compassion for us also. Whoever we are, whatever we have done, whatever might disqualify us, there is love and mercy in the person and the face of Jesus Christ. And secondly, as I've already implied, persistence and boldness in our approach to God.

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In his ministry, Jesus taught this in various different ways. He told stories about widows who keep asking magistrates for justice. He told stories about people who bang on their friends' doors in the middle of the night, asking over and over and over again for bread. The point being, friends,

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that he invites us to come and to keep coming and to keep asking and to be persistent, even if we don't get what we are asking for at first. And discouragements, difficulties, even unanswered prayers are often ordained by God, given to us by God to strengthen our faith and to teach us this habit of coming

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back to him over and over again so that we might deepen our relationship with him. See this woman with this demon-possessed daughter, she would never have come to Christ if that had not been her situation. How true is that for us also? So many times in our lives,

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it is the very difficulty that we have that drives us to the throne room of God and to fall at the feet of Jesus Christ in prayer and petition. So see, friends, your troubles and your difficulties and your discouragements in that way as

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something that would drive you to God and not cause you to keep away from him. The final word I want to say about this story is slightly different. It concerns the details of this story, which we can often miss. We can often run stories like this all into one. But there's something very specific about this story,

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which is that the woman with the unclean, with the daughter with the unclean spirit came to beseech Christ, not on her own behalf, but on the behalf of her child, on the behalf of her daughter. And those of us who have children or those of us who have observed the love of

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parents for their children will understand something of this. It's one thing to suffer yourself. It's another thing to see your child suffering. It's another thing to feel anxiety and pain and worry and brokenheartedness because you see your own child suffering. And it drives compassionate parents to extreme lengths to do whatever they can to help their children.

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And indeed, we see that here in this story today. It reminds us of the beauty of a mother's love, of a mother's desperation that her child might be given back her childhood and be given back her life. But it reminds us also that we do not live the life of faith for ourselves alone.

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We do indeed live it for ourselves, but we live it for others as well. Our faith, our attempts to live a godly life bring blessings for others too as we pray for them and as we demonstrate a godly lifestyle for our family members, for our children. for our friends, for our acquaintances, for those we know.

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And this is especially relevant today because today we baptise two of the youngest members of this church and we all together commit to praying for them and helping them to grow in the life of faith. And so we recognise very specifically in this place the ongoing reality that we

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come to Christ not just for ourselves but for them and for the good of all those in God's church. We are not just isolated individuals. No man is an island in the words of John Donne. but we are here for one another too. And we approach God not just for ourselves, but for one another as well.

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And so, friends, today I encourage you to take this baptismal liturgy that we are about to undertake and enact seriously. As we say these words together that we'll say in a That we are making serious promises. Recognize that we're saying serious words. And do your best to mean them.

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We will commit to pray for these children who will be baptized. James and Eve. To pray for them. To pray for this family. To pray that they may know Christ as they grow up. To commit ourselves. to modelling a life of holiness before them. Remember that, take it away with you and mean it as we say it.

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One final thing to say is that this is not an arduous task that we undertake today. This is not a heavy weight that we put upon our shoulders to seek the presence of Christ for ourselves and others. It is for joy.

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It is that we may know the life and peace and joy of Jesus Christ in our lives. That our children may know the light and life of joy of Jesus Christ. The one who has an easy yoke. The one who has a light burden. The one who dispenses healing and peace and freedom from oppression.

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And so we undertake... all that we do, and especially this baptismal liturgy, for Christ with joy and in freedom. So let us do that today, friends, and let us mean it as we undertake it. Amen.