This is an adapted form of the sermon I preached this morning, September 8, 2024. The gospel text I preached on was Mark 7:24-37.

The crumbs of grace are enough.

I want to remind you of that, as much as I want to remind myself. The crumbs of grace are enough.

Last week, I saw something on my Facebook feed that upset me. I know, I know, that’s nothing new. Something on social media getting us upset? Say it ain’t so!

Anyway, here’s what I saw on Facebook. It was an image that had these words:

Attention Ladies:

• Make sure you fill up your gas tank before sunset.
• Always keep an extra phone charger with you.
• Park in well lit areas.
• Always look in your backseat.
• After parking don’t just sit, lock your door as soon as you get in and leave.

And it went on … that’s only about half of it. What really upset me about this is that I don’t have to worry about these things, at least not nearly as much. I never think about any of this. I don’t have to. But women do. Women are wise to follow all these rules because so many men don’t follow one simple rule: Keep your hands to yourself. It breaks my heart that women in our culture still have to do such things just to be safe.

A few years ago, after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, I read a number of books written by Black Americans, about their experiences living in the United States. I learned a lot, including the fact that most Black families sit their children down, and have something called “the talk.” Now, I’m not referring to the talk about the birds and the bees, though I’m sure that happens as well. But when Black families refer to “the talk,” what they’re talking about is teaching their children how to react whenever encountering law enforcement or other authorities. The talk is about the importance of always being calm and polite, saying, “Yes, sir,” and “No, sir,” keeping your hands visible, not making sudden moves, and so forth.

This is a talk my parents never had with me. When I’ve pulled over for speeding, the only fear I had was how much money the fine would be. But from what I read, in the Black community, they have far more fears than that, because of a history of such encounters escalating far too quickly. It breaks my heart that people have to deal with this just because of the color of their skin.

Many groups of people seem to have different rules they have to follow. From poor people to people with disabilities, from senior citizens to members of the LGBT community, from the mentally ill to the working poor, some people have to work so hard just to get the respect that some of us receive for free. It seems to me that some people get just the crumbs of our society, because of who they are or what group they’re part of. And I find that heartbreaking.

And I see that dynamic at work in today’s story from the Gospel of Mark. In this story, Jesus is in a foreign land, the region of Tyre. It seems to me that he needed a rest from all his work among his fellow Jews. I wonder if he was at the first-century equivalent of a bed and breakfast in Tyre, relaxing and resting. But his rest was interrupted when a Syrophoenician woman came and asked him to heal her ill daughter.

Jesus responded, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” In case it’s unclear what Jesus meant by this, in Matthew’s version, Jesus adds, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” He was not here to help foreigners like this woman and her daughter, whom he referred to as dogs. This doesn’t sound much like the Jesus we know, and that could be the topic for another sermon.

But for today, I want to focus on the woman’s response: “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” What I hear her asking is this: “Call me a dog if you want to, but recognize that even dogs get a little.” This is her daughter’s life we’re talking about here, and she begs Jesus just to give her crumbs.

And I wonder that’s because she knew her place in society. Jesus was Jewish, and he was a man, and she was neither. She knew that she would be considered lesser, worthy of less, worthy perhaps only of crumbs. Just like so many people today.

And one of the effects of being told for years that you only deserve crumbs is that sometimes you start to believe it yourself. You start to believe that you all you can ask for in this world is the leftovers, the leavings, the crumbs. And I wonder if the woman was asking Jesus for just what she thought she deserved, just the crumbs of his power, just the crumbs of his love, just the crumbs of his grace.

And yet – the crumbs of grace are enough.

Look what happened next! Jesus said, “For saying that, you may go – the demon has left your daughter.” The crumbs of Jesus’ grace were enough to heal the girl from a distance. Even the crumbs of Jesus’ grace are enough.

And it is so for us as well. Perhaps some of you today feel that you’re not worthy of much, that you don’t deserve anything good or great. That’s a message you may have heard for years, and perhaps you’ve internalized it. But no matter what you feel you are worthy of, you are receiving God’s grace.

You have been baptized into a life of that grace, probably with just a little bit of water, and yet those drops of water are still with you today. That little bit of grace is all around you when you wake in the morning and when you fall asleep at night. Every day.

And here in this place, we will receive that grace in a special way in just a few minutes. The food we will share shortly is called the Lord’s Supper. We call it a meal, but from any objective standpoint, the morsel of bread and the sip of wine you will partake are hardly a meal. They’re more like crumbs.

And yet, those crumbs are enough. The crumbs of grace are enough.

Just like the woman with the ill daughter, these crumbs are more than enough for us. We receive God’s grace and love in our lives every day no matter how worthy or not we feel. Because no matter how we feel, God says we are worthy. And that is enough.

When we receive those crumbs, we find we have enough to get through anything the world throws at us. We find that the crumbs of grace are enough to provide the faith to get through it all.

And when we receive those crumbs, we find that we are empowered to stand up for our own needs, and tell the world around us, we deserve more than the world’s crumbs. God has created us, God has fed us, God has nurtured us, and we deserve a full share of what we need. A full share of respect. A full share of resources. A full share of love.

And we are empowered to stand up for the needs and rights of others. All those people in our society who receive less respect, who receive fewer resources, who are seen as lesser, undeserving, less worthy. God created each of them. God feeds each of them. God nurtures each of them, and so they are just as worthy as you and I. And we can, filled with the crumbs of God’s grace, offer them more than just the world’s crumbs. We can stand up and give them the respect, the resources, the love they too need and deserve.

When we receive the crumbs of God’s grace, we find that those crumbs are in fact abundant. And nourished by God’s abundant grace, we can provide abundance for others in all their needs.