Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The remnant of grace
11 So I ask, has God abandoned his people? Certainly not! I myself am an Israelite, from the seed of Abraham and the tribe of Benjamin. 2 “God has not abandoned his people,” the ones he chose in advance.
Don’t you know what the Bible says in the passage about Elijah, describing how he pleads with God against Israel?
29 God’s gifts and God’s call, you see, cannot be undone. 30 For just as you were once disobedient to God, but now have received mercy through their disobedience, 31 so they have now disbelieved as well, in order that, through the mercy which has come your way, they too may now receive mercy. 32 For God has shut up all people in disobedience, so that he may have mercy upon all.
The parable of clean and unclean
10 Then Jesus called the crowd, and said to them, “Listen and understand. 11 What makes someone unclean isn’t what goes into the mouth. It’s what comes out of the mouth that makes someone unclean.”
12 Then the disciples came to Jesus.
“Do you know,” they said, “that the Pharisees were horrified when they heard what you said?”
13 “Every plant that my heavenly father hasn’t planted,” replied Jesus, “will be plucked up by the roots. 14 Let them be. They are blind guides. But if one blind person guides another, both of them will fall into a pit.”
15 Peter spoke up. “Explain the riddle to us,” he said.
16 “Are you still slow on the uptake as well?” replied Jesus. 17 “Don’t you understand that whatever goes into the mouth travels on into the stomach and goes out into the drain? 18 But what comes out of the mouth begins in the heart, and that’s what makes someone unclean. 19 Out of the heart, you see, come evil plots, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, and blasphemy. 20 These are the things that make someone unclean. But eating with unwashed hands doesn’t make a person unclean.”
The Canaanite woman
21 Jesus left that place and went off to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from those parts came out and shouted, “Have pity on me, Lord, son of David! My daughter is demon-possessed! She’s in a bad way!” 23 Jesus, however, said nothing at all to her.
His disciples came up.
“Please send her away,” they asked. “She’s shouting after us.”
24 “I was only sent,” replied Jesus, “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
25 The woman, however, came and threw herself down at his feet.
“Master,” she said, “please help me!”
26 “It isn’t right,” replied Jesus, “to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
27 “I know, Master,” she said. “But even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from their master’s table.”
28 “You’ve got great faith, haven’t you, my friend!” replied Jesus. “All right; let it be as you wish.”
And her daughter was healed from that moment.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.