NOTES: 1] Tyre & Sidon were Phoenician towns. Jesus is out of Jewish territory (& comfort zone). 2] Canaanites were old enemies of Israel. 3] Let's give the woman a name & a face: Cananea. She comes out of the encounter better than the disciples (16 & 23) 4] When Cananea calls Jesus 'son of David' she's using a Jewish term she's somehow got hold of.

WARMING UP: Does our comfort zone have geographical boundaries as well as emotional ones?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Identify God at work in anything this week?

EXPLORING GOSPEL:

21-24    What kinds of issues determine where we move, settle, travel to, avoid, etc.? What's our initial response likely be to someone who is: a) a stranger? b) not 'our  kind' of person? c) a gate crasher? d) shouting at us? Are we open to having more considered responses to people? Do we readily implore God for mercy, or is it more or less a last resort? Are we as good at showing mercy as asking for it? Does demon-possession play any role in the way we now understand illness of any kind? Do we ever see illness or anything else in 1st C. terms just because the Gospel dates from then? How much do we have to allow for Scripture being the product of its own times? Or is that thought taboo?

Have we ever approached God about some pressing issue only to be met by a deafening silence as Cananea is here? Is that kind of silence necessarily a "No!"? Are we as persistent as Cananea? With what outcome? Is there a line between persist- ing, & being a nuisance, even an upstart, when it comes to approaching God? How fine a line is it? Do we draw our 'line' where Jesus draws his? Where is that? Where does Cananea draw hers?

If Jesus means being sent "only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" was his priority at that stage, does that raise questions about whether we have any priorities for ministry, today, or ought to? How flexible would any priorities need to be?

25-28   Is Jesus teasing Cananea, or just being harsh / rude / male chauvinist......? (Carter (MT, ad loc) quotes Ringe ('Gentile Woman's Story' as saying Jesus seems to be 'caught with his compassion down'.) How do we respond to that possibility? Is it OK to talk back to God as Cananea talks back to Jesus? Do we ever do it? Should we? Are we as aware as we need to be of the different kinds of  healing we or anyone else may need? Might persistent faith in God through Jesus be a bigger factor than we think in healing? Part of a 'package deal' involving a whole range of health & medical issues? Cananea's faith is rewarded, but what happens when ours is (apparently) not? Where does that leave us & God?