In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. God is One. Amen.

Today on this Sunday of the Canaanite woman, we remember the story of a woman who was not Jewish and sought healing for her daughter. As explained in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of St Matthew that we have just heard, Jesus Christ rejects her and insists that He was “sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”—in other words, to the Jews alone. However, this woman bows down to Jesus Christ and pleads, “Lord, help me.” Jesus Christ tells her, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” However, even when she is insulted, this Canaanite woman does not complain, but replies humbly, “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” In response to the faith, and humility and perseverance of this remarkable woman, Jesus Christ says to her, “‘O woman, your faith is great: it shall be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed at once.”

Preaching on this text, St Augustine has pointed out that “the more humble a person is, the more receptive and full [that person] becomes.” The question I would like to share with you today is: when we seek the resolution of some problem or the healing from some illness, how can we each grow the depth of faith in Christ shown by this woman who is seeking the healing of her daughter? Certainly, the combination of faith, perseverance and humility is a good start. The reading today of the apostle from 2nd Corinthians, Chapter 6, gives us a further answer.

St Paul cites the prophet Isaiah’s words to the Jews in Babylon, ‘come out from their midst and be separate,’ says the Lord.” That is precisely the response of Daniel’s friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. They refuse to worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has set up. They remain separate from the idolatry of the Babylonians. The king throws the three of them into the blazing fire of the super-heated furnace. What happens? The fire is so hot that the Babylonian soldiers who threw the three Jews into the furnace are killed, but, as set out in the Old Testament book of Daniel, Chapter 3, “the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men nor was the hair of their head singed, nor were their trousers damaged, nor had the smell of fire even come upon them.”

Clearly, the Lord protected Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, as King Nebuchadnezzar recognised when he cried out, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who put their trust in Him.” Note the events that link these readings today from the Gospel of St Matthew and St Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians, with its quotations from Isaiah and the time of the captivity of the Jews in Babylon. The Canaanite woman perseveres and acts out of humility and faith in Christ. Then Jesus Christ sees her faith and heals her daughter. Daniel’s three friends also persevere and act out their faith in the Living God. Then King Nebuchadnezzar sees their faith and how the Living God “delivers His servants who put their trust in Him.”

These different demonstrations of faith in God take place in quite different situations in quite different centuries. Yet the healings and the protection are made possible because the Canaanite woman and the three Jews in Babylon have separated themselves from those who not believe in God. They have placed their trust in God and waited for Him to act. In this culture today and in many other cultures throughout the contemporary world, I think we are in the same position as the Canaanite woman and the three friends of Daniel in Babylon. We are being called to worship God and to separate ourselves from the disbelief and the greed and the anger that surround us.

In a new book, Age of Anger: A History of the Present, Pankej Mishra points out that “the faith in progress that the French and Industrial Revolutions ushered in is just that—a [false] faith, a substitute religion, a utopian dream. It is this [misleading] dream that has landed us in our present nightmare” [See The Tablet, 21 January 2017]. In other words, economic progress and political reforms will not solve our problems. Trusting the Lord is the path we as Orthodox Christians have chosen to follow. It is good that we should continue to stay on that path, to reject the temptations of wealth and power, and to trust in the Lord and His plans for each of our lives and for our cultures.