How Strength Becomes Stronger

The Canaanite Woman (Matthew 15) and The Gospel of Truth

As long as I live, I will never forget a phrase that was repeated over and over again where on my sabbatical where I scoured France and parts of Turkey and Greece looking for Mary Magdalene. The phrase was a favorite of a man some of you might remember who I've shared stories about before. I met him when I was sitting on a bench in front of an espresso machine for only one or two euros depending on the button. and out came a tiny cup and a delicious espresso. It was easy to have too much. Not speaking French and feeling awkward about being alone for the first time on my pilgrimage, I spent most of my first day at the Dominican hostility in the mountains of St. Balme, going to and from that bench by the espresso machine. You know, we humans need a water cooler of sorts to gather around there. On that adventure, a spiritual treasure hunt for the truth, seeking to recover the divine feminine, I was deep into anxiety about the then upcoming 2024 election. And uh that terrible debate had just happened and you know, I had the gift of tears.

So, I was kind of just like sitting there teary on the bench when I noticed a French looking He-Man sort of gentleman whose name I later learned is Bernard with the kind of sunglasses that were clearly only for real athletes perched on his forehead. He began to inquire about the curiosity that was me sitting there crying at the bench in front of the espresso machine. a middle-aged woman alone who was not a nun but with a bunch of Catholics in the middle of nowhere. His list of good and reasonable questions included things like, "What are you doing in this place in the mountains of France, traveling by yourself, speaking no French?" being, you know, the earnest person that I am and being too tired from all that it took to get there, I just decided to say the whole thing.

So I told them I was there to rebalance the whole world through Mary Magdalene. I just started spilling it out because at a site devoted to her in the Dominican monastery in a country where she is everywhere. It's sort of obvious obvious why some of us are there. But I was not thinking that a buff cyclist French keyman looking person would follow my explanations and declarations with a phrase that as long as I will live I will never forget.

He said I know the truth.

I'm not kidding like that. I have known this truth my whole life. And he would tell me again and again I know the truth. If you are ready, I tell you the truth. CUCC people who were here over that time, you might remember me sharing that Bernard and I went on to visit many sites. I couldn't have gotten where I gotten without his help.

And over that journey, he would say to me again and again and again, I know the truth.

He was something like an expert on Mary Magdalene and many things.

And when I came back from all of that in the fall of 2024, I was obsessed with finding someone who could tell me more about what I heard from the people like Bernard and others that I visited and saw from what I read, from what I experienced in rituals. That spiritual treasure hunt led me to ask my friend Kelly if she had any ideas for me. And well, she did.

The hunt led me to a most beautiful human who is here today. CU's only scholar on first century Jesus movements and an expert on things like the Gospel of Truth which you heard Becky share earlier. The translation you heard is from Hal Tasik who's amazing and that's in the book the new New Testament. If you're like wait a minute there's a gospel of truth talk to us after. Yes, there's a whole bunch of things that weren't included in the Bible which is why we're doing this series. Dr. Lillie will share more after this, but just briefly, the Gospel of Truth is one of those that was found in Nag Hamadi in 1945.

So on that big list and as we've explored over this summer series, when it comes to the time after Jesus died and before the empire got its grip on Christianity, you know, you have to dig to find the truth. Some of what Christians in 2026 are living as the true story of Christianity is actually really far from that. There were hundreds of years where all kinds of writings were circulating. Different levels of teachings often really different from what was cluded in our biblical cannon. More esoteric teachings and I heard Philip say hmm after Becky read the gospel of truth which is which is exactly right. There's a lot of things that make you go hmm as we said in the 90s where we read things like strengthen the feet of those who stumble and stretch your hands to those who are weak. Feed those who are hungry and give rest to the weary. Some of that sounds familiar, right?

In a time when the truth is hard to find and in some parts of our life when it feels not just out of fashion but dangerous to speak it, to care about it, to tend to it. I am wondering if the truth is in fact something that builds upon the strengths that we have. I am wondering if it is something that can be hard to hard to find. But if we are willing, it does eventually lead us to something stronger, something better. You know, that still can mean it can be hard at first, right? It could mean that getting to the truth takes some work. It could mean we have to dare to see something that is discomforting, unsettling, unmooring. But in my experience, when I have faced hard truths, it has led to a path of healing, hope, and recovery in many forms.

As we read in the Gospel of Truth, what if it is when we get to a place in our individual and collective lives where we are open and ready to arise to something different, where we wish to wake up. What if that is when we are made stronger? Bless you. What if strength is both needed to do these things and also we are stronger when we have the courage to face the truth and to build on what is there? This is how strength becomes stronger.

Which gets me to this most important story in the Gospel of Matthew that you heard today. This is one of my favorites. And the feminist scholars say this is with Jesus caught with his humanness down. The Canaanite woman has no name. and long before me too movement. She does not give up. Even when one whom others call God, you might notice, basically labels her a dog. But she does not give up. She persists and she says, "Lord, help me." Kneeling before Jesus, begging for the healing of her daughter, demanding to the universe in the name of love that she be seen. that his heart needed to be open and ready to arise to something different, to wake up, to be open to a new kind of understanding, to insist that love will push justice onward. And her strength grew because she did that. All kinds of stories come after this where he does many, many healings after he hears from this woman.

And it seems like hearing that truth really does same change something for Jesus. May maybe hearing her say it out aloud in front of others allowed him to fully grasp the depth of his call because he shouts to the woman after that woman great is your faith. However you say it, something was different after that with his ministry. The truth uncovered made him stronger and it made the woman's strength become stronger too.

As Mary Hinkle asks, did she teach the teacher? Yes, but she took a risk. She spoke the truth. And Jesus dared to hear it.

It seems to me that part of how we stay strong individually and collectively right now, part of how we build on strengths that we have is not to give up on the truth. Are you with me?

However and wherever we find it, even when we have to dig for it, to work for it, to struggle for it, it's worth it. We humans can get creative to avoid hard truths sometimes. I know what that's like and I bet you do too. We are doing this as a nation right now. But when we try to go around it or avoid it, we don't get stronger and things don't get better. Are you with me?

We are less able to endure when the storms of discomfort arrive when we aren't anchored in something true and deep. That word ichthus is strength in Greek and you know it's feminine and it means forcefulness literally and figuratively which makes me think that's like this woman we heard from and what we read in the Gospel of Truth. Part of what gives us the strength that makes us stronger, part of what keeps us going in a time like this is when people, and I feel this, people are very struggling and brittle and worried and don't have enough and the earth is hurting.

But we cannot give up on the truth. Sometimes we have to go all the way down, take off the rotten, find the nests of bees and all the things underneath that we can build strong from there and our strengths will keep growing. What if not giving up on the truth is what makes us stronger? Channeling this, channeling forcefulness and faith to uncover the truth that we know will set us free. Beloved of God, if you are ready, I will tell you the truth. This is how strength becomes stronger.

Reflection Question: What are the places in your life where you are drawing spiritual strength right now? Or maybe you're noticing the places you need to draw spiritual strength