Do I practice what I preach?

     The gospel lesson for Sunday is a scene from Matthew where Jesus teaches and then encounters a Canaanite woman.  It comes from Matthew 15.10-28, although verses 10-20 are optional for us to read.  I however, think that the two go together hand in hand and so have decided to do the whole thing.  The teaching comes as a response to the Pharisees' question to Jesus about why his disciples break the tradition by not washing before they eat.  Jesus explains (I imagine with a little bit of frustration, based on verse 9, which wasn't included in the lectionary) that it isn't what goes in to a body but what comes out that defiles; it is not following the laws of cleanliness or not, but the heart that makes one unclean.  He then goes on walking and encounters a woman, a Canaanite who is unclean because she's a) a woman and b) a foreigner.
     I find this text rather perplexing because it seems like either Jesus is testing the woman to see how strong her faith is, or he doesn't really understand the extent of his teaching and the woman is pushing Jesus to recognize the implications of what he teaches.  My theology has a hard time believing that Jesus is testing the woman's faith.  First of all, faith is a gift given by the Holy Spirit, and second of all, Peter has just walked on water right after Jesus called him 'Little Faith'.  Peter didn't even believe it was Jesus to begin with and this woman begins her request calling Jesus 'Lord' so if faith is at test here the woman has already won.
     That leaves the other option - Jesus has just taught about what makes one unclean versus clean and he doesn't understand his own teaching.  That leaves me a little unsettled.  We do believe that Jesus was human, but was he that human?  That he didn't understand the implications of his own teaching?  It would seem that the Canaanite woman understood even better than Jesus that God sent him for the whole world, not just for Israel.  Her insistence that even though Jesus may have initially come for Israel but he is God's gift for the world is humbling.  She acknowledges that even a little of Jesus' favor and mercy, like the crumbs that fall on the floor for dogs, is better than nothing and I am humbled and a bit awed by her brazen faith that takes her beyond social boundaries into a place of healing and wholeness.
     We all live in social boundaries, although, as I just read in 'The Help' by Kathryn Stockett, those boundaries are all made up by us humans and they are meant to divide and destroy.  This Canaanite woman's request for Jesus to heal her daughter proves that these lines really are imaginary and that Christ's mercy is bigger than any social barrier or unwritten rule.  Jesus preached this by saying it is what comes from within that defiles, though it was a teaching that even he had a hard time putting into practice.  I have nothing but respect for this woman who so desperately wanted her daughter healed, and as I stand in the story of faith with her, I am left wondering...
     Do I practice what I preach?