First Reading:
1My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of
favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus
Christ? 2For if a person with gold rings and in fine
clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty
clothes also comes in, 3and if you take notice of the one
wearing the fine clothes and say, Have a seat here, please,
while to the one who is poor you say, Stand there,
or, Sit
at my feet,
4have you not made distinctions among
yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 5Listen,
my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the
world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has
promised to those who love him? 6But you have dishonored
the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag
you into court? 7Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent
name that was invoked over you? 8You do well if you really
fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.
9But if you show partiality,
you commit sin and are convicted by the law as
transgressors.
10For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point
has become accountable for all of it.
14What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you
have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15If
a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16and
one of you says to them, Go in peace; keep warm and eat your
fill,
and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the
good of that? 17So faith by itself, if it has no works, is
dead.
Second Reading:
24From there he set out and went away to the region of
Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was
there. Yet he could not escape notice, 25but a woman whose
little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and
she came and bowed down at his feet. 26Now the woman was a
Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon
out of her daughter. 27He said to her, Let
the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's
food and throw it to the dogs.
28But she answered
him, Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's
crumbs.
29Then he said to her, For
saying that, you may go—the demon has left your
daughter.
30So she went home, found the child lying on
the bed, and the demon gone.
31Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way
of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the
Decapolis.
32They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in
his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on
him. 33He took him aside in private, away from the crowd,
and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his
tongue. 34Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to
him, Ephphatha,
that is, Be
opened.
35And immediately his ears were opened, his
tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36Then Jesus
ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more
zealously they proclaimed it. 37They were astounded beyond
measure, saying, He has done everything well; he even makes the
deaf to hear and the mute to speak.
This week's scripture passage presents a picture of Jesus that we don't really get anywhere else in the gospels. There are two stories in this week's passage and the second story is actually similar to other stories in the gospels, Jesus went into the region of the Decapolis, healed a man and told everyone not to tell anyone about him. For Mark's gospel, that's not too unusual… Jesus often told people to keep quiet about his healings. It also wasn't terribly unusual that the people either ignored or flat out disobeyed the command to silence. Our passage tells us that the crowd was astounded beyond measure and the more Jesus told them to keep quiet about him, the more emphatically they proclaimed him. Apparently it's difficult to keep quiet when you've met someone like Jesus…
But we'll come back to that. I want to focus on the first of the two stories because it's the one that's really unusual. Jesus went into the region of Tyre. He entered a house and didn't want anyone to know he was there, but our passage says he couldn't avoid notice. Apparently it's difficult to not notice when someone like Jesus is in the vicinity. But again, it's common in the gospel accounts for Jesus to go into a new place and be surrounded by people looking for healing, or miracles, or signs, or food, or something… When the religious elite heard about him they got scared because he broke their rules and challenged their authority. When the common people heard about him they did everything they could to meet him because he represented hope for them in the midst of their every-day reality.
So the Syrophoenician woman came to Jesus to see if he might be able
to help her and her ailing daughter. And like lots of other stories
in the gospels, she was an unlikely candidate for help: a woman in a
patriarchal society, a gentile approaching a Jewish Rabbi. Even the
fact that she's identified as a Syrophoenician says that she's an
outsider, but then when you think about it, we don't get a whole lot
of stories of the people that everyone expected Jesus to help. I
guess those didn't seem as noteworthy… A big part of what makes
the gospel good news is that it's a bit of a surprise. Jesus reached
out to those who didn't deserve being reached out to; he reached out
to those whom the rest of society ignored, those who were outcasts and
sinners. The reason this story is unique in the scripture accounts
isn't because the woman was an unlikely candidate for Jesus' help, but
because Jesus himself points that out and he does so in a derogatory
manner. Let the children be fed first, for it's not fair to take
the children's food and throw it to the dogs.
The equation here
is simple… Jews are children of God; gentiles (which means
everyone who's not a Jew) gentiles are dogs.
What are we supposed to make of that? In the story, these words are placed in Jesus' mouth. But it's the same Jesus, who we're told since preschool Sunday school loves everyone. But here when a woman asks for help for her daughter he calls that woman a dog. Some scholars try to soften Jesus' words. They say he spoke tongue in cheek, or they say he was testing her resolve. Others say he was quoting a well known proverb, so it wouldn't have seemed so harsh… but I don't know if there's any way around it… the words are offensive, the imagery of a dog is demeaning.
The idea that relationship with God and even salvation was primarily for the Jews was a relatively common perspective of the time. Scholars call it the priority of the Jews and you can see it in other places in our scripture… both in the gospel accounts, and in Paul's letters… The idea that gentiles were dogs, not worthy to be fed at the same table as Jews was also not uncommon in the minds of first century Jewish Christians… and I think that just might be why we have it in our gospel texts. Because it was real… it was something that was already swimming in the hearts and minds of the people who originally heard the gospel texts. It was something that the audience would have identified with. It was something that would have allowed the people to know that Jesus was in touch with their reality. In the first century it was revolutionary to think of allowing gentiles into the church… and yet that was exactly the process they were going through. As the church opened their doors, started bringing in people who were different from themselves, everyone was stuck trying to figure out how to be the church together. And I think the whole conversation between Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman could have served as a model of a concrete way to deal with each other.
When the woman was called a dog, she didn't recoil. She didn't run
away. She didn't even hesitate. You may call me a dog, but I
still have a need and I still have a place here.
Even the dogs
under the table are provided for. Even the dogs under the table are
given something to eat. And a big part of what makes this good news
is that Jesus didn't stick to the usual defining characteristics. He
crossed a boundary. He let go of the traditional standpoint that was
based on exclusion and instead he took a position of openness and
compassion. He heard the needs of the person who stood before him
regardless of the differences, regardless of the long-standing
tradition and regardless of the cultural expectation. The woman's
daughter was made well.
And because Jesus chose the route of compassion, the first lesson for
us to learn from the passage is that people have value, no matter
their social position, no matter their difference, no matter what's
wrong with them. To this day, there are people who are regarded as
dogs
in our society and in many of our churches… It's
not a matter of gentiles, that discussion's old history. But there
are still plenty of barriers put up based on any number of things
(age, race, gender, status, wealth, involvement in the church, the
list could go on and on). Of course we don't call people dogs but
there are many who we drive by, or walk by who know what it is like to
be ignored, routinely excluded, continually put on hold, and treated
as if their needs don't matter. In our scripture the syrophoenician
woman was their voice: the voice of the voiceless, and Jesus listened
to her. As long as there are people who are treated as dogs, we've
fallen short of Christ's mission. After all, even in this story,
Jesus includes the least of these.
The second lesson is related… and we're reminded of it every
time we gather around the table. You see, the whole idea of
priority… the phrase let the children be fed first
really says, I'm afraid that there may not be enough, and if anyone
is to go without, let it be those who are least important.
Too
much of our lives are spent living in a mindset of scarcity.
Somewhere along the line we get this idea that there's not enough to
go around, resources are scarce… But when the syrophoenician
woman spoke, she showed that she understood something of the nature of
God: even if I only eat the crumbs from the table, when it comes to
God's grace, it doesn't matter if I'm first or if I'm last. There's
plenty to go around. I ask for healing for my daughter not because
I'm worthy of it but because I'm confident that the grace of God is
enough.
It's the same perspective we bring to the communion table and I pray that it's the same perspective we then take with us out into the world. At our best and also at our worst, we are welcome to the table because God's grace is sufficient. When everything seems to be going well in our lives and also when everything seems to be falling apart we are welcome at the table, because God's love is steadfast and everlasting.
It's here that we're nourished for the journey and it's here that we're fed for service. I started off the sermon today by saying that it's difficult to keep quiet when you've met someone like Jesus. It's hard to not notice when someone like Jesus is in the vicinity… the fullness of life, and the good news he brings is contagious. Barriers are broken down, unlikely friendships become possible, stories are shared and bonds of humanity are built… and when we encounter him, even if our mouths remain silent our lives share the message because God's grace is enough to transform the unlikeliest of candidates, even me and even you. So there's a place at the table for everyone. Come as guests invited to share the bread and drink the cup, trusting that there is enough of God's grace to go around. Amen
The foregoing sermon was given by Rev. Dan Holland at the United Parish of Bowie on September 6, 2009.
© 2009 Daniel Holland
