First Reading: Isaiah 35:4-7a
4Say to those who are of a fearful heart,“Be strong, do not fear. Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.” 5Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; 7athe burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water.
Psalm: Psalm 146 I will praise the Lord as long as I live. (Ps. 146:2)
1Hallelujah! Praise the Lord, O my soul!
2I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
3Put not your trust in rulers, in mortals in whom there is no help.
4When they breathe their last, they return to earth, and in that day their thoughts perish.
5Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help, whose hope is in the Lord their God;
6who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them; who keeps promises forever;
7who gives justice to those who are oppressed, and food to those who hunger. The Lord sets the captive free.
8The Lord opens the eyes of the blind; the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous.
9The Lord cares for the stranger;the Lord sustains the orphan and widow, but frustrates the way of the wicked.
10The Lord shall reign forever, your God, O Zion, throughout all generations. Hallelujah!
Second Reading: James 2:1-10 [11-13] 14-17
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. [11For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. 13For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.]
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.
Gospel: Mark 7:24-37
24[Jesus] 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.”
CHILDREN’S SERMON: Share with your neighbor where your favorite vacation spot is? What do you like to do there?
Prayer: Lord may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.
SERMON
We take vacations to get away and unwind from our normal routines. For those of us who have jobs in the public eye, it’s nice to be incognito for a week or two and enjoy family. My family loved to go to Mombasa on the Kenyan coast where we could go out on the reef and snorkel in the tide pools when the tide was out. It was like swimming in a tropical fish aquarium. Many times we have read that Jesus withdrew and tried to take his disciples for a rest but the crowds always followed. In our text today Jesus has gone to the coast cities that are in Lebanon, a totally Gentile area then and he wants to be “unseen”. Perhaps here he can find rest but even there he is recognized and approached for help.
Our few last few Sunday Gospel texts have focused on Jesus as the bread of life. He debated with the Jews about eating his body and drinking his blood. Whew. Last week he confronted the Pharisees and Scribes who questioned him about his disciples eating with dirty hands. Jesus responded, it is what comes out of our heart and not what goes into our stomach that defiles us. In all these texts we have considered that those who eat the bread Jesus offers are “the good guys,” the believers or followers. Today, we are forced to open up our thinking as Jesus encounters a Gentile woman. She is rebuffed as she approached Jesus with her problem. Jesus came for the Jews and probably the men, or so it was thought.
We need to pay attention because this conversation with a Syrophoenician woman marks the beginning of Jesus’ mission to the Gentiles. Just as Jason Bourne in his movies “did not do random”, Jesus does not do random. Jesus has headed to the area of the Gentiles for a reason. We might consider him on vacation but God does not take vacations. The second scene is in the Decapolis, an area of ten cities in northern Israel that was also highly culturally mixed with Gentiles. These Gentiles mostly came from Hellenistic and Roman heritage. Something is about to happen. We best pay attention. The people living on the Phoenician coast were Gentiles, heathens. They probably spoke Greek and worshiped pagan gods. The people in the Decapolis were Gentiles. We are considered Gentiles. This text is for us.
Just as the Magi arrive at the birth of Jesus thus including us Gentiles, you and me, in the Christmas story and in God’s plan, our text today brings you and me into being recipients in the ministry of Jesus. This is not just a parable told to people in a Jewish area but is a purposeful outreach of God in Jesus caring for Gentiles, for you and me. We are not after-thoughts but we are part of “the Plan.”
Jesus’ ministry included Gentiles!
Jesus “could not escape notice.” Romans 1 talks about the reality of God being obvious to all people – regardless of the presence of Christian witness. God’s fingerprints are on creation. People may not know about Jesus but they are aware of God. It would appear in this case that Jesus’ reputation has preceded him so that as he enters both Tyre and Sidon he is recognized and sought after.
Firstly I note that the woman and the deaf man were “marked people,” people who were labeled. The woman and the man were social misfits of their day. The woman is at the bottom of the power chain as a woman and as someone with a child with an unclean spirit. I bet people avoided her house. The man in the Decapolis is deaf and tongue-tied. I would wager to say that his friendship circle was limited also. A woman’s child and a deaf man are in dire need of help and have nowhere to turn in their culture. Many of us are also aware of social labels. “Old” is a word we don’t so much like to have to admit. “Handicapped” is a sign we hang on our car to let us park close to doors. “Blind” people carry white canes. Right now we celebrate the Paralympics.
Jesus came to town. Neither of the sick Gentiles directly approach Jesus, neither the sick child nor the deaf man. Their representatives, their sponsors approach Jesus. The little girl’s mother bows before Jesus with her request. The anonymous “they” bring the deaf man to Jesus. Neither the girl nor the deaf man is able to represent themselves. How often have we felt unworthy of asking for help from God?
We know this scene. We bring our children to baptism even before they understand, even before they are able to express faith. We come like the Syrophoenician woman and like the friends of the deaf man and we bow before Jesus. We are helpless to save ourselves or the people around us. We can only intercede for them. I suspect many of us are also on our knees for wayward children caught in difficult marriages or addictions, for friends fighting cancer or for those diminishing with age…all those things that drive us to intercessory prayer. Bringing others to Jesus is an important ministry. This woman and this man’s friends give us hope that Jesus listens, cares and can handle our fears and anxieties. That is our first lesson today. We are not to loose heart as we bring people who seem on the edge of God’s radar screen to Jesus through prayer or through invitation into spiritual conversations.
Jesus responds,
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.”
Let’s name the elephant in the room. To our American ears this sounds like an insult. Jews considered Gentiles dogs. The Jews were the chosen people and this woman, not even a man, was pleading for help for her daughter with an unclean spirit. Did Jesus see the woman as a dog and insult her? Our culture struggles here and often reads it that way.
But as we look at the heroes in the Old Testament, we often see this tug of conversation over “God’s Plan.” Moses goes back and forth with God at the burning bush about sending him back to Egypt to face his past and using him to be the agent for bringing deliverance to the Israelites. He argues that surely there is a better person than he. Later in the wilderness when God tells Moses to lead the people but God will not accompany them, Moses responds – just kill me cause I’m not going forward without you! Then there is Abraham bartering with the angels over the outcome of Sodom and Gomorrah. He pleads that if the angels can find 50 people, well how about 40, maybe 30, on down to 10 good people…would God change his plan of wrath. I believe we have the whole book of Job arguing with God that he, Job, is innocent and undeserving of the tragedies of his life. God is a real being and does not shy away from real interactions with our frustrations and anger about rough edges in our lives. He is not afraid of our angry feelings or our grief. The lamenting Psalms comfort us greatly. This exchange between the Syrophoenician woman and Jesus falls well within the boundaries of honest, transparent conversation. Jesus does not pull rank and dismiss her but engages with her and gives her a picture.
Jesus gives this Gentile woman an idiom, the same way he has been giving parables to people throughout his ministry. We know the father in the Prodigal Son is God and the wayward son is us when we are lost and the older brother is us when we are bitter. We know the Good Samaritan is a call for us not to walk by on the other side of the road when we see someone in trouble. We know the giver of talents is God and the need to use our gifts wisely is a lesson for us.
Let us look at some of the eating idioms we use today. If we say someone “eats like a horse”, we might think of a hard worker who works up a big appetite, not a real horse. If we say a girl is the “apple of her father’s eye” we mean she is loved, not that she is an apple. We laugh at the commercial with the line, “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.” Jesus is making the point that so far he has been working within the Jewish cultural setting as an incarnation of God. He has helped people to understand the character of God through his own human life to the chosen people. But now he is challenging our understanding of “chosen.”
Jesus has said a truth we do not like to hear. We are not worthy of God’s love. We are like dogs, not members of the “in”family. God does not love us because we deserve to be loved or because we are chosen. We are saved by grace not because we are part of a special tribe or have special gifts or have done special deeds. This might be our second point today. We may think we are not on God’s radar screen, worthy of his grace but God goes out of his way, all the way to Tyre, Gentile territory, and all the way to the cross to be with us. God’s love goes beyond the Jewish nation! This is a new twist.
Jesus has made a major new move by going into the Gentile area and performing a miracle. He has included Gentiles in his plan of salvation. Jesus has used similar techniques for engaging with Jewish people, speaking in parables or idioms that challenge their faith and he is doing the same thing with this Gentile woman. He wants to reach out to us today.
But amazing as this first encounter is, the woman’s response is remarkable.
“Even dogs eat the crumbs from the master’s table.”
The Syrophonecian woman was not insulted at the comparison because prejudice was known but more importantly she was able to speak into the idiom with faith. She was not asking for anything more than a crumb of grace for that, she knew, was enough. She understood the vastness of God, her own insignificance, and her desperate need for a crumb of grace. How guilty are we of wanting the whole loaf of bread, the whole solution to our problems and as we think they ought to be handled – right now. We are so impatient with God’s timing and God’s ways. Do you hear the little voice on your shoulder saying, surely God doesn’t want you to suffer. Surely God doesn’t love your sick child. Surely those other people deserve their struggles for secret sins. The woman acknowledges the broken, prejudiced world she lived in and asked for a crumb…for her daughter. Jesus responded to her faith. Jesus responds to our faith also!
The “friends” bring the deaf and tongue-tied man to Jesus for help. Jesus takes him aside, puts his fingers in his ears, and spits and touches his tongue. This encounter does not seem to deal with Jesus confronting evil as much as Jesus correcting the impact of sin on birth. Not all of our problems are punishments from God nor are they the result of evil seeking to destroy us. We are broken people living in a broken world. When we play with fire, we get burned. When wars break out, innocent people are killed. Martyrs die for standing up for the truth. Jesus dealt with this man differently but more importantly, Jesus had compassion and healed him. And who gets the glory? God!
He has done everything well;
We do not know what happened to the healed people nor to their sponsors but we do know that people could not keep quiet about the healings. When was the last time we were so touched and so excited about God acting in our lives that we were just bursting at the seams and had to tell someone? Perhaps we are back to Jesus’ idiom, “the food of the children is not meant for dogs.” We are the children of God and his grace is not meant for just us. We do not need a whole loaf, we only need a crumb. God’s grace is so abounding that we need not be afraid of the person who worships slightly differently than us, people who speak differently than us, or people who come from a different background than us. God will deal with each of us personally and with love. These Gentiles were from different religious traditions but they saw the truth of who Jesus was – God incarnate – and they or their friends pleaded for help – just a crumb!
The crumbs are meant to feed people so perhaps we can also ask who we are sharing with. Who might be in the wings of our life needing the crumbs of God’s work in us? I do not believe Jesus went to Tyre and Sidon to vacation but to show you and me that we too are recipients of the crumbs of bread that fall from the master’s table. But just like the Syrophoenician woman and the friends of the deaf man may we never forget the power of standing up for someone else who needs God’s grace. Jesus healed Gentiles and he is here working in Bethany today. Thank you Lord. I feel refreshed by taking time with you – just as good as taking a vacation!
Let the people of God say, “AMEN!”
On the Way to Wonder 