September 9, 2018: May God’s words alone be spoken, may God’s words alone be heard. Amen.
I love this gospel reading (or its parallel in the Gospel of Matthew). What I don’t love is what we sometimes do with it. Now, when I hear it today, I am reminded of that glaring moment in February of 2017 during the confirmation hearings of Sen. Jeff Sessions for the position of Attorney General, when Sen. Elizabeth Warren was reading a letter written by Coretta Scott King when Sessions was at that time up for a judicial appointment to the Federal bench. While she was reading it, she was interrupted, warned not to continue, and finally told to take her seat by the men in power, where she was made to be silent for the rest of the proceedings. Sen. McConnell, the leader of the Senate, then went on to say these now infamous words that have become a rallying cry to feminists all over the world. He said “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.” Later, a man, Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, was strangely enough allowed to read the letter by Mrs. King into the congressional record. You can’t make this stuff up. Seriously.
In the gospel today, Jesus and his band of followers have trotted up quite a bit away from Jerusalem, into the region of Tyre to get away from people for a bit. They are in need of rest, and maybe figured that being in a foreign area, nobody would notice them, and they could catch a few Zs and binge watch the latest Netflix series. But, as luck would have it, a woman of that region, who is stated to be of “Syrophoenician origin” (which means she was a local in that town) and a Gentile (or Greek, not Jewish) hears of him being there, seeks him out, and throws herself down at his feet to beg him to heal his daughter.
Okay – all good. It’s another healing story, right? I mean, Jesus is going to do the laying on of hands, or spit on something (as we hear also today), or whatever, and “bam!” just like the televangelists they will be healed! Well, actually not like them – Jesus really does heal folks – maybe the bible needs those commercial tag lines that say “Real People, Not Actors.” Anyway, this is where the story gets really odd, and why I love it so much.
Jesus doesn’t do that. He refuses her. In fact, he goes one step further – he calls her people dogs. Of course, I had to explain to my dog Lexi that sadly some people actually believe that is an insult. She just doesn’t get it.
Now, before we go any further, I want to tell you a bit about me, caffeine, and the morning. I am NOT a morning person. You do NOT want to see this face before I have poured some type of caffeinated beverage – maybe more than one – down my throat. It takes every ounce of my being to be remotely human until that point. And so it may surprise anyone who knows me something that has happened of late.
Because I am really very bad at making coffee, and because – believe it or not – I have finally given up drinking diet cokes all day long – on most mornings, I head out to the local bagel store to get a deliciously brewed cup of Maple Nut Crunch coffee (and a club soda – because life just cannot start for me without something cold and fizzy). Over the past year, at this bagel store, I occasionally run into two older couples, who go there for breakfast and conversation every morning.
It all started about a year ago I guess, when I happened to be in collar and one of them asked me what I was – a nun, or something. I told them I was a priest (smiling mind you – and I still haven’t had coffee – they had NO idea how dangerous this exchange could be). Then the inevitable question – inevitable because women priests get both these questions a lot – what do I call you. To this I wanted to say “Cranky,” but I said most call me Mother Diana, but if your tradition does not use titles like that, Diana will do (now sucking down a HUGE gulp of coffee).
Since then I see them in there as I get my coffee and bagel, and we greet each other, ask how things are, and the usual small talk folks do. This is always something I must push myself to do with a smile, because I am, as I said, barely human before caffeine, but I really did enjoy getting to know them.
And so I understand why, perhaps, Jesus might have been a bit off his game, a bit cranky. All he wanted for himself and his disciples was a bit of rest, and in walks yet another person who seeks him out, on his day off. It is also why I get a little annoyed at folks who try to clean up what happens, because they seem uncomfortable with the text.
Through the centuries, folks have tried to interpret this in a way that would explain Jesus’ refusal. They say “he was testing her.” Really? First of all, that doesn’t appear anywhere in the text, or anywhere in the gospel of Mark for that matter. And not for nothing, what kind of God would do that – put a woman who grieves for her daughter’s distressful situation to the test? – like that is somehow better than the alternative. And what is that alterative – that Jesus was showing his very human side here – the cranky, I am tired and haven’t had caffeine type of side so many of us, myself included, can relate to?
Now before folks get their knickers in a twist about this show of humanity, remember that we proclaim Jesus was fully divine…AND fully human. Here, he is showing his fully human side – and I am happy he did. It brings me closer to him, because I can fully relate to it – maybe you can too. Maybe you know a time in your life when you were cranky when you wish you hadn’t been.
And yet – this woman was not about to be pushed aside. Or perhaps, said a different way – “She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.” And why the heck not! After all, who was he to condemn her people, when it is he that is the foreigner in her land at the moment! She has something to teach him – and us – and her voice continues to this day because she resisted, persisted, and would not be put in a corner.
Most folks point to her deep and abiding faith as being central to the story, and it is… but, I think we are missing something here. Up my way, in the rural areas of NJ where bears are all around, we all know – never come between a mother bear and her cubs. Mothers are fierce when it comes to protecting their young. This woman came back at Jesus – not for herself, but for her child. This stranger to Jesus is teaching us something about when, perhaps, our faith is at its strongest – when we are advocating for someone other than ourselves.
Look, in fairness to Jesus, the idea of everyone being a beloved child of God – no exceptions – was novel then (and sadly still now) This woman, not of his faith, or his people, had something to teach him – and he was open to it. The problem for us is, most of the time, we are not.
We have these ideas about who should be in and out, as though there is some sort of limit to God’s grace – like we have to be the love police or something. So, who are the Syrophoenicians of today?
The children of the world who are not be able to learn in safe environments, women who live in fear of being sold into slavery or sexually mutilated, our neighbors to the South who die crossing the border into a desert in the hope for the ability to care for their family, gay couples denied the right to love as God intends all around the world, and people of all races, ages, religions, physical and mental abilities, and gender identities that are systematically denied what is accorded others. These are the Syrophoenicians of today.
Yet, as a land of immigrants, descendants of slaves, and oppressed native peoples we have forgotten who we are. While one would expect that we would stand by any of our brothers and sisters on the margins, and some do, many too often try to silence them, send them away. It is as though we see the other as a threat to our own daily bread, not even wanting to share the crumbs from our tables. It is as if we fear that there is not enough to go around, that “their” quest for freedom, justice and the dignity of self-sufficiency will somehow diminish our own. We respond as Jesus did initially – attempting to hoard grace for our own people, and forget the rest of the story – that there is more than enough grace for all of God’s creation.
And so, as the body of Christ alive today, we must look at ourselves and consider if we are doing this – and if we are – we need to change, as He did. We need to extend a hand of grace, love, and healing to the broken, the marginalized, the wounded, and the lost.
And, we must also see the moments when we are being fully human, and push ourselves out of our comfort zones to respond to the ones who cross our paths – even if we haven’t yet had enough rest – even if isn’t a convenient time – even if we haven’t had our morning coffee – because you just never know the difference it may make – for them, and for our own lives in Christ.
You see, I want to tell you about something that happened this week. I was back in the bagel store getting my morning dose of caffeine, when I noticed that instead of two couples, only one was there. I paused and thought – but I haven’t had any coffee, and it’s my day off (a human moment, and one I ask God for forgiveness to be sure) and so I approached the couple who were there and asked where the other two were.
I was told that Charley, was in the hospital. His wife Helen was with him. I asked for their last name, went home, got into clericals, and went to the hospital to visit. Sadly, I didn’t get the spelling right, and so the hospital couldn’t find him. I thought perhaps he had been sent home…I also considered the other possibility.
The next day I was in the bagel store – I did mention this was a routine, right? Anyway, I walked in and asked the folks behind the counter if they could tell me Helen and Charley’s last name. They knew them, of course – it is a small town, and they were regulars, but they didn’t know either. I mentioned that if they saw Helen, to ask (as neither she, nor the other couple, were there at that particular moment).
Friday morning I go back there, and the folks behind the counter race over to me to hand me a card. “Helen left this for you – she wants you to call.” Just then, I noticed that the other couple was walking in, and they said “Charley died last night. Helen might want you to say something at the funeral.” I got my coffee, went home, and called. Helen asked me to not only say something at the funeral, but to be her pastor for the funeral and the burial. I said I would be honored to do that – and this afternoon, I will meet with her family, whom I have never seen, and tomorrow I will celebrate Charley’s life at a funeral and commit him to his grave at a burial, on my day off.
I tell you this because I am astounded sometimes by the way in which the Holy Spirit works. Here were just chance encounters that built a thread of connectedness over time that became a life line at a point of deep sorrow….all in the moments of grabbing a bagel and a cup of coffee. These are the things that can happen when we come out of our comfort zone, see the stranger in front of us, and act with compassion. Where might that be for you? In a coffee shop, or a pizza place, the grocery store, or perhaps the office?
The author of the epistle we heard this morning writes “You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors… What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and 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? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”
So often we jump right to that last line, as though it is some sort of easy motto to tattoo on our collective hearts. But if we pay attention to the entire passage, we are learning the lesson Jesus learned, the lesson I have learned, the lesson we all must learn – that sometimes the neighbor we are called to love isn’t the convenient neighbor, isn’t the neighbor we agree with, isn’t the neighbor who looks, loves, speaks, or thinks like us. It is any neighbor – the one that brings joy to our heart, and the one that boils our blood at times. We must resist the temptation to curl back into our comfort zone, we must instead persist in our effort to join God in the work She is doing in the world. Only then will we be able to be the people of Jesus we are meant to be.
And when it is we who are the ones striving to be heard, to be seen, to be healed (whether for ourselves or on behalf of another) – when we are the outsider, the one pushed aside, the one told we are not good enough – then we must resist, as the Syrophoenician woman – stand for what is rightfully ours – resist & persist!
If we are ever to be the Jesus people we are called to be, then we must respond to the Holy Spirit in our midst calling us to see, to hear, and to love the Syrophoenicians among us; and we must also have faith enough as she did to step forward, courage to ask, and persistence to never, ever, take no for an answer to our quest for justice, peace, and healing for this broken world.
We are a people called to love.
We are a people called to serve.
We are a people of Jesus.
We won’t always get it right.
We might not always be heard at the start.
But in the end – even when we stumble, God will persist until we come around because there is nothing that can ever put the Holy Spirit in a corner – not the Senate, not an army, not even our desire to have some coffee first.
When God has something to say, She will be heard.
When we listen, She will change our lives.
Amen.
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