Today s Gospel is one of my favorites. Why? Because next to the accounts

Transcription

1 Today s Gospel is one of my favorites. Why? Because next to the accounts of the Holy Week, this gospel makes it ever so clear that Jesus was truly human. In it, Jesus is faced with a choice that will determine the future of his calling. Just how far does the mercy of God extend? Inquiring disciples want to know! Jesus had been traveling with his followers. They were avoiding, most likely, the authorities and others who didn t agree with the message of inclusiveness that came with his teaching. Jesus had healed a woman who, because of her bleeding, was considered unclean. He d made it clear that it is not those temptations outside of us that cause our immoralities. It is, instead, hearts predisposed to sinful thought and action that spurs our unclean thoughts and actions. All these actions and teachings stretched the disciples in so many ways. This Jesus wasn t an easy rabbi to follow! However, Jesus had some stretching to do himself. Into the midst of their pedagogical moment, a creature makes her presence known. The disciples stretched when Jesus healed the unclean woman. They stretched when he calmed the storm. They stretched again when Jesus told them that their uncleanness was from within. But this SyroPhoenician woman was the last straw it was past the flexibility line. Like Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, there was no on the other hand C. B. Park/Proper 18 Year B/September 6/Redeemer, Bethesda 1

2 This SyroPhoenician woman stretched things just a little too far, even for Jesus. She was female, but he d dealt with that before. She also had been in contact with a person of unknown illness. Jesus had dealt with that too. But the last straw was that she was a SyroPhoenician. Worse than the Samaritans, the SyroPhoenicians were a mixed race people belonging to the Roman province of Syria. She was descended from the Canaanites, the long-time enemies of the Israelites. Therefore, SyroPhoenicians were inherently evil. Scripture said so. But, Jesus had to do something. She was shouting. She was howling. And so Jesus did something. He called her a dog. I looked this passage up in the contemporary Message translation. Eugene Petersen didn t translate Jesus epithet accurately either. We know the technical term for a female dog. Canine breeders use it all the time. Most of us, however, don t hear it or use it in the context of breeding puppies. Jesus didn t have puppies in mind either. My friends, this was not one of our Lord and Savior s better moments. But, it s a funny thing about women. When we fight for what we believe in, when we fight for our rights, and especially when we fight to defend our children, being dogs becomes our greatest asset. This SyroPhoenician woman was no different she had nothing to lose and her daughter s health to gain C. B. Park/Proper 18 Year B/September 6/Redeemer, Bethesda 2

3 She was probably terrified when she got there. She had wandered into political territory that threatened her with bodily harm. If she didn t get what she came for, her daughter might die. Her dogged determination overcame her fear. She would endure what she needed to endure. Jesus could call her anything he wanted to as long as her daughter got well. Even the dogs eat the scraps from the master s table. Even a dog gets better treatment than you are giving me now, Rabbi. Take that, Jesus. How does your metaphor set with you now? This chess game is in check. It s your move. This is one of those moments in which I like to visualize Jesus holding his head and thinking oh me. He couldn t look down at a wristband and wonder what would I do? The SyroPhoenician woman had Jesus between a cultural rock and a theological hard place. What does the Incarnate God do in a situation where the law and a moral choice have him in check and his entire career rides on his answer? If he acknowledges the woman, he rewrites the boundaries of ritual purity of his Jewish upbringing. If he doesn t, he fails to live up to his own revelation that the Kingdom of God includes everyone. The tension must have been gutwrenching C. B. Park/Proper 18 Year B/September 6/Redeemer, Bethesda 3

4 Jesus chose to change the boundaries of ritual purity. Actually, he d done it only minutes before when he explained to the disciples that it s what s on the inside that counts, not what s on the outside. The faith within the woman before him was greater than the law informing him. In this case, keeping the faith was detrimental to the community of love. With a word, a daughter was healed. With a word he taught his disciples that inclusiveness was to be taken to extremes. With a word, all people, not just the lost sheep of Israel, were considered daughters and sons of God. Not a dog, but a human being. A human being whose faith from within was great enough to convince this Jewish rabbi to disperse centuries of cultural discrimination. Jesus acknowledged the woman s faith, her humanity, her need for God. Jesus responded to her need in that moment. And, then, having learned from his encounter with this woman, Jesus goes on to heal a Gentile man of his deafness. Two outcasts receive wholeness because of their faith and the faith of others. The reign of God is proclaimed and opened to all. As I think about this story, I think about all of the people on the margins who have knocked and still knock at doors of our churches. Their faith in God is great, their desire for God is palpable. What is it that makes them so unclean to us? Why is it that we turn to our hierarchies, our sacred texts, our traditions, to 2015 C. B. Park/Proper 18 Year B/September 6/Redeemer, Bethesda 4

5 Christ himself and ask that something be done to make them go away? Why is it that we do this not only in church but in our culture, our workplaces, and our neighborhoods as well. Make them stop shouting make them stop howling - please! we say. We are trying to be pious and learned and obedient to the tradition and the Prayer Book. We are good Anglicans after all! Is it because they remind us, here in our seemingly secure positions, that we have forgotten what it is like to need or desire God? Is it because we can see that they have something to teach us and not necessarily the other way around? Is it because we have no desire to give up the privilege that our race or economic status affords us? Are we afraid of what Jesus will do, or say, or require of us? It is so easy to follow--to fall back on--rules and rubrics (secular and sacred) established to make life more ordered or to create identities for the writers of same. It is preferable to keep power than to share or, worse, give it away. It is easy, until a person of faith places you between a cultural rock and a theological hard place. When we are placed in such a position, we need to remember the response of Jesus of Nazareth to a deaf Gentile man and to a SyroPhoenician woman who, for the sake of her child, refused to be considered less than human. **Thank you to Brian P. Stoffregen for his marvelous exegesis.** 2015 C. B. Park/Proper 18 Year B/September 6/Redeemer, Bethesda 5