September 8, 2024

             Last week, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for keeping some people away from table fellowship.  His disciples were eating without washing their hands.  Jesus said that it is what comes from within that defiles a person, not these outside rituals.  Now this woman is showing us what that means for her to be included in table fellowship.  She asks for healing for her daughter.  She asks because she knows her scriptures.  She knows that God has chosen outsiders all through the Bible to be included.  Barren women, thought to be irrelevant, bear children who change the course of history.  A younger sibling seizes the birthright.  A favorite younger son is cast into slavery only to rise to serve the Pharaoh.  Ruth, from Moab, a country hostile to Israel, has a book all to herself in the Hebrew Bible, and becomes the great-grandmother of King David.  Rahab the Canaanite, helped Joshua defeat Jericho, and the walls came a tumblin’ down.  This woman knows her stories and she has identified with these foreigners in the stories.  She knows the laws to treat foreigners as neighbors, with compassion, for the Israelites were once foreigners everywhere they went. 

Jesus has continued this inclusion—healed the Gerasene demoniac, healed a woman with a hemorrhage, raising a dead little girl, and cleansed lepers, all in the first few chapters of the book of Mark.  Since he just told the Pharisees that these outside factors don’t matter, now we get an illustration of what that looks like.  An outsider, a Syrophonecian woman, asks for assistance for her daughter—healing.  Jesus says no, as would be expected, because of cleanliness laws and the idea there isn’t enough for everyone. Whether Jesus really felt that way or was expressing the ideas of those around him or was testing us or testing the woman, it was first of all untrue about the resources, love, and compassion of God and secondly, insulting, a slur that was completely unnecessary.  Jesus tells her she’s not his priority, there is not enough for her, and calls her, her daughter, and her people dogs. 

This woman models for us what it means to stand with dignity without escalating.  She truly follows Jesus’ way of turning the other cheek, walking the extra mile.  She stood there with compassion for him, which she didn’t need to do.  She didn’t escalate, but she made Jesus realize that he crossed a line.  He bore false witness when he said that God didn’t have enough for her.  She knew from the scriptures there was enough love and healing to go around.  She knew from Jesus’ own ministry that she wasn’t outside the scope of God’s care.  And she knew that Jesus was her best last chance for healing for her daughter.  For the sake of her daughter, she took that insult, and speaks to us through time about the inclusive nature of the welcome table.  She spoke the Gospel in the face of insult, racism, persecution.  Even the dogs have a place in the Kingdom of God, in the economy of God’s grace and love and healing and nourishment.  Even a scrap of what God has to offer is good enough for me.  She knew what God was capable of and she believed and she went for it and no human insult or barrier would stand in her way.

This woman speaks to us through time about the welcome table, and its expansiveness.  She says to us that when someone dehumanizes us, calls us a name or a slur, tries to deny our humanity by denying us basic human rights, we can stand up and claim our humanity, our rightful place to be treated as human.  Those hurtful words are not from God, who always welcomes us to the table of plenty.

This woman speaks to us through time about seeing the value in those different from us.  We live so divided from each other.  Politicians try to convince us that people with different views are less than human, that immigrants are not human, that poor people are less than human, that children and the elderly don’t matter, that Muslims or Sihks or Hindus are not fully human.  The truth is we are all children of the Most High and there is enough room at the welcome table for everyone.  When we eat together we build relationship and we see that we have so much in common, that we need each other, that we love each other and we stop hurting each other.

In this Gospel, Jesus recognizes faith when he sees it, and he grants this woman’s prayer.  In fact, Jesus grants the prayers of the Gentiles, our prayers (because we are Gentiles) that we would taste the abundance of what God has to offer.  In this Gospel, God is hearing all the prayers and needs of God’s creation.

Then there is this Gentile who is deaf.  He has friends who act in faith, by bringing him to Jesus.  Jesus says to his ears, “Be opened.” That is Jesus’ prayers for those who try to limit table fellowship.  Isn’t that Jesus’ prayer for us, too—be opened?  What is closing us off?  What is keeping us from hearing each other?  What is keeping us from seeing each other?  What is keeping us from communicating with each other?  What is keeping us from touching each other?  What is keeping us from feeding each other, inviting each other, walking right up to each other?   Why are we closed?  We don’t have to stay that way. 

So Jesus calls us to faith, like the faith of these friends who want healing for this man or this Syrophoncian woman who wants healing for her daughter.  Jesus invites us to approach him and ask him and open ourselves to relationship.  It is in the relationship, the love that we are saved, that we find safety, that we find salve, healing, salvation.  Jesus walked right up to us.  Maybe we didn’t want him to truly see all that we’ve done or haven’t done.  Maybe we didn’t really want him to know our selfish thoughts.  But he walked up to us anyway.  He commanded us to be opened.  He commanded us to be opened to him and his love.  He commanded us to be open to each other, even when that other person doesn’t look like us, dress like us, smell like us.  And he commanded us to respond to God’s love, by taking loving actions toward those around us, meeting their needs.

As a result, we are introduced to God and those around us are introduced to God.  That’s what is says in Isaiah, “Here is your God!”  Here is your God, all who have trouble walking, seeing, talking, hearing!  “Here is your God” all you thirsty, isolated people, animals and places.  “Here is your God!” you poor, who have nowhere to lay your heads.  “Here is your God,” you rich who are quick to call your lawyers.  Here is your God, showing you what it means to love your neighbors far and near.  Here is your God, all those who think you are better than others.  Here is your God, all you who show favoritism.  Here is your God all you who give, hoping to get something in return.  Here is your God all those who wish someone else well, but refuse to share your bread.  Here is your God, you dogs, you Gentiles, you outsiders.  Here is your God all you interrupting mothers, demanding our time.  Here is your God, all you who make mistakes and create divisions.  Here is your God, you pushy friends with all the answers.  Here is your God, you children of God. God is here!  God is near!  God is faithful!  God is powerful.

God is powerful to stand against our sins, our deafness, and all that we do that divides.  God is powerful to show mercy, forgive us, and help us live in a new way.  God is powerful to save us, heal us, and lead us toward God’s vision that is coming into this world, the Kingdom of God, justice, bread, community, love.  So we end with astonishment, awe, at God’s power and God’s love.  We stand speechless before God’s mercy, generosity, and healing.