This sermon was preached at Trinity Lutheran Church on September 8 & 9, 2018, using Mark 7:24-37.
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| "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." |
There are
lots of fierce, tenacious, and defiant women in the Bible. Most of their names
have not been recorded, and many of their stories are quite unfamiliar, having
been left out of Sunday school lessons and our three-year lectionary cycle. There’s
Shiphrah and Puah, the midwives who dare to defy Pharaoh’s orders to kill all the
baby boys born to Hebrew women. There’s Mary Magdalene, patron of Jesus and his
disciples, loyal to the end, relegated by church tradition to a (false) legacy
as a reformed prostitute.
Also, the
daughters of Zelophehad, five women who, upon the death of their father,
challenge the prevailing traditions preventing women from inheriting property.
And certainly Esther, who risked everything to stand up against injustice.
There’s the hemorrhaging woman, whose boldness of faith led her to touch the
fringe of Jesus’ cloak so that she might be healed of a debilitating disease.
Today’s
Gospel reading brings us the story of another such woman - fierce, tenacious,
defiant. Also unnamed, the Syrophoenician woman is an outsider in every way
possible as she dares to approach Jesus. She is a Gentile, not of Jewish
origin. She is a woman, unaccompanied by a husband or father. She does not
belong to Jesus’ target audience.
But she
is also a mother. And out of fierce love and protectiveness for her little
daughter who has an unclean spirit, she is emboldened to beg Jesus for healing.
But Jesus says 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.”
Um.
Excuse me? What? Not only is he denying responsibility and refusing to help
her, but he also stoops to using a slur to do so. If this doesn’t sound like
the Jesus you know, you’re in good company. What ever could he mean?
“Sir,”
she answers, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Fierce,
tenacious, defiant. The woman, the mother will not give up. She will not settle
for flip answers. Will not allow her child to be excluded from healing.
Her
response lands just how she intends it to. Jesus tells her, “For saying that,
you may go--the demon has left your daughter.”
See, the
Syrophoenician woman knows that wholeness and healing are not finite, limited
things. It’s a lie to say there’s not enough to go around. She knows that
there’s no real justice or wholeness if it’s not for everyone. She knows that
we are bound to each other, that there’s no such thing as other people’s
children.
The wider
question she raises is an important one - who is Jesus for? How big, really, is
the reach of God’s mercy, love, forgiveness, healing? Who gets to be included?
The
inclination to scarcity is real. If there’s only so much to go around, then of
course we ought to circle the wagons, make clear boundaries, protect our own,
decide who’s in and who’s out.
But guess
what. We believe in a God who does the impossible. A God who opens the eyes of
the blind, unstops the ears of the deaf. A God who makes waters break forth in
the wilderness, and streams in the desert. A God who empowers and is moved by
fierce, tenacious, and defiant women. A God who opens the circle wider and
wider. A God who gives not crumbs but tables overflowing with goodness which
is for everyone. A God who even death and hell could not overcome.
Scarcity?
Forget it. Walls, fences, locks, boundaries? No way. With the God we worship,
the God who can do the impossible, there is never too little to go around.
This God
is establishing a reign of mercy in which the mighty are cast down and the
lowly are lifted up; in which the hungry are filled with good things, and the
rich are sent away empty. This God shows us, again and again, that we are bound
to one another, whether we like it or not. This God shows us that we are made
better by diversity, made better when everyone has a voice, made better when
our assumptions are checked and our curved-in, selfish sinfulness is unbent.
As
followers of Jesus, I pray that we have the fierceness, tenacity, and boldness
to defy the world’s insistence on an attitude of scarcity. As followers of
Jesus, I pray that we are not satisfied with justice for some, healing for
some, wholeness and welcome for some. As followers of Jesus, I pray that we are
not satisfied for anyone to be stuck with merely crumbs.
In
baptism, we are bound to one another in the Body of Christ. The things that
hurt others with whom we are connected also hurt us. The things that matter to
others also matter to us. We are not solitary, not only concerned with
ourselves and our immediate family. Instead, we have been made one. We have
been united by Christ, the crucified and risen one, the one who defied
boundaries, the one whose fierce, tenacious grace holds each of us in the
never-failing love of God.
Who is
Jesus for? Jesus had to learn, too, that there are no boundaries on God’s love.
Jesus is for you, yes, and for them. For the proud, and the humble. For
insiders and outsiders. For those in places of privilege, and even more for the
ones scavenging for crumbs under the table. Bound together by Christ, we give
thanks for the boundless love and grace of God. Amen.
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