14 PENTECOST, PROPER 18

SERMON PREACHED AT CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH

THE REV. ANNE STANLEY

6 SEPTEMBER 2009

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Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23; Psalm 125; James 2:1-17; Mark 7:24-27

Sometimes I wonder if we realize just how hard Jesus worked. Walking everywhere, teaching with no pre-written lesson plans, running into ever increasing hostility from crowds and leaders alike, trying to heal some of the people who kept stopping him, even pestering him, along the way. It was all part of Jesus’ daily mission of spreading the news that God’s kingdom, God’s realm,  was partly here. That this was Good News for everyone. Doing all of that was hard work.

It’s no wonder that Jesus tried to slip away by himself once in awhile—to pray, to retreat to a friendly house for a meal or even a quiet night’s sleep.

And I suppose it’s small wonder that in his fatigue a careless word would escape from his lips. Like today, in the story of his encounter with the Gentile woman, the non-Jew foreigner who interrupted his precious time off with yet another plea, a cry for help for her sick little girl, and she caught Jesus “with his compassion down,” as one theologian put it (Sharon Ringe). A careless word in a moment of fatigue.

Have you ever done that?

“You want me to heal your daughter?  No. Give the Jews, the children of God, their food first. Outsiders can wait.”

Can this be our Jesus speaking?

The woman, beyond pushy for her sick little girl, refuses to give up: “Even outsider-dogs under the table eat the crumbs that fall from the dishes of the Jews.”

Jesus snaps to. He comes to his senses. He hears his own words. “Woops!” The daughter is healed.

In God’s realm there are no outsiders.

Jesus then continues on his way, walking all the way from Tyre in the west (on the Mediterranean coast) over to the Sea of Galilee and east from there to the Decapolis, a long trip to another alien territory.  There Jesus heals another outsider, this time a deaf man with a speech defect. The man’s friends are begging Jesus for help—Jesus takes the case and he touches the man in need, like the woman, a non-Jew, a foreigner. Jesus spits and touches the man’s tongue and sticks his fingers into the man’s ears. [A side-bar: I’m reading a book, Every Patient Tells a Story,  about doctors and the practice of medicine. The author (Lisa Sanders), a physician herself, claims that hearing patients’ stories and examining patients carefully, even touching them, has gone by the wayside lately. She claims that doctors turn too quickly to tests. And that sometimes diagnoses are missed and healing is slowed because the doctors haven’t carefully examined and listened to their patients,.] Jesus listened and Jesus wasn’t squeamish about touching. “Ephphatha,” he said. “Be opened.” The man’s ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke so people could understand him.  Once again, or perhaps for the first time, we don’t know, this man had hope. He was now open to new life and new possibilities. Astounding!

The gospel writer, Mark, has told these twin stories to make the point, it seems, that with God there are no outsiders. God’s desire is to heal Jews as well as Gentiles. That God’s children are everywhere. That God’s children are everyone.

Mark is also telling us that Jesus worked hard to spread that word---walking long distances, not succeeding in every instance, struggling with opponents and with his own fatigue and speaking a careless word at least once that we know of.

But there’s more to these stories. There’s us, too. We’re part of them, too.  The  Syrophenician woman and the friends of the deaf man, they represent us. The Syrophenician/Gentile woman begged for help, the deaf man’s friends begged for help. They bothered and dared to beg and ask and agitate on behalf of people who needed help. They worked hard at it, too. Their voices, even as outsiders, were part of the healing work of Jesus. Without their pleas, nothing would have happened. Jesus needed to hear their voices so they could be part of God’s healing work.

Jesus’ ministry revolved around making sure that people, all people, were drawn into the circle of God’s children, that all people could know the healing power of God’s love. For me, that’s the rationale for health care reform in this country today. I don’t much care how it happens, how it works, the details. What I care about is that it DOES work. That nobody will again worry if they can be taken care of, that nobody will worry about whether or not they can afford to receive medical help when they need it, that quality, affordable health care will be available to all. As a basic right. Mark, of course, didn’t talk about our current health care debate. Nor did Jesus. But at the risk of putting words into the mouth of the person who wrote the gospel of Mark and especially into the mouth of the Son of God, I daresay that at the very least Mark and Jesus alike would wonder in shock and amazement at the fact that we in our country are even having to DISCUSS the matter of health care reform.   

May we, like the Gentile woman and like the foreign friends of the deaf man, dare to pray boldly and beg for those who are in need. May we, like them, dare to raise our voices, never giving up. May we, like them, be opened, ephphatha, to the power of God. May we let God’s power, working in us, help God’s desire be our desire, on earth as it is in heaven.