En el nombre del Dios: Padre, Hijo y Espiritu Santo. Amen.
Last week we heard Jesus arguing with the Pharisees about ritual cleanness, about what defiles and what doesn’t. Jesus insisted that what is unclean comes from within, not from without.
Calling the Pharisees hypocrites for holding to human tradition rather than embracing the heart of God, Jesus turns to the people and explains that it is an unclean heart, a rigid, small, unloving heart that defiles. Then he demonstrates this teaching by heading immediately to an unclean region - the Gentile region of Tyre and Sidon - the place where Jezebel was from.
There he encounters a woman (strikes one and two – she’s a Gentile and a woman) who comes to him (strike three – she broke the rule that prohibits women from speaking to men) seeking healing for her daughter (a Gentile girl? See strikes one and two) who has an unclean spirit.
Jesus’ response to this woman startles a bit each time we read it. He said, “Let the children (the people of Israel) be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” (a name often used to refer to Gentiles). Why would Jesus exclude this woman and deny her request?
Perhaps he was demonstrating what he had just finished teaching. Or perhaps it was because he had not yet completed his mission to the Jews, which had to come first, as it was prophesied in Isaiah. Maybe it was so that when we read this 2,000+ years later, we are left unable to deny that Jesus was moved by the faith of an alien, someone who was not supposed to be able to eat the food of life.
The current discussions we’re having in the church and in society on immigration and open communion come to mind.
Undeterred, the woman reminds Jesus that even the dogs eat the children’s crumbs. What a powerful and faithful response! Her faithfulness so moves Jesus that he changes his mind, drops the religious and societal barrier that separates them, and heals the woman’s daughter.
In response to the trust this woman has demonstrated, Jesus doesn’t even need to meet or touch the child in order to heal her. He simply speaks it, and she is healed.
This isn’t the first time God’s mind is changed following an argument with a human. In Genesis, Abraham argued with God about not destroying Sodom if only ten righteous people could be found. And Moses asked God to relent from destroying the people of Israel for their spiritual adultery during their exodus. Now this woman argues with God to obtain wholeness for her child, claiming, at the same time, both her identity as a member of the household of God and her right to partake of the spiritual food of life given to the children of God.
Isn’t it amazing how Jesus encounters someone with a pure heart right after arguing with the Pharisees about this? And just so we’re clear – she was a rule-breaking alien, woman. Three strikes against her and she still gets the home run.
That’s because this Syrophoenician woman trusted in three important ways. 1) She trusted that in Jesus she would find the food of life, which for her, was the healing she desired for her child. 2) She trusted in the mercy of God who cares for the stranger (Ps 146:8). She may not have been a Jew, but she was in the household all the same, and everyone in the household deserves to be fed. 3) She trusted in the abundance of God’s love knowing that there would be enough for the children of Israel and for her.
Our Scripture tells us that after this encounter Jesus continued on through the Gentile country and headed back toward Galilee where people brought a deaf man to him to be healed. Like many who are born deaf, this man spoke with an impediment.
Jesus didn’t hesitate. He took the man away from the crowd and did a healing ritual with him. There was no magic in putting his fingers in the man’s ear or his spittle on the man’s tongue. It was ritual.
Jesus could have healed this man in the same way he had healed the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter, with a word, but he chose instead to do a healing ritual. Ritually touching the man’s ears and tongue, then raising his eyes and his prayer to heaven, Jesus sighed - a signal of release - and called upon the man to do the same.
“Be opened,” Jesus said. It’s a simple command, but it’s so powerful and transforming that we ought not to run by it too quickly.
“Be opened.” Jesus wasn’t talking to the ears, but to the man. It was a command with a sense of urgency and it required the man to come into the presence of God and let go, to be still and let God do the work.
Be … just be… just wait in the presence… release, let go all thoughts, all desires, all expectations… let go all doubts, all fears, all concerns about worthiness or unworthiness, cleanness or uncleanness… let go and let God open you. “Be opened.”
And immediately, our Scripture tells us, he was opened. We know his ears were opened and his tongue released because Mark tells us that he spoke plainly. It seems clear, however, that the man himself was also opened, along with the people to whom he returned.
Mark tells us that no matter how much Jesus cautioned them not to talk about it, their excitement could not be contained, “astounded” as they were “beyond measure.” They had witnessed the fulfillment of the prophesy that when the Messiah came he would make “the deaf to hear and the mute to speak” and they couldn’t help but proclaim what they had just seen Jesus do.
The healing ritual with the deaf man was done for the benefit of the man, the people in his community, those to whom they told the story, and for us who read about it today. It demonstrates an important part of our relationship with God, who waits faithfully for us to come near and be made whole.
It also reminds us how important it is for us to do what we do on Sundays and Holy Days: ritually praying and eating together while giving thanks to God – the source of the food of life that makes us whole. When we come to church we make an offering of ourselves to God knowing – trusting – that in Jesus we have the food of life, that God’s mercy and love are abundant and available to any who ask.
As Episcopalians, we’re familiar with ritual, and the symbolic language and actions involved. We may not think about it much, but we are affected by it when we are open to it.
So like that deaf man, Jesus is calling us - right now - to be opened… to come into the presence of God… to release, to let go all thoughts, desires, and expectations… to let go all doubts, fears, and concerns of worthiness… to let go and let God in.
“Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts…” Amen.
1 comment:
Great Sermon! I sat down to relax, with my cup of tea, before our prayer service - to open myself more to the Lord. And, I was blessed with this great sermon. What a treat for me! Thank you, Mother Valori for your faithfulness.
Allison - From Colorado
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