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Kit 6 2003 Pentecost 7 - Pentecost 13
Sunday 7 September 2003 Pentecost 13
Prov 22:1-2,8-9,22-23, Ps 125, Jas 2:1-10,14-17
Mark 7: 24 – 37
Mark moves immediately from showing Jesus teaching in words to having him teach by action. It is interesting that he has moved geographically from Galilee, which was regarded as a doctrinally dubious area, to a clearly Gentile area. It seems that Mark is determined to show that Jesus, in his person, is carrying the Gospel right outside of the Jewish area. And even here he cannot escape notice. And Mark underlines the Gentile nature of this healing.
What we have is an encounter between the Christ and a woman of wit and intelligence, a woman whose concern as a mother outweighs all other considerations. In preaching about both of these stories, we could focus on the miracle itself. To do this, however, is not always helpful. Many will want to know exactly what happened, and we have no way of understanding the mechanism of miracles. It is more important to understand why Mark set these accounts down in the way he did. This first story seems to me to be about the relationship of the Gospel to the Gentile world. The heart of the story is that first fascinating encounter. Jesus is probably being seen to echo the thoughts of many of Mark’s Christian contemporaries. Christianity is not at this point clearly defined as separate from Judaism. What should his mission be? When the request is made, he sets out the traditionalists’ position. The Messiah is first for the Jews. And, unpleasant though it is for us to hear Jesus refer to the Gentiles as “dogs”, that is an accurate enough reflection of Jewish attitudes. The woman’s response is very smart. The dogs may eat what falls from the table. Note, too, that this is a woman who is asking – someone who by reason of gender is on the borders of society. Jesus is breaking down barriers in every direction.
What she is saying is that the cost to Jesus is nothing. But in a far broader way she is saying that God’s grace and God’s love is for everyone. Mark is defending the way in which many are spreading the Gospel out beyond the traditional limits. It is free and available to all. Certainly it has started off within the Jewish faith but it has attracted all kinds of outsiders. The Syrophoenician woman represents those outsiders. As we expand the meaning of the story it goes something like this: Gentiles- “Can we be part of this faith, part of God’s Kingdom?” The Church- “No, God’s people consists of the Jews. That is where the message begins. Jesus was a Jew, and our faith is rooted in Judaism.” Gentiles- “But surely we can share? It costs you nothing to let us be part of the Kingdom.” The Church- “We can see that you have real faith. Who are we to stop you?”
At first this seems to be a little historical aside in the development of the world-wide faith. But it remains relevant for us today. Who are we to judge those called by God? The Christian community can and should include those quite different to ourselves. Mark has told the story about a woman who is different in ethnic background, religion and outlook. That does not matter. What counts is her faith, and to a lesser extent, her intelligence and wit. We must extend the same openness to those different to ourselves and our communities.
The second story has a slightly different setting It is notable, along with many such stories in Mark, for the theme of secrecy. It has been suggested that Mark could not believe that those who met Jesus, saw his actions and heard his teaching, would not be immediately convinced that this was indeed the Christ. He therefore introduces the theme of secrecy, having Jesus enjoin those around him to keep silent about what they saw. Be that as it may, Mark consistently reports that this instruction was not followed! One commentator remarks that those around Jesus – and maybe even ourselves – will offer all homage to Jesus except obedience! Perhaps that is a point to be used in preaching.
At the risk of allegorising the story, I would want to talk about the fact that Jesus is still working outside the normal limits of orthodox Judaism. Here, in foreign territory, Jesus enables someone to hear and to speak. While the story is about one man, we may well extend this to those on the fringes of orthodox religion who are enabled to hear and to speak the Gospel.
In other words, we need to consider in what unexpected ways we may hear the Gospel and from what unexpected people. We are all too used to looking for a word from God in expected places and from the right people. It may be that Christ empowers quite different people to speak his word to us.
We can also extend the story further. Jesus offers us the power to hear and to speak with new clarity the Gospel. Note how the crowd at the end of the story extend the meaning from the one deaf and dumb man to the general – “He even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.” Clearly Mark meant this as a general truth for his readers, not simply a fact about an un-named man in a little known area of Palestine. Mark himself steers the story in the direction of allegory.
It seems to me that this reading is about the universality of the Gospel – it is not limited to a geographical area, a certain kind of person, a particular situation. Furthermore, Jesus enables people to hear the Good News and to speak it. And again there are no limits. We should expect the unexpected in our Christian walk.
“Lord, we thank you
for all the light, grace and life
seen and known in the church which nurtured us.
Praying that, still may we be set free
from narrow-mindedness and complacency.
Open our eyes
that we may recognise the work of your Spirit
among other people and under different forms.
And should we yet walk in some things
on separate ways,
then present before us the common goal
towards which we travel.”
A prayer from the Church in Sweden
Used in “A wee worship book”, Iona Community