September 8, 2024
Rev. Mary Erickson
Hope Lutheran Church
James 2:1-10, 14-17; Mark 7:24-37
Out or In?
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
The American Poet Edwin Markham wrote a brief poem regarding who’s out and who’s in:
He drew a circle that shut me out –
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him in!
Who’s in and who’s out? Some lines are drawn narrowly to exclude. Others are drawn broadly to gather in. Which lines do you draw? What lines are drawn around you? How do we draw lines here at Hope?
In our gospel reading, Jesus traveled outside the tight circle of Israel to neighboring kingdoms. These were the lands of the Gentiles. What caused him to go there? Why did he leave the friendly confines of Israel to enter the land of Gentiles? Would the circles he drew shut out or gather in?
Maybe he left to escape the crush of the crowds. If that were so, it didn’t help any! He couldn’t escape notice! Both in Tyre and the Decapolis, he was a known celebrity upon his arrival.
In Tyre, he encounters a woman. She’s a mother and her child is sick. She wastes no time in meeting Jesus. Parents who have a sick child are nothing short of fierce. They’ll do anything for their child.
This mother approaches Jesus and begs him to heal her child. And what Jesus does next makes us squirm in our seat. I’m not sure I like this Jesus! Jesus gives her a very rude brush off. His reply seems to draw a circle that shuts this mother and child out.
“Let the CHILDREN be fed first,” he says, “it’s not fair to take the children’s food and threw it to the DOGS!”
Wait, did he just call her a dog? Commentators have long speculated on what was going through Jesus’ head.
• Did he truly see her outside the scope of his concern? Some scholars think so. They think that this moment was a turning point for Jesus. However, then why has Jesus already healed a Gentile before this encounter? That argument doesn’t seem to hold water.
• Was he just tired and wanted to be left alone? Maybe we’re seeing the human side of Jesus, a little grumpy after a long journey.
• Or could it be that he was testing her? Or maybe his disciples?
Whatever the reason, I don’t think we should get too far down in the weeds. The remarkable thing here is her retort. She is a fierce mother advocating for her child! This lady isn’t going to take no for an answer! If Jesus calls her a dog, she takes it. “That may be true, sir,” she says, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
It's a mike drop moment. Jesus praises her for her faith and tenacity. He tells her that when she gets home, her daughter will be well. And so it comes to pass.
So, what is going on? Just where are the lines of the circle falling?
Now, just prior to this story, Jesus had commented on clean and unclean things. The Pharisees had criticized Jesus’ disciples for not washing their hands before they ate. Jesus told them that nothing from the outside makes us clean or unclean. These things come from inside. It’s what lies in the heart that generates clean and unclean.
Not only did Gentiles not worship the one God of Israel, they were deemed as unclean because they didn’t follow the kosher laws. Everything about the way they lived rendered them ritually unclean. They ate unclean things. They mixed together things that should always remain separate. They didn’t wash things and themselves according to kosher tradition. Gentiles could never be clean unless they gave up these unacceptable patterns of behavior.
However, these behaviors are all external manifestations of a person. It’s not what’s on their inside. Jesus had just had a discussion about where cleanliness and uncleanliness reside. And it’s not on the outside. It’s on the inside.
What is inside this woman? A fierce love for her child. A firm resolve that Jesus can do something to bring healing for this little one. Love and faith, that’s what’s inside her.
Some circles draw us in. Other circles draw us out. We make judgments about one another. And often, these conclusions are derived from the external manifestations of a person. Their looks, their race, their gender, economic status, age, education, physical limitations, athletic gifts, wardrobe, political viewpoints, religion. So many ways we can draw conclusions. Some of these we’re taught, from a wee age.
In our second reading, James picked up on one distinction: economic status. How do we treat the poor? And specifically, he asks, if both a rich and a poor person come into our worshiping community, do we treat them the same? Or do fawn over the wealthy person and snub the poor one?
It seems that there was some kind of favoritism being shown in the community James was writing to. He reminded them that the holy scriptures repeatedly show a preferential option for the poor. God has chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith. James reminds them of the great teaching of the scriptures, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
In the end, Jesus draws a circle to gather in this mother and her daughter. The same generous circle is drawn in the Decapolis with the deaf man.
Like the mother advocating for her child, this man has a group of caring friends who speak for him. Jesus takes the man to the side, lays his hands on him, and says, “Ephphatha.” It means “be opened.”
Such a profound prayer! May we all pray Ephphatha! May we all be opened! In our hearts, may we be released from our hardened, closed-minded attitudes. In our actions, may we open systems of discrimination that shut out the disenfranchised. And may the echo of Ephphatha also reverberate within our churches.
In the book of Acts, Jesus called his disciples to spread his gospel of liberty and grace, he said, first to Jerusalem, then to Judea and then onto Samaria and finally to the ends of the earth. Like the ever widening circles emanating from a pebble thrown into a pond, so may the Church of Christ draw ever wider circles to gather all in!
