Mark 7:24-31 Going to the Dogs Sermon preached June 9, 2013 Opening Today marks exactly six months

since Susan and I arrived in Chambersburg. We are so glad God led us here. And ministry with you, sharing life with you has been exciting and challenging and fun. And though I wake up just about every morning with lots of energy to plunge into the day, its time for a rest pretty soon. So in July were going off for two weeks to Smith Mountain Lake near Roanoke, staying at a friends house, and going to swim and fish and jet-ski and read - and relax. Well, by the seventh chapter of Marks gospel, Jesus needs a rest - he is worn out, spent, exhausted. He has taught and healed and called and exorcized and argued and walked his way all over Galilee. And he is as out of gas as a marathoner crossing the finish line. So Jesus heads to the city of Tyre And so Jesus headed for the city of Tyre. Tyre was an unusual place for a Jew to go. It was outside the borders of Israel, in what is today Lebanon. In Jesus time, it was Gentile country, with strong Greek cultural ties. Jews usually didnt go to Gentile territory because it was unclean, foreign, polluting. And this is one of only two times in the Gospels that Jesus appears to have left the borders of Israel. Why Tyre? Well, Jesus had tried to get away twice before in chap. 6 - and both times the crowds hunted him down. So, this time he chose a place where he knew Jews wouldnt follow. Where he could be anonymous and alone. Where he could recharge his spiritual batteries and rest his tired body without anyone making demands on him. But Jesus retreat was interrupted. But it tells us just how electrifying Jesus presence was, that word about him had spread even as far as the big Gentile city of Tyre. And a woman of the city heard about Jesus and came to the house where he was staying with a request for him on behalf of her daughter.

And there are three things we need to know about this interrupter: First, she was a Canaanite. To a pious Jew, the world was divided into two categories of people - Jews and Gentiles. A Gentile could be a Roman, a Greek, a Spaniard, an African. All gentiles were considered racially, culturally and religiously inferior. But at the bottom of the list of the gentiles, were the Canaanites, Israels ancient enemies. Remember back to the Old Testament. The Canaanites occupied the land promised to the Israelites. And the children of Israel fought a series of wars to drive them out. And during Israels history there was another sort of conflict - religious and cultural - with Canaanite religion often tempting the Jews to supplement their worship of God with some pagan practices like child sacrifice and temple prostitution. A whole lot of what the Old Testament prophets are railing about, is Israel chasing after the gods of the Canaanites. The second thing you need to know was that she was a woman. Yes, I do have an excellent grasp of the obvious - but the womans gender means a lot to this story - back then, women were meant to be seen and not heard. Imagine a society where one-half of the population who were typically not educated, not taken seriously by men, whose testimony in court was inadmissable because hey, hey are emotional women-types. And imagine being a woman in a society like that. And according to the customs of the time, it was considered a disgrace for a scholar to speak to a woman. Typically the only women who came up to men in such a brazen fashion as this woman were prostitutes. The rest remained hidden, veiled, silenced. So, the social and racial and religious gap between Jesus and this woman was canyonwide. She is like an illegal immigrant marching into the Oval Office demanding to see the President.1 She has none of the credentials that would entitle her to approach Jesus and ask something of him, a Jewish rabbi, according ot the standards of the day But then theres the third thing we must know about her. She was a mother. A mother with a sick child. 2

You who have sat and worried over a sick child know the terror she must have felt, seeing her child tormented by some strange disease that no doctor could cure. And this mothers love for her child caused her to disregard everything that told women to sit down and shut up, and boldly go up to Jesus and ask him to heal her daughter. Jesus reply But his reply - kind of shocking - lets hear this again: First let the children eat all they want, he told her, for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs. Meaning, the children were the Israelites. And the dogs were Gentiles - like this woman. Now, that sounds like it ought to rank right up there, maybe first on the list, of things we wish Jesus never had said. This sounds just mean and harsh and even racist. So whats going on? Maybe Jesus was just being human and was genuinely annoyed - hes just settled into a comfy chair on the front porch of the house where he was resting with a glass of wine in his hand and a book in his lap, and then when this woman shows up and disturbs his R&R, he gets mad and insults her to try to run her off. Or maybe Jesus, because of his divine nature, knew full well how this was going to turn out and set this whole thing up to demonstrate some kind of truth. Unpacking Jesus reply Let me suggest a third way. That here Jesus is inviting the woman into a conversation of sorts, where he was opening the door for her to stand her ground and come right back at him on behalf of her daughter. Some clues - the word Jesus uses for dog means house dog, as opposed to street dog - the mangy, flea-bitten scavenging curs that roamed the streets and occasionally formed packs that attacked cats and livestock and sometimes even people. Jesus was talking about the kind of dogs that would, well, be around the dinner table, looking for scraps. Its the diminutive - puppies. Susan is right now trying to retrain me in a related matter. Our previous little dog, Raleigh, our daughter Emily kept him in South Carolina - he used to sit right next to me at the dinner table - why? Because scraps didnt fall from our table, I would hand them to Raleigh.

Now weve got a big dog, Susan is on me not to start the same pattern so we dont end up with a 80 pound Goldendoodle plopping his head on the dining room table expecting some chicken skin or something. So its like Jesus is saying, the Jews are the family around the dinner table, Im the guy who has provided the vittles for supper, and its my job to make sure the Jews get all they want before I even think about maybe giving some scraps to the family puppies, as cute as they may be. Sorry, Canaanite momma, but the children, eat first. Mommas comeback So Jesus opens the door a crack to begin a conversation with the woman - and she has a comeback ready. Now, there have been some great comebacks recorded throughout history: When Senator Fritz Hollings was challenged by his opponent Henry McMaster to take a drug test, he shot back: Ill take a drug test if you take an IQ test. When South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu was walking by a construction site on a temporary sidewalk the width of one person, a white man appeared at the other end, recognized Tutu and said, "I don't make way for gorillas." At which Tutu stepped aside, made a deep sweeping gesture, and said, "Ah yes, but I do." Well, this nameless Gentile mother has a quick comeback. She accepts what Jesus says - that she has no right to sit at the table, she is not a Jew, ok Im not worthy to sit at the table, I get that. But she doesnt allow that to drive her away - remember, shes a mother on a mission - and she comes right back at Jesus and says, We may be dogs, but even the dogs get to eat the crumbs that fall from the table! In other words, Jesus, surely you can spare little old me a few crumbs of your healing grace for my daughter. I mean, after the children eat their fill - then the house dogs, the puppies, get to eat, too. Theres more than enough on that table for everyone. Come on, Jesus healing prophet-man, you can spare me a few crumbs! And she hangs right in there with Jesus and gives as good as she gets. The grammar of the word beg means that she kept on, would not be dissuaded.

Jesus response And Jesus says, what an answer! Wonderful answer! And for that answer, for saying that, for that example of feisty faith, your daughter is healed - go home, youll find her well. The remarkable thing is - up to this point, nobody seems to understand Jesus - his disciples are dunderheads, theyve got dense, impenetrable skulls made of reinforced concrete - but this woman gets it - gets this mini-parable about grace being given even to the Gentiles - this pagan woman, this outsider, is the first to understand Jesus and that his mission is to the entire world - and the ultimate outsider - a pagan woman, becomes, paradoxically, an insider. We are invited to respond to Jesus the same way A lot we can learn from this woman. Like that faith means a lively engagement with God where we are invited to sputter and fuss and ask and plead - faith is not passive resignation to divinely ordained fate. And Im talking especially to Presbyterians here. Weve always emphasized the majesty of God - the bright blazing glory of the Almighty - and the sovereignty of God - the idea that God is the ruler and judge of the universe. And those beliefs, are right and true. But the dark side of that, is too often we end up with faith thats a kind of passive resignation to whatever it seems God has willed for us. Its like the friend Anne Lamotte tells about, who had two prayers and only two prayers - when she would pray she would say either, Whatever, or Oh well. The woman in this story - she doesnt shrug her shoulders and say, Oh well, when Jesus gives his first answer. She hangs right in there, she engages with him, she sort of haggles with him. Reminds me of the great story of Abraham haggling with God over the city of Sodom. Its stunning. God is determined to wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wretched sinfulness, and the Lord tells Abraham about it. But Abraham has friends there he cares about, so he works up the nerve to start haggling with God - says to God, Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous (people) within the city, will you...not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it. Far be if from you to do such a thing...Shall not the judge of the earth do what is just? Just like the Syro-Phoenician woman, Abraham appeals to Gods character and Gods 5

mercy. Has the audacity to get in front of God and say, You must act in accordance with your character, your justice! And it goes on - Abraham says the same thing - what if there were forty...thirty...twenty... ten...(I wish I could do the voice of an old Jewish man!) and God says, for the sake of ten I will not destroy it. And then God rescued Lot and his family out of Sodom and that removed the population of righteous people and then the city was destroyed. Did Abraham change Gods mind? Did this nameless woman change Jesus mind? I dont know. But I do know that God allowed Abraham to engage him in something of an argument, and didnt vaporize the man; and that Jesus didnt dismiss this woman for her nerve for arguing with him. Presbyterians understand that God is a big God. And thats good, its much preferable to a lot of popular theology that treats God as a cosmic dispenser of goodies who gives out Cadillacs and swimming pools to the faithful who really believe. But Ive seen over and over people of faith who think God is so big and Im so little that I have to meekly accept whatever life dishes out as Gods will. By way of contrast, let me tell you about the founder of Presbyterianism, John Knox. Knox believed he was called to bring the Reformation to Scotland, then ruled by Mary Queen of Scots. And Knox, suffered for his faith and was frustrated over and over again. He was exiled; he was convicted to serve as a galley slave, pulling an oar on boat while chained to the seat - and he didnt meekly submit to what happened - he would pray, he would thunder at God, Give me Scotland or I die! What I want to know, wheres the nerve and audacity in our relationship with God? Gods ways are mysterious; God doesnt always answer as we wish; but over and over again in the Bible you see women and men of faith fussing at God, crying out to God, being real, raw and honest - Elijah feeling sorry for himself and telling God here youve called me to be your prophet and Im all alone and the king is trying to kill me; Job crying out to God over the disaster of his life - Cursed be the day I was born; and this nameless woman hanging in there with the Lord Jesus Christ who seemed at first to dismiss her. We have to adjust our assumptions about God. We may be hanging on to assumptions about God that are all wrong - that God is distant, unapproachable, quick to anger, disinterested. But as Christians believe we learn about who God is most clearly from the person and words and actions of Jesus Christ. 6

that he loved sinners, that he touched the untouchables, like lepers, to heal them, that he felt compassion and love and pain and grief, that he forgave even the people who were crucifying him... we learn from Jesus that God is a God of mercy and grace and humor and passion...who sent us a Lord who could be interrupted and haggled with by a Canaanite outsider and who granted her mercy because of her boldness. What are you facing right now? Maybe God seems silent and far away... Maybe youre facing some kind of crisis... Maybe God is calling you to do something you dont think you can do... Maybe youre desperate for help... The wrong thing to do is adopt a passive resignation to what looks like a bleak and empty future...the wrong thing to do is give up...the wrong thing to do is conclude God doesnt care. The right thing to do is be like this woman - and hold God to Gods promises - hold God to Gods character: God, youve promised to hear and answer our prayers! God, you promised never to leave me or forsake me! No matter how bad I messed up! God, you promised that your strength would be made perfect in my weakness! Not because we deserve to get anything from God - but because God shows us in Jesus Christ, Closing In one of his books Dan Rather describes visiting a hospital ship during the Vietnam War. The ship was filled with men whod been wounded, many of them seriously, and some of them werent going to make it home. There was a lot about the scene that has stayed with Rather to this day - the grievous wounds that are one of the horrors of war; the nurses stooped over the bedsides caring for 7

the soldiers - but one thing in particular stuck with Rather - how many of the wounded, suffering, dying men, called out for their mothers. Because even tough, battle-hardened soldiers, know nobody will care for them like their mommas. A long time ago a mother with a suffering child went to see Jesus, so the child would be made whole and better. She was a complete outsider with no rights to ask anything of him. But because of her we know that we can go before the Lord - with our hurts, our needs, our grief, on behalf of suffering and hurting people; that we can fuss and argue and plead with him, and we will not be turned away. Amen. Endnotes 1. Heidi Husted, When the Gospel Goes to the Dogs, in The Christian Century, August 16-23, 2000, p. 829.