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St. Andrew's Church
An Anglican Church • Grimsby, Ontario, Canada
Preached by
Stuart Pike
Rector
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Proper 23 b - Welcome Home
Mark 7: 24-37
St. Andrew's Church, Grimsby
10th September 2006
Today is welcome back Sunday, the first Sunday after labour day when we welcome everybody back home and back to St. Andrew's. Many people, including my family and I, have been spending some time on vacation and/or going to the cottage on weekends. Some of us have travelled afar, but for most of us it is good to be home.
Jesus did a little bit of travelling abroad too. In today's Gospel lesson Jesus travels outside of Galilee to the city of Tyre in what is now known as Lebanon. Tyre is one of the cities in Southern Lebanon which has recently been greatly affected by the war between Israel and the Hezbollah. Jesus was there in more peaceful times. Mark's Gospel says that he entered a house there and didn't want anyone to know he was there.
It appears that Jesus was hoping for a vacation. He wanted some down time abroad. In Mark's chronology, Jesus has spent a long time touring around Galilee, teaching, healing the sick, casting out demons, feeding the multitude, arguing with the Sadducees and the Pharisees and even raising the dead! Surely he deserves some anonymous time at a quiet B&B at this little sea-side town.
But no, Mark reports that he could not escape notice. How many times do we want to escape notice? I have often felt this temptation. Sometimes it happens when I am travelling somewhere. I might be in an airport, or on a train. I might get into a conversation with a stranger and sooner or later the question comes up: So what do you do? It is so tempting to say something like: plumbing. And yet, if I do, I know that I'll have to try to pretend to understand when they ask me my opinion of their s-bend or something!
Instead, I tell them that I'm an Anglican Priest, knowing that the conversation will change rapidly. I'm no longer just an average Joe who could have an ordinary conversation with a stranger, but I'm a Priest, and any possibility of regular conversation seems to vanish. Instead I'm met with people's problems, or statements about their atheism or agnosticism, or I pick up on a sense of guilt that must emanate from them whenever they're near an ordained person. Actually, often I get to hear some really interesting stories, or some people seem to bare their souls to me, as though I have a neon sign flashing which says, "Tell me all."
I know that people in other professions have the same phenomenon happen to them as well: Lawyers, Real Estate agents, and let's not even get started on Doctors! I know if I even get close to a Doctor my own hypochondria starts to act up! Twinges in the joints and dull aches in vague internal organs. And I'm sure real plumbers get the same thing happening to them. Who doesn't need to know more about their s-bends, after all?
And while, I'm sure all of us get into some interesting conversations because of this phenomenon, it would still be nice to have a hiatus from our professions now and again. And yet, if priests and lawyers, doctors and plumbers and all the rest find it hard to get away from their professions, imagine what it must be like to have to respond to that insidious so-what-do-you-do question with: "Well, actually, I'm the Son of God!"
And so, even on vacation, Jesus could not escape notice and Mark uses one of his favourite words, "Immediately" this Gentile Syrophoenician woman hears about him and throws herself down at his feet with her request for healing for her daughter who is mentally unwell.
What we don't really understand is how incredibly audacious this woman is being. She has broken all social customs. Firstly, women didn't speak to unknown men in that age, and, even more astounding, she was a foreigner: Mark goes out of his way to explain that not only is she a Gentile, but she is a Syrophoenician. It is like Mark is saying: do you get it?: this person was so completely off the wall and out of line that she dared to speak directly with the Master.
We simply hear what to our ears is an astoundingly rude response from Jesus: "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." In Matthew's version of the story he further explains Jesus' remarks by having Jesus explain that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel before he compares her and her daughter to the dogs!
But, this audacious, intelligent Gentile woman, without flinching nor skipping a beat is ready with a response: "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." Jesus is impressed with her wit and her faith and tells her to go home, for her daughter is healed, and she goes home and finds her daughter well again.
What are we to make of all of this? Some commentators say that the story might not even be a real story about Jesus, because it is so uncharacteristic of him. Some say, that he really wasn't serious in his words, but was merely engaged in playful banter with her. Perhaps some would say that he was annoyed at having his precious days of restful anonymity ruined. There are some writers who say that this was truly a water-shed moment for Jesus: that this woman really did change his mind about his purpose and helped him to see that his mission was not only to the Jews, but to the world. Many Christians would be scandalized to think that the Son of God could be influenced or taught by a pagan woman like that? How could Jesus be corrected in this way?
I do see this story as a change of focus in Jesus. I think Jesus did learn by the experience, and that Jesus was truly moved by the faith that he found in the people he helped.
Jesus, while travelling abroad, understands that no one is foreign, no one is unworthy, or unclean or unimportant. He understands that God's love extends to all, and everyone is welcomed to the banquet. Everyone belongs. All that people need to do is to accept Jesus' welcome and to come home.
And so I say to you, welcome home from your vacation, and, more importantly, welcome home to St. Andrew's, your Church, and welcome home to where you belong, in God's kingdom. Amen.
