Before I went to seminary I served for a while as the Director of Adult
Ministries in our
An hour later he walked into the back of the fellowship hall. I started to tell
him that we didn’t allow people to ask church members for money directly,
when he stuck out his hand and said, “Ma’am, I just wanted to thank
you for everything. They knew your church and helped me right away. They called
my pastor in
Not only was his story true, but he had gone out of his way to be thankful. I
also began to feel the discomfort of being stretched by God’s Spirit.
Once again my prejudices were proved wrong. It wasn’t the first time,
which meant I should have known better. The scriptures echoed in my head,
“Judge not lest you be judged,” and “Inasmuch as you have
done it unto the least of these you have also done it to me.” But I did
judge him unfairly. And in his case I did the least I could for the least of
these, but what was little to me was a lot for him.
My job is hard for me sometimes. Not just being a pastor, but trying to be a
genuine Christian. Often it stretches my boundaries, pushes me beyond my
comfort zone. I grew up in
I remember few explicit teachings of such prejudice from any adult, but I heard
thousands of comments with certain shades of meaning, and my world was insulated
from people not like me. And I believe that we are “marinated” in
prejudice from the day we are born. It is deep wired to the point where most of
us aren’t even conscious of it. So long ago I had to confess that I am
prejudiced. And I have to work every day to unlearn what my culture taught me,
because every day the Spirit confronts me with the ways my soul is stunted, and
how I judge people wrongly and how my love falls short of including the people
God loves or loving them the way Christ does.
I am comforted by the knowledge that God’s grace includes me, too. I
don’t deserve it, of course. None of us does. I am comforted, too, by the
gospel story today which suggests Jesus also had to unlearn the prejudices his
culture taught him. Mark says Jesus and the disciples went north to
Mark says Jesus entered a house and didn’t want anybody to know he was
there. He was hiding out! That’s when SHE showed up – a gentile
… a woman … a foreigner – needy … persistent … in
his face. She represented just about every prejudice Jesus’ culture would
have wired into him from the day he was born. His culture said that only the
Jews were beloved of God and those gentiles who had always persecuted
God’s people would get the hell they deserved. His culture said that men
mattered and that women were the property of their fathers and husbands. His
culture said that
She walked right into the house – fell at his feet and said, “Help
me sir. My daughter is afflicted and you can heal her.” She was respectful,
more so than Jesus was with her. He didn’t want to hear her, and tried to
dismiss her sharply. He said, “Let the children be fed first, for it is
not right to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs” (Mark
7:27). That’s what the Jews called gentiles – dogs. It was a racial
slur, and Jesus had no doubt heard it from the time he learned to speak. And he
said this right out in front of the disciples, which must have humiliated her.
She did not react with hostility, but replied: “Sir, even the dogs under
the table eat the children's crumbs” (Mark 7:28). She persisted against
his resistance, and finally breached his defenses. “For saying that, you
may go,” Jesus said, “-- the demon has left your daughter”
(Mark 7:29).
Matthew’s version of the story expands the conversation, and he praises
her faith. But I suspect Mark’s version may be truer to Jesus’
fatigue. That’s why the story that follows in Mark may be important in
showing us what Jesus learned from this experience. He and the disciples returned
from
I wonder: is Jesus speaking to the ears and tongue of the disabled man or is he
speaking to himself, and to us? Could he be saying we need to open our ears to
hear the needs of the people around us no matter how fatigued or stretched we
may feel? Is he calling us to open our hearts so when they open their mouths we
will hear the stories of the disregarded and disenfranchised? Could he be
telling us to stretch our boundaries, to respond with kindness, to remember they
are God’s beloved too? Is it possible Jesus is reminding himself about
what he has learned from a gentile woman?
I once wrote a thirty page exegesis on Mark’s story of the Syrophoenician woman. I have preached it on a number of occasions
and have discussed it in Bible studies and pastors groups, and I am always surprised
by the reaction from people who don’t want to think of Jesus as ever
needing to learn anything. Some people picture Jesus’ sinlessness
as a kind of static perfection. In seminary one professor challenged our
Christology by having us debate the question, “If Jesus had played
baseball, would he have batted a thousand?” Silly perhaps, but some
people think of Jesus as never needing directions, never mispronouncing a word
or making a grammatical error – perfect in every way. But to my mind the
idea that Jesus was able to learn and grow – which always means some
unlearning and mind-changing – makes him both truly human and more deeply
a model of spirituality for us. I know that Jesus had trouble precisely with
people whose minds were made up and could never admit they were wrong. But to
me this story is a beautiful example of how Jesus was able to listen and learn.
Do you remember the touchy feely psychologist routine on Saturday Night Live some
years ago? She would ask every patient, “Have you looked at
yourself?” “You need to look at yourself!” She was funny because
this is the typical quasi-mystical mumbo-jumbo lingo of pop psychology
we’ve come to expect. But it is also actually the central challenge for
every therapist, teacher, and preacher – to get people to look at themselves … to be self-aware … to be
self-reflective … to work with their own inner stuff. And when you try
– even when they have come to you for help – even when it’s
your professional responsibility and training to help them do it – you
immediately meet rationalizations, excuses, anger, and resistance. Why? Because it’s hard for
people to work with their own stuff. It takes honesty, vulnerability,
the ability to see ourselves as others see us. That takes courage and strong
self-esteem. Most of us can tell you what’s wrong with everybody else in
the world. We have loads of opinions about celebrities, political leaders,
sports figures, even the people closest to us. But we don’t want to look
at ourselves. We all try to hide our flaws, but they show. They show. We
don’t want to see them, let alone deal with them, but how else will we
ever change for the better?
The Bible is a mirror. You start reading it and pretty soon, it’s reading
you. So at the risk of sounding silly, let me ask you this morning. Have you
looked at yourself? You need to look at yourself. Because we all have
prejudices we need to unlearn … judgments we need to question …
patterns of behavior we need to change. If we have learned anything in the
eight years since 9/11, haven’t we learned how much the world needs
peacemakers and bridge builders, instead of more hatred and division and
violence? But that begins when we stretch beyond our comfort zone to hear the people
who are different from us. Jesus shows us the way. Because one day when he
really didn’t feel like dealing with it he let a needy gentile woman open
up his heart. Maybe that means he opens his ears and his heart to our pleas for
help, too. “Not my brother, not my sister, but it’s me, O
Lord….” All spiritual growth begins with that honest prayer:
“It’s me. It’s me, O Lord, standin’
in the need of prayer.”
May we pray?
Listening God,
We are so quick to judge others, but we refuse to see our own flaws. Or work on
them. We are so closed minded and hard hearted, defended and defensive. We need
your healing. Give us the courage to be opened, that we might grow. Open our
ears that we may hear you. Open our eyes that we may see you. Open our hearts
that we may love you as we encounter you in the faces and voices of the people
we meet, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Rev. Mary Anne Biggs, Pastor
Nekoosa United
Nekoosa