September 9, 2012
Mark 7:24-37
More than crumbs
In America, we like
to think we live in a free nation, which welcomes people of all types, of all
ethnicities, of all faiths. But this is not always true.
… About 15 years ago,
I lived in a mixed community. It was not the worst neighborhood in the area,
but I was glad my children were too old to have to attend the neighborhood
school. Next door to me was a gay man who taught in the same school district
where he grew up. He planted catnip in his yard for his cats and kept an eye on
my cat Thankful when I needed to be away.
On the other side of
me lived an African-American family, a grandmother and her grandchildren. An
adult daughter was there once in a while. I got to know several of the children
and had a good time with them. Although they were renters, they took good care
of the house and property.
Across the street
from me lived a white family, mother, father and their two children. The mom
was a teacher in the community school system, but the children went to a
private school. When I sold my house, the teacher-mom asked me about the buyer.
“Can you tell me,” she wanted to know, “if they are white?”
… Pastor Rani is a
Palestinian Christian living and serving in Dearborn, Michigan, where 40% of
the population is of Arab descent. They are Lebanese, Syrian, Iraqi, Yemeni,
Somali. Originally, they came to work in the auto industry. Today, many own their
own businesses, operated in both English and Arabic. Mike and I often traveled
to Dearborn to eat at a Middle Eastern restaurant until the company built one
in our neighborhood.
Pastor Rani has
started and grown a congregation of Arab Christians, and works diligently to
educate the Southeast Michigan region about Arab people. He shows up
occasionally on the evening news, most recently a couple of weeks ago after
windows at the church were broken. He said, “As a Christian Arab and Middle
Eastern congregation, we have sensed the profiling in more ways than one,” he wrote.
“It is unfortunate that racial profiling, bigotry and racism continues to exist
and flourish in our beloved country, as we live under a Constitution that
supports freedom, justice and equality for all.”
… When Jesus traveled
northwest out of Galilee he entered Gentile, Canaanite, territory. Like African
Americans and Latinos and Arabs and gays in many parts of America, he was in unfriendly
territory. While his life was not necessarily at risk, he was not welcome.
I think he went to
Tyre hoping that if he went where fewer people knew him, he might be able to
get some rest and some time to pray. He was getting crabby, testy, and needed
some peace.
But he was not going
to get it even in Tyre. A woman with a sick daughter discovered he was there
and begged him to cast the demon out of her. Jesus declines. Actually, he says
testily, “It is not right to take the food from children and give it to the
dogs.” The woman counters, “But even the dogs get the crumbs.”
Why, we wonder, did Jesus
speak to the woman that way? We know how Jesus normally speaks to people, and
this is strange.
To my neighbor who wanted
to know the race of the buyer of my house, we expect that Jesus would have told
the parable of the Good Samaritan. He might then have challenged her, “Who is
your neighbor?”
To Pastor Rani and
his community, we believe that Jesus would have said, “Blessed are those who
hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Jesus would have
known that Rani and his neighbors needed words of hope and encouragement.
But when this foreign
woman asks Jesus to do what he has done countless times for Jewish people, Jesus
is vehement in his refusal. What is going on here? Scholars and parishioners
have argued about this for centuries. Probably Jesus’ disciples argued about
it, too.
Either Jesus is
testing the woman’s faith or the woman is testing Jesus’ calling to save all
people. I think it’s both. Jesus wants to hear that the woman believes in him
and in the God who sent him. The woman wants to know that she is included in
what Jesus is doing, even if she gets just the left-overs.
For us today, we
learn once more that Jesus’ blessing and healing and loving and forgiving is
not just for those who think of themselves as “in” but it’s also for those who
are happy to get just the crumbs. This is not to say that we should be offering
just the crumbs, just the left-overs to others. Jesus did not heal the daughter
part-way; she was fully healed.
This week, I invite
you to consider to whom you might give just the crumbs. Why do they deserve
only the left-overs? Is that what Jesus wants for them? Is that what Jesus wants
for you?
Please pray with me:
We know that you came for everyone, but we forget. Help us to remember, and
reach out to all with more than just our left-overs. Teach us to share the best
of what we have, including your love, with everyone we encounter. Amen
