A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .

No Dogs allowed

Mark 7:24-30, Preached at Congregational Church of Boca Raton, March 15, 2009

A Texan walks into a pub in Galway, Ireland and raises his voice to the crowd of drinkers. He shouts, 'I hear you Irish are a bunch of drinkin' fools. I'll give $500 American dollars to anybody in here who can drink 10 pints of Guinness back to back.' The room is quiet and no one takes of the Texan's offer. Paddy Murphy gets up and leaves the bar. Thirty minutes later, he shows back up and taps the Texan on the shoulder.  Is your bet still good?' asks Paddy. The Texan answers, 'Yes, 'and he orders the barman to line up 10 pints of Guinness. Immediately, Paddy downs all 10 pints of beer, drinking them all back to back. The other pub patrons cheer and the Texan sits down in amazement. The Texan gives the Irishman the $500 and asks, 'If ya don't mind me askin', where did you go for that 30 minutes you were gone?' Paddy Murphy replies, “Oi, I had to go to the pub down the street to see if I could do it first.”

I’m going to tell you right now that our passage is not an easy one. It’s short but there is still so much in it, so much to get your head and heart around. If you heard things that don’t quite make sense, it’s the way it is with this passage. It’s complex because at the same time that we are reading it, reading the words, we are asking questions of it, of the story, questions about Jesus. The immediate question that rings out in our ears is the question was Jesus racist? Now I didn’t say that this is the best question or the most appropriate biblical or Christian question. But nonetheless it is our question. It is our question because this is our context; it is how our world, the woman on the street, our society and culture would immediately, without thinking, judge the value of this story. It is our ethical question, a question of justice, and it is a very legitimate question. After all we know that God is not racist; because we know God doesn’t value one group of humans over another due to race or ethnic background. So if God doesn’t, then certainly our religion mustn’t, and clearly Jesus Christ shouldn’t. So the story, actually Jesus’ comment to the woman, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs" puts us in an uncomfortable, questioning position.

If we consider Jesus’ life and times, we should remember that when people of Nazareth, where Jesus grew up, talked about the Romans, the Greeks, the Syrians, and the people of Syrophoenicia, the nicest word they would have had for them was Gentile. But there were other not so printable slang and stereotypes that everyone, including Jesus, would have known. Jesus was completely human remember, except for the sin part. Ultimately then, the deepest question that this story brings up for Christians in our world today is whether Jesus could be prejudiced and still be sinless. As we think about him, we may consider ourselves. What is it to hold stereotypes in our mind and heart about other people? Does this make us prejudiced? Or just because we can think in these terms, without wanting to, but we don’t act negatively on these stereotypes, does this free of the charge of being prejudiced, of being sinners in this regard?

In our Gospel today it seems that Jesus has taken his disciples for a time away west into the area of Tyre and Sidon. He intended to come back across the mountains of Lebanon later after he was rested. He was out of country, in need of some rest, and did not want anyone to recognize him. As the passage says, “He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there.” We can sympathize with Jesus. You need not be famous to feel as though there is not enough space in your life. All you need are a few children, or a job or troubles that will not let you alone. It is not hard to imagine Jesus’ desire to get away for a bit. But as you well know from your own experience, just when you think you are going to get a break, well, you don’t. It was not to be for him either, even on vacation—“Yet he could not escape notice….” There he meets a woman.

Jesus is in Tyre, which is obviously not Israel. So he isn’t going to meet up with Jews more than likely. But just so we get the point of this story, Mark makes sure we understand this. He writes she is “a Gentile.” But that’s not even good enough. He adds “of Syrophoenician origin.” This is quite possibly the last person on earth Jesus wanted to meet at that moment, at that exhausted, drained, not wanting to be a savior or healer or exorcist moment. Just so you know, Phoenicians were descended from the ancient enemies of Israel, the hated Canaanites. This gentile, Phoenician woman disrupts Jesus’ rest, bows to her knees, and begs him to rid her daughter of whatever’s tormenting her. 

And what does Jesus do? We have already heard his response, that negative comparison of Gentiles to dogs, of at best a family pet, sitting by the table begging for scraps from the family. But what was Jesus really saying? Some have said that Jesus said this because he first had to train his disciples to take the good news to Israel, but eventually they would also go to the other, Gentile nations of the world. In effect, Jesus was saying that the timing was bad, “Ma’m you just have to wait. Now is not the time. Some day will be your turn, just not right now.” If you know the history of people in power vs. people who have no power, think of African-Americans in the fifties and sixties and Martin Luther King, jr.’s Letter from the Birmingham Jail, then you know that requiring those who shouldn’t have to wait longer to get what you have already is an act of injustice and arrogance. Jesus is neither unjust nor arrogant.

Others have said that Jesus said this with a smile on his lips and a glean in his eye, which means he was joking, kidding around, pushing her buttons. Perhaps. I certainly believe he had a sense of humor. But even if this is true it still doesn’t tell us anything important about Jesus or his mission; it also doesn’t tell us why Mark, and Matthew and Luke for that matter, would have put this story in their gospels. It certainly wouldn’t have been included because they wanted us to know Jesus had this type of humor. So what is the point of this story?

In Elizabeth Yates’ book, Howard Thurman: Portrait of a Practical Dreamer, there is the story that when Thurman was in India, he spoke in many villages. Late one night a boy knocked on his door. His dress revealed that he was an “untouchable,” and he told this story in broken, faltering English. “I stood outside the building and listened to your lecture Sahib Doctor. Tell me, please, can you give some hope to a nobody.” The boy fell to his knees and Thurman reached out compassionately to him. Thurman knew what it is to be classed as a “nobody.” As a black man, he had often endured rejection in a white man’s world.  But he had committed his life to the ministry of a love that identifies with suffering humanity, of reaching out to “nobodies” of this world in the name of Jesus Christ. Well, Jesus knew what it was to be a “nobody.” “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” the people asked.  Some even accused him of being illegitimate.  He was despised and rejected himself.  And that is why I cannot accept any explanation of this strange story which has him despising and rejecting another human being. That’s not the Christ I know. 

Ralph Keyes in his book “Is There Life after High School?” writes that Mia Farrow has never forgotten the time every girl but she was asked to dance. Nor did Charles Schulz of “Peanuts” cartoon fame ever forget that the yearbook staff rejected every one of his cartoons. Movie actress Ali McGraw confesses she doesn’t forget the fact that she never had one date in all of high school. Henry Kissinger is best remembered by his classmates as the kid nobody wanted to eat lunch with at school. Rejection can be one of the most traumatic things that can happen to any of us. That is why we find it so out of character for Jesus to reject anyone. That’s what makes our Scripture lesson of the morning so difficult to understand. 

So what do we learn from this story? What is happening in this troubling line? Why is this story included? By saying what he said, by pointing to his own society and religion’s view of her, Jesus highlights this woman’s “unacceptability,” her difference from him, his society’s, his religion’s view of her, and therefore God’s view of her. According to all of these she is not right. She does not belong inside God’s tent. Now when Jesus makes his comment about children and dogs, he brings all this out in the open. For anyone to read this story now, there is no sweeping it under the rug. Of course you may remember that he has earlier dealt with those not in the good graces of his society and religion. The difference however between her and these other people with which Jesus made friends and ate meals was that she wasn’t going to be any different from the person she was when this started. He doesn’t tell her after the healing, “Your faith has made her daughter whole. Now go and sin no more.” She hasn’t sinned in the first place. So what is the point? First, it all starts with Jesus. Jesus knew of the difference between Gentiles and Jews. In fact, he made the remarkable statement concerning this, which means that when the next generation, a later generation, of Christians must face the question of whether to reach out and include a group of questionables or close the door and exclude them, we know now that Jesus faced this exact same question in his own life and time, in his own ministry. His answer must be our answer. This story justifies the earliest Christian mission to gentiles, to unacceptables, to those not in God’s tent already, to those who are different and rejected by others even if for what stands as reasonable, historical, traditional, insightful reasons; this mission to reach out and include, the one Jesus started, continues. There is no more divine time to do so than now.

The second point of this story follows from the first. Jesus doesn’t change the mother so that she is no longer Syrophoenician. The cure isn’t for her to become like he is so that then he will cure her daughter. She remains Syrophoenician, just as her daughter does. Nobody changes, but the daughter is still helped; the spirit is removed. They were gentiles, they still are gentiles, and they were never wrong to be gentiles. Someone else being who they are is never a sin in God’s eyes, even if you or we think it is. Being who you are isn’t a sin. Do you understand?! Being Syrophoenician, a Gentile, didn’t make someone a sinner in God’s eyes, even if all of Israel said it did. Being black in skin color or a woman doesn’t either. Being homosexual does not make someone a sinner in God’s eyes, even if many others say it does, even if your family says it does, even if most of society says it does, even if your religion says it does. Because of this story, we know how Jesus handled this question. Jesus opened the door for all. Jesus included those who were excluded. Jesus loved them. Jesus loves us.

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