Isaiah 35:4-7a
Mark 7:24-37
Over
and over, people were told not to bother Jesus.
The children were told to go away, Jairus was told not to bother the
teacher, women were scorned for talking to him and despised for trying, others
who were “less desirable” were told to go away.
At
some level I think we understand this.
Jesus was seen as very important.
And his time was understood to be, therefore, very valuable. The disciples understood that he had a
mission and they didn’t’ want Jesus to be bothered with those who were
“beneath” him. They didn’t want him
distracted or his precious time used up by people whom they didn’t see as
valuable or important to Jesus’ work or mission. It’s like people keeping homeless folk from
talking to the President. The same idea:
he is important, they are seen as “less so”.
In
this case, the woman we only know as a “Greek” woman, “Syrophoenician by birth”
approaches Jesus and even Jesus seems to want to send her away. And he doesn’t just tell her that he only
came to serve the Jews, which is what he was intending to communicate, he also
insults her in one of the worse possible ways.
Today being called a dog or being called a female dog is highly
insulting. It was not any less so in
Jesus’ time. To tell her that he is
there to feed the children, the Jews, and it isn’t right to throw the food to
the dogs, is highly insulting. Even
Jesus, it would seem from this comment, had moments where he couldn’t seem to
escape the pervasive humanness of ranking people.
We all rank people. All of us do.
Years ago now, I remember going to visit a parishioner who was in an
extended care facility and when I walked into the room, I saw an older person
in a wheel chair sitting next to the parishioner. I had no problem joining them in
conversation, interrupting their time together because I made assumptions – she
was either a family member, or maybe another patient who had wandered in to
talk. I felt okay entering their group
for a few minutes as long as I could “rank” them in this way. But when it turned out that she was actually
the physical therapist, then I felt that I had imposed on her time. And I excused myself. She “ranked higher” as one of the staff at
the hospital, and my time with the patient took a back seat. But as I left, it caused me to think for a
few minutes about how I rank people.
I
experienced this from the other side when my last congregation housed families
for a couple weeks at a time in a program very similar to our “Winter’s Nights”
program. I learned to avoid telling our
guests that I was the pastor because my experience had been that once they knew
that, they would often treat me differently.
And while that different treatment tended to be greater respect, I still
didn’t want it. Life sometimes separates
us into the haves and have-nots, but I’m all too aware that that line can be
all too easily crossed. My being the
pastor there, and someone with a home and income did not and does not make me
“better” or more worthy of respect, attention, or care than any of the guests
or helpers who were here. And that
singling out, that difference in treatment made me uneasy. We are all children of God. I am not more deserving of respect because of
my status here.
Another
pastor friend of mine told me of a time when he was mopping the floor in the
church kitchen when several of the church deacons came in. “Oh no, pastor! That is not for YOU to do!” they exclaimed,
again with the same “You are too good for this work!” attitude, one he worked
actively to eradicate, but one that was extremely hard to stamp out.
When
I lived in Ohio, I was part of a small ecumenical pastors’ group that met once
a month (this is a different group from my weekly lectionary group). Our churches were all within the same small
town in the Cleveland suburbs and we worked on mission projects in the
community together: feeding, summer children’s camps, etc.. One time when we met I remembered talking
about what an amazing group of pastors we had in this area, who worked so very
well together and were really and truly colleagues and friends to one
another. One of the other pastors
commented that yes, in other ministerial groups of which he had been a part,
there had often been a lot of “posturing” between the pastors, with some trying
to claim an upper hand, or more prominence based on things like the size of
their congregations, the work their churches did, or how long they had been in
ministry. I frankly do not understand
that choice. We should all have the
humility to see that we are all children of God. That posturing is an arrogance that is
unbefitting to those who would serve God.
Our
own Anti-Racism group recently finished reading the book, Caste, in
which the author, Isabel Wilkerson talks about the cultural ranking of people
that we have in this society. We know
these ranks because we are taught them in extremely covert ways throughout our
lives by our communities: These are not innate rankings, but socially
prescribed and socially created rankings that have become entrenched in our
society. Women are ranked under men,
children are ranked under adults, people with money are ranked higher than
those without, people who have white collar jobs tend to be ranked above blue
collar jobs, the homeless are ranked extremely low. And people of color are often on the very
bottom of our ranking systems.
But
Jesus shows us a different way. Jesus
stepped in time and time again when the disciples would push someone away, send
someone away, and tell them to leave Jesus alone. Again and again Jesus had to stop that action
on the part of his disciples, “let the little children come to me” he said, and
“leave her alone. She is doing a good
thing for me.” Those who were outcast,
considered unclean because of illness and infirmity were given his special
attention. Those who were ranked on the
bottom of the culture at the time, those assumed to be damaged because they
deserved to be damaged were not beneath his notice but were the targets of his
notice. The second story in the gospel
today, about the deaf man is one such story.
He, too would have been seen as “less than” and would have been pushed
away: it would have been assumed that his infirmity was a sign that he was less
worthy. But Jesus took the time to heal
him, not only restoring his physical disability, but also restoring him to
right relationship within his community.
He specifically and intentionally chose to give attention and care to
those everyone else in the culture ranked lower. Also notice that he confronted a basic idea
of what it meant to be “deserving”. Jairus
and his daughter and the women with the hemorrhage may not have been “deserving”
of Jesus’ healing according to the codes of the time, or by any other
ranking. But we are told very little
about them. We don’t know if they were
“deserving” or not. What we do know is
that Jesus didn’t ask. He offered the
gifts he had, of healing, of time, of attention and care, to all of them
despite knowing or not knowing whether or not they deserved it.
I
love this story of the Syrophoenician woman, even though it was a hard
conversation, a painful conversation that he had with this woman. I love it because it is through that
conversation that we hear clearly that Jesus’ mission was now to everyone, not just the Jews, and that the last “rank”
-in this case the differences in religion, geography and even ethnicity, were
destroyed. They no longer applied. “Rank” or “Caste” were thrown out.
In
today’s passage from Isaiah we hear another passage of reversals. “The eyes of the blind will be opened, the
ears of the deaf will be cleared. The lame
will leap like the deer, and the tongue of the speechless will sing. Waters will spring up in the desert and
streams in the wilderness. The burning
sand will become a pool, and the thirsty ground, fountains of water.” Those things that are harmed or damaged will
be healed. And that expands beyond the
physical. Those who have been held down
will be raised up, and those who have been ranked lower will be found to be
equally respected and valued children of God.
We
are called to be part of this new ordering of our world. We, too, are called to bring healing,
reconciliation, and to do away with the rankings that separate us and which leave
some better off than others. So what
does that look like for us?
Well,
what are your gifts? What are your resources? And to whom do you offer them? If you have the gift of music, do you play
for those who can’t afford the cost of a ticket to come see you perform? If you have the gift of resources, do you
share them, with those who are ranked as less, on the bottom according to
society? If you have the gift of
healing, do you offer to heal even those who can’t pay the usual doctor’s
fee? The list goes on. The confrontation to our own choices and
behaviors goes on as well.
I
have shared with you before that at another church where I served, our
congregation had become very close to an unhoused man who at one point fell and
was put in the hospital with serious damage.
We found that because he could not pay, most of the hospital staff
ignored him unless church members were there to push for his care.
In
one of the congregations where I served I also remember a person who was very
socially awkward being treated very subtly but consistently as a second class
citizen. He was ranked as “less than”
and he was treated as “less than” by the other members of the congregation.
We
are called to confront that kind of treatment and to remind the world that we
are all loved children of God, none valued more than another despite the way we
would treat and value people differently.
I
am so grateful for this community of people who treat each other, despite our
differences, as people deserving of respect and care. I am so deeply appreciative of your kindness
to one another, the respect you show one another. We are called to continue that in every place
that we go with everyone that we encounter.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment