Kim Davis. A name we should all be familiar with by now. A
county clerk in Kentucky and an Apostolic Christian. A visit to the official
website of the Apostolic Christian Church, on the tab titled Lifestyle, we
learn that Apostolic Christians are to be “doers of the Word, not just
hearers,” as we read in the Letter of James just last Sunday. In her attempt to
live that out as she best understands it, Kim Davis has refused to grant
marriage licenses to same-sex couples. For this fact I cannot open my Facebook
news feed without scrolling through at least several postings excoriating this
woman, insisting she comply with federal law or resign, and labeling her a
hypocrite for being on her fourth marriage herself, and having been a known
adulteress in the past. Some Christians rise to her defense and point out she
has been born again and ought to be forgiven. Others, including Christians and
non-religionists, mock and deride her by
passing on mean spirited memes. Perhaps we need to review the gospels
Kim Davis is an all too familiar character in the Gospels. I
think of the woman caught in adultery in John – “Let he who is without sin cast
the first stone,” says Jesus. And the Samaritan Woman at the well, perhaps one
of the most broken persons in all the gospels, having been married several
times, and the man she lives with now is not her husband. Yet, she is
commissioned by Jesus to be the first evangelist – to return to her village and
tell people about Jesus.
Then there is our woman in Mark chapter 7: 24-30, the
Syrophoenician Woman – that is a gentile from what was Syrian territory in the
Roman Empire. Her daughter is not well. She is desperate to find help. Jesus,
we are told, was by himself having just fought with his co-religionists over
the traditions of the elders. [Note- the defenders of the Traditions of the
Elders and what has been called the Purity Code in Leviticus (no shellfish, no
clothes of mixed fibers, no meat and dairy together, etc) are constantly
portrayed as challenging Jesus, and not once does he side with them – Christians
take note!]
Jesus is trying to get away from it all but it is not to be.
We all know what that feels like. He “notices” that there is this woman, this
gentile woman. We need to know that at that time a man was not to be seen with
a woman not his wife in public or private. Most especially not a gentile woman.
She knows this we can be sure. She is taking a tremendous risk just to be
approaching him. Yet, she is of an undivided heart and a heart filled with
love, and her single minded mission is to get help for her daughter who is
beset with a demon. She asks nothing for herself. Despite all of our pretense
as moderns to not believe in demons, we may as well admit we all know what that
feels like as well. She begs him to help.
She has heard the stories. All other avenues of the health-care delivery system
have failed her. She pins all her hope on this stranger, this Jew with whom she
ought not to be seen.
Then it happens. I have been in Bible Study groups who
insist this just did not happen, could not have happened. He calls her and her
people in Syria dogs. “Let the children
be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to
the dogs.” The children, of course, are the children of Israel; the dogs would
be gentiles. It turns out that our Lord and Savior knows a thing or two about
prejudice and bigotry, not to mention the fine art of insult. Suddenly he
appears to revert to the traditions of the elders. Perhaps this will send her
on her way, he thinks.
Then it happens. Perhaps the single most important moment in
all of Biblical scripture. She does not wither. She does not withdraw, tail
between her legs. Her heart is filled with love. She knows no fear. “Say to
those of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong and do not fear,” declares the
prophet-poet Isaiah.
This woman from Syria is strong and fearless as she replies,
“Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” She will be
happy with crumbs. She gives it her best shot. And with that the earth and time
and God all stand still. There is an axial shift in the operation of the known
universe. Jesus is moved. Jesus is deeply moved.
Jesus is moved enough to drop the traditions of the elders
once and for all, set aside his prejudice, drop his fear of “the other,” and he
grants her request. The child is made whole once again. The demon is gone. The
food that he has to give, the bread that comes down from heaven, is now to be
shared with all people without any concern for who they are or where they are
from. For all things and all people are from God. We come from Love, we return
to Love, and Love is all around.
Jesus was changed. And so have we. It may surprise you to
know that in the Sunday Lectionary in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer this story
is omitted – as are most stories about women of faith. Not until we as a church
adopted the Revised Common Lectionary have we heard this woman’s story read in
church. It took as a massive a change of heart and mind to make the change and
allow this woman’s story to be told – a story that very likely changed the
entire focus of our Lord’s, of God’s, mission.
It strikes me that in light of this story, heaping scorn,
mockery and derision on Kim Davis is exactly what we as disciples of Jesus
ought not to do. We ought to pray for her. For she, like us, is a member of the
body of Christ. When one part of the body hurts, we all hurt. She strikes us as
strange and as “other” as the Syrophoenician Woman was before Jesus. No doubt,
her heart is filled with love and she is doing the best she can to live her
life as an Apostolic Christian. What this most critical story in the New
Testament tells me is that we are compelled by our baptism in Christ to love
her with all our heart. This would be just as true for the Muslims I see
excoriated every day on my newsfeed, and for all the anti-Democrat and
anti-Republican screed I must wade through every day. It is easy to throw
stones. It is difficult to live with a heart filled with love.
The night of Shock and Awe as the US invaded Iraq, March 19,
2003, a musician in Maine, Joyce Anderson wrote this song. I think it could be the Syrophoenician Woman’s
theme song. It is all about how we view “the other.” May it become our song as
well.
Men of anger, men of war
My heart is filled with love
Tell me what you are fighting for
My heart is filled with love
This death I see won't make me numb
My heart is filled with love
Every boy a mother's son
My heart is filled with love
----
Raise your voices, spread the news...
Buddhist, Christian, Moslem, Jew...
They all teach the golden rule...
Do unto others as you'd have them do...
-----
I will not fear these foreign tongues...
There is a place for everyone...
I cannot make my will their own...
But fear can turn a heart to stone...
----
I do not know my neighbor's name...
I love that stranger just the same...
Hope is rising from this place...
Divine wisdom, amazing grace...
---
Men of anger, men of war...
Tell me what you are fighting for
My heart is filled with love
My heart is filled with love
My heart is filled with love
©2003 by Joyce Andersen/JoyScream Music
Written the night of March 19, 2003
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