Saturday, September 4, 2021

Be Opened Proper 18B

 Be Opened!

“Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear! ... He will come and save you.’

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped…” -Isaiah 35:4-6

 

Mark 7:24-37. A man and a woman approach Jesus in what might be called a “Boarderland.” It is territory that was once part of Israel that has now been designated by Rome as part of Syria. It is very possible these people are Canaanites. The woman’s daughter has an unclean spirit. The man is deaf. We don’t know their names. But they know who Jesus is. Which will emerge in chapter eight as the central question in Mark’s gospel. It is a question for all of us: Who do you say that I am? As we will see, the answer to this question is more difficult and complex than we allow ourselves to think that it is. 

 

The woman is fearful of heart. Her daughter is not well. Once again, Jesus is off by himself trying to get a break. To rest. He did not want anyone to know where he was, but could not escape notice. Somehow, she ends up in the house and begs Jesus to cast the unclean spirit out of her daughter. Jesus, who often exhibits a heart of compassion, in this instance seems to blow her off, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” He appears to call her a dog.

 

I remember leading book group at a parish in Connecticut and this story came up. Everyone in the group was horrified. To the point of insisting that there was no way Jesus would call anyone, especially a desperate mother, a dog. Jesus is just not that rude. For centuries before Jesus, in Greek, Roman and even Israelite worlds, however, ‘dog’ was a common insult. Furthermore, a close reading of the gospels reveals Jesus telling adversaries things like they better get with his new kingdom program or end up with a millstone tied around their necks and tossed to the bottom of the sea – surely an archetype solution for Godfathers everywhere! Jesus can be other than open and loving, accepting and inviting.

 

It may help to understand that this is the woman’s story, not Jesus’s. He’s tired. He’s trying to get away from all the hard work of feeding people, walking on water to save his helpless disciples, and healing great crowds of people. This gentile woman, which simply means she is not Jewish, has what might be called chutzpah! She barges in on Jesus’s quiet time and begs him to do what she has heard he does best. Is there no rest for the weary, he must be thinking? Evidently, there is not! He tries to discourage her, dismissing her as a dog.

 

I once tried to convert to Judaism. Rabbi Stanley Kessler in West Hartford, Connecticut not only tried to discourage me, he succeeded. He admitted, it was what he is supposed to do to see how committed I was to converting. By custom, he is meant to discourage me three times. In the end I was disappointed, but understood all his reasons as to why I should recommit myself to Jesus. “After all, Kirk, we worship the same God as Jesus did.”

 

What is admirable about this story, however, is that the woman is not discouraged. Is that all you’ve got, she seems to say. I’ve been called worse. But my daughter still needs the kind of help only you can give. So, she responds, “But Sir,” oh, so polite, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs!” Brilliant! The story turns on her response. She has captured Jesus’s attention and imagination. She’s right, he seems to think. There are no days off in my Father’s kingdom. “For saying that you may go,” he says, “– the demon has left your daughter.” And it was so. Please note, not because Jesus came to his senses. Her daughter is made well because of what her mother said – to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. She held her ground. She held her daughter’s ground. And it made a difference. We will do well to remember this story as we see, and we will see, women and girls in Afghanistan , Texas, at home and abroad, stand their ground to be treated with dignity, justice, and for who they are – not for who they are not.

 

Then, while still in the region of the Decapolis, ten Greco-Roman cities outside of Israel, an unspecified “they” brought him a deaf man who also had a speech impediment. Showing humility as well as well as protecting the man’s dignity, Jesus takes him off in private away from the crowd. This time, without hesitation, he puts his fingers in the man’s ears, spits and touches his tongue. Then he looks up to heaven, sighs, and says, “Ephphatha!” Which means, “Be opened.”

 

“And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.’”

 

Now, if only Jesus, or anyone at all really, could make those among us who can hear and can speak to really listen to common sense, we too would be as astonished and excited as the crowd who welcomed the man back into their community -into their world. If only all of us could adopt a spirit of “Ephphatha” and “Be Opened” to one another – friends and enemies alike, just how astonishing might that be!

 

It would be no mistake of storyteller Mark to share a story of Jesus being opened, by the gentile woman, to help others beyond his own people and follow it with the story of Jesus saying, “Ephphatha,” Be Opened, to the man who was deaf and had a speech impediment.

 

It is no stretch to imagine that for Mark we are all the man who needed to be opened. We all need to really listen to one another, and speak without the impediment of unkind speech. And, we are all the woman and need to advocate with perseverance for the desperate needs of others, here and around the world, and, on behalf of the Earth itself. To really persevere and not be discouraged in our advocacy. What she said to Jesus was the equivalent of Ephphatha, for what she said opened Jesus to a broader and deeper understanding of his mission. If Jesus sometimes needs to be opened, how much more do we?

 

That we all may be opened to the desperate needs of all others, and the world; that we may persevere in advocating for all who need help of any kind, anywhere; may God, his Son and his Holy Spirit help us all. Amen

 

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