Mark 7:24-37
Proper 18 (23)- Year B
The geography is problematic. The healings are no where as straight-forward as they seem.
As we listen in we know we need to use our wits and have the wits of others used on us to open our lives beyond our current limitations of religion and culture and fear.
As we know we are missing important words of life we need to get beyond the grossness of spit. Again and again we need to be opened.
Let this be your "word for the day" everyday this week - ephphatha - note how your mouth opens wider as you progress through the word ef-fa-tha.
Here are two sermons you may want to attend to Ephphatha! Be Open! and Ephphatha...Be Opened [URL MISSING]
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The SyroPhoenician Woman
Marjorie (Reader)
Now come on! The Gospel reading starts at v. 24 with the story of Jesus' responding in a very rude and racist way to this woman. Yet every sermon illustration I subscribe to or have looked at so far is dealing with the healing of the deaf chap. Is no one going to share their thoughts on what is going on here? Seems to me that Mark has put the Good News square in the mouth of this woman - and yet what are we to do with the language that is not only self derogatory, but demeaning to animals and full of the language which sets humans above our fellow creatures.
For me this is a story with which I struggle. The crux of the struggle is how not to gloss over the language - to hear it, yet not over spiritualize it, to take it seriously as a revelation of how God is with us, but also to hear in it how even in darkness and deficiency God's presence is.
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Wesley (Blogger)
It is indeed intriguing to reflect on Marjorie's experience of avoidance of the Syrophoenician woman. While I think we have made entirely too much of the 9/11 experience and misused it as a lens excusing the war America foisted upon Iraq, there is a cultural reality to it. We are about to pass through another anniversary of it. Is this a way of saying that our faith does not currently have a way to stand up to the interaction between the unnamed woman and the named Jesus and come out at a different place than we entered? Does she feel like a terrorist with a demand and a persistence to see it cared for? Does some of this make it easier to not listen at all and to focus on the more feel good direct healing that may lead to listening?
There are several other ways of trying to look at the issue of only focusing on the second healing story. In the context within which I find myself I could have gone with either text to look at the congregational system. There are a couple of specific instances that seemed to make the second story a better way to continue that conversation here. If this is a culture-wide phenomenon we may all need to step back and look again - to take the ephphatha approach to ourselves that we might be open to learn again about inclusion.
Your comment did lead me to go back to look at some other jottings of mine on my still incomplete homepage and I found the following references that included the Syrophoenician woman: Mark 7, 2003, Mark 7, 2000, and Matthew 15, 1999.
There are other connecting spots on TextWeek.com: Matthew 15 and Mark 7.
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Jane (Reader)
Thank you. I wanted to contribute some thoughts on the Lectionary reading for this Sunday. The SyroPhoenician woman does no more than many mothers do when they need to advocate for a child. I never paid much attention to this passage until now when I spent time with it and realized that it is so commonplace for a mother. We do it all the time. In Mark we see a mother advocating for her child, and it changes the world.
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David (Reader)
Majorie -
I appreciate the frustration over the silence concerning the SyroPhoenecian woman. I agree with Jane's observation that she is doing the ordinary, but the memory of it makes this advocacy extraordinary.
This woman - though tragically unnamed - is elevated as a teacher much as the unnamed woman of Luke 7:36-50. There as here (Mark's story), those who ought to see cannot, but those who are considered untrustworthy are elevated as fitting witnesses of the kingdom.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/september2003.html
Raise a glass, "The rich and the poor have this in common: the Lord is the maker of them all."
May your heart be strong, not just from the drink, but in appreciation of a presence of G*D that sets you free to no longer judge rich and poor, but to live justice attempted and completed.
This open-eyed justice does away with acts of favoritism, in any direction, as we recognize our neighbor as ourself. This communal approach leads to mercy received, given, and shared. Such faith is practical, beyond cant.
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be opened woman from afar
be opened Jesus so near
be opened ye deaf
be opened you onlookers
be opened scoffers and praisers
let us shape one another
in G*D's image
beyond hierarchy
beyond favoritism
beyond simply beyond
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html
Tyre - home of Jezebel. Jezebel - dispute with Elijah. Remember Elijah's fear.
Tyre - place of a classic oppressor of the Jews. Jesus was politically correct in not wanting anyone to know he was there, also practically correct in the economic system of the place.
Together these are a source of tension. Jesus seems caught in history and contemporary economic realities as well as the whole male/female role distinctions of his day. No wonder the first word that comes forth from Jesus is "No!"
Hooray for strong women. This unnamed Syrophoenician woman stands firm, gives as well as she takes. Regardless of the unlikeliness of her knowing about Jesus (unless you posit the invisible women deacons around Jesus all the time but only noted by Mark at the end of his tale) we have this remarkable instance of Jesus repenting of his response.
We, too, are called to standing ground-of-care for sick, regardless of their heritage or relationship to us. This may need a repentance from us, but we have a model for that in Jesus. In light of last week's emphasis upon what come out of a person, rather than what goes in, this raises interesting questions about Jesus' initial response and reminds us of his brotherliness more than any god-ness.
If we carry this forward to Jesus' travel further into Gentile territory and passing back through home territory to another Gentile pole we find a deaf mute. Gentile or Jew? What needs to come out of such a person that was not available for release until now? What needs to come forth from you that was not available until now?
For those who experienced such events, they, too, have something pushing to get out. Yes, astonishment and excitement. More, though, it is a sense of being able to do some something "well", too. When you see everyday miracles, aren't you encouraged to participate in one or even to initiate such? With new ears open to the need of the world, may you speak clearly, plainly.
Even if an Archie Bunker Jesus tells you to "stifle", let the Edith Syrophoenician in you gently and strongly stand for a second chance, stand for healing, stand for grace.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html
We do need respite. It is not always available. A part of the trick is to regularly live easy. Every interruption can become a welcomed surprise.
The world is disturbed. Even while on sabbatical, the world is disturbed. It is no surprise that when there is a disturbance in the force-field in which we live, we will be touched by it and invited to touch back with a healing word.
Apparently Jesus thought he was on a well-deserved rest, just as Mitt Romney thinks Americans uniquely deserve the best, and was thus caught off-guard when a disturbance greeted him. He responds out of being disturbed with a haughty and nasty word as though having a non-conversation with Clint Eastwood who seems to be able to see and talk with emperor’s clothes. No excuses are available to Jesus as there is no plausible way to turn his response into a faith test of another; it is simply uncivil.
Fortunately both the unnamed woman and Jesus are able to come back to center with a word of reality and recognition of such. In this report of yore it would seem that this private conversation was repeated by Jesus, “Let me tell you what I just learned about myself and my vocation . . . .”
Back at work (or beginning to live a bit more unattached to one’s own suffering) another healing opportunity arises. Here a private conversation that Jesus asked to be off-the-record was leaked by others.
There is something about restorations that wants to be shouted out. Whether from the restorer or the restored, these are stories too good to be held in. May you tell your stories of being restored or restoring out loud.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/09/mark-724-37.html