"Dogged Determination"
Saint Mark 7:24-27
I am currently between dogs and as one who loves them that is a terrible place to be.
Except for several months a few years ago there has been a dog in my life since before I can remember. Now it has been five months since my last canine kid passed and I’m getting antsy.
Ladd A. Dogg adopted me at PAWS Chicago only about three-and-a-half years ago. I went there to look at Greyhounds but they couldn’t see me for dust. I sat on a chair. I sat on the floor. I reached out my hand. I could have stood on my head but there was no reaction.
So I went for a walk and there was Ladd A. Dogg, a Border Collie/Labrador mix (or Bord-a-Dor as we called her) staring at me with the brownest of brown eyes and wagging her tail. It was love at first sight. Unfortunately it was also about three minutes before closing time. I told her to stay put and when I got home I filled out all the required forms.
The next day, literally as they were putting the key in the door to open up shop I was there. Three interviews and a meet and greet later we were a team! She took over the yard, the house, the bed, the front seat of the car, and most of all the bed. She was my shadow and to this day I miss her as I am sure you are missing those fur-suited friends who became a part of your life.
One of the things I have discovered in this in-between time before Saint Francis finds me another dog is that the kitchen floor needs to be swept far more often then it did when when Ladd A. Dogg was around.
No crumb ever came close to hitting the floor when she was near. In fact, no crumb was ever left on the table, or a even a plate. She may have been one of the best counter-surfing dogs in the history of time! She was a living, breathing, vacuum that sucked up whatever edible was in site.
Ladd A. Dogg also serves as an excellent counterpoint to the uncomfortable little conversation between Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman that we have before us in today’s gospel.
We will miss the truly radical nature of this encounter if we forget to notice where it takes place. Tyre and Sidon were in Lebanon - the very place where the conflicts between Israel and Hesbollah continue to this very day.
The bad blood between these two people goes all the way back to Jesus’ day and extends to our own. The woman and Jesus were adversaries. Perhaps it was this adversarial nature that does not seem to bring out the best in Jesus.
No matter how many times I read this story I always wince at Jesus’ reaction to the woman whose daughter was suffering so badly that she would risk crossing nationalist and social boundaries to get what she so desperately needs.
I am just a dog-parent so I can only imagine how much more the feeling of anguish and helplessness parents get when their child is in trouble. Parents have to be at wits end when they have tried everything and nothing has worked. That is where this Gentile woman is when she, desperate for help, drops to her knees in front of Jesus and begs him for his assistance. And what does our sweet, gentle, Jesus say in response?
“It is not good to take the children’s food and throw it to the little dogs.”1
No matter how many times I read this story I always wince at Jesus’ reaction to the woman whose daughter was suffering so badly that she would risk crossing nationalist and social boundaries to get what she so desperately needs.
I am just a dog-parent so I can only imagine how much more the feeling of anguish and helplessness parents get when their child is in trouble. Parents have to be at wits end when they have tried everything and nothing has worked. That is where this Gentile woman is when she, desperate for help, drops to her knees in front of Jesus and begs him for his assistance. And what does our sweet, gentle, Jesus say in response?
“It is not good to take the children’s food and throw it to the little dogs.”1
We are in shock! We’ve heard what he said and this is not the Jesus we know or even want to know. This is Jesus who is almost unrecognizable making us profoundly uncomfortable.
Nobody we know or even know of would ever call another human being a dog. Nobody we know or even know of would ignore the pleas of a parent on behalf of a child. Nobody we know or even know of would exclude a whole people because of their country of origin. Nobody we know or even know of would act like that. Those words are unacceptable out of anyone’s mouth and coming from the lips of Jesus they come like a slap on the side of the head. These words leave our ears ringing.
I have always loved the way scholars have tried to soften the words and stop the ringing. Gallons of ink and reams of paper have been spent trying to explain Jesus little outburst away.
Some have suggested that it was simple exhaustion. Others have suggested that when Jesus called her child a dog he really meant a puppy. You know, a cute, little, adorable puppy who wakes you up seventeen times during the night to be let outside only to sniff around the yard for forty minutes trying to find just the right spot. Oh yes, puppy makes everything better.
I stand second to none in my love for puppies and dogs but to refer to another person as a dog is to dehumanize them.
So what are we to do with this passage? What are we to do with Jesus talking like this?
With no other scholars I can find backing me up here is what I think and I think this because of the events of the last few months. If Jesus and scripture ever offered a critique of our society this would be it.
Remember who Jesus was. He was a rabbi, a respected man in the community, whom people looked up to now calling another person a low-life.
Nobody we know or even know of would ever call another human being a dog. Nobody we know or even know of would ignore the pleas of a parent on behalf of a child. Nobody we know or even know of would exclude a whole people because of their country of origin. Nobody we know or even know of would act like that. Those words are unacceptable out of anyone’s mouth and coming from the lips of Jesus they come like a slap on the side of the head. These words leave our ears ringing.
I have always loved the way scholars have tried to soften the words and stop the ringing. Gallons of ink and reams of paper have been spent trying to explain Jesus little outburst away.
Some have suggested that it was simple exhaustion. Others have suggested that when Jesus called her child a dog he really meant a puppy. You know, a cute, little, adorable puppy who wakes you up seventeen times during the night to be let outside only to sniff around the yard for forty minutes trying to find just the right spot. Oh yes, puppy makes everything better.
I stand second to none in my love for puppies and dogs but to refer to another person as a dog is to dehumanize them.
So what are we to do with this passage? What are we to do with Jesus talking like this?
With no other scholars I can find backing me up here is what I think and I think this because of the events of the last few months. If Jesus and scripture ever offered a critique of our society this would be it.
Remember who Jesus was. He was a rabbi, a respected man in the community, whom people looked up to now calling another person a low-life.
And think about her! Who is she? She is not only a woman who by law was forbidden to talk to a man in public who was not her husband. Not only a woman but a woman from a country that many considered inferior full of “rapists, drug dealers and other bad hombres.”
Around these two stands a crowd. While some in that crowd may have been surprised at Jesus calling the woman and her child dogs perhaps another third was nodding their heads in agreement.
“You tell her Jesus!” they might have been smiling and saying to themselves. “This woman has no business bothering you! You give her what for!” As we look closer to agreeing faces and nodding heads we see the worse in us and in our society.
But Jesus is setting both the woman and us up. He sees what a strong person she is. And, not doubt he is the one smiling when she shoots back at him angrily: “Of course, Master. But don’t dogs under the table get scraps dropped by the children?”2
She has Jesus and all the rest of us in a very tough spot because we have to answer a very difficult question: “Is the Gospel for everybody or is it only for a select few?”
In this strong, tough woman Jesus has met his match. He had sparred with some of the brightest and best minds of his day is bested by someone who, in a single sentence has reminded us all that if the Gospel isn’t meant for everybody than is it really isn’t any good for anybody?
The Gospel isn’t dependent on who we are or what we are. The Gospel isn’t dependent on status or orientation. The Gospel is for everybody.
Maybe Jesus needs to touch our ears too to help us live out the Gospel. Maybe Jesus needs to shout or maybe just whisper to us “Ephphatha” in order that we may speak to each other the way God has spoken to us.
Around these two stands a crowd. While some in that crowd may have been surprised at Jesus calling the woman and her child dogs perhaps another third was nodding their heads in agreement.
“You tell her Jesus!” they might have been smiling and saying to themselves. “This woman has no business bothering you! You give her what for!” As we look closer to agreeing faces and nodding heads we see the worse in us and in our society.
But Jesus is setting both the woman and us up. He sees what a strong person she is. And, not doubt he is the one smiling when she shoots back at him angrily: “Of course, Master. But don’t dogs under the table get scraps dropped by the children?”2
She has Jesus and all the rest of us in a very tough spot because we have to answer a very difficult question: “Is the Gospel for everybody or is it only for a select few?”
In this strong, tough woman Jesus has met his match. He had sparred with some of the brightest and best minds of his day is bested by someone who, in a single sentence has reminded us all that if the Gospel isn’t meant for everybody than is it really isn’t any good for anybody?
The Gospel isn’t dependent on who we are or what we are. The Gospel isn’t dependent on status or orientation. The Gospel is for everybody.
Maybe Jesus needs to touch our ears too to help us live out the Gospel. Maybe Jesus needs to shout or maybe just whisper to us “Ephphatha” in order that we may speak to each other the way God has spoken to us.
You have probably all seen the plaque in gift shops and those countless Christmas magazines that will soon be filling your mail boxes. You know the one that says: “I only hope that God loves me as much as my dog does.”
And the message of the Gospel is that God does love you that much and even more. But God doesn’t stop at loving just you and me here in our Sunday best. God loves those people out there in the world who are drinking coffee at home or at Starbucks. God loves those people who have gone for a jog or to the gym this morning. God loves those people who are sleeping or torturing themselves by watching one of those Sunday morning news programs with their “Sabbath gasbags.”
God loves all of us and all of us equally. There is not a sumptuous feast of God’s love for some and table scraps for others. We don’t have to sit up and beg for God’s love. We don’t even have to surf counters looking for it. God’s love is here for everyone fully, completely, unreservedly.
When that is our message I think people’s ears will be unstopped and they will join us in telling others the wonderful joy, and peace, and love that is to be found in Jesus who welcomes all.
God loves all of us and all of us equally. There is not a sumptuous feast of God’s love for some and table scraps for others. We don’t have to sit up and beg for God’s love. We don’t even have to surf counters looking for it. God’s love is here for everyone fully, completely, unreservedly.
When that is our message I think people’s ears will be unstopped and they will join us in telling others the wonderful joy, and peace, and love that is to be found in Jesus who welcomes all.
__________
1. St. Mark 7:27b. (NKJV) [NKJV=The New King James Version]
2. St. Mark 7:29. (MSG) [MSG=The Message]
Sermon preached at Our Savior's Lutheran Church
Aurora, Illinois
September 9, 2018
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