September 6, 2015 – Mark 7:24-37
Mark 7:24-37
An Abundance of Crumbs
Lectionary 23B – September 6, 2015
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
I have said before that by the time we get to the middle of the 7th chapter in Mark,
Jesus needs a break!
He has been going at it hard! The pace he has set has been breathless!
It has been one thing after another: healing and teaching and feeding and exorcising demons.
Jesus needs a union!
Why hasn’t The International Brotherhood and Sisterhood of Saviours issued him a union card?
Anyway, he takes a self-authorized break.
And what does he do? He goes to the beach!
He goes west to Tyre to the beaches of the Mediterranean.
Only to do that he has to go to Gentile or non-Jewish territory: Tyre is the region of the enemy.
And maybe he purposely goes there so he won’t have to work.
See, he’s apparently been sent to the house of Israel to heal and teach and feed and forgive:
apparently just to his own people, the Jewish people.
But the last time he tried to get away, it didn’t work out so well (Mark 6:30-44):
the Jewish people found him and he ended up having to feed five thousand people:
not much of a holiday!
So I think he goes to non-Jewish territory this time to try and relax:
it’s the ancient equivalent of leaving your electronic device at home, so you can’t work.
Because even Jesus needs to rest.
He takes his Hello Kitty beach towel and his Jeffrey Archer paperback and off he goes.
It’s about a day’s walk to Tyre.
Only: his reputation has preceded him even here. “He could not escape notice,” Mark says.
The non-Jews in Tyre have heard of him and everything he’s been doing, feeding and healing.
A mother with a very sick little daughter is desperate for her child to be made well.
She’s heard of the things that have been going on wherever Jesus goes.
She too has heard of the feeding and the healing and
the abundance of life that happens wherever he goes.
Maybe she’s heard of all the Jewish people he’s healed, or the 5000 Jewish people he’s fed,
and how many crumbs were left over from that meal of five loaves and two fish:
12 baskets full!
So the pagan woman comes and assuming an attitude of worship asks him to heal her daughter.
Now it’s at this point that we think surely Jesus is so nice he will just say,
“Sure thing! I’m on holiday but what the heck! How about a selfie while we’re at it.”
Because that’s what we think Jesus is like.
But what Jesus does next shocks us.
He speaks to her in a very rude way:
He tells her “No!” That his ministry is not for such “dogs” as Syrians!
The children of Israel are to be fed first and it is not fair to take bread away from the children
in order to feed the dogs!
But the woman is not to be deterred:
she’s a mother who loves her child and she’s not going to give up.
And seemingly she’s just as clever as Jesus, because in a classic Jesus move she
takes up his own metaphor and beats him with it when she says:
“Okay, Jesus, but even dogs eat bread crumbs that children drop for them!” Ha!
And I think at this point, something happens to Jesus.
I think this is a great turning point in his life.
It’s one of those unexpected seemingly small things that happen to you that end up having
huge consequences and that maybe even change your life.
Jesus first, I think, admires her wit, being a person of wit himself, and maybe he even
smiles at how the woman has turned his own metaphor against him.
But something else happens: he is persuaded by her argument.
He doesn’t just say to her in the translation, “For saying that you may go.”
What he literally says is, “Because of this reasoning,” or “Because of this logic,” or
“Because of this argument you may go – your child has been made well.”
She seems to know even better than Jesus himself what the superabundance of grace that
is happening through him now means for all the peoples of the earth.
She knows what it means that when he fed those 5000 Jews there were what?
How many leftovers? 12 baskets!
She knows that there aren’t just crumbs leftover, there is an abundance of crumbs that
fall to the floor.
She knows even better than Jesus that whatever crazy thing God is doing through Jesus,
there is enough for everyone.
So he says to her, “Go! I’ve got some stuff to think about.”
Because she has given him a lot to think about.
I like to think that when he gets back to his Hello Kitty beach blanket,
that Jeffrey Archer paperback is sitting unread on the sand.
Because he’s not reading anymore: he’s thinking.
The woman is a stranger, an outsider to Jesus, ethnically and religiously different.
And yet, she taught the teacher.
She is the only person in the whole Gospel who ever gets Jesus to change his mind!
No small feat when you’re talking about someone as stubborn and as smart as Jesus.
She learns him all right, though:
she teaches him something about the superabundance of God’s grace:
that there is enough of it for everyone right now!
Which makes me wonder what we have to learn from those who might be outsiders to us.
There is a fellow I know from food bank named Jerry –
and I’ve known Jerry for several years now.
Recently Jerry has been doing some campaigning for Falcon, the Liberal candidate in Minto.
We got to talking about that last Wednesday at Food Bank.
And about the hope Jerry has for this neighbourhood.
He was really on fire as he spoke of what, together, we could do for the people of the West End.
Thinking that he would have great things to say about how we at First Lutheran were doing
in this regard, I said to him, “Lay it on me, Jerry: how we are doing?”
And he kind of wrinkled his nose at me and said, “Could be better.”
I was nonplussed. I just smiled and realized this was a learning moment and said to him:
“How can we do better, Jerry?”
Well, he thought about that, and then he thought some more.
And then he looked at me and said, “More love.”
Friends, we are learning to grow in love here at First Lutheran Church,
and I am really proud of the steps we have taken to love more.
And maybe we can learn something from Jerry.
Maybe we can learn something from the Syrophoenician Woman.
Maybe we can learn something from Jesus this morning.
There is lots more love we can share: there is always more.
We are the Gentiles, right? Most of us, anywhere.
Most of us are of non-Jewish origin.
Maybe all of us have the Syrophoenician Woman to thank for
God’s grace in Jesus being extended to us.
Maybe we all have to thank her for helping even Jesus to see that we can always grow in love.
That we can always grow in our understanding of the reach of love.
That there are not just crumbs, but an abundance of crumbs: who else can we extend them to?
The amazing thing is is that Jesus I think kind of puts this whole reasoning of
the Syrophoenician Woman to the test.
You’ll notice where he goes next in the story:
he decides to cut his vacation short and go home to the Sea of Galilee.
But apparently Jesus missed that day in school when they studied the geography of Palestine.
Whoops!
See, he decides to go home . . . by way of Sidon, waaaaaaaaay up here!
Ha! By going that way he is going even further into Gentile territory;
further away from his people!
I think he wants to see if God’s loving healing care and grace is operative even way out here.
And it is! He heals a deaf man!
The Syrophoenician Woman is responsible for Jesus – Jesus! – taking a new direction and
venturing into new ventures!
And then guess where he goes?
On his way home after today’s reading ends, he goes home by way of the Decapolis,
which is way over here!
Apparently he still hasn’t had time to make up that missed geography class yet!
Jesus really should go to summer school instead of hanging out at the beach.
But what I think is that he does it on purpose: he puts what he’s learned to the ultimate test.
Way out here, in completely Gentile territory, he sits down 4000 hungry Gentiles,
and feeds every single one of them with 7 loaves and a few small fish.
And when they collected the crumbs, there were 7 baskets-full leftover.
An abundance of crumbs.
There is always more love.
There is always more than enough love to go around. Ha!
Jesus must think: that Syrophoencian woman was right!
There is a lot of love to go around. There is a lot of money to go around.
there is a lot of grace to go around: there is an abundance of crumbs.
Our budget is an abundance of crumbs.
See what we do with our abundance of crumbs.
Refugee ministry, food bank ministry, community meal ministry,
kids club summer drop in ministry.
And Jerry is challenging us to share even more love,
with our abundance of crumbs from the table.
There is more than enough.
With the Syrian child Alan Kurdi who died this week as a refugee so much in the news and
the plight of Syrian refugees highlighted now for us, what are we being called to do as
a congregation, and as a regional and national church?
Jesus saves a Syrian child in the story this morning.
How many crumbs of grace and love and wisdom and compassion will it take
to save other Syrian children from the fate of Alan Kurdi?
Jesus ventures into some unknown territory this morning and is inviting us to do the same with
the abundance of crumbs we receive here.
The thing is: when we venture, Jesus ventures with us.
See, every week, Jesus enters into Gentile territory again and again – to feed us.
We are Gentiles, right, most of us? And Jesus enters into our territory – and comes to this table.
And leaves glory behind to enter this bread and this wine.
Deigns to come to us at this table and share a few crumbs of merciful godly life with us.
Ventures to enter you and the territory of your body.
And fill you with grace in these crumbs – but what crumbs!
Jesus does this every week not knowing exactly where it will lead him – or you,
but trusting that it will lead you to grow in wisdom and compassion and love.
Trusting that it will take you somewhere this week where that wisdom and
compassion and love is needed.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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