Worth Considering

The TV advertising world has many pronouncements put to music: advertising jingles. Some of them are simple, some more elaborate. You may know decades ago Barry Manilow wrote a number of them that stuck with people. I am not sure you could hum the one for acne treatment skin cleanser: “Give your face something to smile about with Stridex,” or this food one, “Get a bucket of chicken - ‘finger-lickin' good); have a barrel of fun (goodbye ho-hum).” I have no doubt you could sing, “And like a good neighbor, State Farm is there,” and the one about being “stuck on Band-Aid.”

Here is one that worked for its musicality, and because, philosophically, it is just a message we want to hear: “You deserve a break today, so get up and get away…” You are singing it right now in your head. However you feel about the food it is peddling, you probably love the message. It says you count; you have worked hard and are valuable; you deserve a break. Somewhere inside of us, our spirit cries, “Please universe, count me deserving of consideration; please, circumstances, cut me a break.” As people of faith, we pray that God would show us a favor, and make haste to help us.

Get ready for some challenging lessons of scripture this weekend. They ask tough questions: “Who deserves our consideration, and who should receive God’s mercy?” The first-century church leader, James, hammers the early church to get themselves straight concerning the kind and merciful treatment of the poor. He wants Christians to be sure their faith is visible in their actions. If we believe in Jesus, our actions should reflect the ways of Jesus.

Speaking of Jesus, the Gospel reading from Mark hands us a very difficult story. Jesus journeys outside of the Galilean scene. Not south, to Judah, but west, and north near the Mediterranean, to the Phoenician province of Syria. He is in the region of Tyre, so the question is, will he be as responsive to people here needing deliverance and healing, as he was to the Jewish population of Galilee? For a moment, Jesus articulates the common prejudice of his people, but the Syrophoenician woman in need offers Jesus the occasion to break through that wall of bias and separateness.

For the sake of emphasis, I will take up the ugly language of human bias to underscore the striking lesson of the Rule of God that Jesus announces by his actions. A woman of that region of Tyre is desperate: her daughter is possessed by a demon. She begs the help of Jesus, bowing at his feet. Jesus uses figurative language to point out there are children that need food and dogs outside that want food. He implies that first in line for food of the kingdom, that is, the saving power of his message, are the children of Israel, not the gentiles. Think about it: would you fix a nice dinner for a group, call the children to the table, then remove the platters of food and empty them in the ally for the stray dogs to come to devour? The application of this metaphor bothers us:

Jesus set out and went away to the region of Tyre … a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.  (Mark 7:24-30)

We do not want to think of Jesus as hesitating to help as if asking, “Why should I? Are you from my region, and are you Jewish?” That just does not fit with our sense of Jesus. It is hard for us to hear him tell her; children should be fed first. She changes the perspective in her response as if to say, “Think of me not as the neighborhood stray foraging for discarded food, but as the household pet, watching for crumbs that fall.” Jesus drops more than crumbs as he shifts to immediate action. The daughter is liberated from the torment that plagues her.

Next, Jesus walks up the coast to Sidon. He meets a man in need and shows no hesitancy. The man cannot hear and cannot communicate verbally, so Jesus gets physically and tactilely engaged with him. Jesus uses the ointment of his spittle on his finger, touching the man’s tongue. He puts his fingers in the man’s ears. Jesus gives a deep groan of a sigh and speaks the command, “Ephphatha – Be opened,” What happens? His tongue is released, and his hearing, restored. There is no reticence, as though he did not count, or was from the wrong culture and region. It is the wideness and potency of God’s mercy that counts. The lines of human thought, who matters and who is deserving, have nothing to do with it.

In the next entry of this series, we will look at James’s coaching on how the poor are to be welcomed and well regarded when they come into the church. The wealthy are not more deserving of hospitality than the poor. The question of who deserves a break today is a cultural matter of scrutiny. However, within the framework of our loving God, you will get a break today, tomorrow, and forever. The mercy of God is such that we receive as though we deserve: healing, forgiveness, and grace. God counts you worthy of divine consideration. The advertisers want you to know you deserve the reward of their marvelous product. God wants you to know, you are extravagantly loved.