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| On End Racism Sunday how do we confront a "racist" Jesus? |
Sermon audio may be found here.
We love dogs don’t we? We pamper them, walk them, and bathe them. We pay for their nails to get trimmed. We send them to spas, we buy them cute outfits, and even put them on extravagant diets. I’ve heard it said that if an alien looked down upon our part of the world, it would believe that dogs are the ruling species by how well we typically treat them. While we love dogs so much, to be called a dog does not often carry the same good feelings as the ones we get when we see our furry little friends.
To be clear dog idioms are a mixed bag. “You’re my dog,” “You sly dog you,” and “top dog” certainly stand out as complementary expressions. On the other hand though there is “sick as a dog,” “hair of the dog,” “calling off the dogs,” “shouldn’t happen to a dog,” “can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” and just for good measure, “thrown to the wolves.” Taken a step further no woman wants to be referred to as the female side of the canine species, and if you’re a man you don’t want to be called an SOB.
In Jesus’ day there were also doggy terms, like in today’s gospel story. When this Syrophoenician woman humbly approaches Jesus, his response comes across with a lot of emotional static. That is, we have a hard time hearing Jesus calling her a dog without cringing. Is Jesus being playful? Did some later anti-Gentile Christians put this into Mark’s story? Wasn’t Jesus all about being inclusive? These are just a few questions worth raising when we hear Jesus’ response to a panicked mother seeking her daughter’s healing.
The phrase that Jesus used was diminutive, meaning he did not call her a big mean dog. And yet, this phrase does not come across as “cute little puppy,” but rather something like, “that little b____.” (Micah D. Kiel, "Commentary on Mark 7:24-37" www.workingpreacher.org). There is however, something more problematic for us than Jesus calling this emotional fraught woman a dirty word behind closed doors.
This Syrophoenician woman was someone from outside Jesus’ own group. She was not a Jew like Jesus. The words he spoke can at best be seen as offensive and at worst can be read as racist. How we hear, interpret, and respond to this is all the more complicated by the fact that today is a Sunday set aside by our friends in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and adopted by our Church leadership to confront racial prejudice. This is a day being called End Racism Sunday. Yet, how do we do this when we hear Jesus saying about another group of people, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”?
It can be easy for us to retroactively defend Jesus by pointing to the almost universal tendency to stick with one’s own tribe. Still his words cut through this not so sturdy defense. More helpful in understanding what Jesus said is our heartfelt belief that he came to be a light for all people. The one we, as Gentiles, call our Savior was a Jewish man who came to expand the Chosen People of God from a select group of the Abrahamic Covenant to all those for whom Christ’s blood was shed. Even through our Faith in Christ the words he spoke to this Gentile woman nag at us. We cannot hide from the offensiveness of what Jesus said, especially today we must confront these words and learn from Jesus’ interaction with someone completely different from him.
In this story Jesus was in a foreign land. Traveling from work done in the overwhelmingly Jewish area of Galilee to Tyre, a place that was practically pagan. He was attempting to find a quiet place, but was immediately interrupted by one who should not even know who Jesus was. We can, I believe, all relate to the annoying feeling of someone pestering us when all we want is to have a moment alone. Despite the interruption Jesus listened. We do not know what she said, but we know she knelt before him and begged for her daughter’s healing. The humility did not strike Jesus, in fact, he became annoyed with her, comparing her people to dogs. What transformed this interaction was her boldness.
She did not get offended, melt into tears, or walk away when called a dog. The woman took the hurtful words, accepted them, and spoke something that demanded Jesus’ attention: even the dogs eat at God’s table. God’s overabundance goes beyond the Chosen People to all people, even the ones considered dogs. Jesus healed the woman’s daughter, as he heard the audacity of this brave one.
If we are to live as God intends us to live, we cannot speak from places of racial discrimination (not behind closed doors, not in jokes, not anywhere), but we must follow Jesus’ lead. Not in what he said, but in what he did. Jesus had a conversation with someone outside his own group. When he put his foot in his mouth, he was called out on it, and he did not deny his words. Furthermore, he sought healing in this relationship and with future generations of this family. What is more he went on to heal another person, which informs us more about this first miracle.
A man who could not speak or could not hear was brought to Jesus. Jesus did not only seek healing for this man, but I believe he also sought healing for himself. Jesus’ own ears and mouth, his heart and mind were opened by the Syrophoenician woman. Jesus connected back to the confrontation with her, as he took the deaf man aside, sighed, and said, “Ephphatha!” that is “Be opened!”
Be opened! That is what Jesus said to this man and to himself, and it’s what he models for us. Be opened! Open to those who are different than you. Be open to what they say. Be open to their reality being different because of the color of their skin. Be open to the possibility that you have been deaf and dumb. Be open when you say something offensive, so that you can own it, learn from it, and seek healing.
Today we intend to End Racism, but to do so we must recognize our own role in it. In a moment we will confess our sins to God and ask for forgiveness, and in the light of reconciliation Jesus shows us a path to walk: All of us are God’s chosen people not by what we do, but by God’s love for us; as God’s children we are called to speak with those who look different, listen to them, when we speak hurtfully we must seek healing and reconciliation; do not be deaf and dumb, but be opened. Ephphatha, that is be opened!
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