Mark 7:24-30; Read also Matthew 15:21-28<\/p>\n\n\n\n
September 10, 2006<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We never owned a dog or for that matter any warm-blooded pet in my life. As a child, I heard about how dogs were served on platters in fancy restaurants in China. And I can remember in an old family portrait of my grandparents in China that there was this little white dog like the RCA dog sitting at my grandparents\u2019 feet. I was told that photographers often would stage a dog in the picture to convey a wealthy household. So when Lauren finally fulfilled her life-long wish to have a dog, it was very new to me. Would Ginger bite me? Would she drool all over me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lauren\u2019s dachshund, Ginger is now Yeh Yeh\u2019s best friend. When she sees me, she would yip and jump until I pay a little attention to her and rub her tummy. Then she would happily go about her business\u2014usually sun tanning on the deck. Ginger like all of us, is desperate for some attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Syrophoenician Woman<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Today\u2019s Scripture lesson in Mark is also the same incident in Matthew 15:21. We see Jesus going beyond the borders of his own land outside of the limits of Israel where there were fewer Jews. An area populated by people who did not observed the laws of Judaism, Jesus is confronted by an unhappy parent. Unhappy is too soft a word for this woman\u2019s condition. She is desperate. This mother\u2019s daughter is possessed with a demon. We don\u2019t know what this is but it was not good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The woman comes to Jesus and addresses him in a very formal way. She says, \u201cHave mercy on me, Lord, Son of David\u201d (Matt. 15:22). His own disciples call him \u201cMaster\u201d sometimes, \u201cRabbi,\u201d and infrequently, \u201cLord.\u201d But this woman being an outsider, not knowing what to expect but hoping for the best, goes all the way by calling Jesus, \u201cLord, Son of David.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s like when we end up at traffic court to see if there\u2019s a way to get our speeding ticket fine reduced. We say, \u201cJudge, I mean, Your Honor, your grace, your royal highness\u2026\u201d We\u2019re desperate to flatter the judge in the hope that it will help us get what we want from him. So the woman says, \u201cHave mercy on me, Lord, Son of David.\u201d And he answers her, not a word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We might want to think that Jesus was testing this woman\u2019s faith. But there\u2019s no indication that Jesus would do this. When she continued to pester the disciples to needle him for an answer, Jesus finally comes back with an answer worse than silence. He says, \u201cI was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel\u201d (Matt. 15:24). In other words, \u201cSorry, you don\u2019t fit into my plans for the day. You are not a member of the right club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am way out here, beyond the borders. You are not an Israelite. You are an outsider, a nonbeliever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But this woman is not to be put off too easily. And finally Jesus speaks to her, well not really to her as much as speaking about her. Jesus says, \u201cIt is not fair to take the children\u2019s food and throw it to dogs.\u201d That\u2019s an insult anywhere and anytime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDog,\u201d in that part of the world is not a statement about our cute, cuddly house pets like Ginger. \u201cDog\u201d means those disgusting scavengers that live in the streets, living off garbage. Rummaging through the garbage cans with food wrappers strewn all over the street. It was these kinds of dogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But this woman is not to be put off so easily. She comes right back at Jesus. She is resilient, pushy, determined and desperate to get a hearing. She says, \u201cIn our houses, even the little puppies that scramble around on the beaten floors, even they can have the crumbs that fall off the family table.\u201d You see, that\u2019s the passage that we use to justify dogs lapping up the food that falls on the floor!<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Jesus heard this, he said to those around him, \u201cI have not seen such faith\u2014not even in Israel.\u201d This is an amazing turnabout for Jesus! He changes his mind about this woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He doesn\u2019t say, \u201cI haven\u2019t seen such desperation in Israel or elsewhere\u201d because he has. He says, \u201cI haven\u2019t seen this kind of faith, even in Israel.\u201d Faith. The problem with this woman is that she is not of the faith that is, instead she is an outsider. She knows nothing of the beliefs and traditions of Israel. Yet Jesus says that she is a great example of faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How does she move from no faith, outside of faith, to be recognized by Jesus as full of faith? She has simply been desperate. At the end of her rope, utterly without hope, she begs to Jesus and Jesus reaches out to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Desperation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n How many of us can say that we are really \u201cdesperate\u201d today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are hardly desperate about our faith. We say casually, \u201cI follow the Christian faith.\u201d or \u201cI have faith in Jesus.\u201d We might adhere to Christian beliefs but do we follow Jesus as our Lord, Son of David?<\/p>\n\n\n\n We church people usually think about faith like believing in these \u201c1, 2, 3 points\u201d in our church covenant. We have all kinds of hurtles and requirements: intellectual, creedal, historical, ecclesiological, sometimes even aesthetic and sociological. We are guardians of faith, the ones who let everyone know what has to be done in order to be certified as having faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having a solid theology is fine. Knowledge of biblical precepts is essential. But faith is also a matter of somebody being desperate enough to reach out, and perceptive enough to reach toward Jesus. Some of you know that deep faith because you have come to Jesus, not for a pleasant discussion on spiritual matters, but rather because you needed a miracle in the worst sort of way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For most of us here, our problem is that too many of us are fairly well off, not too miserable, certainly not desperate. We have orderly lives that try to balance between family and friends, work and leisure, an evenly paced out life. We don\u2019t wish nor do we want to be desperate. But there is something about Jesus that is close company with the desperate. This woman doesn\u2019t know too much about religion but what she does know is that she\u2019s desperate to see her daughter get well. All she knew what to say is, \u201cLord, please help me.\u201d And then it happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She makes a leap of faith, leaping out of her desperation, into the embrace of Jesus. Her daughter is saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps one of the most dreaded diseases in history is leprosy. What made it so dreaded were the ghastly deformities it caused: twisted joints, amputated toes and fingers, and chronic ulcers. But few people today realize the reason for most of these dreaded effects. The primary way in which the causative agent, Hansen\u2019s bacillus, wreaks its havoc is its affinity for settling along those nerve fibers that carry the sensation of pain and then destroying them. It thereby creates a condition of painlessness. A leper who broke his ankle would continue to walk on it, unaware that anything had happened to him, or severely burn her fingers while not realizing she had placed them too close to the flame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pain is a signal of disease, not the disease itself. Indeed, pain is primarily a disease-preventing mechanism. Without it we would all quickly become crippled. So, we need to experience pain for our healing and health. This is the reason why it was expected for those who were cured by Jesus of leprosy to return to give thanks. Out of the desperation of suffering from leprosy, we come to believe in Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think about young parents who have a sick child. They may go through days without knowing what\u2019s wrong. While becoming desperate for answers, the parents grow to trust their child in the hands of God. They believe that God is sovereign over all creation including their child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking about Jesus crossing the borders and into unfamiliar territories, I can only think about how desperate Mexican laborers must be. They want a better life as all human beings do. They risk their lives crossing the border. They leave families and friends behind because they are desperate to do better. I wonder what Jesus might have said if he met up with these people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Desperate Someday<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re not too desperate right now, just file this message away until later. Someday, life being what it is, you may be in a place of this desperate and gutsy woman. Remember her story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And someday, maybe today, this Sunday, there are folk who are in church, with Jesus, because they need a miracle in the worst sort of way. They may not have all our answers, know all that we know, but today\u2019s gospel suggests that they are close to the heart of Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The woman says, \u201cLord, never mine about the dogs and puppies, or the fact that I am not an Israelite. My daughter is sick. Can you help me?\u201d And Jesus says, \u201cNo longer do I call you a dog but you have a faith that exceeds all of Israel. I have come into the world just for this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us pray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n O God, mighty and loving, we are moved by your compassion for those who are desperate for Jesus. In our search for your help, we see how you look beyond our differences and invite everyone to receive your love and care. Teach us the way to faith and grant us the promise of eternal life. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mark 7:24-30; Read also Matthew 15:21-28 September 10, 2006 Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco. We never owned a dog or