Proverbs 22:1-23, James 2:1-17, Mark 7:24-37

Isn't this a strange story that Mark has given us here? We are presented with a rather un-Jesus like Jesus who, at first glance, isn't shown in a vary favorable light.
Now, some folks have said that Jesus was testing this woman to see if her faith was strong enough to merit his healing her daughter. But this explanation doesn't sit right with me. I always am a bit skeptical about the need to make excuses for Jesus. And Mark, of the four gospel writers, shows us the most human side of Jesus, so it really doesn't surprise, nor offend me, if the story is exactly what it seems to be.
At first, Jesus doesn't want to heal this woman's daughter. He may be tired and a little feisty. He's far from home and probably a little travel-weary. And he may have had other reasons as well for being so short with her, especially given the cultural and religious climate of the time.

Jesus answers her as a 1st century Palestinian Jewish man – which was exactly who he was.
Part of his reaction might have come from all that ancient history that I talked about last week. This woman was Syro-Phoenician. That meant that she, and in all likelihood, her ancestors, came from the area that invaded and conquered the kingdom of Israel. She was from enemy territory. She was the enemy – one of the bad guys – or gals. As far as the Jews were concerned she really was a dog – and didn't deserve any crumbs at all.
And she was a Gentile. And Mark seems to indicate here that at this point in time Jesus understood his ministry to be for the Jews. He was the Messiah to the children of Israel, God's chosen children. And this foreign woman was not among the chosen.

And she was a woman – and an uppity woman at that. First of all she has the nerve to speak to a man, a stranger, without being spoken to first. Not good form at all back then.
Granted she does bow at his feet, but then she abruptly demands something of him. And when he refuses her request she has the unmitigated gall to argue with him and point out the errors of his ways.
She had heard about Jesus and his ability to heal. Her daughter was ill, she wanted Jesus to heal her, and she wasn't going to take no for an answer.
Mark is a wonderful writer of drama. His gospel is full of those moments when you think Jesus is going to do one thing, and he does another. Or Jesus is headed in one direction, and off he goes someplace else. And each one of these transition moments serves, in Mark, to define more clearly just who Jesus really is. This, I think, is one of those moments.

As Jesus is approached by this woman he is seen as the Jewish Messiah, to one whom God has sent to save the people of Israel. At the end he is identified as the one who has come for all people. In this turn of events Mark tells us that the people of God have been enlarged. It is no longer an exclusive, but is now an inclusive group.
Suddenly Jesus breaks all those human barriers – of politics, culture, social class, even religion. He is healer of all God's children. He brings as gifts of grace healing, wholeness, hope and new life to all who come to him in faith and trust. He is Savior and Lord of all.
In this transitional moment in the gospel of Mark, Jesus becomes the one who brings healing and hope to all of God's children – regardless. Just regardless. When he is questioned by this woman, Jesus suddenly sees the world and himself very differently.

He doesn't leave scattered crumbs for some, nothing for others, and a rich banquet for still others. Now, in Jesus' eyes we are all beloved children to whom he is ready to bring wholeness and new life. This Gentile woman's faith changes everything – not just for her and her daughter, but seemingly for Jesus as well. He is Messiah for the world.
And just as Jesus is confronted by the Syro-Phoenician woman, so we are confronted by Proverbs and James. What do these gifts from God, this healing, wholeness, hope, and new life really mean? How have we been changed – and what are we changed for? If we truly and faithfully accept his grace and claim Jesus as our Savior and Lord, if we proclaim that we are followers of Jesus, what are we called to do?

Proverbs and James both assert that if we truly are in a faithful relationship with God then we too are to live as people who break down those same barriers and reach out to others, without regard to all those divisions that we humans have set up to judge and divide one another.
“Faith without works is dead,” says James. If you say you believe in Jesus, but live your life in a way that contradicts what Jesus taught and lived, your faith is probably not very deep.
Remember how Jesus criticized the Pharisees last week for a faith that was all show and no substance? Here is the beginning of Mark's transformation, the ironic transformation, where Jesus moves from what is expected to something totally unanticipated. And it happens in a few verses in the context of two confrontations.
First Jesus confronts the Pharisees, the good religious people of his day, and rejects their faith because there is no evidence of true faith in their living.. Then Jesus was confronted by an outsider, a foreign Gentile woman, who didn't look so good.

It would make perfect sense to reject her. But it is in this outcast that her Jesus sees – faith that was lived and acted upon. And that's exactly what James is talking about. You might look good, but in your heart there is no faith.
From scripture this morning we are reminded in a variety of ways that real faith doesn't judge, doesn't discriminate, doesn't play favorites. Real faith is as open and grace-filled as Jesus is himself. And we respond to his wonderful divine gift by looking at the world with the same eyes as Jesus, and seeing in him the example for our living.
He doesn't begrudge anyone his love, but instead, gives himself totally for all of God's children. Just as Mark shows how the understanding of Jesus' life and who he is was transformed by this curious encounter, so in our encounter with Christ our lives and who we are and how we live are also transformed.

We no longer live as people who are defined by our politics, our culture, our station in life, by where we live, by what we do or how much we earn. And we live as people who no longer define others by human standards, but see them all equally as children of God.
I heard an interesting interview on the radio the other day with Mark Pinsky, who is the author of “The Gospel According to The Simpsons” and “The Gospel According to Disney”. It seems he's written a new book about his experience spending time – I think a year - as part of an evangelical Baptist congregation in suburban Orlando, Florida. The book is entitled “A Jew Among the Evangelicals.” You see, Pinsky is Jewish – and he describes himself as a left-leaning one at that.

Pinsky was surprised about the gracious reception he received from the people in this congregation and their willingness to accept differences and tolerate diversity. He admitted that they did try to evangelize and convert him, but he says that “it's in their spiritual DNA to proselytize.”
But what really amazed him was their indifference to what {Pinsky calls the “below the belt “ issues – things like abortion, homosexuality, and stem-cell research. Instead they showed strong support for measures to end poverty in this country and around the world, their great concern about global warming and other threats to the environment, and how outspoken they were against the many injustices in today's world.
What Pinsky was witnessing, I think, was a congregation that knew what faithful living was all about.

He was seeing people living in ways that are faithful to the teaching and example given to us in Jesus. You see, Jesus didn't spend much, if any time at all talking about the “below the belt” issues. Instead, he taught about how people ought to care for one another and for their world. He preached that in God's world the least deserving get the best. And Pinsky found this congregation lived lives where those very things were important. What do you think he's find in Colby, Kansas?
The message from our readings this morning – and from Jesus himself - is that it should not make any difference where you are on the political, religious or social spectrum.

As followers of Jesus Christ, as people who know well God's redeeming grace,we are all to do all that we can to bring healing, wholeness, hope and love wherever it is needed, to whomever is in need.
Living faithfully means living lives that are transformed by the grace of Christ in ways that show and share his transforming love. In the words of James we are to be more than hearers of the word, we are to be doers of the word, because faith without works is dead.
The Christian faith is more than navel gazing and counting our blessings. It is more than offering verbal platitudes and empty expressions of care. It is sharing of ourselves in gratitude, in love, and in faith. As God has loved us in Jesus Christ, so too are we to love.