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Sermon - Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost (B) - 6th September 2009
St Alban's Anglican Church Epping 7, 8 & 10am
Readings: Mark 7:24-37
This is one of the stranger stories from Jesus life. Jesus is introduced as hiding from the crowds. And while hiding, he meets this Greek woman from Syrian Phoenicia -
in other words, a thorough-going pagan woman. She is a marginal figure in the New Testament world. She can make no great statement of faith. She is quite unaffected by whether Jesus will conquer the world or will die on a cross. She is a poor woman, unknown beyond the border of Tyre and Sidon.
Yet Jesus does something remarkable. He immediately obeys her request and answers her prayer. What has she done that the Son of God instantly answered her request? She had simply met him and stretched out her hand to him. We know what it is like to wrestle with faith. Some days are better than others. Sometimes we are filled with confidence and sometimes we don’t know what we can be sure of. Yet look at this woman’s faith. She too struggles with Jesus, as she argues for her daughter. We see it played out in this story. It may not have been as polite as Mark retells it. We can imagine screaming and gesticulation. Her need in laid before God. And then there is silence. There are dangerous pauses. There are moments when understanding breaks off, when crises arise, when it seems at any moment, as though one or the other, will get up and go. And then finally agreement is reached, and Jesus stands up, stretches out his hand and says, “For such a reply you may go, the demon has left your daughter.” Silence, rejection, pauses, acceptance – all have their place in this dialogue. This is one of the most amazing stories in the New Testament.
How is it that this woman comes to Jesus? We are simply told this woman came and fell at Jesus’ feet. Yet to arrive there she had to cross the frontier of another land. She had to enter a land where she knew she would be an outcast. Her coming involved great risk. No doubt she had heard of Jesus only by rumour. Perhaps the stories were wrong. She had to accept the risk that not only might she be disappointed but that she would suffer great criticism. But all faith begins this way. We must come to Jesus even at the risk of being disillusioned. If she had remained at home and never crossed that frontier, Jesus would still have been the Christ, but she would never have received his blessing and would have remained without hope.
So this is how she came to Jesus. But she was no match for him. She had to be buffeted by him before she received her help. What did she receive from her first plea – Nothing! The silence of God is the greatest test of our faith. We all know this. We know it as we look at the suffering of our world. Where is the voice of God when we see people starve? We know it when we consider our own suffering. There is neither voice nor answer. Why must we live torn between faith and doubt? Why doesn’t God make things clearer? If it were us, we wouldn’t keep silent. Does that make us more merciful? I don’t think so. The disciples can’t bear the silence of Jesus or see the distress of the woman. But this doesn’t make them more merciful. The woman senses this; otherwise she would have appealed to them for help. The woman turns to Jesus rather than to these men. The silence of God is to be measured by standards different from earthly ones. This Greek woman probes Jesus’ silence. So often we find that God doesn’t answer our prayers. But behind his silence are his higher thoughts. He is fitting stone to stone, in His plan for the world and our lives, even though we can see only a confused and meaningless jumble – suffering, injustice, death – and all under a silent heaven which seems to have nothing to say. The cross was God’s greatest silence. Then the power of darkness was allowed to make its final bid against the Son of God. And God had nothing to say. There was simply the cry of the dying son asking of the silence why God had forsaken him. The stars cried out, and God was silent.
But now we see the great mystery of the silence. The very hour when God was silent was the hour of the great turning point when the veil in the temple was torn and God’s heart was laid bare with all its wounds. Even when He was silent, God suffered with us. In his silence he experienced the fellowship of death and the depths with us. Even when we thought he didn’t care, or was dead, he knew all about us and from his silence, he did his work of love. We live in the power of this Golgotha night of silence. Where would we be without the Cross? Where would we be without the knowledge that God sends his son to us in the silent depths and valleys, that he is our brother in death.
The silence of God and of Jesus is not about indifference. The woman sees this. So she persists. But there follows another rebuff and a second test of faith. The silence is broken with the rebuke, “First, let the children eat all they want, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” What is Jesus saying? Simply that God’s plan of salvation begins in Israel. Only when this has been done will he extend his work. The turn of the Gentiles has not yet come. Jesus is not yet available to this woman. So what can this woman do? There is no where else to turn. Her response is that of Peter’s who cries, “Where can we go, you alone have the words of eternal life.”
Her faith is the simple belief that Jesus can help, and so she hungers and thirsts after him. It is the hungry and thirsty and sorrowful who are called blessed by Jesus. Those who have a hungry heart and a broken spirit are the favourites of God. There are two ways of dealing with this hunger and thirst. One way is to suppress it and smother it. The other is to take the risk of coming to Jesus like this woman. And we should take that risk. “We could not seek God, if He had not already found us.” If this woman is not reluctant it is because Jesus is not reluctant – in spite of his silence.
But now the conversation reaches its climax. How will the woman react to Jesus’ rejection. Will she emphasize her need? Will she appeal to her great faith? Will she speculate on the mercy of God? No. Something strange and unexpected happens. She says: “Yes, Lord.” This means that she accepts the justice of Jesus silence. She understands she has no claim on Jesus. This is a great insight. We cannot take God for granted. That Jesus died on the cross cannot be taken for granted. Its so easy to assume that God’s grace is thrown at us. There are those who conclude that forgiveness is God’s job. But the kingdom of God is not thrust on us. The grace of God can also be silent. We certainly can’t claim it. It is not the obligation of Jesus to bear my sin and to take me through the black gate of death. If He does this, it can’t be taken for granted.
All this is implied in this woman’s agreement. “Yes Lord.” This tormented woman understands that God’s grace may pass her by. But then she continues, “But even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Isn’t this a contradiction to her previous “Yes, Lord.” Isn’t this a lack of logic? But this lack of logic is the secret of prayer. We see it in the Lord’s prayer. We pray, “Your will be done,” But we still ask for our daily bread and many other things. We pray because we have confidence in a Jesus who will put things right. And she knows this. In fact, she is daring Jesus. Will he pass by a woman who knows his love and his mercy? Jesus can’t. This woman takes Jesus at his own words. He has declared his love for the hungry and thirsty and the spiritually poor. She has flung the sack of his promises at his feet and he can’t step over it. It is not her great faith that has triumphed. She has triumphed because she has taken Jesus at his word. She has caused the heart of God to prevail against the silence of God.
And we should apply this story to our own lives so that it will be true for us. We should wrestle with this Jesus, as this Greek woman did, even when he seems to be silent. We should not let him go until he blesses us. He has promised that he knows how to give good gifts. He has shown love to this poor Greek woman who had no promise of his generosity. Yet he claims to love like no one else can love. And so by faith we pray to him and hold him to his word.