Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
Psalm 125
James 2:1-10, (11-13,) 14-18
Mark 7:24-37
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
A dictionary contains a lot of interesting information about words: syllabification, pronunciation, history, lots of stuff. In a list of definitions, the most common use is always listed first. The word “outrageous” has several definitions. According to my dictionary, the most common definition of outrageous is: “involving gross injury or wrong.” The second is: “grossly offensive to the sense of right or decency.” Next is “passing reasonable bounds; intolerable or shocking.” Forth is “violent in action or temper.” The final definition of outrageous is: “highly unusual or unconventional; extravagant; remarkable.”[1] There is a lot of outrageous stuff happening in this reading from Mark’s gospel.
By which definition is this stuff outrageous? Let’s find out.
Our reading begins as Jesus travels north to Tyre where he finds a place to lay his head for the night. Since we are talking about Jesus here, as soon as he reaches the city limits, the word of his presence spreads like wildfire. According to Mark’s gospel though, it seems that only one person is willing to approach Jesus’ refuge, a woman of Syrophoenician origin. Seeing a gentile of Syrophoenician origin isn’t so outrageous; Jesus is in Syria! Finding a gentile in Syria is as outrageous as breathing air. But what is outrageous is that a gentile woman, all alone, would be seeking the Rabbi. A gentile seeking out a Rabbi—that’s outrageous. This fits into the “highly unusual” definition of outrageous. Jesus has made no pretense that his ministry is to the nation of Israel and the twelve tribes. So a gentile seeking the master is highly unusual in Mark’s gospel.
Try this one: a Rabbi having contact with a woman who is not his wife—that’s outrageous. This finds its way into the “outside of the realm of decency” definition of outrageous. A woman, by herself, regardless of their marital status, did not approach men. Period! And approaching a Rabbi is playing the trump card on this little slice of outrage, it simply is not done. So the question becomes whose outrage is this? To whom does this outrage belong? The answer, the only conclusion I can come to, is that they both share this outrage. Oh, yes, the woman initiates the outrage by approaching Jesus, but Jesus responds to her; sharing the outrageous behavior.
Well, in for a penny, in for a pound. The woman begs Jesus to cast a demon out of her daughter. Not so bad, Jesus has cast demons out of people before. Shoot, in the fifth chapter of Mark, Jesus casts a legion of evil spirits from the Gerasene Demoniac, what’s one more? Nothing additionally outrageous here.
But Jesus 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.” Wow! That’s outrageous! We’re back at the “outside of the realm of decency” definition of outrageous. As a church, as a people, Christians have been reading this for nearly two thousand years. We know how it ends, so we may be tempted to gloss over the outrageousness of this answer. But Jesus is way off the deep end here. Is he tired and cranky? Perhaps, but my mother would say that’s no excuse. Is he trying to better define the scope of his ministry to this woman and all who have ears? Maybe, but who can hear Jesus’ intent over the words he said? Is he comparing the relative worth of the Israelites, the children of God with the gentiles, the mongrel dogs who wait under the table? This would be culturally accurate—and he does it without any tact what’s so ever. In this exchange, it seems that Jesus is terribly over-focused on his mission and on her status (or lack of status) in that mission.
So she answers him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Wow. This is outrageous. She took his example and twisted it around on him. This is how Rabbis argue with each other. The words of the Lord were twisted back on him, and it was done by a woman. In tennis, this is called serve and volley. In boxing—it’s called a counterpunch. That’s outrageous!
She had nothing to lose. If Jesus says go away again, she loses nothing, but if he says yes, she gains everything.
The exchange ends when Jesus says, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” Does Jesus heal the girl because of her mother’s faith? Really he does not. The woman goes to Jesus because she has faith, but this has nothing to do with Jesus’ response.
He does it because he has been bested. Jesus is bested in a verbal joust. This fits either into the third definition of outrageous, “shocking,” or the fifth, “unusual.” The only other time I can think of God being bested in a verbal tête-à-tête is in Exodus when Moses begs the Lord not to kill the nation of Israel and start over again. Moses’ winning argument: How would that look to the Egyptians? Getting the better of God in a verbal sparring match is both shocking and highly unusual. A gentile woman accomplishing this again trumps Moses’ example. Out-rageous.
What we believe, what we testify is outrageous. We believe that Jesus is the Son of God. We believe that a family relationship exists between this man of Galilee and the unseen, all knowing, all powerful, Lord God. And we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the one set aside since before time even existed. Outrageous.
We believe that Jesus, God in the flesh, was crucified, dead, and buried. We believe God suffered on a tree, died, and was put in hole in the earth. We don’t believe Jesus just fell asleep or that God miraculously put Jesus into some sort of “Star Trek” stasis field. We believe God died. Outrageous. God died.
We know nothing stronger than death. Death is the siren’s song that one day, like Jesus, we will all hear. But Jesus shatters death and takes its power. We believe not only that he died, but that he rose from the dead. Body and soul, Jesus breaks the grip of death on us all. Humanity had never heard of such a thing. Outrageous.
We believe that some time after our deaths, after the “ashes to ashes—dust to dust,” we too will be resurrected and share in the eternal life of Christ. So not only do we believe in the resurrection of the Son of God, we believe in the same resurrection for ourselves. Outrageous.
We believe in another person of God, God the Holy Spirit. We believe that these three persons are God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all distinct, and all one. We believe that this is not believing in more than one God, instead we believe this is what scripture says about how God shows himself in the world. Outrageous.
We believe sins are forgiven. Now that’s a tough one. We believe all of the wrongs we have committed against God and one another are miraculously forgiven, taken away by this same one who suffered and died on our behalf.
Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks expresses the tension of forgiving and forgetting in the hit song “Not Ready to Make Nice.” She sings, “Forgive, sounds good./Forget, I'm not sure I could.”[2] Even if Natalie is unable to forgive (and after death threats and the American Red Cross’ refusal of a one million dollar donation from the Chicks,[3] do you blame her), our Lord forgives us, without strings attached. This forgiveness is an outrageous lesson all of us are called to practice.
Now forgetting, that’s another matter. Whether God forgets or not matters, because when forgiven, sin is taken away. Sin happens, but it is cleansed. When forgotten, it is excused like it wasn’t our doing, not our fault. And surely, sin is our doing. Sin must not be forgotten, but it must be forgiven.[4] That rubs our wisdom the wrong way. Outrageous.
That’s a lot of outrageous stuff to believe in one fell swoop…and these statements come from the Apostles’ Creed, one of the benchmark confessions of the faith. We as Christians have believed these things since 381 AD and I don’t see it changing any time soon. Thanks be to God!
We read in Mark’s gospel, after Jesus expels the demon from the little girl, he goes to the Decapolis region, the Ten Cities, another pagan, gentile territory. The last time he was here he was politely, in no uncertain terms, asked to go away because he had just rushed a herd of swine down a steep bank and into the sea. While the Jews had nothing to do with pigs, the gentiles loved a good BLT. Jesus was not a popular figure after sending the livelihood of probably several families into the wake of the sea. Yet Jesus returns to the Decapolis. Jesus answers prayer when he heals a deaf mute. Once rushed out of town, now welcomed—again, outrageous.
And this time he heals with wild, even grotesque kinds of actions. Jesus goes from creating healing like God—with a simple word—and becomes like a baseball player—spitting and touching and looking to the heavens. Outrageous.
Both healings in today’s readings are done not at the request of the injured persons, but by someone else. Generous, and outrageous.
We are mindful to learn from these outrageous things, these acts and sayings.
First, we must never put God in a box, trying to contain our Lord. We must not say God works only one way or with only one people. Yes, Jesus was sent for the nation of Israel, but he has come to redeem all of us. We see this in Mark’s gospel. There is no longer rich or poor in the kingdom of God—we are all rich in the life of God. As James teaches, we are called to show favor to all God’s creatures, not just the honored ones.
We are called to act. We are to kneel at the feet of our friends, and we are called to wash one another’s feet as the first disciples were called to do. We are to serve one another as we are to serve the Lord our God, and as the Lord our God serves us. We are to forgive, but we must never forget.
We are called to go into the world, even into places we are not particularly comfortable. Like Jesus going into the gentile lands, we are called to go into the wilderness and serve one another. We are called to a living faith, not one that fades away as soon as we leave the doors of this sanctuary. We are called to take this faith and use it for the good of all God’s creation. James reminds us that faith without works is dead, and ours is a living faith. Yet, we must be reminded that James does not teach that our righteousness comes from our works. That would be outrageous.
Outrageous, outrageous…this is incidental, but it makes a point, please indulge me.
Five years ago tomorrow, I was sitting in class, Introduction to the Old Testament. We were learning the Hebrew alphabet. After we got out of class, everyone who hadn’t been in a class had a look of shock on their faces. I went into the financial aid office. The Financial Aid Officer, Glenna was her name, had the radio on, she was listening to the news broadcasts of the 9/11 tragedy. I stayed and listened for a few minutes. I imagined this is how people felt listening to the original broadcast of “The War of the Worlds” in 1938, except this time, it was real. I rushed home. Marie was on the edge of her seat as she caught me up on the details. We, like most of the rest of the nation, were glued to the television. What we saw was outrageous, by the forth definition: violent in action or temper.
The next day, I walked into my History of Christianity class at 8:00 AM. The professor, the Reverend Doctor Ellen Babinski, said to us, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a choice. We can either choose to watch the news or we can do something. You have chosen to do something—you have chosen, you have been chosen, to serve the church and the world. Let’s get to work.”
Our faith, our call, our vocation is outrageous. We are called to a God who works like no human being ever could. Yet our God walked the earth like every other human being does. We are called to believe wild and unusual things, some that offend our sensibilities—and the sensibilities of the world around us. And I say so let it be. Let us be outrageous together, as the church of the one holy God who lives in three persons. As Rev. Babinski said, let’s get to work. Let’s be outrageous in the name of the Lord.
[1] "outrageous." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1). Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. 09 Sep. 2006.
[2] Dixie Chicks, “Not Ready to Make Nice,” Taking the Long Way CD.
[3] http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14728090.htm, accessed September 10, 2006.
[4] Paraphrased from C. S. Lewis, “On Forgiveness,” in The Weight of Glory.
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