Ecclesiastes 3 Eternity in the Human Heart

I invite you to spend a few moments to prepare your heart to receive the Word of God as you prayerfully consider this (off-lectionary) Scripture passage for this week.   Breathe deeply and with a simple breath prayer turn your attention to God of yesterday, today and tomorrow.   Use this one or create your own (six to eight syllables)

          Breathe in … Timeless God (pause)         
               Breathe out ...  give me beauty (pause)
           
Repeat your breath prayer until you are ready to move deeper into the text ...  Pray: Timeless God, you say there is a time for everything.  Everything changes but you are the same today as you were yesterday and you will be the same tomorrow.  And that is what gives us hope in our chaos.    Amen

Step 1: Lectio … Reading    
Read Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 (NLT) silently to yourself slowly and reverently.  
Listen for a word or phrase that catches your attention.  
Gently focus on that word or phrase.  
Repeat it several times.
Allow your word or phrase to be sifted through your heart and mind all the way to your soul.

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die.  
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
A time to kill and a time to heal.  
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to cry and a time to laugh.  
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. 
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
A time to search and a time to quit searching. 
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear and a time to mend.   
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate.  
A time for war and a time for peace.  
What do people really get for all their hard work?
I have seen the burden God has placed on us all.
Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. 
[God] has planted eternity in the human heart, 
but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work 
from beginning to end.

Step 2: Meditatio … Receiving
Read Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 (NLT) a second time ...
Continue to focus on your word or phrase.    
Be aware a different word or phrase may draw your attention on this reading
Pay attention to the thoughts and feelings your word or phrase evokes.
What images emerge in your imagination?    
What memories come to your mind?
Ask God to continue to speak to you through this word.    
Listen for God’s reply as you move through your day

Step 3: Oratio … Responding
Read Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 (NLT) a third time ...
Be aware a different word or phrase may draw your attention on this reading
Consider any desires that have been awakened by your prayerful reading.   
Perhaps you have found an area of your life that needs attention.   
Do not rush ... wait and listen as God forms your prayers and desires

Step 4: Contempatio … Resting
Allow yourself to rest in the silence.  
Allow your mind to settle into the silence.  
When you feel the time to move on,

Pray … Timeless God, I see the beauty you have created in all creation and in all people.  And I feel the burden.  Fill me with a sense of your timelessness as I surrender my agenda to you in this present moment.   Amen …

Cindy’s Meditation on Ecclesiastes 3:11b ...
[God] has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

Life is hard to live
when the future is unknown …
Yet the future is always
unknown … uncertain … unreachable
In the depths of my mind

I strive against the order of life
And fret over things I can never know
I hesitate for fear of becoming
Hemmed in and trapped
In a future not created for me

Always torn between what was
and what is to come
Always waiting
for the end of a moment
that closes one thought
And begins another
Always another thought
In the story of life
That goes on … and on … and on
Always changing
Never stopping

I can’t catch my breath
For the winds of change
continue to move
I can’t get my bearings
For I’m pulled into the vortex
of churning emotions …
I can’t find myself
Till my soul reaches out
And pulls me into
The dark of the deep

A Painting by Merilyn Hully © 2009

  

“Be still” she whispers
as I enter her spaces
sweet silence surrounds me
as her peace enters my chaos ... Amen.
© Cindy Serio 2007

I wrote this reflection in my journal after meditating on Ecclesiastes 3 at some point in the last year of my mother’s life.   That last year was not pretty.   It was one of the most chaotic times of my life and I felt like I just couldn’t catch my breath.  Have you ever felt that way?  That life was just moving by so fast that you couldn’t catch your breath.  Perhaps someone reading this may feel that right now.  You are in my prayers ...  

Anyway, my dad would call and he would say, “I think it’s the end … she’s not going to make it through the weekend.”  And I would drop everything and go.  It didn’t take me long to realize that whenever he got really tired … and it really was him that wouldn’t be able to make it, he would call.  He was simply incapable of saying, “I’m tired and I want you to come and help me.”   And toward the end, not pretty became pretty ugly.  I remember on an especially bad day, my sister and I stood outside her door and listened as she clung to my dad … she was crying, “those girls are trying to kill me.   You promised you would never leave me.  Please don’t leave me …”    My dad was the only one who could provide my mom comfort at the very end, to the point that, when they decided to remove all life support and she really was going to die, he didn’t call me until she was gone.   And so I went one last time to say good-bye for real … 

The morning after I arrived … I sat out on the patio looking upon the rock garden that my mother loved to tend, a little overgrown now and it was so still … the only sound was the breeze blowing through the massive trees on the land.  Suddenly two little birds came sailing through the air, chattering to one another and to me for just a moment in time.  My mom and my grandmother loved birds … As the little birds fluttered away … I was filled with a mixture of deep peace and pure joy.  For it was a sign not only of their love for me made complete … just as God had hovered over the waters of chaos calling this world into creation, God hovered and fluttered in MY chaos to call peace into my heart.  

Chaos … in ordinary use the word means confusion or disorder.  In biblical terms chaos actually means a chasm or an abyss so it can indicate some kind of separation from God … and I think sometimes we feel a separation when there really isn’t one. 

[God] has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, [we] cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.  Ecc 3:11b

I think sometimes we feel like we’re in chaos because we can’t see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end” and we find ourselves separated from God because we are not able to trust that God is holding eternity as we are being called to zipline into the abyss.  And we do not know that God is there to welcome us when we land on the next platform. 

As the people of God, we are a “called” people.

Just like Abraham ... Just like Esther ... Just like the Disciples.
And SO many others![God] has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, [we] cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.  Ecc 3:11b
One of the major components of the spiritual lives of Abraham, Esther, Mordecai, Jesus and the Disciples was their vibrant prayer life.   

• Abraham built altars to God, experienced God in dreams, interceded and negotiated with God on behalf of Sodom, 

• Esther and Mordecai fasted to give their prayers power, 

• Jesus spent long hours in the wilderness, on the mountains, and in the garden alone and with others in the quiet with God, and 

• the disciples healed with their prayers, spoke in tongues, had visions and sang their prayers in prison …

Communication with God is a huge component of the journey from chaos into confidence and that is … Recently the Barna Group conducted a religious study on prayer habits.   George Barna found the average time spent in daily prayer by individuals today is 5 minutes. He says "while many people sincerely desire to spend time with God, few actually do...”  

In his book, Prayer: The Heart's True Home, Richard Foster says that "the desire to pray is a prayer."   I agree with him.   I also believe that people often have such a narrow view of what prayer is that they can’t see that God is calling them to prayer in a different way, a way that will work for them.   If we are able to learn new ways of encountering, communicating and experiencing God, we will spend more time with God.    As we spend more time in prayer we will be able to hear God call … and follow God with confidence and joy!

Read the end of this Ecclesiastes passage as if addressed to us in community …
I know that there is nothing better for [us] than to be happy and enjoy [our]selves as long as [we] live; moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in life’s work.  I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken away from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before [God].

Dear friend, as we come together in awe before God,
I want to you to remember you are “called.” 
Are you going to go where God leads you?
If so, "Go in Peace!  Go in Joy!  And Go with God!  Amen!

Psalm 1 God of the Trees

The “Psalms” is the Prayer Book of the Hebrew People.  It is also a beautiful book of poetry.   The Psalms were meant to be read out loud and treasured in the heart of the people of God.  And so they have been.   Jesus loved the psalms, memorized and quoted them extensively to express himself and his relationship with God.  Even as Jesus hung, dying on the cross, he had the word of God on his lips.   
 
 

 
Psalm 1 is a wisdom psalm … 
the line you may remember is  
“Happy are those {whose} delight is in the law of the Lord…
they are like trees planted by streams of water.”
  



 

This week we read Psalm 1 in 4 different versions/paraphrases as pray and listen.   This week, read out loud the ancient words.   I invite you to spend a few moments preparing your heart for Lectio Divina (sacred reading of the biblical text) with a simple breath prayer.  Use this one or create your own (six to eight syllables) repeating the words as you breathe.   

          Breathe in ... Creating God (pause)

               Breath out ... give me wisdom (pause)

  and when you are ready to move deeper into the text ... Pray:

God of the Psalms, the beauty of your Word fills me with awe.  As I read each word, open my heart and allow me to pray with understanding and fill me with knowledge so that I might walk down the path you have chosen for me.  Amen.  
Read Psalm 1 aloud slowly from The Common English Bible (CEB) which is a "new" translation from 2011.  Simply let these words be proclaimed in the world and in your own heart.   
 

The truly happy person
    doesn’t follow wicked advice,
    doesn’t stand on the road of sinners,
    and doesn’t sit with the disrespectful.
Instead of doing those things,
    these persons love the Lord’s Instruction,
    and they recite God’s Instruction day and night!
They are like a tree replanted by streams of water,
    which bears fruit at just the right time
    and whose leaves don’t fade.
        Whatever they do succeeds.
That’s not true for the wicked!
    They are like dust that the wind blows away.
And that’s why the wicked will have no standing in the court of justice—
    neither will sinners
    in the assembly of the righteous.
The Lord is intimately acquainted
    with the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked is destroyed.  

Read Psalm 1 aloud slowly from The Good News Translation (GNT) first published in 1976 and Reflect on just a word or phrase …   Sit with your selection and listen to the whispers of God.   Repeat your word or phrase over and over in your mind.  Let the God of the Trees speak ... Listen with the ears of your heart!   

Happy are those
    who reject the advice of evil people,
    who do not follow the example of sinners
    or join those who have no use for God.
Instead, they find joy in obeying the Law of the Lord,
    and they study it day and night.
They are like trees that grow beside a stream,
    that bear fruit at the right time,
    and whose leaves do not dry up.
They succeed in everything they do.
But evil people are not like this at all;
    they are like straw that the wind blows away.
Sinners will be condemned by God
    and kept apart from God's own people.
The righteous are guided and protected by the Lord,
    but the evil are on the way to their doom.

Read Psalm 1 aloud slowly from The Message, a paraphrase by Eugene Peterson first written in 1993 and Respond to God.   Once again turn your attention to your word or phrase, knowing that you may be drawn to a different word on this reading.    As you contemplate your word or phrase or commandment, are you being called to respond, in word … prayer … action … or in some other way?   If so, how are you being called?

How well God must like you—
    you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon,
    you don’t slink along Dead-End Road,
    you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College.
Instead you thrill to God’s Word,
    you chew on Scripture day and night.
You’re a tree replanted in Eden,
    bearing fresh fruit every month,
Never dropping a leaf,
    always in blossom.
You’re not at all like the wicked,
    who are mere windblown dust—
Without defense in court,
    unfit company for innocent people.
God charts the road you take.
The road they take is Skid Row.

Read Psalm 1 aloud slowly from Rejoice, Beloved Woman: The Psalms Revisioned by Barbara J. Monda.  She says, "I have not translated the Psalms: I have rewritten them ... attempted to remain true to the theme of the psalmist" while offering "women the experience of having, among other things, God in her own image and words that portray a female way of being that embodies strength and nurturing." (p. 9)   My hope in this last movement of sacred reading is that you, whether you are a woman or a man, can Rest in this fresh personal recitation of Psalm 1.  

As you read, allow God to nurture you and draw you deeper into the relationship of love that God has with you. 

Happy are you who trust in the counsel of wise women.  They guide you to a right heart.
You will delight in their words and you will see wonder in all things that image them.
In both night and day, there is light that gives vision and there is light that blinds.
Be cautious of people who claim too much.  
They may be thieves eager to steal attention and feast on the unsuspecting who have eagerly revealed themselves.  
Filled, they go off and leave behind the empty shells of those too willing to be open, expecting more than an ordinary day offers.
The holy among you appear as any other.  Their counsel, however, comes from truth aligned to all there is; they exaggerate nothing.  
It is by the gift that the giver is known.  See what you have when a woman leaves your presence; are you empty or connected to goodness?  
A good woman tuned to herself speaks the truth and no more.  She believes God made her in her own image, with no regrets.  
Planted in the presence of these wise ones, you are like trees nourished by the fruit that falls on you and yet sheltered from a burning sun.  
Of their bounty you benefit, yet there is no cost to you in their giving.  A holy woman rooted in God creates harmony from noise.

As you rest, let all the words fade away ... until you are ready to take up your journal and write about your meditation.  When you are ready to move out of your meditation …

Pray:  God of the Trees, I want to be planted and rooted deeply at the edge of your Presence.  Let streams of living water and bountiful fruitfulness nourish my soul and fill me with life!  Amen.

Cindy's Reflection ... O God, you are the God of the Trees ... real trees and trees like me.  I am like a tree ... sometimes feeling my roots digging deeply, stretching down into the earth to drink of the living waters of the underground well.  Yet, sometimes feeling like my roots are shrinking and working their way to the surface.  O God, God of the Trees ... you are my Mother, you nurture my shrinking roots as I grow.  Bless me with living water today and I shall live long and tall alongside the mighty trees by the rivers and streams!  Amen. 

If you have time, take this Link to Youtube:  Psalm 1 Hebrew
In this video you can hear the reading of Psalm 1 in the Hebrew language accompanied by "Air on the G String" by Johann Sebastian Bach while an original painting by Ilan Mizrahi an Israeli artist scrolls through.  Perhaps, like me, you don’t know Hebrew but this is so beautifully read that I feel Psalm 1 deep in the soul … especially after having read Psalm 1 in several versions.

Wisdom Shouts in the Streets: Come and Listen!

"Wisdom" is the English equivalent of the Greek word Sophia, translated from the Hebrew word Hokhmah.   In Christian theology/mysticism "wisdom" often describes an aspect of the nature of God but many find the feminine image of God in Wisdom. In our passage this week, Wisdom is personified as a woman and we join her as she "shouts in the streets."  In an article entitled, "Wisdom Builds a Poem: The Architecture of Proverbs 1:20-33, Phyllis Trible says,

WISDOM is a woman of many talents. In the Book of Proverbs she appears first as a poet who preaches, counsels, teaches, and prophesies. Her podium is the public arena; there she speaks to all sorts and conditions of people.

Proverbs is located in the "Writings" or the Ketuvim (in the TaNaK) section of the Jewish bible. It is one of the major works along with Psalms, Job, Ecclesiastes and seven other minor works.  In the Writings we find a poetic ode to truth ... we find wisdom and we meet Wisdom!

I invite you to spend a few moments preparing your heart to become receptive to the Word of God through the eyes of the writer of Proverbs.  Breathe deeply and allow yourself to open your heart and your mind to God's Presence within you.  Breathe deeply and allow a breath prayer to arise from deep within you and repeat your prayer until you feel the peace of God wash over you.  Then you are ready to listen for the gentle whispers of God.  Use this prayer or create your own (six to eight syllables) 

          Breathe in ... Sweet Wisdom (pause)     Breath out ... Help me listen! (pause)

and when you are ready to move deeper into the text ... Pray:  Sweet Wisdom, Mother God ... I hear you shouting, I hear you calling to me.  Come and listen, come and listen.  My deepest desire is to hear your voice.  Speak to me and help me hear the words I need to hear.  Amen.   

Let us follow Guido II, a medieval Christian leader into prayerful reflection through Lectio Divina

Lectio ... Read Proverbs 1:20-33 aloud and simply savor the words as you read.  Read the text a second time notice what you notice.   Was there a word or phrase that shimmered as you read?  Say the word or phrase aloud several times focusing your attention.

Wisdom shouts in the streets.    She cries out in the public square.
She calls to the crowds along the main street,
    to those gathered in front of the city gate:
“How long, you simpletons,
    will you insist on being simpleminded?
How long will you mockers relish your mocking?
    How long will you fools hate knowledge?
Come and listen to my counsel.
I’ll share my heart with you
    and make you wise.

“I called you so often, but you wouldn’t come.
    I reached out to you, but you paid no attention.
You ignored my advice
    and rejected the correction I offered.
So I will laugh when you are in trouble!
    I will mock you when disaster overtakes you—
when calamity overtakes you like a storm,
    when disaster engulfs you like a cyclone,
    and anguish and distress overwhelm you.

“When they cry for help, I will not answer.
    Though they anxiously search for me, they will not find me.
For they hated knowledge
    and chose not to fear the Lord.
They rejected my advice
    and paid no attention when I corrected them.
Therefore, they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way,
    choking on their own schemes.
For simpletons turn away from me—to death.
    Fools are destroyed by their own complacency.
But all who listen to me will live in peace,
    untroubled by fear of harm.”

Meditatio ... Read the passage again and Reflect as you consider, "Where does my word/phrase touch my life?  What is God saying to me through this passage?"

Oratio ... Read the passage again and Respond as you consider, "Is there an invitation for me in this passage?  How do I want to respond to the call I sense from God?"

Contemplatio ... Simply Rest in the Silence of God's gentle Presence.  As you emerge from your silence perhaps you might consider this artwork by Hildegard of Bingen from around 1165

The work of art depicted in this image and the reproduction thereof are in the public domain worldwide. 
The reproduction is part of a collection of reproductions compiled by The Yorck Project. The compilation copyright is held by Zenodot Verlagsgesellschaft mbH and licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.

When you are ready to emerge from your time of Prayer and Relfection, perhaps you might use this poem by Vladimir Solovyev, from Three Meetings, 1875 as your closing prayer.  

What is, what was, what shall forever be -
All, all was held here in one steady gaze...
The seas and rivers blue beneath me,
Distant woods, snow-capped peaks.

I saw all, and all was one --
A single image of womanly beauty...
Pregnant with vastnesses!
Before me, in me -- only You.

Amen ...

Cindy's Meditation ... O Wisdom, you are my mother and my friend!  And how the memories come flooding back to me.  You waited for me as I played the simpleton and ate the fruit of living my own way.  How you must have laughed at me and grieved for me.  Any yet, you were waiting for me when I came home.  I have learned to listen for your voice and heed your presence ... I live in peace!

Jesus Journeys from Exclusion to Inclusion

In our lectionary readings for this week, we have two very powerful but very different stories of miraculous healing.  It is never just about miraculous healing in a kind of “I’m broken … quick … fix me!” way because if that is all there is we may never see the healing for the cure.   The essence of healing in the New Testament comes from the Greek root word … sozo … which is also the root word of wholeness and salvation.   When we come to these kinds of miraculous healing passages the key is to get beneath the quick fix miracle to find deeper healing in the sense of “wholeness” for beneath the quick fix we find the good news. 

In this passage the good news is that Jesus reaches across cultural boundaries to move from exclusion to inclusion.  The good news is that we can follow Jesus across those same cultural boundaries if we have the courage to do so.  We can move from exclusion, where we play the game of “who’s in” and “who’s out,” to inclusion, where there is a place at the table for everyone! 
 

How do we follow Jesus on the spiritual journey from exclusion to inclusion? 

Perhaps we might begin with a few moments to prepare our hearts to receive the Word of God as we prayerfully consider the Scripture passage for today.   Let us breathe deeply and settle into a sense of honest quandary ... who is "in?" and who is "out" in the context of our own lives.  These boundaries are not necessarily cultural for there are many, many boundaries that keep us boxed in, safe and secure in our own little worlds.  So ... how do we enlarge our world?  

As we breathe deeply, let us allow a "breath prayer" to emerge.  Use this one or create your own (six to eight syllables)

          Breathe in … Healing Jesus (pause)        Breath out … Heal me  (pause)

and when you are ready to move deeper into the text ...  

Pray: Jesus, are the great healer.  I praise you as I see your work in the world.  Heal me so I can reach out to others with the same healing grace I have received.    Amen … Amen … Amen

Step 1: Lectio … Reading    
Read Mark 7:24-37 from the Contemporary English Version silently to yourself twice, slowly and reverently.  Soak in and internalize what is happening in this passage.  Listen for a word or phrase that catches your attention.  Gently focus on that word or phrase.  Repeat it several times and allow it to be sifted through your heart and mind all the way to your soul.

Jesus left and went to the region near the city of Tyre, where he stayed in someone's home. He did not want people to know he was there, but they found out anyway.  A woman, whose daughter had an evil spirit in her, heard where Jesus was. And right away she came and knelt down at his feet.  The woman was Greek and had been born in the part of Syria known as Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to force the demon out of her daughter.  But Jesus said, "The children must first be fed! It isn't right to take away their food and feed it to dogs."
    The woman replied, "Lord, even dogs eat the crumbs that children drop from the table."
    Jesus answered, "That's true! You may go now. The demon has left your daughter." When the woman got back home, she found her child lying on the bed. The demon had gone.
     Jesus left the region around Tyre and went by way of Sidon toward Lake Galilee. He went through the land near the ten cities known as Decapolis. Some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk. They begged Jesus just to touch him.
    After Jesus had taken him aside from the crowd, he stuck his fingers in the man's ears. Then he spit and put it on the man's tongue. Jesus looked up toward heaven, and with a groan he said, "Effatha!" which means "Open up!" At once the man could hear and he had no more trouble talking clearly.
    Jesus told the people not to say anything about what he had done. But the more he told them, the more they talked about it. They were completely amazed and said, "Everything he does is good! He even heals people who cannot hear or talk."

Step 2: Meditatio … Receiving
Continue to focus on your word or phrase.    

Pay attention to the thoughts and feelings it evokes.
What images emerge in your imagination?    

What memories come to your mind?
Ask God to continue to challenge you through this word.    

Listen for God’s reply as you move through your day

Step 3: Oratio … Responding
Consider any desires that have been awakened.   

Perhaps you have found an area of your life that needs attention.   

Do not rush ... wait and listen as God forms your prayers and desires ...

Step 4: Contempatio … Resting
Allow yourself to rest in the silence.  

Allow your mind to settle into the silence.  

When you feel the time to move on, pray …

Dear Jesus, Healer of my Soul ... 

everything you do is good.  

Help me always to reach out to people 

who are "not like me" with love and healing grace. 

Amen.

Cindy’s Sermonic Meditation (from Sept 2009) 
Source:  The Power of the Gospel Explodes in Radical Inclusion

When we drop in on Jesus he is on vacation.  

Map by Wayne Blank, courtesy of "Daily Bible Study"

Tyre and Sidon are Mediterranean seacoast cities in Lebanon, located just north of Galilee. Both cities have been known from ancient times, when they served as the northern border area of the land of Canaan.  Link: Tyre & Sidon/DBS

Jesus has traveled away from his ministry and his people to a foreign land in Gentile territory.  A desperate mother interrupts Jesus’ vacation to ask for a healing favor.  She had a daughter with an evil spirit.  Imagine that person you love most in the world is suffering from severe mental illness.  Perhaps for someone reading this meditation, it isn’t just an imagining, it is a reality.  

Can you feel the deep feelings this mother must have had?  

Can you feel her heart-ache?  

At her wits end, she didn’t know what to do … 

Can you feel her desperation? 
 

One day the woman hears about a wandering Jewish Healer in the area of the border between her people and his people … but she is “not one of his people.” She knows his people, the Jewish people had strict rules in their community and that they keep to themselves.  

Can you feel her fear?   

But can you also feel her courage?  
What would you not do to save the person you love the most?
    

With all of her mixed up feelings, she approaches Jesus, kneels at his feet, and BEGS.  She BEGS him to free her daughter!  Jesus says, "The children must first be fed!  It isn't right to take away their food and feed it to dogs."

    I’m sorry … what??
    It isn’t “right?”
    What does that mean??  “no … not yet … maybe later … what??
 

This is Jesus we are talking about!
Jesus loves the little children …
“Let them come to me!” he says.
 

Well, that would be my reaction, but I’m obviously not as smart as this woman is.  I also don’t live in the 1st century as a Middle Eastern Gentile.    So I have to let go of some of my own North American cultural assumptions and understand that something that sounds uncharacteristically callous to me, the derogatory reference to Gentiles as dogs, was common at the time.  And it is not unlike some of the derogatory terms that you have heard people use in your lifetime … maybe even to refer to you or to someone you love.

It probably didn’t surprise the Syro-Phoenician woman that Jesus called her a dog.  That doesn’t make it right and my own experience doesn’t make it less shocking for me to hear Jesus speak those words.  It may be why this passage and this movement from exclusion to inclusion are so powerful for me.

One of the most powerful aspects of this passage is the sheer magnitude of the cultural boundaries that Jesus has to shatter in order to move from exclusion to inclusion.

1.    The first is stated in the text ... There is a Religious Boundary to cross. The woman is a Gentile, a pagan, and therefore not a part of the Jewish covenantal community

2.    There is also a Gender Boundary.  His confronter is a woman and violates both the purity and the honor-shame systems when she comes to talk to Jesus.  Daring to approach a strange man, even on behalf of her daughter would have been considered unacceptable.

3.    There may be a Socio-Economic Boundary. The woman is from the region of Tyre, which is a prosperous area and there are indications from the text that this woman may have been a woman of the upper classes which would have clashed with the poor Jewish settlers moving into the border lands.

4.     Finally, there is a Racial Boundary. The woman is a Syro-phoenician which means she was descended from the Canaanites with whom the Jewish people had a long and bloody history of conflict.

When confronted by these boundaries Jesus could have turned away.  The Jewish Community, his people, would have expected him to do so.  Instead, Jesus does something truly remarkable.  He listens …with an open mind and an open heart.  In the only words she speaks, the woman turns the words of Jesus around and responds with good common sense that Jesus must have loved: "Lord, even dogs eat the crumbs that children drop from the table."   (7:28)
 

The woman asks Jesus to see her and her daughter from a different point of view as she gives him a visual picture of dogs that wait under the tables of Gentile children to share their crumbs.   In the Jewish purity system, dogs are unclean animals.   In the Jewish culture, dogs are not welcome under the table.  As a result of the Jewish purity system, Gentiles were not welcome at the table. 

In order for Jesus to change his mind and set a table that was truly open to all, he had to cross cultural boundaries that he had lived within his entire life and ministry.  But it is really no different than the many times when he asked the Pharisees and the disciples and the people to see things from a different perspective.  When different people coming from different worlds interact with one another, there will always be cultural boundaries to cross and inevitable cultural misunderstandings and conflicts.  It isn’t easy and it isn’t quick but the deepest healing and the deepest growth is never easy and never quick.  This should not deter us!

When Jesus left the woman and the little girl cured, the deeper healing was his movement in and through Gentile territory … again Jesus did something quite remarkable … he touched a deaf man as he groaned "Effatha!" Open Up!  Not only was the man cured, the gospel exploded with radical inclusion!  The good news could not be contained at that time.  The good news cannot be contained in our time.  The real miracle may very well be that because of Jesus Christ, there is a place at the table for you and for me and for all people everywhere!