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!

Psalm 98: Sing a New Song!

Hang on dear people ... I'm about to share a Psalm from a beautiful book called Rejoice, Beloved Woman!   "If a woman wrote the psalms, this is what they would sound like."  (excerpt from back cover)


Let's ... Sing a New Song!


Much has been written about gender-inclusive language.  Many translations and versions now include women in translating passages which were clearly intended to be addressed to all people in the original Greek language.  Perhaps this has invited people to open their minds a little ... fear not!


With a fresh reading of Psalm 98, perhaps you will be invited to open your mind a lot.  I invite you to open your mind and your heart to the God who refuses to be put in a box, whether it is a box in the form of an ark in the Ancient Near East or in the form of the narrow-mindedness of human beings, whether they be man or woman!


People often find it amusing that in "serious" bible study classes people laugh at the Israelite people who thought God resided IN that Ark of the Covenant but ... don't we keep God, the great I AM locked in an ark of our own making when we refuse to welcome the tapestry of images of God that are woven together in our bible and other spiritual writings, in the songs of faith, in the beauty of creation, and in the hearts of some of the most faithful people in the world.


While living in Canada, I was a member of a church that was committed to being inclusive by using gender-neutral language for God.  This is good.  My eyes and my heart were opened to God in exciting new ways.  However, I didn't actually weep all the way to my soul and my toes until God was referred to as "her" during our reading of the Affirmation of Faith in the midst of the worshiping community at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, California.  Something within my deepest truest self made a healing shift that Sunday night as my public image of God grew and I truly felt connected to God my Mother IN community!  Truth be told, my own dear Mother God had been coming to me in my prayers for some time but I had been too afraid to embrace Her ...


How are you feeling with all of this ... excited, fearful, elated, angry?  Where are you feeling your reaction in your body?  Is your "inside self" responding with "yes, yes, yes!" or "no, no, no!"   


Take a few moments and sit in the stillness of God's Presence with all of your feelings and just breath until you feel the peace of God envelope you.   Wherever you are, it is truly ok!  Remember ...


Wherever you are, God is!   Let's ... Sing a New Song!


Read Psalm 98 slowly and consider these images of God as you read.

Sing a new song to Shaddai, for She has done marvelous things.  

Her gentle hands and strong arms have shown her saving power.  

She has shown mercy and revealed her love to the loyal children.  

The ends of the earth know her ways.  

Make happy sounds to praise her.  

All the cosmos worships her with the song of its being.   

The melody of life rises to her hearing.  

The entire body of creation sways in worship of Shaddai. 

The seas rumble and the fish dance for her.  

Hills cover themselves in the softness of blossoms to praise her.  

Reeds sing their thin song and 

elephants trumpet the fullness of their being for her to hear.  

The waters of the seashore clap in praise of her works.  

Joy comes to all beings living in her.

Perhaps you can consider this prayer psalm for a few moments longer ... where is all of this taking me?   Where am I being drawn to God in the text?  Where do I seem to be resisting an invitation?   Where has my attention been captured by the words?


Read the Psalm again.  Is there a word or a phrase that shimmers up ... or perhaps shouts out to you?  Take that word or phrase and Reflect upon it.  What questions arise from this word or phrase to affirm you or to challenge you?   Is there a gift for you?   What are you receiving from your pondering the text?


Read the Psalm again.  Perhaps you will stay with your word or phrase and perhaps another word or phrase is calling you ... How do you Respond to what you are hearing from God?  Is there a prayer or refrain of gratitude that arises within you to offer to the world?  


Read the Psalm one last time and Rest.  Stay with your feelings, whatever they may be, for as long as you can.  Let the silence wrap you in comfort and peace ... until you are ready to move on


As you move on ... what "new song" are you singing?   


If this post/subject has stirred something within you, check out this Patheos.com article Giving Up a Too-Small God: How to let go of the God of whom you are certain and open yourself to the One who is beyond your imagining by Christine Valters Paintner


Shalom dear people!