FINDINGS II
Proper
18- B - September 6, 2009
Mark 7: 24-37
(Isaiah
35: 4-7a; Psalm 146; James 2: 1-17)
By Harry T. Cook 8/31/09
RUBRIC
This Marcan passage will separate the proverbial "men" from
the "boys" in any homiletic contest. The boys of both genders will content
themselves with the sensationalistic aspect of the story, i.e., that Jesus
"makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak." Voil�! Jesus, the miracle
worker. End of sermon.
The more mature homilist will see two angles: 1) that any
one of any cultural or ethnic identity has a legitimate claim on available
resources or 2) that anyone who can make those deaf to human need actually hear
and respond to it, who can make those cowed into silence by power, stand up and
speak truth to it - that such a one is eminently worth following.
WORKSHOP
Mark depicts what is truly a remarkable encounter between
Jesus the Galilean and a Syro-Phoenician woman, by whose effrontery and
persistence Jesus is essentially undone. Speaking, as we were in Rubric above,
of gender, it is necessary in getting Mark's point to note that Jesus the male
Jew is bested by a Gentile woman. This is Mark in his iconoclastic mode,
dismantling another traditional barrier erected between people of different
groups. The text suggests that Jesus wasn't looking for trouble, that, in fact,
in Mark's imagination he was trying to stay out of sight (v. 24). But trouble
found him in the person of the Syro-Phoenician woman who was not about to take
"No" for an answer. The words Mark puts on Jesus' lips in this scene are almost
scandalous as he fends her and her request for help with her mentally ill
child: "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs."
In other words, true believers get the resources; infidels get what's left (as
she is depicted as saying herself): "Even the dogs under the table eat the
children's crumbs."
Mark's Jesus -- set up by Mark for his fall -- gives in with
no evident embarrassment, pays attention and is credited with a remote-control
healing of the little girl. This all took place, as we might gather by the clue
in v. 31 in the area of the northwest coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon, whence
perhaps the Syro-Phoenician woman in the first place. Just for the record, from
Tyre to the closest boundary of the Decapolis (Ten Cities region) would be no
less than 50 miles through some pretty rugged territory through which Mark
implies Jesus went on his way to the next thing.
In the space of one verse Mark places Jesus in that
Decapolitan area where is brought before him a man who was "kōphos," i.e., with
impaired hearing, and "mogialalos," with a serious speech impediment. The
request is that Jesus should do something to remove both impediments. Why, we
do not know, Mark depicts Jesus taking the kōphos and mogialalos one aside and
in private. There takes place a scene strange to modern eyes entailing the use
of spittle in some way not made clear. The use of spittle in the healing arts
in antiquity is mentioned by Tacitus. To those who believe they eat Jesus'
flesh and drink his blood as part of a church ritual, the application of his
spittle might not seem out of line.
One question to ask is why Mark has Jesus do whatever he
did, as it were, off-stage. It could be because for Mark the incident was as
much of a distraction as it evidently was for Jesus who seemed to be trying to
move on. Forward motion is a fundamental motif in Mark.
Perhaps the bigger issue is what the effect of the
hearing-and-speech impaired man's new self might have been. No society gives
much respect to impaired persons. Such people are not only shunned but often
made fun of. The man must have been obvious in his redeemed estate, and perhaps
we are to understand that he was admitted into a society from which his
affliction has probably excluded him. Another barrier removed.
And that, of course, would be the greater and enduring
difficulty. Mark's Jesus especially is depicted as teaching and thereby
effecting the redemption of the outcast, including, one supposes, those
economically and socially marginalized. Few societies in human history have
readily accepted such egalitarianism. They have, in fact, fought it. A
political reading, such as Ched Myers brings to Mark, makes clear that the
freedom Jesus is depicted by Mark as bringing to people at the margins no doubt
contributed to his fatal run-in with the establishment.
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY
The homilist may want to consider one of two tacks on this
passage: the first having to do with the inability of the poor and otherwise
socially and politically marginalized to be heard in the corridors of power --
people over whom multi-national corporations and financial interests run
unheeding of the great damage their rush for profit and share value leaves in
their paths.
More specifically at this juncture in American life, the
Syro-Phoenician woman may be compared to an advocate for children's health and
well-being -- especially those who have no health care insurance. Such
advocates must be persistent, cross social and other barriers and speak up to
power. The man with impaired speech and hearing can be compared to politicians
who could, if they would, do something about the grossly unfair delivery of
health care in the United States of America. They have to have their ears
unstopped and their tongues loosened. They have to be goaded into separating
themselves from a financial power structure that rations health care delivery
favoring those able to pay or who have generous insurers to pay for them.
If religious communities, so-called, cannot or will not be
stopped in their tracks by the persistent advocates for the poor and become one
of them, they are not paying the rent. If religious communities could stop
their mumbling and stuttering about such mindless matters as whether gay and
lesbian persons are fully human and open their ears to the cries of the poor
and disadvantaged, they will have taken the first step. The second step is to
open their mouths and speak clearly and authoritatively to the kind of power
that can make the difference.
I shall go so far as to say that religious communities in
general will share the blame if the effort to bring justice to the delivery of
health care is not accomplished within the next 12 months. The political and
economic resistance to such a dispensation is one of those barriers Mark's
Jesus would aggress against. So should we.
In this regard, take note, please, of the Isaiah reading
appointed to go with this gospel in which we hear the admonition not to be "of
a fearful heart. Be strong, do not fear . . . then the eyes of the blind shall
be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped . . ."
The several readings appointed from the Epistle of James fit
Isaiah and Mark like hand in glove: "You have dishonored the poor. Is it not
the rich who oppress you?" And "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if
you say you have faith but do not have works?" Answer: no good.
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READERS WRITE
George Williams, Gainesville, FL: You say, "the issue is how the institutions and
traditions of the same serve them, rather than the other way around. The issue
is how do we keep what is meant to serve us from becoming our
master." What an important thought! This brings to mind the argument
in the health care debate about the public option. It is argued
that this proposal should be discarded because private
companies would not be able to compete with a government plan. This prompts the
question, should we serve private health care institutions even if they
cannot deliver competitive care?
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