God's Favorites
Sunday,
September 6, 2009
Rev. Janice Palm
James 2:1-10;
Mark 7:24-30
These past few weeks we have been witnesses to two more deaths in the generation of Kennedy family political giants. Both Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Ted Kennedy suffered tragic family and personal circumstances. But they took hold of/faced head on as best they could their personal tragedies; for them, the tragedies were transformed into their life's ambition. Eunice saw how her mentally ill sister was ostracized, made fun of, set apart; she knew how her parents and her siblings, too, tried to live with the disease. Ultimately, her sister suffered under the then developing practice of performing lobotomies. Eunice has been recognized for her instrumental work in developing the Special Olympics, and her lifelong work in valuing folks with disabilities. We have heard on the news of her efforts to reach out in this way. Not so many people know that Eunice Shriver also was involved in outreach in other ways. I just happened to do some of my early research in relation with some of the work of the Eunice Shriver Hospital located in a Boston suburb of Belmont . The hospital is noted for its small size the smallest in the US specializing in genetic disorders of children. These are children with disorders not yet understood; these are children who die as children. The Eunice Shriver Hospital is a beacon of hope for families with no hope. Eunice Shriver through this hospital, its care and its research, was reaching out across what might seem insurmountable barriers for families trying to cope with a severely ill child whose very life was at risk. This hospital provides curative hope perhaps not immediately realized in the young patients there but rather in coming generations.
Eunice's brother Ted suffered greatly from the tragedies of his three older brothers' lives being cut short through their killings. Ted seemed to flounder for some time trying to take hold of life. He lived life at its extremes without a rudder or direction; he made mistakes some of them deadly. He had three motivated, strong brothers to live up to. Ted speaks of how his father once said to him that you have a choice in how you live: you can have a life of fun or a life of serious endeavor. His father said, I will love you either way but I won't have as much time for you, if it's a life of mere fun. Perhaps it wasn't until his second marriage that he really recognized how his life would truly take shape and could grow in depth. Just as with his sister, we hear accolades of Ted's longtime ambition for health care for everyone. But health care wasn't the only item on his agenda. When there was a sense or situation of injustice, he stood for reaching out to the disadvantaged and righting the wrong. He stood for labor; he stood for civil rights. But even more, though he was a fierce fighter in the Senate, even so he was well-respected no matter the political party. He was someone who cared about folks. He was noted for remembering people in a compassionate way. He remembered/contacted Massachusetts families of folk who died in 9 11 and in battle.
I don't lift up Eunice or Ted as political folks but as those who were born into a gifted situation, they suffered, and their suffering became a mission for their living. They reached in ways they didn't need to, they went beyond their comfort zones.
That brings me to this week's scripture readings. Our gospel reading, at first, is hard to read especially given the introduction I just shared. Here in Mark we have Jesus saying to this woman's request, Let the children be fed first, for it's not right to take the children's bread and then throw it to the dogs. Jesus is saying Israel comes/my fellow Jews come first.
Many have tried to soft pedal what Jesus says giving rationalizing explanations to his derogatory denying statement. The latest that I have read is that the reference to bread being tossed away, was that the Jewish population raised food in what is considered the breadbasket of Israel . This is true even today. And too often, in that day, the Jews saw their food being transported to Caesarea, Tyre and Sidon - all Gentile cities along the Mediterranean coast at the expense of their own hunger. Today with the wall being built by Israel , many Palestinians have similar problem of access to jobs and to food.
But Jesus' statement remains. Here in Mark it is qualified unlike Matthew's version. Let the children be fed first. The children referred to here are the circumcised, the Jewish population. God's Favorites? Putting this phrase (Let the children be fed first) in here seems to indicate, once they are tended to then perhaps there will be further outreach. Matthew didn't even include such a possibility. But Mark says, first
, then the
.
Even so, Jesus' statement seems uncharacteristically biting.
This statement is not only about reaching out for healing or feeding, it is about to/for who is the good news. Jesus says here it is for the Jewish population first. Paul picks up on that in Romans (15:8-9); Paul's own mission to the Gentiles, in fact, is stymied at times for he says Christ has become a servant of the circumcised in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for mercy. And early on in Romans (1:16), Paul says To the Jew first and also to the Greek. It sounds like first and second class citizens.
I think rather than labeling Jesus by this statement alone, the point is that Jesus relinquished his stand. Rather than holding him to this statement, we look to how he faced a good argument presented to him. Perhaps in that alone there is a lesson for us how do we face a good argument when the other has made a good point? Do we answer criticism/truth-telling in such a gracious, immediate acting kind of way?
This petitioning woman has three strikes against her: she's inferior; she's an enemy, and her request may just involve evil. And yet this woman comes back at/stands up to Jesus saying, Even dogs eat at the same table as the children. Your argument is well taken, your daughter is healed. God's favorites are not just the Israelites alone.
The Jews, Jesus friends and neighbors, may have been the appropriate ones to start with as he began his ministry. The mission trajectory now is not only Israelites. Krister Stendahl, once Harvard School of Religion's Dean says, Christians in fact are honorary Jews. We are the second-class citizens of the mission field once only directed to Israel . We are Christians because the trajectory went beyond Israel . By changing his focus, Jesus' power is not diminished but expanded and is consistent with good news. The opened mission field says there are no boundaries to grace and hospitality, healing, and faith. There are no second class citizens to grace and hospitality, healing and faith. Eunice and Ted tried to live that out in many ways.
From this biblical exchange, the petitioning woman asks us perhaps, how do we act, how do we live accordingly? Do we remain inward focused so we relate to those who are like us or do we reach out to those who are different from ourselves? I speak not only as a church but as individuals also. Do we reach out in healing ways? Do we speak with those who are different from us? Do we pray with those who are different from us? Do we eat with those who are different from us? Do we give the best of ourselves, our gifts, to those other than our own family or is it the second best, second hand stuff, the leftovers that they get?
And if that woman's petitions aren't enough, the letter of James gets a little more particular. Actually, the letter of James gets downright personal, meddling in our lives. The reading speaks of ushers who would pay attention more closely to those who have power or riches, and ignore the ones who appear poor without any power. James calls this kind of favoritism is a sin. Oh, we protest, we welcome all, equally. But do we? Just how far does our hospitality extend? James is not speaking of our many programs that reach out to assist and help others., James isn't speaking of all the money we offer to many programs that help those who are disadvantaged in one way or another. James isn't even speaking of going after the root causes of poverty or injustices. Mind you all of those are important. And we do a lot of that. But what is being spoken of here I thin is more: it's mutuality, it's relationship. How do we offer the other, space in our worship place, in our homes, our hearts? We so often see the poor in spirit, the poor in money, the one who looks different from us, the one who lives across a border, the one who has an accent, the one who has another faith as foreign/DIFFERENT/and when aggression has taken place and the other is an enemy, we begin to believe that one is inhuman or at the least guilty before ever getting to know the other. We too often believe that we have the answer, a clear picture of the other, and are surprised that the other has an intellect or enjoys pastimes just as we do.
We often live as if we are God's favorites. But I wonder about those others. Are they not also?
Let me go at this in a different way. How do we dishonor the poor or those who are different from ourselves? It is hard to recognize often times when we're excluding; we can't see through the forest to the trees. I think of HSBC, the bank, who recently made an astounding change in its policy. When there was a dispute it required as most companies do, a written request for a review. Call after telephone call protesting this policy and oral requests for a review of one person's account produced little results. The come back was always, we need a written request. Finally the policy has been changed to adapt for folks who are blind and cannot possibly conform to such a requirement.
For us perhaps, we need to not so much think and talk about all the things we do for .. perhaps we need to think about the times we avoid so and so or a particular situation. We need to think about the times we would go around the block rather than bump into
. We need to think about the places where we wouldn't go. We need to think of who/what are we afraid to see? Perhaps it's just those places and those folks we treat as second class citizens. When, in fact they, too, are God's favorites.
I think James and the petitioning woman in the Gospel, too, are inviting us, imploring us to not set tables and eat by ourselves, or to sit with those with influence. But rather we are to fling our doors open and make another setting and be in community with the great diversity in which we live.
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