Proper 18; Pentecost 17
Preaching
Preaching Mark's Gospel
A Narrative Approach
Both of the Markan stories appointed for this week take place in the land of the Gentiles. We have pointed out this Gentile ministry of Jesus in earlier chapters. His Gentile ministry will come to a climax in chapter 8 with the feeding of the Gentile multitude. Today's story of the healing of the daughter of a Syrophoenician woman is an incredible symbol of the breaking down of false barriers for the sake of mission. Jesus breaks all kinds of barriers in this story. He breaks down geographical barriers by moving into Gentile lands. He breaks down ethnic barriers in his dealings with a Greek woman. He breaks down sexual barriers as well. It was a radical thing for Jesus to encounter a woman the way he does in this story. The heavens have been opened and God is loose in the world in Jesus Christ breaking down all kinds of barriers!
The Syrophoenician woman is desperate. Like other desperate people in Mark's story she throws herself at Jesus' feet. She comes on behalf of her daughter who is possessed by a demon. Jesus' answer to the woman is one of the most shocking words ever to come forth from his mouth. "Let the children be fed first," Jesus says to the woman, "for it is not fair to take the children's food and give it to the dogs" (Mark 7:27). Biblical commentators have tried to find any way possible around the harshness of these words. But the words stand. Jesus clearly sees his ministry as a ministry to the children (people of Israel) first and only later to the dogs (Gentiles). Saint Paul says the same thing about his ministry. The gospel, he writes, "ƒ is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Romans 1:16).
The woman is not put off by Jesus' rebuke. She comes right back at him. "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs" (Mark 7:28). It is almost as if this foreign woman is giving Jesus a theology lesson! This is certainly the most striking feature of this story. A Gentile woman teaches Jesus. If nothing else this story should remove from us any form of missional arrogance. People whom we encounter with the gospel may also have things to teach us! They are not necessarily strangers to God after all. As Paul said of the Gentiles, "They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts ƒ" (Romans 2:15).
Finally, this woman is revealed to us as a woman of faith. Because of her faith (!), Jesus announces that the demon has left her daughter! This unnamed woman is good soil for the seed of the Gospel. That seed has sprung up within her and produced thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold.
The Syrophoenician woman is one of the "little people" in Mark's Gospel who are presented to us as people of faith. These "little people" in Mark's story have "ƒ consistent traits which they share in common: a childlike, often persistent, faith; a disregard for personal status and power; and a capacity for sacrificial service ƒ they are the 'little ones who have faith.' " 1
While still in the land of the Gentiles, "they brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him" (Mark 7:32). The Syrophoenician woman brought her daughter to Jesus. Some unnamed persons bring a man with a speech impediment to Jesus. There are other instances in Mark's Gospel where unidentified persons bring someone to Jesus to be cured. (See for example Mark 2:1-12 and 8:22-26.) "The stories demonstrate the results of faith, though it is not the faith of the sick that is the focus of attention."2
Mark is teaching us something here about the communal nature of faith. We normally talk about the faith of individuals. The Bible wants us also to be cognizant of the communal nature of faith. The practice of infant baptism clearly underscores the communal nature of faith. One premise of the practice of baptizing infants is the assumption that this child is reborn through the prayers and faith of the community. This is a hard word for us to hear at times in our world which is so individualistic in nature. The Bible challenges our individualism in general, and any purely individualistic notion of "faith" in particular!
In both of these stories Jesus heals with the power of the word. "The demon has left your daughter!" says Jesus, and it is so! (Mark 7:29). " 'Ephphatha ƒ Be opened,' Jesus said, "and immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released and he spoke plainly" (Mark 7:34-35). These are proclamatory words of Jesus. You may wish to consider structuring your sermon on these stories in such a way that the congregation hears Jesus' words of proclamation and healing as words spoken to them!
The stories end in astonishment. "They were astounded beyond measure, saying, 'He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak' " (Mark 7:37). This verse reminds us of Mark 2:12: "ƒ they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, 'We have never seen anything like this!' " The stories in Mark 8 are variations on a theme. Jesus comes bringing the kingdom near. One of the human realities that occurs in light of the kingdom's proximity is that human lives are restored to wholeness. These stories of wholeness demonstrate the reality that some soil is good soil which produces thirty, sixty and a hundredfold.
Homiletical Directions
The first preaching possibility we will look at with reference to these stories is a sermon that focuses on Mark's unnamed women of faith. They are quite something special „ special in a world that thought them to be so non-special that they are not even named! Tell first the story of the unnamed woman in Mark 5:24b-34. This is the woman with a flow of blood that lasted for twelve years. She was desperate. But she knew something special. She believed that all she had to do was touch the hem of Jesus' garment and she would be healed. She touched! "Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease" (Mark 5:30).
We have looked at this woman's story before. It is part of that great "good soil" chapter: Mark 5. She is one of the first "good soil" people we hear about in the Gospel. She is an unnamed woman with unusual insight into the ministry of Jesus.
Story Two would be the story of the Syrophoenician woman. She, too, is unnamed. She has grasped the nature of Jesus' ministry so well that she proceeds to teach him that he ought to be reaching out to the Gentiles. This aspect of the story is simply incredible. An unnamed woman teaches Jesus!
Story Three could be that of the unnamed woman in Mark 14:3-9. Like the Syrophoenician woman, she has special insight, it seems, into the nature of Jesus' ministry. This story, each of these unnamed-women stories, stands in such clear contrast to the disciples who never understand anything!
When we come to Mark 8 we will begin to deal with the clearest stories of disciples who don't get it. Jesus will tell them three times that he must go to Jerusalem to suffer many things, be rejected, killed and raised to new life (Mark 8:31; 9:30-32; 10:32-34). Jesus reveals to his disciples the world of suffering that awaits his ministry. He calls upon them to take up their cross and follow him into suffering (Mark 8:34-38). But the disciples never get the point! They keep seeing "glory" as their destiny (Mark 9:34; 10:35-37. We will take up this series of passages in more detail in subsequent chapters).
Returning to the story in Mark 14 we understand that Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem to die. The disciples don't get it. An unnamed woman, however, does get it! She breaks open an alabaster jar of ointment and pours it over Jesus' head. People are indignant with this woman. Jesus steps in to rescue the woman and to say of her deed: "ƒ she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her" (Mark 14:8-9). This unnamed woman has grasped the nature of Jesus' journey to the cross. She has anointed him for burial. She is most certainly a good-soil woman, a woman of great faith!
The irony of her story, of course, is that the story that will be told in remembrance of her is a story that does not remember her name! She is simply one of the "little people" in Mark's Gospel who evidence great faith. The unnamed status of women will end with the coming of the Christian community. In Baptism women are named! Christian Baptism is the only initiation rite in all of the world's religions that is the same for men and women! Women shall be no more unnamed among us.
Having told these three stories of unnamed women of great faith and insight, we might speak of the reality among us today that we don't always know who the good-soil people are. We don't know how the Gospel seed is taking root in people. Therefore, in the Christian community, we must treat all people with dignity. We honor all people in our community by using their name. There are "little people" of faith among us today. (Note Mark 9:33-37 on treatment of children!) Jesus calls upon us to listen to the "little people." The way of life in the Christian community (listening to the little people) is about as far removed from life in our secular world as it can be.
A second possibility for story telling this week is to focus our attention on the communal aspect of faith. A Syrophoenician woman brings a daughter to Jesus, and he heals the daughter in light of the woman's faith. In Mark 7:31-37 friends bring a man who is deaf and has a speech impediment to Jesus. Jesus heals the man in the light of the faith of the man's community! This is Story One. Story Two can tell again, from this communal faith perspective, the story of the paralytic (Mark 2:1-12). Verse 5 of this story says specifically: "When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic ƒ ." A third story of this nature is told in Mark 8:22-26. Here people bring a man with a speech impediment to Jesus begging Jesus to touch him and heal him. Jesus responds to their faith and heals the man.
These stories reveal to us that faith has a communal nature. This does not mean that faith has no individual nature. We are faced with one of many biblical paradoxes here. Both realities are true. One might emphasize at the conclusion of these stories that we need to be aware of both aspects of faith. The church gathered is a community of faithful people. When our individual faith is strong we need to be part of the gathered community to lend strength to others. (There are times when we might feel like we, individually, don't need to go to church. The community of people gathered, however, needs us most of all when we are strong.) On the other hand, when our individual faith is weak, we turn to the faith of the community to support us. Such is the nature of life in the community of the faithful.
Some comments about the way both communal faith and individual faith are present in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism might also be touched upon at this point in the sermon.
____________
1. David Rhoads and Donald Michie, Mark As Story (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982), p. 130.
2. Donald H. Juel, Mark (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1990), p. 109.
The Syrophoenician woman is desperate. Like other desperate people in Mark's story she throws herself at Jesus' feet. She comes on behalf of her daughter who is possessed by a demon. Jesus' answer to the woman is one of the most shocking words ever to come forth from his mouth. "Let the children be fed first," Jesus says to the woman, "for it is not fair to take the children's food and give it to the dogs" (Mark 7:27). Biblical commentators have tried to find any way possible around the harshness of these words. But the words stand. Jesus clearly sees his ministry as a ministry to the children (people of Israel) first and only later to the dogs (Gentiles). Saint Paul says the same thing about his ministry. The gospel, he writes, "ƒ is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Romans 1:16).
The woman is not put off by Jesus' rebuke. She comes right back at him. "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs" (Mark 7:28). It is almost as if this foreign woman is giving Jesus a theology lesson! This is certainly the most striking feature of this story. A Gentile woman teaches Jesus. If nothing else this story should remove from us any form of missional arrogance. People whom we encounter with the gospel may also have things to teach us! They are not necessarily strangers to God after all. As Paul said of the Gentiles, "They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts ƒ" (Romans 2:15).
Finally, this woman is revealed to us as a woman of faith. Because of her faith (!), Jesus announces that the demon has left her daughter! This unnamed woman is good soil for the seed of the Gospel. That seed has sprung up within her and produced thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold.
The Syrophoenician woman is one of the "little people" in Mark's Gospel who are presented to us as people of faith. These "little people" in Mark's story have "ƒ consistent traits which they share in common: a childlike, often persistent, faith; a disregard for personal status and power; and a capacity for sacrificial service ƒ they are the 'little ones who have faith.' " 1
While still in the land of the Gentiles, "they brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him" (Mark 7:32). The Syrophoenician woman brought her daughter to Jesus. Some unnamed persons bring a man with a speech impediment to Jesus. There are other instances in Mark's Gospel where unidentified persons bring someone to Jesus to be cured. (See for example Mark 2:1-12 and 8:22-26.) "The stories demonstrate the results of faith, though it is not the faith of the sick that is the focus of attention."2
Mark is teaching us something here about the communal nature of faith. We normally talk about the faith of individuals. The Bible wants us also to be cognizant of the communal nature of faith. The practice of infant baptism clearly underscores the communal nature of faith. One premise of the practice of baptizing infants is the assumption that this child is reborn through the prayers and faith of the community. This is a hard word for us to hear at times in our world which is so individualistic in nature. The Bible challenges our individualism in general, and any purely individualistic notion of "faith" in particular!
In both of these stories Jesus heals with the power of the word. "The demon has left your daughter!" says Jesus, and it is so! (Mark 7:29). " 'Ephphatha ƒ Be opened,' Jesus said, "and immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released and he spoke plainly" (Mark 7:34-35). These are proclamatory words of Jesus. You may wish to consider structuring your sermon on these stories in such a way that the congregation hears Jesus' words of proclamation and healing as words spoken to them!
The stories end in astonishment. "They were astounded beyond measure, saying, 'He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak' " (Mark 7:37). This verse reminds us of Mark 2:12: "ƒ they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, 'We have never seen anything like this!' " The stories in Mark 8 are variations on a theme. Jesus comes bringing the kingdom near. One of the human realities that occurs in light of the kingdom's proximity is that human lives are restored to wholeness. These stories of wholeness demonstrate the reality that some soil is good soil which produces thirty, sixty and a hundredfold.
Homiletical Directions
The first preaching possibility we will look at with reference to these stories is a sermon that focuses on Mark's unnamed women of faith. They are quite something special „ special in a world that thought them to be so non-special that they are not even named! Tell first the story of the unnamed woman in Mark 5:24b-34. This is the woman with a flow of blood that lasted for twelve years. She was desperate. But she knew something special. She believed that all she had to do was touch the hem of Jesus' garment and she would be healed. She touched! "Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease" (Mark 5:30).
We have looked at this woman's story before. It is part of that great "good soil" chapter: Mark 5. She is one of the first "good soil" people we hear about in the Gospel. She is an unnamed woman with unusual insight into the ministry of Jesus.
Story Two would be the story of the Syrophoenician woman. She, too, is unnamed. She has grasped the nature of Jesus' ministry so well that she proceeds to teach him that he ought to be reaching out to the Gentiles. This aspect of the story is simply incredible. An unnamed woman teaches Jesus!
Story Three could be that of the unnamed woman in Mark 14:3-9. Like the Syrophoenician woman, she has special insight, it seems, into the nature of Jesus' ministry. This story, each of these unnamed-women stories, stands in such clear contrast to the disciples who never understand anything!
When we come to Mark 8 we will begin to deal with the clearest stories of disciples who don't get it. Jesus will tell them three times that he must go to Jerusalem to suffer many things, be rejected, killed and raised to new life (Mark 8:31; 9:30-32; 10:32-34). Jesus reveals to his disciples the world of suffering that awaits his ministry. He calls upon them to take up their cross and follow him into suffering (Mark 8:34-38). But the disciples never get the point! They keep seeing "glory" as their destiny (Mark 9:34; 10:35-37. We will take up this series of passages in more detail in subsequent chapters).
Returning to the story in Mark 14 we understand that Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem to die. The disciples don't get it. An unnamed woman, however, does get it! She breaks open an alabaster jar of ointment and pours it over Jesus' head. People are indignant with this woman. Jesus steps in to rescue the woman and to say of her deed: "ƒ she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her" (Mark 14:8-9). This unnamed woman has grasped the nature of Jesus' journey to the cross. She has anointed him for burial. She is most certainly a good-soil woman, a woman of great faith!
The irony of her story, of course, is that the story that will be told in remembrance of her is a story that does not remember her name! She is simply one of the "little people" in Mark's Gospel who evidence great faith. The unnamed status of women will end with the coming of the Christian community. In Baptism women are named! Christian Baptism is the only initiation rite in all of the world's religions that is the same for men and women! Women shall be no more unnamed among us.
Having told these three stories of unnamed women of great faith and insight, we might speak of the reality among us today that we don't always know who the good-soil people are. We don't know how the Gospel seed is taking root in people. Therefore, in the Christian community, we must treat all people with dignity. We honor all people in our community by using their name. There are "little people" of faith among us today. (Note Mark 9:33-37 on treatment of children!) Jesus calls upon us to listen to the "little people." The way of life in the Christian community (listening to the little people) is about as far removed from life in our secular world as it can be.
A second possibility for story telling this week is to focus our attention on the communal aspect of faith. A Syrophoenician woman brings a daughter to Jesus, and he heals the daughter in light of the woman's faith. In Mark 7:31-37 friends bring a man who is deaf and has a speech impediment to Jesus. Jesus heals the man in the light of the faith of the man's community! This is Story One. Story Two can tell again, from this communal faith perspective, the story of the paralytic (Mark 2:1-12). Verse 5 of this story says specifically: "When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic ƒ ." A third story of this nature is told in Mark 8:22-26. Here people bring a man with a speech impediment to Jesus begging Jesus to touch him and heal him. Jesus responds to their faith and heals the man.
These stories reveal to us that faith has a communal nature. This does not mean that faith has no individual nature. We are faced with one of many biblical paradoxes here. Both realities are true. One might emphasize at the conclusion of these stories that we need to be aware of both aspects of faith. The church gathered is a community of faithful people. When our individual faith is strong we need to be part of the gathered community to lend strength to others. (There are times when we might feel like we, individually, don't need to go to church. The community of people gathered, however, needs us most of all when we are strong.) On the other hand, when our individual faith is weak, we turn to the faith of the community to support us. Such is the nature of life in the community of the faithful.
Some comments about the way both communal faith and individual faith are present in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism might also be touched upon at this point in the sermon.
____________
1. David Rhoads and Donald Michie, Mark As Story (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982), p. 130.
2. Donald H. Juel, Mark (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1990), p. 109.
