Brad Sullivan

Proper 18, Year B
Sunday, September 9, 2012
St. Mark’s, Bay City
Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
Psalm 125
James 2:1-10 (11-13) 14-17
Mark 7:24-37
 
            “Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” (James 2:17)  I love the book of James.  He is down to earth and practical in his writing and instruction.  Rather than a heady, esoteric, theological approach to faith, the faith James describes gets into our daily lives, into our hearts and actions.  James believes in prayer, in helping those in need, trusting in God and obeying the way of life God gave in his commandments.  There are some who would likely say that what we do is not nearly as important as what we believe, but James would disagree mightily, and as Episcopalians, we’d pretty well disagree too.

            As Episcopalians, we believe that prayer shapes our belief.  What we do, how we behave, and the way we treat each other shape and reveal what we truly believe.  Many of us, by how we treat others, may believe in Jesus a whole darn lot here on Sunday morning, and then may have times during the week, when by how we behave, believe in Jesus maybe a little bit less.  Anyone else ever experience that?  Not quite living up to the peace, harmony, reconciliation, and love that we try to model here at church? 

            I’m guessing most of us have, behaved differently than our faith would dictate, and a question is, if ever we behave badly, do we reveal that we have no faith or that our faith is dead?  No, but if we pay attention to our actions, we will learn something about how strong our faith is or alive our faith is.  We’re gonna mess up.  The question is, will we learn from it?

            I can’t help but wonder if Jesus had a learning moment in the Gospel today.  While James tells us to show no partiality between one person and another, Jesus definitely was showing partiality between Jew and Gentile.  What Jesus basically told this woman from Syrophoenicia was, “I’m not going to help you, you Gentile dog.”  We know this was not the first time he had healed a Gentile, so what was going on here?  Was this woman particularly awful?  Did Jesus know something we don’t?  I’ve always heard that Jesus was testing her faith, which is interesting being that, as a Gentile, she likely had no faith in the God of Israel, but we say Jesus was testing her faith, and by her response, she proved that she had faith and so he healed her daughter.  As I read the story this week, however, I began to see their interaction differently. 

She answered Jesus, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs,” and Jesus replied, “For saying that, you may go – the demon has left your daughter.”  He never mentioned faith.  He seemed rather to be pleased with the fact that she had humbled herself to the level of a dog under the table.  “Since you have lowered yourself, and humbled yourself, and called yourself a dog, which you are, ok, I’ll help your daughter.”

Ok, so on the one hand, I think I just preached heresy, but on the other hand, I really love the idea that, although God loves all people, when God became a human being, he struggled with loving everybody, just like we do. 

Can we say that?  Is that claiming Jesus to have sinned?  Scripture tells us Jesus was like us in every way, yet without sin.  We’ve gone about with 2000 years of theology, figuring out how exactly that works, and we’ve got lots of explanations for how that works and how the whole fully human fully divine thing fits together.  Jesus was perfectly faithful in his relationship with God, but if Jesus was fully human, did he ever make mistakes?  I would assume he learned from them, but was he ever irritable or rude?

Jesus had gone to Tyre, where he met this woman, presumably because he wanted a break.  We’re told that Jesus was hoping to be alone but that he couldn’t escape notice.  Maybe in his response to this woman, Jesus was irritated at being bothered while on vacation. 

            Perhaps Jesus did know something we don’t and was calling her out for her unholy living, but my guess is that in some of our explanations of this story, we’re trying to clean things up and get Jesus off the hook for apparently being rather rude to this woman, making sure that Jesus is still without sin. 

            Perhaps in this interaction with the Syrophoenician woman, Jesus learned something about what it is to love and to truly have faith in God who commands us to love God and our neighbor.  If true, then like us, Jesus knows what it is like to be worn out and not to want to help anyone, and not to feel particularly loving at the time.  Jesus also knows what it is like to move beyond all of that and to see the human being in need, not the annoying Gentile dog. 

            If that is true, then God knows what it is like to be in those tired times when faith and love is difficult, and God is there with us in those times, having experienced them himself.  Ok, so, chock full of heresy.  I’ll likely get a call from the bishop later this week saying, “Brad, we need to talk.”

            The point of what I’m trying to say is, if faith without works is dead, and if what we do shapes and reveals what we believe, then in those times when by our actions, our faith seems to be dying, God is right there with us.  Does that mean then, that when we do the wrong thing, we should not worry about it, remember that God is with us, and just forget about it?  No. 

            When we make mistakes and make poor decisions, we realize that God is still with us in those moments and then use those moments as ways to draw nearer to God.  There is a practice of prayer called the Daily Examen, in which at the end of each day, a person reflects on the day and does some checking in.  How’d I do?  Was I loving today?  Was I faithful in prayer?  Did I see full human beings in those I encountered, or did I just see people kind of in my way?  Did I treat others with love and respect?  Did I give thanks to God for the many blessing with which I have been blessed today?  Did I complain a lot, for was I irritable or mean?  Did I actively seek to help those less fortunate than I?  Did I leave the world a better place going to bed tonight than it was when I woke up this morning? 

            If you’re like me, that’s gonna be a mixed bag of responses.  There are some days when I’d say I’m doing pretty well, and then there are days when I’m really not doing so well at all.  If I’m honest with myself, there are times in the day when I’m following Jesus as Lord, and there are times in the day when…not so much.  The point not to get down on ourselves, but to take whatever kind of day we’ve had, whatever kind of day we’ve made, and offer it to God and learn from it. 

As James would encourage, ask for God’s help in those ways in which we haven’t done so well, and give thanks for those ways we have, and foster a faith that is full of life and that gives life to others.  “Faith without works is dead,” James said.  That also means then, that though our good works, we can make our faith ever more alive.  Amen.