Crumbs...

Crumbs
Well, it’s that time of year…The time that people look forward to…That people plan for…There’s excitement in the air, you can just taste it! And, I had my first experience with this time on Friday…The Sandwich Fair! How many have attended this year? There are some from here that entered items in the showcases…Congratulations to Cissy Boggs who won Grand Champion for canning! And Millie and Maggie Stewart who both took part in horse riding! Is there anyone else who took part in the fair activities by showing or entering? (wait for responses) Now, who just went to the fair? And walked around looking at all those entries or enjoying the shows? And there’s one more thing that we look forward to, right? The food…Now, my sister and I have compared notes on some of the area county fairs and we’ve come to the conclusion that each county fair, while they may be known for their events, are all known for their food…The Stephenson County Fair is known for their Barbeque…The Boone County Fair is known for their baked potatoes and the best donuts in the world….So, I’ve been asking around to find out what the Sandwich Fair is known for…So, tell me! (wait for responses)

Well, after walking around the fair and smelling all of this food, and of course sampling some too…I was reminded of a scene in Charlotte’s Web…Charlotte’s Web is a children’s movie about the adventures of Wilbur, the most amazing pig and his rag tag group of friends…The goose, the ram, of course Charlotte the spider who weaves spectacular webs, and Templeton, the rat…Well, Wilbur has become such a spectacle that he was entered in the county fair and of course, he brought along a couple of his friends, Charlotte and Templeton…Well, Templeton is sent on a mission to find a word that Charlotte can weave into her web about Wilbur and he finds himself in his dream come true! A smorgasbord of food! There’s melon rinds, hot dogs, popcorn…All the crumbs that people have dropped from the food that they enjoyed at the fair! Oh, and he’s so in awe of all these goodies that he almost forgets his mission…All that food! He is in his heighth of glory! Even the rats look forward to the county fair!

The Syrophoenician woman throws herself at the feet of Jesus in our Gospel lesson for today…Who is this woman? Well, Syrophoenician would have been a derogatory term…Meaning she was from a less than favorable part of the country…She would be unclean, someone that you wouldn’t want to associate with, not because of anything that she had done, just because of where she came from…Jesus had been gaining in popularity, people were starting to hear about this man that performed miracles and taught new things…He was starting to have large crowds appear when he was even just walking through town…In some ways it might be like walking the red carpet today—Jesus was the star, everyone wanted to know things about him: who he was, where he came from, where he was eating, who he was eating with…Everything that they could possibly know! And in the midst of those kinds of questions, there are people screaming to be healed, to know more about the teachings…To just be in the presence of this person! This Jesus! And as Jesus is walking the streets, this Syrophoenician woman came and threw herself at the feet of Jesus…She wanted to be noticed by Jesus because she had a very serious problem…Her daughter was possessed by a demon…We don’t have details about what was happening to the girl, but she was probably very sick, even close to death…And her mother was willing to do anything to help her daughter…And as a mother willing to do anything, she threw herself at the feet of Jesus…She explains her situation and asks Jesus to heal her daughter, to cast out the demon…And Jesus does something curious…

He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s good and throw it to the dogs.” This statement that Jesus makes tells this woman that he won’t heal her daughter…He has no intention on casting the demon or making her better…And what’s worse, he calls this woman and her child “dogs.” That was such an insult…Dogs was another derogatory term used to describe Gentiles, those that were not Jewish…Those that were unclean, unfit to be around…And Jesus calls her a dog and tells her that he has more important people to be with…I can’t presume to know what Jesus was thinking at that moment…It’s so uncharacteristic of who Jesus was and is…It never mattered before whether a person was clean or unclean, where they from…Jesus didn’t turn people away! Maybe he was distracted by all of the commotion…Jesus was trying not to be noticed by the crowds and the people, perhaps he was turning her away so that others wouldn’t see what he was doing…But this woman doesn’t give up this fight…She’s fighting for her daughter’s life and she is not willing to give up…Jesus may be her daughter’s only hope of survival…

This Syrophoenician woman is more than just “sassy” with Jesus…She calls him out…She argues with him…She said to him, “Sir, even the dogs underneath the table eat the children’s crumbs.” She takes that derogatory term “dog” and basically says to Jesus, I’m accepting this word, but I’m flipping it all around…And yes, my daughter and I deserve just as much as everyone else…And Jesus is stopped…How can he argue with this woman because she’s exactly right…Jesus heals her daughter…Jesus didn’t do things at random, he wasn’t one to say things without thinking or do things without a purpose…This instance had a purpose…We can speculate what it is…To remind us that all people are important and all people deserve just as much…Or Jesus wanted to be sure of this mother’s intentions…What matters most is that Jesus says to her, yes…You deserve more than just the crumbs…You deserve the whole meal!

James says the same thing in this letter…He’s offering a challenge to the people that he’s writing to…He’s challenging their thoughts of favoritism…Do they treat people differently when they walk into their house of worship because they look differently? If someone is wearing the finest cloth and the most expensive jewelry, do they get a better seat than the person who smells a little and has dirt on their face? If James is writing things this specific in his letter, chances are that it’s happening in the church…That people are being treated differently because of their perceived status…And just like Jesus, James corrects that and says, oh that’s not true…All people deserve just as much regardless of who they are or what they have…

James takes it even a step further and says that there are people around them who are hungry or without clothes…And what are they doing about it? Is the church providing clothes food or are they ignoring what’s happening? In Rome, Italy there is an extremely large population of refugees…People who have fled their homes seeking something better—they come from all over: Romania, Iraq, Iran, Russia, Thailand…Everywhere…In the midst of this glorious city, there are pockets of groups who shiver in the night, who haven’t had a meal in a while…The hungry, the naked…The government refuses to provide assistance for many reasons: political, economic, and others…Yet, these people still come, throwing themselves at the feet asking for something better…Elizabeth is the pastor of one of the Episcopal churches in Rome and watched as the parking lot of the bus depot each night turned into a home for Afghan and other Middle Eastern refugees…Other churches were providing meals and clothes occasionally, but her heart still ached for something…She started a ministry that provides tea and cookies to these refugees, usually men. As you enter the parking lot and serve these refugees their tea and cookies, you enter not a parking lot, but their home…Elizabeth encourages the group not to enter the parking lot next the cars unless you’re invited specifically…Because that’s virtually their bedroom…But you are more than welcome on the sidewalk, their living room…These refugees will talk and share, sometimes more than they should…But as you enter their makeshift home, you realize that by giving them their tea and cookies, you’re reminding them that they are deserving of more…Of the same things as all people…They no longer are left as the dogs, but as people with names, faces, and stories…

Mark’s Gospel doesn’t end with the story of the Syrophoenician woman, but continues on to the story of a deaf man…This man, who can’t hear and therefore can’t speak clearly, begs Jesus for help…Another one of the unclean—the undesirable…The man that people would probably have pointed and laughed at asks, no begs Jesus to heal him…Jesus looks at the man, uses some kind of sign language or pointing to tell the man that he’s going to do something…And he says to the man, “Ephphatha.” Be opened…The man’s ears are opened, his mouth his opened…Instead of telling this man to tell everyone that he knows, instead Jesus tells him to keep silent, don’t tell anyone about this…The man doesn’t listen, instead he tells people and Jesus’ popularity grows…Jesus didn’t turn this man away…He showed him that he deserved just as much as everyone else—even the basic gift to hear and speak…

Who are the people that you know that need to be told that they are deserve just as much as everyone else? Those that have been cast aside, made fun of, ignored…Maybe it’s because of a physical condition…Maybe it’s because of a financial condition…Maybe it’s because they’ve been hurt…It’s not difficult to find people…Sometimes you don’t have to go beyond your own home…All people are deserving of God’s love…That’s what James and Jesus are saying…All people can and do receive the grace of God! The grace that is open to all!

This grace may come in the form of healing, to be heard, to find a seat…or even tea and cookies…The grace that says that you are loved by God and that doesn’t care what you look like, smell like, where you live, or what you eat…God’s love, God’s grace are given to all people in all places at all times…