Compassion

CALL TO WORSHIP

Let us say to one another: ‘Be strong. Do not fear. God, our God, is here with us.’ Come with your fears, your doubts, your anxiety. Come just as you are. You are welcome in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

HYMN

145: Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise

GATHERING PRAYER

Welcoming God, you invite us to worship you and to be together. Sustain us with your presence, nourish us with your word, strengthen us in your service and send us out to live every day of our lives, in your name. Amen.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION

Forgive us, Lord, for all the times we are too quick to form opinions, too quick to judge others; the times we don’t give people the benefit of the doubt; or fail to consider what they might be going through. Open our eyes to see and our ears to listen, as you do. Amen.

The Gentile woman and the deaf man opened their minds and hearts to Jesus. When we open our minds, God helps us to understand his ways. When we open our hearts, God sees deep within. He loves us and wants us to turn to him, even when we’ve done wrong. God comes to us now and listens to us, loves us, and forgives us. He makes us whole. We bless you, Lord. Amen.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name,

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done.

On earth as it is in heaven,

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our trespasses,

As we forgive those that trespass against us,

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory,

Forever and ever Amen.

HYMN

466: Praise my soul, the King of heaven

READING 1

Isaiah 35: 4-7a

Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.’

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

READING 2

Mark 7: 24-37

The Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith

From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ But she answered him, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ Then he said to her, ‘For saying that you may go—the demon has left your daughter.’ So, she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Jesus Cures a Deaf Man

Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.’

HYMN

147: Great is Thy faithfulness

SERMON

“Caught with His Compassion Down”1

This morning’s Gospel reading is very odd. There are lots of questions.

Why is Jesus in Tyre of all places? He travels from Galilee to Tyre which is a rather long way in both terms of miles as well as culture?

In Mark’s account he is apparently alone, in Mathew’s account of the same story he has Disciples with him.

He is trying to be inconspicuous, keeping out of the way, sometimes, can’t we feel like getting away from it all, take a break from the pressures we may face.

Mark tells us in the reading of someone who felt that they weren’t welcome, an outsider.

The person is not welcome in Israel because she was not Jewish. The woman was a Gentile – a non-Jew. That was what defined her and made her not welcome. A Gentile and a woman – Jesus shouldn’t really have spoken to her. But he did.

So how did this woman learn about Jesus and how did she find him? Perhaps if we remember the healing of the possessed man that Jesus healed by sending the demons into a heard of pigs. The cured man wanted to go with Jesus but

Jesus told him to tell everyone what God had done for him. He came from Decapolis so, maybe she was someone who heard the message from him. We don’t know.

The thing that stands out the most is why the rudeness in Jesus’ response to her?

Nowhere else does Jesus refuse a direct request to heal someone.

Nowhere else does he respond with an insult like this, calling her and her daughter “dogs.” The Jews considered dogs as unclean. is he saying that these people are unclean gentiles?

In Mathew’s report he tells his followers to send her away!

Why did he react this way? It’s especially shocking, given what he said to the Pharisees in the previous passages about purity.

Is it because the gentiles in this area had historically not been Israel’s nicest neighbours?

Is he lumping the mother and daughter together with other gentiles who had recently oppressed the local Jewish population?

Although Jesus’ motives are not clear, the thrust of his refusal is.

Doesn’t this seem to us entirely out of character with our usual image of a generously compassionate savoir.

Interpreters must make at least one key decision about this story: Is the woman passing a test or winning an argument?

Some argue that Jesus’ initial denial must have been said with a playful gleam in his eye, that he’s giving the woman a chance to express her faith. before healing her daughter.

This makes the story rather unique within Mark, and the woman the only person who had to suffer a slur before receiving the mercy of Jesus.

But perhaps Jesus means what he says.

And has no intention of expelling a demon from the gentile girl.

And it’s what the mother says changes Jesus's mind?

For one thing, in saying “Let the children be fed first,” Jesus seems to imply that the time is not right. Blessings will come to the gentiles, in time, but for now his work is on behalf of Jews. His answer is not “Absolutely not,” but “Not yet.”

However, there is a larger point that Jesus is making in this story.

A very important point in the Gospels is that Jesus comes first to save the children of Israel.Throughout the Old Testament, God made them a promise that He would save them. The prophets announced God’s promise of the coming of a Messiah. This person would restore the throne of David forever and save the Jewish people.

It is important to understand that the Savior is spoken of in the Old Testament all the way back to Genesis 3, He is only promised to God’s chosen people. In other words, God made a promise to save the Jewish people, and He did not make this promise to the Gentiles.

Does this mean that God doesn’t love the non-Jewish people as much as the children of Israel? No.

But it’s because of His promise, He has made a commitment to the Israelite's that He didn’t make to others.

I read someone’s thoughts on this he said “When I teach this section in class, I take out a chocolate bar and I ask if anyone wants it. If someone volunteers, I tell them that I promise them that I will give them the chocolate bar. Later in my talk I ask if anyone else wants the chocolate bar. When someone else volunteers, I walk over and act as though I am going to give the chocolate to them. I then asked the class who should get the chocolate bar.

They all say that I should give the bar to the one that I first made the promise to.

But I object. I told them that I want to give the chocolate to the second student first. The class points out that this motivation on my part doesn’t matter because I must honour my commitment first. So, I gave the bar to the first student. But then I produce a second bar and give it to the second student too.

The point is that if I want to give a gift to someone, that is a good thing. But my promise binds me to a commitment that must be fulfilled before the other.”

In a similar way, God made a promise to the people of Israel that He would save them. Because of this, He owes them this promise.

Jesus came to save everyone. But He must first make good on His promises to Israel. That is the point of the story of this gentile woman. He doesn’t look at her as less of God’s child, because of her race. He is explaining that there is a prioritisation because of commitments.

This interpretation seems most in line with the story Mark tells. It’s the strange lack of compassion on Christ’s part that makes many people resist speaking on this reading.

For others, it’s the difficulty with believing that a divine Jesus might be persuaded to change his mind about something, after all Numbers 23:19 says:

God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

but compare Genesis 18:16-33.

Where Abraham pleads for Sodom.

Exodus 32:14.

Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

Jonah 3:9.

9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

It’s when the woman puts forward. her statement that “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

It’s not simply that she turns Jesus’ metaphors of crumbs and canines to fit her needs. Her words contain as much theological insight as they do wit or even humility.

It appears she recognises — somehow — a certain abundance about the things Jesus has to give. So, go ahead, feed the children, eat all you want. But what if your table can’t contain all the food Jesus brings?

(Recall the leftovers when Jesus fed 5000, and perhaps more, in Mark 6:43.) The excess must have started spilling to the floor.

The woman also recognises the potency of this “food.” She doesn’t demand to be treated as one of the “children.” Look, Lord, I’m not asking for a seat at the table.

My daughter is suffering. All I need from you is a crumb or two. I know that will do the job.

But I’m going to need it right now. I can’t wait.

Notice what Jesus says in verse 29: he expels the demon ‘saying that you may go—the demon has left your daughter.’

It does remind me a little of the wedding in Canna when Mary asks Jesus to assist. He says “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”

New Directions

Perhaps it’s the faith of this woman that leads Jesus to his next actions.

In any case, immediately after leaving Tyre, Jesus’ work goes a new way. He cures a man who can’t hear and can barely speak, although he’s not identified as a gentile. This event occurs, in Decapolis, a region populated chiefly by gentiles. He then performs another feeding miracle meeting the needs of 4000 people still in this mainly gentile region.

Although Mark doesn’t call attention to the ethnic identity of these people, it seems Jesus takes the Syrophoenician mother’s wisdom to heart. The timeline has been accelerated; gentiles receive blessings, too, even now. The woman’s persistence benefits more than just one little girl.

Her persistence persuades Jesus to do new things in his ministry.

She came to find him, to beg healing for her daughter. It may be a bit tricky for us to understand all the ins and outs of the – to us – strange conversation they had, but the result was Jesus spoke to her and her daughter was healed. Religious and cultural boundaries are no barrier to God’s kingdom.

And the man who was deaf came from Decapolis. And Jesus speaks to him too, and he too is healed. And if we didn’t get it with the women and her daughter, Mark is explicit this time: this is fulfilment of the prophecy in Isaiah chapter 35 – a prophecy about how God’s kingdom will come to the whole world, not just the Jews.

What lessons – or perhaps challenges – are there for us and for our church community in that message of God’s universal kingdom?

Are we willing and able to accept things that we naturally would shy away from.

Those who are different than us. Those who seem to be on the outside of society.

Jesus came initially for the Jews but opened his heart to anyone who turns to him.

We need to give thanks to an all-inclusive God, willing to save such people as us.

Jesus who calls us undeserving as we are to be members of his eternal family, with one job to do. have faith in him and share his undeserved love with everyone we meet.

HYMN

388: May the fragrance

PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION

God whose peace knows no borders, as we watch the world in unrest wars between the Ukraine and Russia, civil war in Myanmar, Afghanistan and Yemen to name but a few we pray urgently for your peace to descend.

We pray for those who are fearful, for people whose circumstances have suddenly and radically changed. Help them work out what to do and find the ways and means to do what is necessary to stay safe. We pray for those now in charge of the country. May our anxieties about the way they will rule move us to pray with passion.

Lord, we ask you to bring peace,

God whose compassion knows no borders, with the new school term just getting started we pray for everyone moving on this September.

Whether changing year groups, schools or heading off to university for the first time help our young people as things change this autumn. May all the children who have had a hard time know compassion and care and may this year be calm and ordered, filled with fun and purpose.

God whose compassion knows no borders,

Lord we bring those who are close to us, to those who we care for.

We ask for you comfort and your healing Spirit to bring comfort to all who need you at this time.

Lord bring compassion,

God of joy, we thank you for the joy the Paralympics has brought to us in the last couple of weeks. Watching fellow human beings overcoming adversity and triumphing in their sports is exhilarating and heartening. Thank you for all of the athletes who have competed. As they head home may they feel they have worked to the best of their ability and know how inspirational they are.

Lord bring more joy to this world, and may your love be known by all.

HYMN

42: Be, thou my vision

BLESSING

The Lord, bless you And keep you Make His face shine upon you And be gracious to you The Lord turn His face toward you And give you peace