Mark 7: 24-37

MarginallyMark…Pentecost + 16…Revised 2018.    

Both incidents today raise the issue of comfort zones. In the first, Mira, (let's call her that) confronts Jesus well out of Jewish territory. Why Jesus is there we don't know. Ever ended up in some odd, inexplicable, place, or situation, only to find we've been led there for a purpose? Maybe to meet some contemporary Mira, her daughter, ‘Thera’- everyone deserves a name & a face - or any other human being, related to anybody or not? There’s no planning such a journey, or encounter. It’s more a matter of co-operating with divine initiative-taking.

Are we bothered by Jesus giving Mira such a hard time? What He says to her at first is certainly testing, probing, challenging. Maybe some of the responses you & I have received from God have seemed equally & seemingly harsh? So hard we've backed off, run away, rather than joining in a bit of good old cut & thrust with God? We'll never know the possible end result God has in mind for us till we do that latter, will we? Never discern where we're meant to be, with whom, & to what end?

One of the responses God in Christ & by Holy Spirit may be looking for in testing us is our willingness to take the risk of entering into another’s pain as Jesus does here. Today’s ‘Miras’ or ‘Theras', of any age or gender may be suffering physical, mental, spiritual, or a whole mixture of disabilities. For me, exterior demons aren’t an option! Any demons I have arise from within me [cf. MK 7: 6+] ; imprinted by life-choices, or other circumstances that disable. Give ‘demons’ a miss; they subvert us from living responsibly under YHWH God.

‘Heros’, so I'm naming him, lives in Greek-influenced territory, & in his own way is as much an outsider as Mira & Thera have been until Jesus makes them all whole. For all our modern enlightenment, & despite good progress & good things happening, those with disabilities still find it hard to come in from the cold. Who will plead their cause better than a Jesus figure accepting & including them? Out in those margins beyond our pews are a lot of hurting, alienated-one-way-or-another people. 

A main thrust in preaching this passage might be that, to coin a word from those Jesus speaks to Heros, we are all called to become ‘ephphathetic’. People opened by God to our own & everyone else’s disabilities, of whatever kind. Given the gift of opening others up to the fullness of life in Christ. What a difference more openness to God & to each other could make to our congregations & to ‘outsiders’! 

Afterthought: Being 'ephphathetic' is one of many gifts of the Spirit not listed in official Biblical catalogues! ‘Ephphathetic-ism’ opens us up to ourselves & to others. To become a 'little Christ' in the Spirit of the One who still 'does all things well’!

Brian