Train Leaving Either Way

by The Rev. Shelby Ochs Owen

This sermon is based on Mark 7:27-34. An audio version of this sermon is available here. 


Have you, by chance, been listening to any political rhetoric lately? Have you had a moment or two when you said to yourself, “Did that politician actually just say what I think I heard?” There have been many bloopers and blunders in the political arena as of late, many “I can’t believe what he/she just said” moments, coming from both political parties. And there’s absolutely nothing new about that.

Well, some of us find ourselves reacting similarly to Jesus’ statement in today’s Gospel passage from Mark. A Syrophoenician woman, a Greek, comes to Jesus, bows desperately at his feet and begs him to heal her demon-possessed daughter. We might expect Jesus to grant her request without hesitation but instead, Jesus says 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.” Did he really just say that? Yes, he has just compared this woman to a dog, the “children” referring to the Jews and the “dogs” referring to all others. And just as the shock of Jesus’ highly insulting comment hits the reader, the woman comes right back at him, perhaps just as shockingly, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” The woman is a Gentile, a non-Jew, and many of the Gentiles in the region of Tyre were wealthy at the expense of exploiting the Jewish peasants, the farmers whose food they would have consumed. So there was bound to be a great deal of hostility from the Jews toward the Gentiles here.
Jesus is likely also exhausted, both physically and mentally. Not so long ago, just a chapter or so back, you may recall, having been in the full throes of his ministry, Jesus was trying to get away with his disciples for some rest, some quiet, some time alone ; Mark wrote, “they had no leisure even to eat” and he ended up feeding 5000 plus for dinner! Now Jesus is trying to get away again. “He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there but he could not escape notice.” So it seems that Jesus was eager to have that time alone. Perhaps he felt his cup was empty and needed solitude to be replenished, and here comes someone- a woman, a Gentile, someone who represents those who have oppressed his people and she is asking for something from him. “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” Jesus’ mission was primarily to the Jews but it would eventually include the Gentiles. Did Jesus not know this yet? Did he grow in wisdom? Was this woman helping him to more fully understand his mission? “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Did she know something Jesus did not?

The story holds a certain tension that begs the questions of who Jesus was and who he was to become, and what does it mean for Jesus to be fully human and fully divine. In this passage Jesus, a very human Jesus, responds to someone in a very human way, perhaps out of his exhaustion and frustration but then he is taken in by her word, her wit and is indeed moved by her. This Gentile woman who may normally have been in a position of strength humbles herself and presents herself as one of the “least of these” to Jesus. She speaks a word of truth to Jesus, and he is quick to reorient his vision, to be opened to transformation. And being opened to the truth, being opened to transformation is always of the divine movement. Jesus and the woman were willing to be touched by the other, willing to be opened to the truth, willing to be opened to the divine.

Jesus does end up healing this woman’s daughter because it was within his nature to do so. He could not be anything but who he was, which is fully Divine. The encounter between Jesus and the woman reminds us of the irrepressibility of God’s reign, that God’s love knows no boundaries, no limits, no horizon. God cares for and loves all people.

In the movie “About a Boy,” Hugh Grant’s character Will makes an effort to meet women by joining a club for single parents even though he has no children and actually does not even like children. He meets a young boy whose mother is in this group and the boy takes a great liking to Will. Over time, the boy reflects back to Will that he sees right through him, pointing out the various lies and deception that Will has come to live with both outwardly and inwardly. The lovely thing though is that the clever boy still loves Will, even with his faults and outrageous behavior. Over time Will is opened to the truth in himself that the boy is able to point out, and Will actually develops a heart and becomes more fully a human being as he is able to actually love other people. The boy through his love is able to help Will be opened to the truth in himself and therefore opened to love. Will’s world which had been increasingly small in his previously self-serving and self-deceptive life expands into a wider view as truth and love make their way in.

We have choices every day about whether we will be opened to the truth or close ourselves off to it and choose to live in a much smaller, shriveled up existence. We can allow God to expand our worlds or we can let our world become narrow and restricted. As we age we will come across all sorts of situations in life where we have decisions to make. Will we be opened to God’s love and forgiveness for us and for everyone else? And will we be open to God’s call for us to love ourselves and everyone else? Not just those who are easy to love but love all those who come across our mental and physical paths? Each new day do we find ourselves more able to love or do we find ourselves getting more narrow in our view of who is worthy of our love? Jackson Browne wrote a song that includes the line, “There’s a train every day, leaving either way.” Which way is your train going? Is the train heading to a more narrow, fear filled, “me”-based, restrictive world or is your train heading to a more forgiving, more accepting, more loving, God-centered world? Is the direction you are heading all about you or is it about serving others, particularly the “least of these?”

Jesus may have believed his mission was only to the Jews and was willing to expand his understanding, willing to grow in wisdom, willing to be touched by those in his path. Maybe he needed the Syrophoenician woman to shake him up before he was willing and able to be opened to the divine truth that God’s redeeming love was for everyone, Jew and Gentile, woman and man, the oppressed and even for the oppressor. To be opened to the truth of God’s love, this is what God asks, no--- this is what God demands, of us, to expand our horizons of those worthy of our care, worthy of our forgiveness, worthy of our love.

There is a train every day leaving either way…