{"id":1530,"date":"2024-09-09T11:22:32","date_gmt":"2024-09-09T15:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/?p=1530"},"modified":"2024-09-09T11:22:34","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T15:22:34","slug":"fear-and-trembling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/2024\/09\/09\/fear-and-trembling\/","title":{"rendered":"Fear and Trembling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Listen to the Sermon Preached Here<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Fear-and-Trembling-b.pentecost.16.2024-9924-11.07\u202fAM.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Sermon for the Locust Grove United Church of Christ of York, PA<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">by Rev. James Eaton, Interim Pastor \u00a9 2024<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">16<sup>th<\/sup> Sunday After Pentecost \u2022 September 8, 2024<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"http:\/\/bible.oremus.org\/?ql=592895026\">Isaiah 35:4-7a<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/bible.oremus.org\/?ql=592895059\">Mark 7:24-37<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus is on vacation. Mark says he went up to Tyre, a big coastal town north of Israel, outside its borders. He enters a house and wants some privacy: \u201c\u2026[he] didn\u2019t want anyone to know he was there.\u201d [Mark 7:24b] You know how this works. You go to the shore, maybe Ocean City or Wildwood, rent an Airbnb, just want to be anonymous, kick back, rest up. After all, just before this he\u2019s had a tough time. He got rejected in his hometown and couldn\u2019t do anything there. His mentor and friend, John the Baptist, has been executed. He keeps having arguments with better educated clergy. Maybe his disciples have gotten annoying, the way family sometimes can. So off he goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Woman Comes to Jesus<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>But when he gets there, it turns out he\u2019s too well known to hide out. Some Canaanite woman, a Gentile, throws herself at his feet when he\u2019s out looking for breakfast. Honestly, I\u2019ve never had a woman throw herself at my feet, so I\u2019m not sure quite what that\u2019s like, but I have certainly been accosted when I\u2019m getting away. It\u2019s a little professional secret that clergy mostly learn early on never, ever, to admit they are clergy when traveling. Years ago when I was young and on a long flight and a woman next to me asked what I did. I proudly said I\u2019m a minister. She spent the rest of the flight telling me why she didn\u2019t go to church and how she didn\u2019t believe in God. I really just wanted to nap, not talk theology. So I\u2019m guessing that\u2019s how Jesus felt. He\u2019s off duty; maybe healing people is exhausting. He\u2019s on a mission, after all, to reclaim Israel for God, to bring all Jews back to a purer, more passionate faith but these people aren\u2019t his problem, they\u2019re Gentiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Still, there\u2019s this woman at his feet; no way around her. She\u2019s begging for his attention, his compassion. Her daughter is possessed; she\u2019s desperate. All parents know this feeling, that special, relentless, desperation when your child is sick and no one seems able to help. Jesus might be on vacation, but she doesn\u2019t care, she only cares about helping her daughter. She looks ridiculous, lying there in the street, but she doesn\u2019t care, she only cares about helping her daughter. He\u2019s a man; she\u2019s a woman, he\u2019s a Jew, she\u2019s a Gentile, but she doesn\u2019t care, she only cares about helping her daughter. She lives in a culture that tells women to be quiet in public, never to talk to a strange man, but she doesn\u2019t care, she only cares about helping her daughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Dogs!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I think Jesus must have tried to get around her but couldn\u2019t, so he says something conventional, tries to get out of the situation. \u201cHe said to her, \u2018Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children&#8217;s food and throw it to the dogs.\u2019\u201d [Mark 7:27] Now we think of dogs as fun and cute, and we love them. But dogs in this time and place are dirty, mangy, they live outside in villages, they eat garbage and smell like it. \u2018Dog\u2019 is an insult; it\u2019s like one of the many ethnic slurs we all know, no need for me to quote them.\u2018Dogs\u2019 is what Jews call Gentiles and they typically ignore them. Jesus grew up as a Jew; Jesus is steeped in the culture, he\u2019s human and like all humans, his culture has captured him. So he replies like a Jewish man to this Gentile woman. I\u2019m sure he thought that would be the end of it. A little brusque language, a little insult, done, she\u2019ll go away and leave him alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But she doesn\u2019t; she only cares about her daughter, she doesn\u2019t care about the insult. She turns it around: \u201cEven the little dogs under the table eat the children\u2019s crumbs,\u201d she says. There\u2019s a little play on words there: she\u2019s turned his insult from an image of the mangy alley dogs to a puppy playing in the home. It\u2019s a good argument and it works. \u201cFor saying that, you may go,\u201d he says, and assures her that her daughter is healed. She gets up , goes home and wow! Her daughter is fine, her daughter is back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This isn\u2019t a very nice picture of Jesus, is it? It isn\u2019t gentle Jesus meek and mild; it isn\u2019t the good shepherd, carrying the lost sheep home on his shoulder. It isn\u2019t the love your neighbor guy we all expect. There are endless articles and commentary and sermons explains this away, trying to give us back the nice Jesus we think we know. Even the Gospel of Matthew, about 20 years after Mark, cleans the story up and makes it about her faith, not the argument. But I want the real Jesus, not the pretty picture someone else painted; I want to know the real Jesus, so I want to know what\u2019s going on here. And what seems to be going on is that Jesus changed his mind.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Is Jesus Changing?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWait, Jesus changed his mind? Isn\u2019t he perfect?\u201d I imagine someone wondering this. We believe Jesus is fully human and isn\u2019t being fully human sometimes being wrong? Jesus thought of his mission as being for the Jews, for God\u2019s people. I think Mark is giving us a peek into the moment when Jesus changes his mind and realizes God\u2019s plan is bigger, more wonderful, than he had realized. We\u2019re getting a look at a moment when Jesus realizes everyone is welcome at his table, everyone is included, everyone is a child of God. Everyone includes a Gentile woman with a sick daughter. She isn\u2019t a dog, she isn\u2019t just a woman, she isn\u2019t just a Gentile, she\u2019s a child of God, just like him, and God loves her, just like him.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It isn\u2019t easy to admit you\u2019re wrong and change. May and I like to argue, Jacquelyn likes everything peaceful. So when we became a family, Jacquelyn introduced a rule that we call the dance. It works like this: if you argue a point, and you are proven wrong, you have to turn around to the left three times and say, \u201cI was wrong, I was wrong, I was wrong\u201d, and then to the right three times and say, \u201cYou were right, you were right, you were right.\u201d By the end everyone is laughing; peace is restored. We remember that how much we love each other is more important than being right.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What I love about Jesus in this passage is that he was wrong and could change. Mark makes it clear; it\u2019s what the woman says that changes his mind. The passage asks us too: can we change? Can we listen to our history and our values and change our minds, change our hearts? I think this is something all too rare today. We all moan about the dark divisiveness of our politics, but isn\u2019t it precisely because we don\u2019t listen that we are divided? I wish we could make our politicians abide by the dance rule. I\u2019d love to see some of those guys, instead of defending the indefensible, simply turn and turn and turn and say I was wrong, I was wrong, I was wrong.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Acting on the New Reality<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The rest of this passage makes it clear Jesus is acting on this new understanding. It says he goes by way of Sidon to the Deacpolis. This makes no sense; it\u2019s like saying I went from Harrisburg to York by way of Philadelphia. But geography is theology in the Bible. What Mark seems to want us to know is that Jesus works among Gentiles as well as Jews. The Decapolis is a largely Jewish area. When Jesus arrives, we\u2019re told that some friends brought a man who was deaf and stammered for healing. He takes the man aside and heals him in an astonishingly intimate way, touching his ears, telling them to be opened, wetting his finger on his own tongue, touching the man\u2019s tongue. \u201cBe opened!\u201d, is the command: Ephphatha!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019re starting a new year of programs and worship here, in a new time. Don\u2019t we need to hear Jesus saying Ephphatha to us? There are some great things here that come from our values. One thing I\u2019ve learned in the last few months is that this church is really great at appreciating. I love that we applaud the music; I love the positive energy of how people seem to appreciate each other here. How can we carry that forward? And what do we need to leave behind?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fear and Trembling to Joy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When Paul writes to a new Christian church in northern Greece, in the letter to the Philippians, he tells them to work out their salvation with fear and trembling. I think what he means is for them to discover that everything they think needs to be tested, evaluated, considered. I think he means they need to listen to Jesus, not just their own common sense. I think he knows that isn\u2019t easy because it\u2019s scary to change. I think he means to assure them that God is with them in the process.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The same is true here. At the end of this story, Jesus is on his way home. Along the way, he heals a man who is deaf. Isn\u2019t this all of us? Aren\u2019t we sometimes deaf when God is practically shouting at us? It\u2019s a fulfillment of what Isaiah said:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Say to those who are of a fearful heart, &#8220;Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. \u2026then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be opened; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.[ Isaiah 35:4-7a]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus goes on from here with a new understanding. He knows change is difficult; he knows we we have fearful hearts. Yet he says, over and over, \u201cLet those who have ears to hear, hear.\u201d May we hear him; may we follow him, no matter how it changes us. May we learn the love of God so that our fear and trembling turns into songs of joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jesus changes his view of his mission, seeing it embraces all people. How can we change our ideas of our ministry and mission?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[39,146,52,108,3,2,130],"tags":[86,237,67,359],"class_list":["post-1530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exegesis","category-mark","category-pentecost","category-scripture","category-sermon","category-worship","category-year-b","tag-change","tag-grace","tag-jesus","tag-listen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1530"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1535,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions\/1535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}