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St. George's Episcopal Church Roseburg, Oregon Proper 18, September 10, 2006 Go To St. George's Home Page

Proverbs 22:1-2; 8-9; 22-23
Psalm 125:1-5
James 2:1-17
Mark 7:24-37
Collect of the Day
From the Revised Common Lectionary as Adapted for Use by the Episcopal Church
and Authorized by the 74 th General Convention of the ECUSA

From there Jesus 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. 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.” (Mark 7:24-37)

Be Opened!
The Rev. Dr. Bill Stroop

     A young mother had spent hours in the emergency room with her sick child. On the way home, she stopped at the pharmacy to pick up a prescription that had been called in. In her haste, she left her keys in the ignition, and her child in the car seat. It was late at night and she didn’t own a cell phone. She was the last customer, and by the time she realized what she had done, the pharmacy had closed its steel gates and barred and locked the windows and doors. She was frantic, and she grew more distraught as she heard her child start to cry.

     A few moments later a dirty young man walked by. She was afraid, but in her panic she looked at him for help. “May I help you?” he asked. “I’ve locked my keys in the car, and my daughter’s in there! She’s sick.” The man looked around the dark parking lot and came back carrying something. She was too anxious to be afraid. He held a coat hanger in his hand.

     She had never seen anything like it. He simply bent the hanger, wiggled it inside the door, and gave it a few twists; the door was opened. “Oh,” she cried, “the Lord must have sent you! You are such a good Christian man!” And she threw her arms around that dirty, smelly savior.

     “No ma’am. I’m not a Christian, and I’m not good. I just got out of prison yesterday.”

     She opened her arms and hugged him again – fiercely. “Bless the Lord!” she cried. He sent me a professional!”

     That young man was so good that maybe he should go to Sneek, Netherlands. Sneek is a little village north of Amsterdam.[1] For three years the Wigledam Youth Hostel there has hosted the Dutch Open Lock Picking Championship under the supervision of the Lock Sport Commission (did you know there was such a thing?). The hostel appears to be nothing special on the outside, but to a lock sports aficionado, it’s Wimbledon.

     When you and I leave our houses in the morning, we lock our homes and feel reasonably secure with our typical five-pin Weiser lock bolting the front door, and our keys in our pockets. The Weiser is a basic pin-and-tumbler lock, employed by millions of home owners. You and I couldn’t easily pick that lock even if we had the right tools.

     But a lock picker looks at a lock as a game; a puzzle meant to be solved. It will take a good picker about 15 seconds with a rake pick and a tension wrench to move the pins in your Weiser lock to the depth corresponding to the ridges and valleys of your key and turn the lock. You know those really good kryptonite bike locks? It takes about 10 seconds tops, using nothing but a Bic Round Stic ballpoint pen to pop one of those open. Sophisticated locks like the dimpled 437-rated high-security lock on the local jewelry store? Underwriters Laboratories rates that lock to be a 20-minute pick job. But a 12-year-old picker with a bump key can hack it in 20 seconds.

     At the last Dutch Open there were about 50 pickers in attendance “representing the international steel bolt-hacker diaspora.” 1 These men and women can hack an expensive, high-security, dimpled Mul-T-Lock using only a filed key and a steak knife handle. They can open some locks in less than one-half second. Try beating that with your own key sometime!

     But there is one man who is better than them all. And that is Arthur Bühl, a private detective from Hamburg. He was given the nickname “Master of the Universe” by his colleagues, and he was favored to win the last Dutch Open. When he entered the bar the night before the finals, his colleagues all chanted together, “Arthurmeister, Arthurmeister!” while their beer mugs chicked.

     Arthur went up against Julian Hardt for the championship. “For me, a lock is an intellectual puzzle, like chess!” Julian explained. “But when you break a lock, when you crack that first puzzle, when you feel pins click and the cylinder go – it’s like a drug. So then you want to try a harder one!” Arthurmeister threw his arm around Julian the Champ and laughed as only a Master of the Universe should. “Ja, life is good. But tomorrow, you are mine.”

     Jesus might often seem like a picker, who through his words, his preaching, or his teaching, breaks open the locks of our souls. But today we heard two stories about how Jesus healed a woman’s daughter and a deaf man with a speech impediment. These stories illustrate how even Jesus’ heart was picked and opened by an unlikely source.

     But to put this in context, we need to go back a few chapters in Mark’s story. Mark’s Jesus was a teacher and healer. Indeed, the very first things Jesus did at the start of his ministry, according to Mark, was teach at the synagogue and heal a man with an unclean spirit. And so it went with Jesus concentrating his ministry in and around Capernaum, his home base on the Sea of Galilee. And each time Jesus stopped, the crowd got larger and larger as his fame spread. Although foreigners from Gentile territories outside Galilee came to hear Jesus (Mk 3:7-8), in the beginning, Jesus’ ministry was to his fellow Jews.

     But then something astounding happened. Jesus returned to his hometown and was mocked! “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary? And they took offense.” (Mk 6:3). Prophets were indeed without honor in their own hometown and among their own kin. And so Jesus did something unexpected: He left. He moved on. He shook the dust from his sandals. He told his disciples to do the same (Mk 6:6b-13).

     Eventually he arrived at the farthest region he could get to in the Middle East – the coast of the Mediterranean and the regions of Sidon and Tyre. This was an area of extreme wealth – if you were non Jewish. If you were Jewish, you were most likely a servant or a laborer, producing the food and other items necessary for life in the large urban and mainly Gentile cities like Tyre.

     When Jesus got to this place – which his Jewish sensibilities might have caused him to say, “This God-forsaken place” – he went into a house by himself. But a Gentile, Syrophoenician woman came uninvited into the house. Her presence there would have caused a Jewish man to recoil; he would have been repulsed. He is a Jew; she is a Gentile. He is a man; she is a woman; He is alone with her. All the taboos and social restrictions governing Jewish male behavior have been broken. And Jesus does respond with revulsion, exposing his own prejudice.

     “Please sir,” throwing herself at his feet, “cast the demon from my daughter!”

     “What?” Jesus angrily exclaims. “You burst in here and expect me to cure your daughter? My gifts are for the people of Israel, not for a people no better than mangy wild dogs like you and your people!”

     “Oh, but sir, even dogs are allowed some nourishment.” she retorts.

     Oh, oh. It would appear that the unnamed Syrophoenician woman has just inserted her rake pick and a tension wrench into Jesus’ locked heart. Jesus’ prejudice must have screamed, “Avoid this person! Do not talk to her! Tell her to go away! She is asking more than she should!”

     But she got the pins arranged just right. Her logic was inescapable. Her talent was just too great. His heart turned. The gifts of God were meant for everyone. Not just the Jews. Not just men. Not just the chosen few. They were meant for all people; for all of creation.

     Things in Jesus’ home town were tough. He could “do no deed of power there. And he was amazed at their disbelief.” And here he was in a totally unfamiliar place, being accosted by this smart, very wise Gentile woman who turned his prejudice aside by opening the tumblers of his heart.

     And what did Jesus do right after that? He went to another Gentile area – the Decapolis. But this time he did not shun the people. He did not hide. The people brought to him a deaf man with a speech problem. This man was in all likelihood a Gentile too. And, in a mirror image of what the unnamed woman did, Jesus took him aside, in private, away from the crowd. And he cured him.

     Prejudice is a weird thing. There is probably not a person in this room who would describe themselves as prejudiced. But chances are, if put in the right circumstances, each of us might express some level of instinctive dislike or unease with someone or some kind of situation. Maybe homeless, dirty, poor people are disturbing or fearful. Maybe it’s people of color or other nationalities. Maybe being around a mixed race couple makes you uncomfortable. How about being in a crowd of Jews from New York, or a group of body-pierced, tattooed, hip hop slang speaking young people? How comfortable are we going to a real truck stop and parking your Buick LeSabre next to the big rig and having supper with The Cherokee Daddy and Missy Frog as they’re known by their CB handles?

     Okay, so maybe those kinds of prejudices are relatively easy to find and correct. But how about the deeply cultural ones that many of us share? That’s what we saw change in Jesus. Jesus was, as far as we can tell, a knowledgeable Jew. He knew the law, and he knew what was expected of him as a Jew. His belief system was something that had been refined over hundreds of years, and it was something that he heard in one form or another all of his life.

     This is not unlike the belief that Hispanics are somehow less intellectually capable than Anglos. This belief was apparently first uttered in learned European centers in the 16 th century during the period of Spanish conquest of the Americas when Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, the chief author of the earliest natural history of the Americas, classified Amerindians as “barbarians,” that is, a species that failed to progress. That in turn led to a view held by the Church that these Indian people were natural slaves, and could be rightly subjugated by good Christian people who were a progressive people that knew God’s law. This was similar to the enslavement of Muslims that had been a feature of Spanish Christianity for centuries before. Over the next several hundred years, this kind of prejudicial thinking was reinforced by Church doctrine and became part of the social, economic, and legal systems of many nations. Today, despite lip service to the contrary, racial-cultural prejudice is evident in one form or another in many nations around the globe because it is as ingrained in our culture as it was in Jesus’ day.

     Is there a key to unlocking prejudicial behavior? Both the big social prejudices that we hold as a culture as well as the ones that are more individually unique which arise from our own experience or upbringing? I think there is.

     The key lies in a willingness to listen and to watch. Last week we heard from the letter of James in which the author tells us to be quick to listen and slow to speak. Today, James tells us to not show favoritism. And favoritism extends beyond the obvious of being partial to the rich who can help us over the poor who cannot. It extends to a deeper place where we can look at something and see not with the locked eyes of our ancestors or hear not with the ears of our society, but see with unlocked eyes and an open heart.

     If we can do that – and I mean really do that – then we will have accomplished exactly what Jesus did. And our ears will be opened and our tongues will be released, and we will be free of that which holds us back from achieving the kind of wholesome, good place God wants for us.

     If we can do that – and I mean really do that – then people will say what they said about Jesus, “The were astounded beyond measure, saying, ‘[They] have done everything well’ [they] even make the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

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Proverbs 22:1-2; 8-9; 22-23

A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold. The rich and the poor have this in common: the LORD is the maker of them all. Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of anger will fail. Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor. Do not rob the poor because they are poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate; for the LORD pleads their cause and despoils of life those who despoil them.

Psalm 125:1-5

1 Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion,
which cannot be moved, but abides forever.

2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the LORD surrounds his people,
from this time on and forevermore

3 For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest
on the land allotted to the righteous,
so that the righteous might not stretch out
their hands to do wrong.

4 Do good, O LORD, to those who are good,
and to those who are upright in their hearts.

5 But those who turn aside to their own crooked ways
the LORD will lead away with evildoers.
Peace be upon Israel!

James 2:1-17

My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you? You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

Mark 7:24-37

From there Jesus 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. 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.”

Collect of the Day

Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts; for, as you always resist the proud who confide in their own strength, so you never forsake those who make their boast of your mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

[1] Information about the lock picking contest can be found at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.02/lockbusters.html?tw=wn_tophead_4. Additional information for this sermon came from Timothy F. Merrill. “JesusMeister.” Homiletics18(5):16-20, 2006.

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Copyright © 2006, William G. Stroop - All Rights Reserved.
7 September 2006

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