Turning Points and the Road Less Traveled

Proper 18B; James 2:1-17; Mark 7:24-37 St. Paul’s, Smithfield, NC 9/6/2015

Jim Melnyk: “Turning Points and the Road Less Traveled”

We all experience turning points in our lives – moments of decision that change the course of our destinies.  Poet Robert Frost wrote:

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves not step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!”

This Sunday and the next are turning points in Mark’s gospel for both Jesus and his disciples – roads taken when other paths lay wanting.  In today’s lesson, Jesus comes face-to-face with a decision about his ministry – about whom it is he is called to serve.  Next week Jesus will ask his disciples what the crowds are saying about him, and will then ask them point blank – Who do you say that I am?  Jesus will turn his face toward Jerusalem and the cross, and the disciples will then face a turning point of their own.  They will have to come to grips with what they have come to believe about Jesus, and decide whether or not to follow him to Jerusalem. 

Looking at this morning’s lesson we realize that up to this point in Mark’s gospel Jesus has focused his ministry within Israel – predominantly around Galilee – and toward his Jewish sisters and brothers.  Taking a break from the crowds, Jesus and his disciples head to the nearby region of Tyre – gentile territory.  Perhaps they figure the crowds won’t follow them out of the comfort zone of their own faith communities.

When the gentile woman in today’s story – a woman whose daughter is possessed of an unclean spirit – when the gentile woman first approaches Jesus for help he comes to a turning point in his life that will change the course of history.  In Mark’s story Jesus simply points out to her that the children should be fed first, rather than taking their food and throwing it to the dogs.  You may recall from other times we’ve heard about this story that Jesus was being down-right insulting here.  He’s not calling the gentiles cute little puppies – but dogs – implying something less than human – not worth his attention.   As theologian Sharon Ringe puts it, Jesus “was caught with his compassion down,” and we find “Mark’s portrayal of Jesus” in this instance is neither “a typical or comfortable one” (Sojourners Online, Preaching the Word, 9/6/2015).

Later, in Matthew’s version of the story, Jesus will tell the woman more directly, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  Jesus comes to a turning point.  Is the Good News of God for all people or not?  Can I actually turn my back on this woman and her daughter simply because they are not of the house of Israel?  To her credit, the woman stands fiercely before Jesus on behalf of her daughter – and to Jesus’ credit, he relents at the sign of her faith, and heals the little girl.  In essence, this unnamed Syrophoenician woman sets a table before Jesus “to which all are invited” (ibid), and Jesus affirms her faith.  God’s grace does extend beyond the house of Israel.  God’s grace is boundless.  Jesus is called to serve not just Israel, but the whole world.  And this moment becomes a turning point in Mark’s gospel – a turning point in Jesus’ life and ministry – an exclamation point of God’s love for a whole world.  And by this woman’s act, as the late lay theologian Verna Dozier commented, “The people of God have been enlarged” (ibid).

Now, as we heard a few minutes ago, we have two stories about Jesus today.  On the way home from the region of Tyre Jesus and his disciples stop in the region of the Decapolis – still in gentile territory.  There they come upon a deaf man who also had difficulty speaking.  By now Jesus’ reputation has spread, and the locals ask Jesus to heal their friend.  I cannot help but imagine the exchange with the Syrophoenician woman ringing in Jesus ears as he touches the man’s ears and tongue, and looking to heaven prays, “’Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘Be opened!’”

Perhaps Jesus was directing this prayer not only at the man who stood before him, but perhaps at himself and his disciples as well.  “I get it, Father,” he seems to be saying, “I am sent for all your people, and to all your people I must be open.”  And we find ourselves grafted into the household of God perhaps due in part to the two gentiles who come into contact with Jesus in today’s lesson and help him see beyond race, clan, and creed.

There are turning points in our lives as well – though I am convinced we’re not always open to seeing them play out in our lives.  I suspect there are times when our surety is challenged by the Good News of God in Christ – times when we feel compelled to circle the wagons and claim a wall of exclusivity around us – us being the good guys, of course – and those turning points pass us by.

The Episcopal Church has been asked by our sisters and brothers in the African Methodist Episcopal Church this Sunday to make visible our solidarity with them in desiring to put an end to racism in our nation and in the world.   And so our Presiding Bishop, The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori has asked churches across the nation to acknowledge today as “Confession, Repentance, and Commitment to End Racism Sunday.”  AME Bishop Reginald Jackson writes, “Racism will not end with the passage of legislation alone; it will also require a change of heart and thinking. This is an effort which the faith community must lead, and be the conscience of the nation...” (quoted in Letter to the Episcopal Church, 9/1/15).  Ephphatha!  Be opened!

We might wonder if so many recent senseless deaths – whether we’re talking about the civilians gunned down in Charleston, SC, or the National Guard soldiers in Chattanooga, TN – police officers in Houston and Chicago, or the civilians in places like Ferguson and Arlington – might somehow become a turning point in how we treat one another in our nation.  We might look at how refugees are being treated today in places like Germany and Hungary – or even in the US – and see that as a turning point in how we treat one another around the globe – treating everyone as people created in God’s image.  I hope so.  I hope to God, so.

“The writer of the Book of James makes it very clear that to show partiality of one segment of human beings over another is sinful. In today’s reading the example compares the treatment of the rich to the poor. But, the same type of example can apply to conduct between people of differing races and different nationalities.

Another example the writer of James uses is not addressing the needs of a brother or sister who is hungry. Using words to wish a hungry person peace is not sufficient. The hunger itself must be addressed. The reading ends with what may be the most well-known sentence from the Book of James: ‘So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead’” (Lorraine Ljunggren).

We need to stand together as a community, as a nation, as a world – we need to hold hands with one another – we need to stand vigil with each other – we need to pray together as the family of God.  We need to create turning points in our lives and in the lives of our communities – in the life of this world – that will enable us to respect one another’s dignity and honor one another as human beings created in the image and likeness of God. 

Honoring one another in that manner will enable us to come to the holy table together despite our differences of opinion and in celebration of our diversity as a people; and this is vital today because I see our world becoming more and more fractured.  I see our world selling life on the cheap.  I see our world so into our own lives that we fail to see Christ in the eyes of our neighbors – in the eyes of the stranger – and sometimes even in the lives of our families and closest friends.  And sometimes, like the author of James reminded us last week, sometimes we look in the mirror to see our own selves, but walking away we forget what we look like – we fail to see and remember the image of God looking back at us through the glass.

Do we as a community of faith say to ourselves, “Well, that’s happening in Houston or Chicago – that’s happening in Ferguson or Arlington – or Germany and Hungary – not in Smithfield.”?  Or do we say to ourselves, “As people of faith how can we work toward a more just society?” 

Unlike the two roads in Robert Frost’s poem, the other road isn’t always just as fair – even if it seems so at first glance – though it may seem easier or more enticing or alluring.  Do our personal turning points direct us toward the comfort and safety of hearth and home, or do we see our personal turning points directing us toward the challenges and risks of Jerusalem?

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”