The Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Proper 18

Sunday, 6 September 2009
The Rev’d Lloyd Prator

New York City

We don’t even know her name. The gospel refers to her as the woman of Tyre, a gentile of Syrophonecian origin. That means that she came from a long narrow area just west of what we know as Lebanon now, and an area, which, oddly enough, was known for its produce of purple fabric.

The story is very warm and human. Jesus had apparently had a hard time, and went to this one house where he thought there would not be any phone calls and he could take it easy for a while. Yet, even there, he could not escape notice, because there was a lady there who had a sick daughter.

The evangelist shows Jesus to be somewhat diffident about taking on this, seemingly small potatoes, healing. After all, based on what we have seen, what would it take? A touch, a glance, a brushing with his garment, laying on a hand—how hard could that be?
But the evangelist shows Jesus articulating the common Jewish self-understanding of the day: They, the chosen people of God, were the subject of his mercy and his blessing and, everyone else, including syrophonecian teenagers would just have to wait.

The syrophonecian woman is there to make two important points:

One is that one of the central issues of this faith, in its early years, was the idea of its claim on all people. Mark even risks the reputation of Jesus by having Jesus himself argue for exclusivity. What nerve? Here we have Jesus himself sort of saying, “Say, I am not at al interested in gentiles, you guys, you will just have to wait. See if some crumbs fall from the table—maybe those can be your part”. And he put into the mouth of the woman the truth of the Gospel that would later carry the day—that Gentiles were welcome in the kingdom of God, in the Church, and in the eyes of God himself.

The other is the virtue of perseverance. No news there, after all, don’t we all appreciate the value of hanging in there and struggling for something you want? Even if you are going to the gym to get in shape, you know you have to persevere. Same with saving money, cleaning your apartment or taking a walk every day.

But, these days, perseverance in religious faith? Not nearly as popular an idea. The value which is being held up here is the value of keeping with your faith. Let me give you some examples about what I mean. When you are on vacation, are you in church somewhere near where you travel? Or do you just skip it. Or, every week, we give you a list of people who have asked our prayers. Do you take it home and use it, or do you leave your prayers here in church where they left your tongue?


If you are more persevering in the faith, you will be helping not only to nurture yourself, but also those around you—much in the same way that the persistence of the woman benefited her daughter. Here is what I mean. If you are sharing a vacation condo somewhere, and everyone sees you get up early and head off to eight o’clock mass, you have just witnessed to something. If you are seen taking a moment in your office to pray from our parish prayer list, the people around you know what your priorities are.

Perseverance pays off. In more way than one.

And then, as if one story were not enough, the gospel concludes with the opening of the ears of the man who was deaf. And had a speech impediment. And Jesus opened his ears and untied his tongue. Interesting pairing of stories. Really helps to make the same point I outlined above about the inclusiveness of the gospel. What the healing story tells us is that while the deaf and those with speech impediments were not included in Judaism, they were in Christianity. (Please note, in the interest of avoiding anti-Semitism, that our friends in the Jewish faith now share our point of view on this matter of handicaps.) What Jesus does today is to show that the power of God reaches into all sorts of lives. Another barrier falls.

You know, I do wish that all those people who are so adamant about keeping gays and lesbians out of church leadership positions might pause at a story like this and consider just how much of the gospels is about making the point that human made barriers must fall. There is no barrier to the power of God. You just have to keep after it, as the importunate woman did, you just have to bring the matter of impediments to Jesus, for it is his will that before the power of God, they should fall, utterly vanquished.