Proper 15 2014

Proper 15, 2014

E-mail and text messaging can be helpful forms of communication. E-mail, for example, is great for sharing cat videos, and text messaging is wonderful for making silly comments to friends when you find yourself in boring seminars, or during a sermon…(I hesitate to mention this might be one of my longer sermons, too).

However, as many people who frequently use these modes of interaction know, there is a kind of etiquette that has developed around text messaging and e-mail. So, for instance, unless your response to a group e-mail is important to the entire group, it is not usually necessary to use the “reply all” option. In other words, you might want to comment on the cat video that was sent to you and a number of people—but not everyone in the recipient list needs to receive your “LOLZ” (that means: “laugh out loud” not  “licentious orange lemurs” as some might have assumed).

Anyway, continuing on…another important matter of etiquette which spans both text messaging and e-mail is the careful usage of caps. The issue in this case is not only that it makes a message difficult to read, but it regularly makes the recipient feel that you are yelling at them. So, while it may be your intent to give some background about a funny cat video, or share a witticism about the preacher by text message—know that if it is typed in all caps, the person receiving it may feel that you’re a bit over-zealous. In some cases it may be safer, to take a cue from e.e. cummings and just never use caps…  

Finally, among the many pitfalls that come with communicating via text message, or e-mail—or any written medium, for that matter; there is one which is consistently an issue. This, of course, is tone.

Tone, in the case of literature and written communication encompasses the attitudes toward the subject of the message and toward the recipient or audience. So in communicating; our tone can be formal, informal, somber, playful, serious, ironic, condescending, or a whole host of other attitudes, besides. And because both text messages and e-mails by nature are short; it’s important to clearly communicate our meaning and tone. Otherwise, a comment that was meant to be facetious or sarcastic could be completely taken the wrong way.

In the case of text messaging and e-mail, however, one saving grace is the “emoticon.” This is a little picture of a smiley face, or whatever, that more clearly communicates—or emotes—the sense in which a statement is to be received. It sort of works like “bless his heart” does in the South—it covers a multitude of sins.

Sadly, emoticons are not appropriate in all forms of written communication. So, in such cases, clear use of language, and clear context are essential for making one’s tone and meaning more easily accessible.

  

Anyway, I tell you all of this not simply because I think it’s interesting, but because I really wish that there were emoticons in Scripture. There are times when I read something that Jesus has said, and because it feels so brutal and contrary to everything he says and does; I have to wonder if he’s being sarcastic. And, of course, because I don’t want to misinterpret what is being communicated, I’m careful not to read what I want the text to mean into what it actually says. So, a little smiley would be really helpful now and again…

That being said, there are times in the Gospels when Jesus is clearly being sarcastic, and in those cases, it makes emphatic the lesson he’s conveying.

Yet, there are still these other places, where I’m not absolutely sure—and today’s Gospel reading is one of those places. This is that uncomfortable story of Jesus and a Canaanite woman. In Mark’s Gospel she is called Syrophoenician, however, Tyre and Sidon were territories belonging to the Phoenicians. So, it doesn’t make a difference. The point is that Jesus is in Gentile territory, and a Gentile woman (of all people) has the moxie to approach Jesus—an orthodox Jewish rabbi.

As the story goes, then, this woman approaches Jesus and tells him that her daughter is being tormented by a demon. And, as could probably be expected from an observant Jewish man of this time period, Jesus is completely rude, and all but dismisses her. Remember, she’s not only a woman, but she’s a Gentile, to boot. This means double infraction against religious purity. That’s a lot of Hail Marys…or whatever the First Century Jewish equivalent would have been.

Anyway, Jesus says, “It isn’t fair to throw the children’s food to the dogs…” Yet, this woman, who won’t be undone, says that even the dogs get the crumbs from the table.

Jesus commends her for her faith, and heals the daughter from where he stood, and the story ends.

I have to admit, I’ve always had a hard time with this story. At different stages in my faith development, obviously there were different concerns. So, at one time, I tried to accept the explanation that somehow Jesus was just testing this woman’s faith. But, even that seems cruel—after all, the woman was desperate to have her daughter healed. The fact that she bucked the odds in a male-dominated society to ask a Jewish holy man to heal her daughter should have been confession enough. Needless to say, this perspective didn’t feel right to me.

At some point in seminary, then, there were people who believed that Jesus (being as much a product of his culture as any of us) was confounded in his own prejudice, and in the end learned a lesson about compassion from this woman.

But, even this, while it is certainly empowering for women, and affirms Jesus’ true humanity; to me, it still felt out-of-character for Jesus--especially in light of his other behaviors in the Gospel narratives. Once again, I was at a loss.

However, outside of asking someone else to preach whenever the story came up in the lectionary; I decided I needed to try to figure out how this could possibly make sense—and how it could possibly be good news.

Well, it was after using a form of Bible study that my spiritual director recommended that something about the character of Jesus began to emerge for me. And, while it’s no surprise that Jesus is a complex person—what became apparent was that Jesus is also quite funny. In fact, there are times when his conversations with the Pharisees are so poignant that we can’t help but chuckle. Because, as we know, one of Jesus’ best tactics is his unblinking honesty. But if that is all that it was, if Jesus was continually just an intense person, it’s not likely that he would have drawn people the way that he did.

Anyway, when I came to this story again, I tried reading it as if Jesus was speaking a little sarcastically—not sarcastically to the woman, mind you. It’s my sense that they somehow knew they were an intellectual match. And so Jesus speaks with this kind of irony that embarrasses even the most religiously rigid people around them, but at the same time reveals to them their own deeply rooted prejudices.

  

Now, to lend some credibility to this perspective, we have to recall that Jesus has just had a heated conversation with the Pharisees about cleanliness and religious purity practices when eating. Jesus, as he normally does, takes this conversation a bit further, and points out that it isn’t what we put into our bodies that is the problem—it’s what comes out. It’s the stuff in our hearts; the negative, evil, dark stuff that is the real problem. So, once again, Jesus is making it clear that holiness is not an external practice, but a matter of the heart.

And then, just like a punk band from the 70’s, Jesus and his crew head straight into Gentile territory—exactly the kind of place that pure, religiously observant Jews avoided when at all possible.

The point is that Jesus put himself in this situation. He’s already healed other Gentiles, and in Mark’s Gospel he even healed people on the Sabbath. So, personally, I think there is some precedent for reading this story in such a way that not only does Jesus respect this woman, even to the point of intellectually sparring with her—but he’s continuing to teach in the same vein as he had previously. And the lesson? It isn’t the external stuff that makes us holy or pure. It isn’t the people we reach out to, or even the outward rules we follow. It’s always about our heart, and what comes from there that matters.

  

It’s one thing to hear Jesus tell the religious elite that truth—but the lesson hits home in a real way when the people who follow him experience this exchange between him and this Canaanite woman. Because, even though they might expect this kind of behavior from a religious elitist; coming from Jesus (a guy who regularly challenged the elitists)…well, the behavior is scandalous. It may have even been more offensive to the disciples and those following him than it is to our sensibilities, today. After all, if it wasn’t scandalous, then they had completely missed everything Jesus had been teaching them.

And this particular lesson that is being conveyed here is a powerful one that can’t be taught with words, because the lesson is one that challenges us to look within our own hearts. We, like those disciples, are pressed to do some deep soul searching. Are we offended because Jesus shouldn’t act that way; or are we offended because we see in this episode our own potential for indifference and apathy?

See, I really could be going out on a limb here with this idea that Jesus is being ironic in his conversation with this woman. Maybe, I’m even assuming too much in thinking that she’s in on the joke with him. But, then again, when I read it in that light, I find myself not so much being challenged to defend Jesus, or even defend the dignity of this woman. Instead, I find myself examining all of my own prejudices; all of my own insecurities; all of those shadowy places in my heart…and it honestly leaves me humbled, because I know that I have the potential to be just as petty, arrogant and short-sighted as Jesus appears to be in this reading.

Yet, I also know that this same Jesus says that he has come to bring the sword, and fulfil the Law, but does it the whole way by consorting with prostitutes and tax collectors. And, of course, in the end, his path led him to the cross for all of us… So, maybe my approach to this reading isn’t that far-fetched after all.

Well, I’ve certainly said a lot this morning. What do you think? How do you read and understand Scripture? Whatever the case, I suppose what’s equally important is how we allow Scripture and the Holy Spirit to speak to us; to our hearts. And then,,,I suppose it’s up to us to decide how we’ll allow what we’ve taken in to change us and be communicated through our lives. What will the tone of our lives be? Because as Jesus says, it’s what comes out of the heart, and how we live and communicate out of our heart that makes us; and he says it with no trace of irony.