September 10, 2006 - Proper 18B Mark 7: 24-37 - Mother Stephanie E. Parker+

What does it feel like to beg for crumbs? What does it mean to feel so desperate that you no longer care what anyone else thinks of you and the only thing you care about is finding relief from a despairing situation? I don't think you necessarily have to be poor or marginalized in any way to be visited by this kind of despair,--- but under the cover of affluence it is easier to hide quiet desperation from others.

So think then of how it is when the structures of polite society have broken down for you. What is it like when you are no longer in a position to carefully conceal the painful ways that life has failed you? To those not so at risk, people on the edge of life can appear shrill and grasping and even ungrateful for the crumbs that do come their way.

I remember the first time I worked with the homeless was in the church that actually sent me to seminary. We opened our doors on Sunday evenings and typically served about 30-50 people a humble meal of hot dogs or sloppy Joes, or soup and sandwiches of some sort. And volunteers were surprisingly hard to come by considering these Sunday evening meals were so soon after the morning's gospel proclamation.

The volunteers that did come were generally wonderful people, but often just too overwhelmed by what they saw on these Sundays nights to come more than just sporadically. But my most disturbing memory of that time was an evening when a "pillar of the community," a church member, came to help serve.

Now, most of the people who came to eat with us on Sunday nights were fairly regular visitors. By and large they found it a place of welcome and they were generally relaxed and more often than not the parish hall echoed with laughter and conversation that would have been the norm at about anywhere people were gathered to eat a meal together.

Well, this particular night, this particular volunteer, in the midst of serving, became very irate and agitated because some of our guests would not say "thank you" as they received their plates from him at the window through which we served. Ultimately he took it upon himself to teach "these people" some manners. Thankfully, his efforts at reform were nipped in the bud, but we can all imagine the sad and sorry black eye that Christian hospitality suffered that day. What does it feel like to beg for crumbs?

When we are more affluent our hunger often takes a different shape. From the warmth and safety of our comfortable homes we stare at the phone for hours hoping to hear from someone we love, but from whom we are estranged--- and we just can't seem to take that first step. We either just can't find the words or we can't crawl over our pride, so we just sit and stare into space as a whole is being worn in our hearts. ***Now, not all relationships can be mended, but we still need to resolve our loss of them or the pain becomes a constant shadow.

Or, maybe we've spent our whole life accumulating lovely things, working long hours, living the American dream, and now we realize that the hunger for real happiness burns in our bellies still, and nothing else we can buy, drink or eat seems satisfy. We stare at our worldly goods and realize we would trade them all for some of the things we sacrificed along the way...things like time with our spouse, our partner, or our children who are now either ex's or distant strangers even though they share our blood. What does it feel like to beg for crumbs?

And, of course, we are approaching the anniversary of 9/11? It's five years later there are still very few answers to the questions of "why or how?" Suspicion and fear of "others" often permeates the air. And it seems the hunger for security and a feeling of safety has become an almost insatiable idol for many Americans. The world seems hostile and dangerous. "We cry peace, peace, but there is no peace." What does it feel like to beg for crumbs?

Well, I believe that his nameless woman we meet today has much to teach us about the nature of courage and the foolishness of pride in a world that often has us begging for crumbs...Crumbs seem good enough for her...and she seems to know that this man Jesus has what we she needs.

"She has heard about this Jewish messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. He turns clear, cool water into rich red wine. He takes a few loaves and fishes from one boy and feeds thousands. Now he comes out to the borders of Palestine where she and her tormented daughter live on the edge of existence. It has been a long time since this woman enjoyed a banquet. She has almost forgotten how to claim her place at table. But she has heard about Jesus of Nazareth. She knows he has something from God to feed people. And she intends to get some of that something for her daughter. Crumbs. She will take crumbs if that is all she can get."1

Who knows what finally pushed her over the edge where she was willing to risk rejection, humiliation and social ridicule. Maybe she had simply stared helplessly at her daughter's pain as long as she could and she just didn't care what people thought of her---she had had enough! I imagine her decision was kind of sudden. She's sitting in her house and she jumps up from her empty table and runs out the door into the midday heat to look for this Jew, this Jesus of Nazareth.

And what about Jesus? What about this disturbing tired and grumpy Jesus? It seems as though he's just about had enough as well. He seems tired of fighting with the rigid and hypocritical religious leadership of his day. He appears to have had enough of his disciples continued clueless ness and grasping for position so he even leaves them behind as he seeks just to be left alone for a while.

He heads out the door and hits the dusty road and heads out to the far edges of Israel---he is "out there" figuratively and literally---he is literally on the border. He is "on the boundary between the old and the new, between male and female, between Jew and Gentile, between friend and enemy, between the holy and the demonic.2

Something powerful and profound is happening. Today we see that it is here, here on the borderlines of existence, where we find the potential for great courage and deeper understanding...it is here on the borders of life where poverty, isolation, fatigue, desperation, and anxiety can drive us right to the edge of our abilities to cope. It is here in this place of seeming emptiness where Christ's love finds us most hungry and most willing to be filled...even if it seems like we're begging for crumbs.

Jesus' words are harsh to our ears, how can these be words of hope and mercy? Is even Jesus subject to the darkness of racism and nationalism? Is he being callous and dismissive to this woman's desperate plea? Some commentators have tried to say that Jesus said these words with humor or teasing, but that simply is not so. What is happening here is far more profound and meaningful--- and besides, we all know racist jokes simply are not funny-then or now!

What we see here today is an amazing acknowledgment by Jesus, ----maybe for the first time-that the Jewish messiah is in fact not only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but that God has in fact sent him to the whole world. In last weeks gospel we heard Jesus declare "all foods clean" and today he declares all persons clean. In this phenomenal moment we see that there is in fact a wideness in God's mercy that has no limits.

There are no racial, national, ethnic, social or gender boundaries that separate us from the love of God----Today we see that even the crumbs that fall from the bread of life are enough to feed our emptiness, fear, and pain for an eternity. It is the risen Christ who feeds us and who calls us to go out and feed others in the power of his love. These crumbs are enough to set a lavish banquet---a banquet where all of God's children are welcome and no one goes away empty.

What does it feel like to beg for crumbs? In the world it can feel humiliating, desperate and lonely. In The kingdom of God it feels like salvation and the crumbs taste like freedom. Freedom from exclusion, freedom from loneliness, freedom from pride and freedom from the need to turn our country into a land of fear and oppression---even as we remember the horror of 9/11.

This is the true power of our God and this is the irrefutable mercy and compassion of Jesus Christ. Today we are all invited to the table to eat and drink our fill. The gifts of God for the people of God... Amen.












1 S.N-McJilton
2 Thomas G. Long



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