Pound Your Fist

Mitch was a handful. He was a faithful member of the church, never missed worship, Adult Sunday School, or most importantly mid-week Bible Study. Yet no matter what passage of the Bible was being studied, Mitch would seem to fixate on the same things every week. “Why aren’t you teaching from the King James Version of the Holy Bible?” He would ask while pounding his fist on his leatherbound King James Bible, and glower at me, the pastoral intern, or at the pastor himself at the beginning of every lesson. We would keep plowing through the lesson, until something was said that Mitch didn’t agree with. There would be either more fist pounding or finger pointing. Sometimes an accusation was made of not being faithful to the teachings of God’s law. “We must be faithful to the law of God!” Mitch would say out loud. “The Ten Commandments, and God’s law must be followed. We must strive to be righteous!” Occasionally Mitch would get an “Amen” from one of the senior church ladies nodding their head. This would encourage Mitch to keep at it. “And another thing!” he’d say, “you make it sound like God’s salvation is for anybody! Where’s the effort and sacrifice!?” There might be more head nodding with a “Here! Here!” from the retired Army colonel sitting next to Mitch. Truth be told very few members of the church weren’t active or retired military personnel. Most of whom were officers.  Things got so animated while I was attempting to lead Bible Study that my supervisor pastor decided we needed to pay Mitch a visit during the week. “Of course you can visit, pastor!” said Mitch. “Bring that intern too!”

It’s hard to be interrupted when you are trying to teach or lead. Jesus was trying to teach when he kept getting interrupted by a foreign woman. “Help me! Save me! My daughter is suffering and sick!” she pleaded to Jesus and the disciples. The disciples weren’t having it. They told Jesus to make the woman go away. And so Jesus told the woman that he had come to serve the children of Israel, of which she was not, and that it wouldn't be right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs. Why would Jesus, full of compassion and love say such a thing? 

Someone made the point in Bible study this week that it is common for a religious person to be brought up in the church, learn the ways of God, but at the same time to be conditioned and taught at home to have a bias against certain groups of people. It’s true that that happens. Each of us is conditioned in our home and community to have biases in how we look at the world. Could it be that even Jesus who was sent to love and serve all people maybe had been influenced as a child to harbor a kind of bias against Syro-Phonecians and or Canaanites of whom this woman has been described to be? Jesus wasn’t just God’s son, he was also a human being born of Mary and shared in our human struggles. Why wouldn’t he struggle with overcoming bias?

Nevertheless she persisted. The woman, rather than storming away offended, took Jesus' own words and turned them around and reflected them back to him. She said, “Even dogs get scraps from the table!” Her strategy is fascinating in it’s cunning and power. Another person in our Bible study said she must have been speaking by the power of the Holy Spirit. God the Spirit speaking to God the Son. Isaiah chapter 56 says that God’s vision for Israel is to be a house of prayer for all peoples. Paul writes in Romans that all peoples and nations are guilty of being disobedient so that all people and nations could receive forgiveness and salvation. Even if we are disobedient foreigners, even if we are no better than dogs, God provides for us too. Then again, dogs