16th Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 35:4-7a; Psalm 146; James 2:1-17; Mark 7:24-37
On the 16th Sunday after Pentecost, Mark introduces us to a Jesus who, at the surface, sounds and acts very differently from what we are used to. First, Jesus here is not in a hospitable mood. He is distancing himself from the crowds that usually follow him and is seeking solitude (7:24). When the unnamed woman, a stranger, someone who would not belong with him, enters his private space seeking healing for her daughter, he calls her a dog and tells her she is low on his healing priority (27). Who is this man? Has Mark shuffled his notes and got confused? There is no other place in the gospels where Jesus interacts with women in such a way – except in the parallel account in Matthew 15:21-28. It is impossible not to wonder about what is going on there. Regardless of Jesus’ motivations to say what he says – and that is anyone’s educated guess – what is clear is that there is something that she says to him in return (28) that flips the script and ensures the remote healing of the lady’s daughter.
The restoration of the man with a hearing and speaking impediment happens somewhat differently. Here, Jesus seems more hospitable. The man is brought to him in person. There is physical touch and the exchange of gross body fluids (33). Similarities exist, nonetheless. Jesus crosses boundaries and heals in foreign territory – Tyre and the Decapolis region. Both healings also happen in private. Both are restored out of hopelessness.
The Christian believer hears in Isaiah the promise of the God who will make himself present to restore joy here and now (35:4) to the blind, the lame, and the voiceless (5-6).
The words in James’ letter may also be difficult to hear as they confront some of the practices that may be common in our faith communities. Does the person with “gold rings” receive the same generous hospitality as the one in “dirty clothes (verse 2)?” Do we extend judgment to the poor instead of mercy (4, 13)? Can we claim the faith in Jesus Christ if we show partiality against the disenfranchised (1)? According to James, the answer is no. Faith that does not impact our communities in a positive way by good works, that is, restoring the least among our neighbors, is dead (14 -17). These last verses can be quite unsettling for those of the Lutheran Tradition.
Nonetheless, Luther wrote about this: “I cannot change at all what I have consistently taught about this until now, namely, that “through faith” (as St. Peter says) we receive a different, new, clean heart and that, for the sake of Christ our mediator, God will and does regard us as completely righteous and holy. Although sin in the flesh is still not completely gone or dead, God will nevertheless not count it or consider it. Good works follow such faith, renewal, and forgiveness of sin … Furthermore, we also say that if good works do not follow, then faith is false and not true.”
The psalmist proclaims:
“The LORD sets the prisoners free;
the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the righteous.
The LORD watches over the strangers;
he upholds the orphan and the widow,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin (Psalm 146:7c-9, NRSVue).”
Bridging Faith 