B, Pent 14 Proper 18 - Mark 7:24-30 "DOG of GOD"

Text: Mark 7:24-27

24 Jesus …entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. 25 In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. 27 “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” 28 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29 Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. (Mark 7:24-30)

Sermon

When you take the name God and spell it backwards what do you get? G-O-D D-O-G! When you spell God backwards you get dog.

Most people know what a dog is, because at some stage in life they, or someone they know, have owned a dog. We have all heard the phrase that a dog is a man’s best friend. Dogs are generally loyal loving beings and will faithfully follow their owners for many years through thick and thin.

But the bible takes a dim view of dogs; especially in the Old Testament where they are the epitome of dirty animals.

In Judges 7:5 the Lord helped Gideon sort out his fighting men by taking out those who drank at the water’s edge on all four, lapping the water like a dog.

Goliath said to David the shepherd boy, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” (1 Sam 17:43) For David he was a dog and was struck down with a stone, and then the Philistines were overrun in battle.

King Ahab and his wife Jezebel were discarded in the most despicable way after Elijah prophesied, “On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs will devour Jezebel’s flesh. Jezebel’s body will be like refuse on the ground in the plot at Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say, ‘This is Jezebel.’” (2 Kings 936b-37)

In Psalm 22 we hear, Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. Deliver my life from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs. (Psalm 22:16&20) Then in Psalm 59, “[Wicked traitors] return at evening, snarling like dogs, and prowl about the city. See what they spew from their mouths.” Then in the Proverbs 26:11, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.”

In the New Testament dogs get even sharper criticism, “Watch out for those dogs, those who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh.” (Philippians 3:2) Jesus says in Matthew 7:6, “Do not give dogs what is sacred…. If you do, they may… …turn and tear you to pieces.” And he also says in Revelation 22:15, “Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.”

Faithful Fido gets a bad wrap in the bible. He’s not the much-loved mutt living in our backyards. Instead the bible paints a picture of dogs as the uncleanest of the unclean. Their association with rotten flesh and human attacks makes them unclean animal; and for a Jew to associate with anything unclean meant they cut themselves off from God and worship at the temple. So when a Jew called another person a dirty dog, it wasn’t just unruly slander against a filthy un-kept person. Rather it was an attack against someone who was unclean in the eyes of God. They were spiritually and ritually unclean. As Jesus says, “Outside are the dogs!” That is: outside of God’s holy presence.

To call someone a dog, falls on our ears harshly, but in the gospel reading for today this is exactly what Jesus does. It might make us cringe, but the truth of the matter is: the woman was a dog in the eyes of the Jews, the law, and ultimately God. This ritually unclean Greek woman coming into contact with a Jew made a Jew unclean before God. And not only that, she had a daughter with an evil spirit. Therefore, even more so was she unclean. Her heritage and her immediate association with her demon possessed daughter made her unfit for God’s holy presence.

Jesus too was a Jew; he was the son of a Jew. So the truly surprising thing in this event, is not that Jesus called her a dog, but that he even associated with her and allowed her to come into his presence in the first place. After all one didn’t give what was sacred to the dogs, the dogs were put outside.

There’s a saying that you’ve probably heard before, “You can’t live with an old dog and not get some of its fleas!” Well guess who has the fleas? Don’t look at who’s sitting next to you, but it’s probably not appropriate to scratch an itch at the moment. However, the truth of the situation is that we are the dogs; all of us have inherited the fleas of humanity. Just like the unclean Greek woman with the demon possessed daughter we too carry the uncleanness that should keep us from God’s presence. The truth is harsh but before God we were once detestable and unclean.

So what has changed us from being dirty dogs with fleas to being faithful friends of God? In the gospel today we heard two separate episodes in Jesus’ ministry. The second part we will hear first.

Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. 32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man. 33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means, “Be opened!”). 35 At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. (Mark 7:31-35)

When we were brought into God’s presence for the first time we had ho capacity to believe him to know him or to even confess his name. But in baptism he brought us from our dogged ways into his heavenly presence. He put his fingers in our ears and said, “be opened, I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. And from that point on he touches our tongues with the spit of his word and the body and blood of his being.

Now let’s hear the first part of the gospel again. 24 Jesus …entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. 25 In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. 27 “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” 28 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29 Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. (Mark 7:24-30)

Now we, who were once unclean dogs outside, can come into the Father’s presence as the children of God. We, having had our ears opened and given faith, eat the crumbs of God’s mercy. But even more fascinating, God invites us up to his table to feed on his food, and rest with him and in him.

But a dog will always be a dog. Our best loved dogs still get fleas; they still do what dogs do. My dog gets fresh bones, but he still feels the need to bury them for a couple of days until they get that good rancid smell about them, before he returns to chew on them. He still vomits and returns to it, as well eats other unmentionable products from his body.

And we too, have our moments of dogginess. Jesus tells us that out of people come things that make us unclean, such as evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. (Mark 7:21-22) Just as a dog returns to its dogged doggy ways, we too grapple with our sinful ways and return to the things that easily spew out of our human nature. Your very own doggedness is the greatest danger to your flesh. When we are called to watch out for those dogs, those mutilators of flesh, God is calling us to continually let the dogged sinful nature within, be cast out of us!

But like the Syrophoenician woman we too can approach our Lord God with confidence. We can come into his presence and seek the crumbs of his mercy knowing that he will not cast us out. We know this because he sent Jesus to take the doggedness of humanity’s sin on himself. By complete trust and faith in the will of his Heaven Father, he was cast out as a dog and was mutilated by the dogs. He was thrown out of the holy city of God's presence at Jerusalem to suffer the death of all dirty dogs on the cross. And because of this we now have been brought into the holy heavenly city of God and adopted as sons of our Heavenly Father.

We might say that a dog is a man’s best friend. We might love our dogs and take care of them even if they return to their despicable dogged ways at times. But in fact a D-O-G is not man’s best friend. G-O-D is every man’s, every woman’s, and every child’s best friend, because God freely forgives us our sins and brings us into his home where he cleanses us and feeds us for the sake of his Son Jesus Christ. Woof-woof. Amen.