Refection September 5

"Dear David,
Thank you very much for this essay, the logic of which escapes me. However if you like, I would be happy to buy you a beer so you could explain it to me.
In bepuzzlement  your New Testament theology lecturer."

I want to come back to this little note at the end of the homily.

There are three things that I find difficult about today's gospel.

First there is the apparent put down of the woman by Jesus. When this poor, distraught Mum comes begging for an exorcism for her daughter, Jesus seems to be rude and insulting. ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’

Imagine what our Safe Church officer would say about that. Bullying, discrimination  and harassment for sure.

Secondly, Jesus wants to hide himself away and not to be talked about. “He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there”. “Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one;” Surely if you were the Son of God and had come offering salvation to all, you would spread the news as widely as and publicly as possible.

The third thing is Jesus' unsuccessful attempts for privacy and public silence. “He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there…. Yet he could not escape notice.”

So much for having a quiet afternoon kip.

“Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.”

So if Jesus is all powerful, then how come the people don’t abide by his orders?

A motley collection of thoughts that might be helpful.

With the issue of the peoples disobedience to keep mum. The relationship that Our Lord offered to these people is the same one that He offers to you and to me. It is a relationship of trust and love. Like all relationships of trust and love this infinitely precious thing can be abused, misread or ignored all together. This love business and especially this God business, is a risky risky thing. When the Messiah stretches out his hands to reconcile and to heal, his palms will frequently be pierced and punctured. And this is true of us as well. When we reach out our hands in the name of friendship, or with the intention of  hope and reconciliation there is always a risk of rejection and failure. Otherwise it is not truly love. If we reach out with a self seeking motive,  where we hope to achieve or gain something for ourselves, then not only have we missed the point, we have missed out on a relationship that could be quite special and lovely and divine.

On the issue of the Christ who consciously chooses to conceal himself. My best starting point and that is all it is, is silence and hiddenness are often how love is expressed. The couple's silence over the candlelit dinner is not a sign of the absence of love, but rather the intensity of their relationship. What is harder to understand is the apparent absence of God’s presence. When we seem to be calling in the dark and all we hear is the echo of our own unanswered prayers shouted out in frustration and anguish. Perhaps it is then time to listen. To listen hard and carefully. This is the bit in the prayer conversation when He wants to speak to us and wants us to discover that the Kingdom is already within us. We cannot do that unless we are very still and very quiet, sometimes for a very long time.

And what of  our Lord's grumpy conversation with the Mother who in a sense, is just as tormented as her daughter. It is almost as if our Lord wants to engage her in conversation; that he is teasing her  and encouraging her into a deeper dialogue. The Master knows the depth and passion of a Mothers love and He wants to use her angst to begin a relationship with her. What if the Master knew what He was going to do all along? That he always had every intention of healing the daughter, but saw an opportunity to make a new friend with a stranger from another land.

All of these things are just tiny starting dot points. The hidden, ineffectual and arrogant Christ are all the same one. They are the teacher who longs to speak to us and to engage with us and draw us onwards and upwards into His very self. This is the very best Christ that we could have. One who is constantly using every means He can to transform us into the very best that we can be. The most effective teachers were not the ones who gave me the answers on a silver platter and sent me away. The very best teachers were like my New Testament lecturer. The teachers who gave me just enough to keep on learning, to keep on asking, to keep on discovering, to keep on wanting to know more. The ones who stretched me and made me think … really hard.

Praise then to the elusive Christ who reveals just enough of Himself so that we want to keep on learning, keep on asking, keep on discovering, keep on listening, keep on thinking… really hard. The elusive Christ who always wants me to get to know Him more and more. The one who wants to buy me a beer and chat with me. Silly me. It wasn’t  a put down from my lecturer. It wasn’t about the beer and the essay at all. It was about a relationship.