Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 6, 2009
Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
Psalm 125
James 2:1-17
Mark 7:24-37
Last week, on one of the news programs I watch regularly, I learned an interesting piece of information. It was based on a scientific study of strong women who take personal, financial and vocational risks to become executives of major corporations or leaders among leaders in their field of expertise. The research found that such women have higher than normal levels of testosterone in their body, the predominantly male hormone which is credited with aggressive, risk-taking qualities found in men. The research is particularly pertinent right now because there has been much ado lately about the managing editor of Vogue magazine, Anna Wintour who is believed to be the model for the character played by Meryl Streep in the movie, “The Devil Wears Prada.” Now, I happened to see that movie, primarily because I adore Meryl Streep. I mean, who else could give such completely credible performances of two very different women like Anna Wintour in “The Devil Wears Prada,” and Julia Child in “Julie and Julia.” And there is no reason why I would see either of these movies except for Meryl Streep because, in case you didn’t notice, I am not very interested in cooking or high fashion.
Nevertheless I know a lot about Julia Child because my husband is a great cook and he is a life-long devotee of Julia Child. I have enjoyed many meals Harry has prepared from the recipes in “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” Meryl Streep completely captured Julia’s warmth and charm and skill and light-hearted humor in the film “Julie and Julia.” But I knew virtually nothing about Anna Wintour until I saw “The Devil Wears Prada.” Ms. Streep shows us a cold, calculating, critical, hard-hearted business woman whose sense of humor can only be characterized as biting and cynical. She demands perfection, on her terms, and she gets it. In the movie and in real life Ms. Wintour is wealthy beyond belief; she is admired and feared by everyone she deigns to associate with. And it’s because of her success, and her public fame, the result of being “outed” in “The Devil Wears Prada,” that Ms. Wintour is becoming a legend in our time.
By now you are probably wondering what Anna Wintour, Julia Child, and Meryl Streep have to do with our gospel lesson today—or at least half of it. These are strong, intelligent and articulate women. Food, fashion and acting fame tell us much about who they are and why they have become so successful. They are women who have worked hard and taken great risks to get where they wanted to be. They know who they are, they know what they want, and they know how to get it. And they remind me a lot of the Syrophoenician woman who encounters Jesus in our gospel lesson today.
But that connection did not happen for me until I heard the results of the scientific research which characterizes such women. High levels of testosterone have given these women the bold self-confidence to take the risks they need to achieve the goals they set for themselves. And we shouldn’t be surprised that larger amounts of testosterone in women would make them behave more like men, and even challenge men on their own turf. The result of this research on hormones would explain why there have been women in every culture, and in every generation who have been unable and unwilling to play by gender rules and social convention expected of them. These are the women who have broken the barriers of gender expectation and social acceptability and they have paid the price. They are women who have been ridiculed and scorned for their athletic prowess; women who were pioneers, and who broke glass ceilings in fields of politics and law, science and medicine, business and industry, and yes, even religion. And they are women who continue to be ostracized, imprisoned and even executed in some countries for expressing themselves in ways which are natural to them, just because they happen to be born with higher than normal levels of the hormone testosterone.
The Syrophoenician woman Jesus encounters in our gospel today seems to exemplify characteristics consistent with the findings of modern scientific research. We do not find her at home in her village, resigned to accept the plight of her child. This is a woman who defies social norms and gender expectations to get what she wants, and more importantly what God wants for her and for her child, from the only person who can give it to her—Jesus. And her encounter with Jesus is not very pretty. Jesus is not only caught off guard by her boldness, and you might be interested to know that this is the only time in all of Christian scripture that Jesus loses an argument.
Jesus’ encounter with this Syrophoenician woman is so uncharacteristic of Jesus. He makes it clear right from the start that he wants nothing to do with her. And in Jesus’ defense, he has his reasons. First of all, it is likely that Jesus has traveled far from his sphere of influence, well north to Tyre and Sidon for a much needed getaway. Perhaps even a vacation. He has left communities which are predominantly Jewish to go to an area predominantly populated by Gentiles where he is not likely to be identified for who he is. So when Jesus is accosted by this Syrophoenician woman and asked to heal her daughter, he is downright rude to her. In fact, he issues the worst insult you give to a person in the Mediterranean world. He compares her to an animal. In essence he tells her he will not give the food meant to feed the children of Israel to dogs like her. This response comes as something of a shock to those of us who know Jesus.
We are shocked because Jesus’ rude comment shows him to be the man that he is, and so human. He seems offended that this woman would even approach him. It is an expectation of law and her gender that a woman not approach a man for any reason on her own without another man to accompany her. Jesus is also a Jew, and the fact that this Gentile woman would assert herself in such a way is an affront to any man, no less to this Jewish man. Jesus’ rude response also seems to reflect a man who is very tired and stressed out, a man whose privacy and anonymity have been violated. And being human ourselves we can empathize with Jesus’ human need for some down time at this moment. However, we also know that Jesus has often allowed his down time to be interrupted. He has come down from mountains and out from deserts and taken notice of people in need at times like these before. But not this time. This is why Jesus’ response comes as such a surprise—even a shock. We are seeing Jesus at his most vulnerable, and scripture rarely shows us a Jesus who is so completely human.
But we can thank the Lord that the story does not end here. In fact it comes to a good end because the Syrophoenician woman’s sharp and critical response to Jesus’ mean spirited words calls Jesus to account for being the God that he is. In the end, he will not dismiss her and move on. In fact, he seems mightily impressed by her response to him, perhaps even a little intimidated, because she reminds him that he is the food come down from heaven, not just for Jews, but for everyone to eat. “Even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs,” she tells Jesus. And it is precisely because of her response that Jesus agrees to heal her daughter. When the woman returns home, she finds her daughter healed of the mental illness which has isolated her from herself, her family and from her community.
Given the recent scientific results of hormone testing, I think we can say that with some certainty that this Syrophoenician woman has more than her share of testosterone. But it is also important for us to know that the results of hormone testing in men also show higher levels of the female hormone estrogen in men who tend to be nurturing and compassionate, more cooperative than competitive, more forgiving than forgiven. So I think we can also say with some certainty that Jesus’ healing response to this woman, and to so many others he encounters in his ministry, gives us equally conclusive evidence that Jesus has more than his share of the female hormone estrogen. And that’s a good thing, not only for this Syrophoenician woman, but for Jesus, as well.
And I can’t help thinking, isn’t God wonderful? And aren’t we so wonderfully made by God’s hand that men and women share in such vital genetic material as the hormones estrogen and testosterone which not only distinguish us a male and female, but also enables us to share in the qualities of maleness and femaleness with each other. And while we still have a long way to go to catch up to God’s promises and possibilities for the way he created us, isn’t it wonderful that social norms and gender expectations for men and women continue to change in response to scientific research and human interaction. Women and men can become the people God made them to be and live the life God has given them to live. We become much more acceptable and accepted in roles and life-styles which were once considered antithetical to our gender. And because we are followers of Christ we can even be more grateful that Jesus broke the barriers of gender roles and social expectations in his relationship with women and men throughout his life and ministry. In fact, Jesus’ own life seems to have been a model for what this new research project calls gender hormonal balance. Jesus honored the gifts that both men and women brought to his mission and ministry and he always seemed to bring the right balance of male and female qualities to the persons he encountered and the situations he encountered them in.
Today, however, in this most uncharacteristic passage of scripture, we might say that Jesus gets caught with his compassion down. When the Syrophoenician woman accosts him with her aggressive behavior she is neither insulted nor intimidated by Jesus’ rude comments. And she doesn’t back down. Instead, she pushes for justice and inclusion. She demands accountability from Jesus. And she gets it. In that moment human need reaches beyond human resistance to find God, and the Gospel happens.
This is the important message of our gospel lesson today. The Gospel continues to happen in our own encounters with each other, whenever we remove religious and social and gender and all other kinds of barriers to God; barriers which keep us from being the person God made us to be; barriers which keep us from living the life God gave us to live. Barriers which keep us from fulfilling our potential as God’s human creatures—male and female—who share hormones which make us so very different, and so very much alike. And so wonderfully made.