Mark 7:24-37

The Bible says that a Syrophoenician woman came to Jesus because her daughter was possessed by demons. How might this have seemed from the disciple's point of view? What is Jesus doing now! "Peter, you know Jesus. Is there any way you can straighten him out." What are we doing here in Tyre in the middle of all these Gentiles? I mean the straight path to where we should be going would keep us in Israel. That is where we should be not with all these dirty Gentiles. If our mother could see us now with all these dogs, what would she say?

Why is Jesus going out of his way to go through a region full of Greeks and Romans! Well, maybe he just wanted to get away from the crowds. That would make sense. In Israel we couldn't even find time to eat. People were constantly coming up to Jesus asking him to heal someone or asking him questions. Maybe now we can get some peace among these Gentiles. They're so dumb they don't know a messiah from Matthew here.

Why is that woman looking at Jesus like that? She's a Greek she can't possibly know who he is. Oh no, she's coming over here. Why is she coming over to us? Jesus, make her go away.

Why is she kneeling at his feet? What was that she said, "Jesus, son of David" cast the demon from my daughter. How does she know to call him the son of David? Does she even know what that means? She can't know that. How could she know or appreciate that Jesus is the Messiah?

Did you hear that! Jesus told her off for sure. "I came to feed the children not the dogs." Now maybe she will go away and we can get on with our work. Jesus has more important things to do than bother with dogs.

Wait, what did she say! Oh, that was clever, "Even the dogs get to eat the crumbs." Well I guess they do, don't they. James, did you hear that? Did Jesus just heal that woman's daughter!

Now we'll never get any peace. Every sick and disabled Gentile from all around will be coming to Jesus. Instead of making them go away, Jesus just attracted more of them. But you know, these Gentiles aren't all that bad. They kind of grow on you."

We expected Jesus to heal the girl, but why did Jesus respond at first to the woman the way he did? It seems un-Jesus like, even racist, to refer to this woman and her entire race as dogs. But that's essentially what Jesus did? I don't know about you but I was shocked and disturbed by it. How do we reconcile this with the love Jesus showed the whole world when he died on a cross?

You know what I think? I think Jesus orchestrated this whole scene for his disciples' benefit. When Jesus saw this woman he knew her depth of faith and he longed to see that depth of faith in his disciples. A faith that saw beyond the labels Jew and Gentile. A faith that saw God's broader plan of salvation.

Jesus knew that it was the Father's plan to take the Good News of salvation to the Gentiles, but that was still unthinkable to the twelve disciples. So Jesus responded to the woman the way his disciples expected. He said, in essence, "Get away from here you dog." But he said it, I believe, knowing that God would give this Gentile a witty response. And that witty response gave the disciples a chance to see God's plan in a much broader perspective.

I imagine a scene years down the road after Jesus had ascended and sent the Holy Spirit. Paul had been running about baptizing uncircumcised Gentiles and there is an uproar in Jerusalem. Followers of "The Way" of Jesus are saying, "Who does he think he is? Jesus came to save the children of God. Not these uncircumcised Gentile dogs." And Peter and the other apostles look at each other knowingly and reply, "But even the dogs eat the children's scraps."

Let me put this nice little story in perspective. We are the dogs. When Jesus said, "It is not fair to give the children's food to the dogs," he was referring to us. When we read the Bible we tend to associate with Jesus' disciples. But in reality we are mostly Gentiles. Some of us may have some Jewish blood in our lineage, but for the most part we were raised as Gentiles.

And those first twelve disciples would have seen us as dogs. They would have refused us entrance into the church unless we jumped through a lot of hoops implemented so as to make joining difficult. Judaism in Jesus' day had become a restricted club with limited membership. Only those who were "good Gentiles" were allowed to even look in the windows. But Jesus changed all that.

Perhaps like the disciples we need to have our perspective widened. Perhaps we need to see that the Gospel of salvation is meant to reach all. You know the most effective strategy of evangelism is to have the members of a church invite people they know to church. Statistical studies have shown that it is more effective than visitation campaigns, revivals, or even neighborhood canvases. It is effective because it is a one on one witness with people we know and respect. But who would we think of inviting to our church? Too often the church becomes a restricted club like God's people in Jesus' day. The church members often only invite "good Christian folk" to church and fail to reach the ones who need the Gospel the most.

Perhaps we need to remind ourselves who we are. We are the dogs who have eaten the crumbs of the bread of life discarded by others. If we can then remember God' grace in allowing us to be saved, we can be gracious to others and our perspective will be broadened. And maybe we would consider all the outsiders who need an invitation to God's house. Perhaps we would invite people with no Christian upbringing, or different accents, or people with nontraditional lifestyles.

You know what would happen then? Troubled souls would be set at peace. Emotional turmoil would be stilled. Demons would be cast out. People who were deaf to God's word would hear, and lives would be healed.

We are the dogs, and there are a lot of others like us hungering for the bread of life.

James 2:1-17

"Faith" is a verb! Sometimes I think the English language does us a disservice in the words it gives us to describe our faith. We have the word "faith" which we use to describe the spiritual state of trusting in God. But there is no verb form of the word. Greek has a verb form of its word for faith but it is often translated "believe." So where the Greek says, "Faith on Jesus Christ" the English says, "believe in Jesus Christ."

The end result is that we think of faith as a thing and not an action. In our minds "faith" is a spiritual state of being. It is not something you do. It�s not active; it�s passive.

But the truth is that faith is a verb not a noun. It is not merely a thing, but it is an action. "Faith" is not a passive verb like sit or stand. "Faith" is an active verb like run and jump. And if faith is not a verb, then it is nothing.

That is what I think James is trying to tell us. He says, "Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead." He says, "What good is faith without works?" Can faith by itself save you? Can faith alone feed the hungry or cloth the naked? Does your faith do any earthly good if you are so pious you can't sit with a sinner for an hour and share God's love? And specifically to the people to whom James was writing he said, "What good is it if you say you have faith but show prejudice against those with less income."(James 2:1-7)

Faith without works is dead; it is nothing. We talk about faith and works as if they are opposites. I would argue that they are the same thing. They are two sides of the same coin. You can't have one without the other.

Of course many of you would be quick to remind me that works alone cannot save. And that is true. You can't earn your salvation through works alone. Only Jesus can save you as a gift of grace so we must have faith in him. But by the same token faith cannot save you without works!

Some may be shocked at this. "The preacher just said faith alone can't save you!" But that is exactly what the Bible says in verse 14. Faith without works cannot save you because it is not true faith yet. Faith is a verb. Faith and works are two sides of a coin. You can't have the heads side of a coin without the tails can you? And so you can't truly have faith if it is not lived out in your life.

So if you say I have faith and you have works then neither of you have anything. You can't truly have one without the other. Faith is trust in the saving power of God through Jesus Christ. It is like a man who built a bridge. He believed that he could build a safe bridge, but that belief was not faith until he stepped out and walked on the bridge he had built.

In the same way our belief in Jesus is not faith until it is put to action. Belief in Jesus is not faith until we risk our lives by taking a chance for him. Perhaps it is in taking the chance of ridicule for claiming to be a Christian or trying to do right. Faith is not faith until our belief moves us to reach out in love to seek God in prayer, to help those in need. Belief is not faith until it is put in motion.

In verse 18 James says, "Even the demons believe and shudder." The Devil and all the demons know that God is the Almighty and that Jesus is the Son of God and that he died for the sins of the world. But you cannot say that the demons have faith because their actions are contrary to the truth that God is Almighty and Jesus is God's Son. They don't obey God as the Almighty or Jesus as God's Son. There are many self proclaimed Christian in the same boat. They say they believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but their actions are to the contrary. They say that they believe that Jesus is the truth and that the truth will set you free but they are still enslaved to the flesh. Their lives are not lived in obedience to Jesus. Now we all falter, but faith at least tries to live the freedom of God in service.

When we think of faith and works, we Methodists often think of John Wesley. As you remember John Wesley was a priest in the Church of England. He and some other young priests formed a "Holy Club". The members of this club would rise at 4 am every morning for prayer and meditation. They would keep prayer diaries and methodically study the Scriptures. They would minister to the poor and counsel condemned prisoners.

John Wesley was basically trying to make himself holy so that he would be acceptable to God. He was trying to earn his salvation by his works. He even went to Georgia to preach to the Indians and preached against slavery until he was banned from many of England's pulpits. He made great sacrifices and did things that the church of his day would not do. He lived a very "holy" life of prayer and sacrifice and service.

But he was troubled. One day as he listened to Luther's Preface to the book of Romans being read he realized that salvation was a gift God had given him not something he had to earn. At that point his heart was "strangely warmed." And what did he do? He rose every morning at 4 am to pray and he went to the prisons and ministered to the poor and preached the Gospel.

His actions didn't change, but his heart did. Usually this story is told to illustrate the fact that works alone don't save. But let�s turn it around. But what if after his heart was strangely warmed John Wesley stopped doing all those godly things. Could we still say he had faith? No! He might have had belief, but what good would it have been. There would have been no worldwide Methodist movement to spread Scriptural Holiness and minister to the needy.

John Wesley is such an important example because he is the opposite of most of the people in the church today. There are very few people in the church today that are trying to be saved by their works alone. On the other hand there are a lot who are trying to be saved by faith alone. Not the kind of active life changing verb faith of John Wesley but the passive noun faith that does nothing. They believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but they don't apply that belief to the way they are living their lives. And it does them no good. The Bible says it doesn't save them. As the saying goes, "They are so heavenly minded they are of no earthly good."

How many of you believe that Jesus is the Son of God raise your hands? How many of you believe that God so loved the word that he gave his only begotten son to die for the sins of the world say "Amen"? How many of you believe that Jesus died for your sins say "Alleluia." How many of you believe that Jesus has the power to free us from our sins clap your hands?

You believe those things, but do you have faith in them? How are your beliefs lived out in your daily lives? If you truly believe that Jesus died for the sins of the world, do you tell sinners about that? If you believe that Jesus frees us, do you pray to him and trust in him to free you from all that oppresses your heart, mind, soul, and spirit. If you believe that God so loved you that he sent his Son to die for you, then do you make sacrifices to love your neighbor? If you believe that Jesus left heaven to help you, do you go out of your way to help others?

If you answer "yes" to some or all of these then you have faith. Your belief is an action that includes the works of righteousness. But if you answer "no," then you are in the same situation as those demons that James spoke of. They believe that God is One, but they shudder. Put your faith to work. Make faith a verb in the dictionary of your life.