The Big Step from dog to God

The Big Step from dog to God                    The Dover Church

September 9, 2012 – Rally Sunday              Scripture: Mark 7:24-37

As a father of a third grader and a kindergartner, I am deeply into letters, spelling, and how words go together. We play games like how many words are there in the letters O-G-D. They see dog at once and then do the big flip and see God. When they're teens, OGD will probably mean something in the texting world. Now that's just a game, but taking the big step from dog to God is what faith is all about. Our lesson this morning illustrates just that.

         Here’s this young, Jewish rabbi walking around in Palestinian territory, proclaiming the Kingdom of God, that the God of Israel is King of all Creation and here right now in Jesus, comforting the poor, healing the sick, freeing the prisoners, bringing sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, making crippled bodies strong, drawing out evil and pouring in newness and fullness of life. And who does he meet? A double whammy: a woman, to whom he shouldn’t be talking in the first place; and a foreigner, an enemy, someone who is going to heartily resent both his presence and his message. We're in a dog eat dog world.

But she takes the big step from dog to God and calls him on it. She calls Jesus’ cards. “OK, Mr. Bigshot, so sure of himself Jewish Rabbi (insert Protestant minister walking around in Ireland 100 years ago, Catholic priest walking around in China or Muslim imam walking around our country today here if it helps) who thinks he's better than me walking around in my country. The Kingdom of your God is at hand? OK. Your God is ruler of all creation and your God is comforting the poor, healing the sick, freeing the prisoners, bringing sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, making crippled bodies strong, drawing out evil and pouring in newness and fullness of life? Right now? Through you? OK. That’s a lot of great talk, but I’ll take it. I have a daughter who is just filled with evil, badness, sadness, limitations, who’s to say what the woman meant by a demon, although a lot of us have seen them called by other names. Well, help her. Heal her. Restore her. Give her that newness and fullness of life. Right now!”

And Jesus goes all religious on her. By goes religious on her, I mean all the things that make all of you suspicious of religion and religious people. Jesus goes all religious and slaps her down. “Sorry. You’re not one of us. I’m here for my fellow Israelites, not dogs like you.” And she doesn’t back down. “That’s a pretty shabby God then if it’s only for you. In a world of millions and billions of people, your God, the Lord and ruler of all creation, is only interested in a few million? That’s a pretty small box you’re in.”

And Jesus is taken up short. He remembers who he is, what he is about and he cures the woman’s daughter. You don’t believe he did it? Well, what about what he didn’t do? Here's the miracle, if you ask me. Did you notice? Did you notice how he didn’t say, “Now you have to get with the program”? Did you notice how he didn’t insist that she start worshipping, praying, thinking in a certain way. That she has to get it right. That she join a church, become a Christian, or even profess him as Lord and Savior. Nope.

All he said was, “You’re right. God loves you and there’s nothing you, I, or anyone else can do about it. No strings attached. No money down. Go and be well, enjoying life with your daughter who is well.”

Now that’s a God I can worship: comprehensive, unlimited, present and active, relevant and serious, unconstricted and not constricting, not about a program or an organization, hopeful, peaceful, joyous, generous and loving. And why? What’s the clincher for me? Because living my way into that life is way more than praying, singing, worshipping or believing a certain way. It’s way more challenging than belonging to a certain club or agreeing with certain bunch of rules. It’s somewhere I'll never arrive but which always keeps me striving for more. It gives me a chance to get to know God better and better in every person I meet: “God loves him and there’s nothing anyone can do about it?” It's about life in which every human being, no exceptions, is like a spoke on a wheel. With God as the center, we all start out at the same distance from God and our neighbors. We come closer to God as we move closer to the center. And as we move towards the center, we also draw closer to our neighbors.

Think about it. It's a big step from seeing the world full of dogs to seeing the world full of God. In a world full of God, everyone and everything is a jumping off point into the vast, mysterious, loving wonder of a universe yet to be lived. In a world full of dogs...well, we know what that's like, don't we?

When Jesus heals the deaf man later in the same lesson, all he says is “Be Open.” And that’s what he is saying to all of us: “Be open. God loves you and you and you and you and everyone else. No exceptions. No strings attached. No money down." Now that's an adventure worth living, if you can only get up every morning and take that big step.