Be Opened
 
 
And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house, and would not have any one know it; yet he could not be hid. But immediately a woman, whose little daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And he said to her, "Let the children first be fed, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." But she answered him, "Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." And he said to her, "For this saying you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter." And she went home, and found the child lying in bed, and the demon gone.
Mark 7:24-37
Christ and the Canaanite Woman
REMBRANDT, Harmenszoon van Rijn
1650
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
http://www.biblical-art.com/artwork.asp?id_artwork=2039&showmode=Full
 
 
 
 
We must measure our goodness by what we embrace,
what we create, and who we include.
                                                    ~ Pére Henri (Chocolat)
 

 
Lo, what huge heaps of littleness around!
                                                    ~ Alexander Pope
 
 
 
 
 
A work of art by Arlyss Grosz.
 
Arlyss with another fused glass piece.
She sells her work at Foothills Art Center and
also at Evergreen Fine Arts.
 
Audrey is one of my "artists" in the Daybreak program at the Seniors' Resource Center.
She loves painting and has bought art supplies to have at home. 
This is one of her paintings that she brought from home to show me!
 
At Rotary, Pastor Dee sparkles as she tells about her
60-mile Breast Cancer Walk (and her blisters) last weekend!
 
I love to watch the elk from my patio early in the morning.
 
They continue their bugling!!!
 
The early morning light bathes them deliciously.
 
But I don't like what they did to my flowers last night!
This time they even reached up on the upper patio and got my potted plants.
 
They kindly broke only one pot.
Nary a trace is left of the lobelia and impatiens and lilies.
 
Fishermen at the lake this morning.
 
 
Ann Louise, by David Wright
Sparkling with water droplets all over her.
 
 
 
 
There is no man so great as not to have some
littleness more predominant than all his greatness.
Our virtues are the dupes,
and often only the plaything of our follies.
                                                    ~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton

 
 
 
 
 
September 6, 2009    Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
        This week begins the second half of the Season after Pentecost.
 
Previous OPQs may be found at:       
     http://www.dotjack.com/opq.htm
 
 
 
PART 1
And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house, and would not have any one know it; yet he could not be hid. But immediately a woman, whose little daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And he said to her, "Let the children first be fed, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." But she answered him, "Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." And he said to her, "For this saying you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter." And she went home, and found the child lying in bed, and the demon gone.
Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein
Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org
 

PART 2
Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech; and they besought him to lay his hand upon him. And taking him aside from the multitude privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, "Eph'phatha," that is, "Be opened." And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. And he charged them to tell no one; but the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well; he even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak."
Mark 7:24-37
Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein
Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org
 
 
So when Jesus encounters a man who is deaf and therefore mute -- someone who is unable to listen and therefore was unable to learn to speak -- Jesus is very well prepared. "Be opened," he says. He says it not only with compassion for someone who has suffered, but also with the authority of one who has experienced that of what s/he speaks. That is, after all, what the persistence of the Gentile woman said to him when he was deaf to her cries and therefore unprepared to speak of God's love for all peoples. "Be opened" -- and Jesus was.
http://www.sarahlaughed.net/lectionary/2006/09/proper_18_year_.html
 


Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
Psalm 125
James 2:1-10 (11-13) 14-17
Mark 7:24-37