"Be Opened"
Wealth and the poor and
judging
A good name is to be chosen
rather than great riches,
and favor is better than silver or gold.
The rich and the poor have this in common:
the Lord is the maker of them all.
Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity,
and the rod of anger will fail.
Those who are generous are blessed,
for they share their bread with the poor.
Do not rob the poor because they are poor,
or crush the afflicted at the gate;
for the Lord pleads their cause
and despoils of life those who despoil them.
Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
Young Beggar
MURILLO, Bartolomé Esteban
1645
Musee du Louvre
Paris, France
http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/diglib-fulldisplay.pl?SID=20120905566558837&code=ACT&RC=55205&Row=6
Murillo's The Young Beggar (also known as
The Louse-Ridden Boy) is the first known example of the artist's overwhelmingly
popular genre paintings featuring the street children of Seville. The Young
Beggar depicts a barefoot young street urchin clad in torn, patched-up rags,
relaxing after what appears to have been a light lunch of shrimp and apples
(common fare for the poor at the time).
The subject of the painting reflects the
harsh reality of 17th century Spain, where poverty was rampant and ravaging
plagues left many children orphaned and left to fend for themselves on the
streets.
The Young Beggar is a kind of pictorial
counterpart to the "picaresque" (low-life) figures so
common in Spanish literature of the time, such as the classic Lazarillo de
Tormes, the tale of one impoverished youth's dishonest and unscrupulous
scrabble up the social ladder.
Murillo's idealized depiction of the
urchin, however, conveniently ignores the more harrowing aspects of an orphaned
child's life on the streets. The little scamp is engrossed in an activity which
the contemporary viewer may not immediately grasp: searching for and killing
lice.
This may be a seemingly banal or even
distasteful subject for a painting, but in fact pictures of delousing abounded
in the 16th and 17th centuries. The subject was particularly popular in Dutch
genre scenes, which often depicted mothers delousing their children's hair.
This hygienic act was seen as symbolic of purity and cleansing oneself of sin,
as well as a testament to motherly responsibilities.
The subject of delousing then infiltrated
Italy and Spain, and from time to time could take on other connotations: also
popular were images of a man and woman searching each other for lice, an act
which was interpreted as erotic in nature. In Murillo's case, the boy's act of
self-delousing most likely has a spiritual message, referring to the innocence
and purity of children.
https://www.artble.com/artists/bartolome_esteban_murillo/paintings/the_young_beggar
When you judge another,
you do not define them,
you define yourself.
~ Wayne Dyer
There is no prejudice so
strong
as that which arises from
a fancied
exemption from all
prejudice.
~ William Hazlitt
Lynn Gilbert at the Arvada Center
(The dragon is visiting from Four Mile Historic Park)
https://www.fourmilepark.org/
Jim and Lynn Gilbert and I were there to see “Waitress,” a
delightful show!
Linda Kirkpatrick and I had lunch at Dandelions.
Connie Ning with Tofu.
Connie and her husband, Ted Ning, hosted our Rotary Book
Club.
Mary Sheron and Ted Ning led our discussion.
Tim Clancy and Alan Rubin at Rotary.
Rita Carver, Jeri, and Jen Volmer
Another Robin Sakamoto creation.
The Yoshioka family have arrived from Kamakura, Japan!!!
Welcome to Colorado, Junna, Abby, Tina, Ray, and Eugene!
It was a loooooong flight!
Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely
as absolute power.
~ Eric Hoffer
September 8, 2024 Sixteenth Sunday
after Pentecost [Proper 18B]
Previous OPQs may be found at:
24From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He
entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not
escape notice, 25but a woman
whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and
she came and bowed down at his feet. 26Now the
woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon
out of her daughter. 27He said to
her, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the
children's food and throw it to the dogs." 28But she answered him, "Sir,
even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." 29Then he said to her, "For
saying that, you may go — the demon has left your daughter." 30So she went home, found the child
lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
31Then he
returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of
Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32They brought
to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to
lay his hand on him. 33He took him
aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and
he spat and touched his tongue. 34Then looking
up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." 35And immediately his ears were
opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36Then Jesus ordered them to tell no
one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37They were astounded beyond measure,
saying, "He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and
the mute to speak.”
Mark 7:24-37
Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein
Agnus
Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org
What good is it, my
brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can
faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one
of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and
yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by
itself, if it has no works, is dead.
James 2:14-17
LECTIONARY
Proverbs 22:1–2, 8–9, 22–23
Psalm 125
James 2:1–10 (11–13) 14–17
Mark 7:24–37
SUMMARY
The story of the
Syrophoenician woman is one of the most misinterpreted and abused passages of
Scripture today, and so the preacher must be on guard against parroting false
interpretations. Jesus was not an ethnocentrist that needed his perspective
widened. What is plainer in the other Gospels’ rendering of the scene is that
the whole point of the episode is to display and honor the woman’s faith.
Jesus’ comment about the priority of Israel is intentionally phrased in order
to be offensive, but the humility she returns speaks to her single minded
faith. Unlike the Jews who lorded their chosen status over the Gentiles, this
Gentile woman thinks nothing of her own dignity next to the chance to receive
from the Lord. Her faith far outstrips her pride.
This is the sort of faith that Israel itself needs to have in order to live up
to its calling as the chosen people and get in on Jesus’ new covenant. The
syrophoenician woman’s subordination of her ethnic identity to the prospect of
receiving healing from Jesus is a profound challenge today, especially as
various forms of “identity” have lately
emerged as a sacrosanct component of the human soul. But there is nothing this
woman finds more important than her faith. Her first identity is in the kingdom
of God, and everything else can wait.
https://www.preachingtoday.com/lectionary/
They brought to him a deaf man who
had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took
him off by himself away from the crowd. Jesus put his finger into the
man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; he then looked up to heaven and
groaned, and to him “Ephphatha” – that is “Be opened.”
Mark 7: 31-37
THE WORD:
Ephphatha – “Be opened!”
Isaiah’s vision of a Messiah who would come with hope and
healing (today’s first reading) is realized in this episode from Mark’s Gospel:
the deaf hear, the silent are given voice, the lame “leap like a stag.”
The exhortation Ephphatha! is not only
addressed to the man born deaf but to his disciples both then and now who fail
to hear and see and speak the presence of God in their very midst.
The Aramaic phrase ephphatha literally means
“be released” – Jesus “releases” the man not only from his disability but from
his sins, his isolation from the community, his alienation from God.
Jesus’ curing of the deaf man with spittle (which, in Jesus’
time, was considered curative) is an act of re-creation. God’s reign is
present in human history in the extraordinary ministry of Jesus.
Throughout Mark’s Gospel, Jesus insists that his healings be kept quiet in
order that his full identity be revealed and understood only in the light of
his cross and resurrection.
HOMILY THEMES:
Jesus restores the deaf man’s hearing with the word Ephphatha –
“Be opened!” We, too, can bring healing and life to those who need the
support, the affirmation, the sense of loving and being loved that the simple
act of listening can give.
In times of grief, despair and failure, we can be “deaf” to the
presence of God in the love and compassion of others – or we can become so
preoccupied with the noise and clamor of the marketplace that we are unable to
hear the voices of those we love and who love us.
Jesus not just cures the man with a fleeting word but, by his
touch, he enters into the grit and grime, the struggle and pain of the man’s
life and, in doing so, brings hope and healing to the man.
https://connectionsmediaworks.com/sundaygospel.html#sept8
First Reading Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9,
22-23
1A good name
is to be chosen rather than great riches,
and favor is
better than silver or gold.
2The rich and the poor have this in
common:
the LORD is
the maker of them all.
8Whoever sows injustice will reap
calamity,
and the rod
of anger will fail.
9Those who are generous are blessed,
for they
share their bread with the poor.
22Do not rob the poor because they are
poor,
or crush the
afflicted at the gate;
23for the LORD pleads their cause
and despoils
of life those who despoil them.
Psalm
125:1-5
1Those who trust in the LORD are like
Mount Zion,
which cannot
be moved, but abides forever.
2As the
mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the LORD
surrounds his people,
from this
time on and forevermore.
3For the
scepter of wickedness shall not rest
on the land
allotted to the righteous,
so that the righteous might
not stretch out
their hands
to do wrong.
4Do good, O
LORD, to those who are good,
and to those
who are upright in their hearts.
5But those
who turn aside to their own crooked ways
the LORD
will lead away with evildoers.
Peace be
upon Israel!
Second
Reading James 2:1-10 (11-13) 14-17
1My brothers
and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious
Lord Jesus Christ? 2For if a
person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a
poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3and if you
take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, "Have a seat
here, please," while to the one who is poor you say, "Stand
there," or, "Sit at my feet," 4have you not made distinctions among
yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 5Listen, my beloved brothers and
sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be
heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6But you have dishonored the poor. Is
it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? 7Is it not they who blaspheme the
excellent name that was invoked over you?
8You do well if you really fulfill
the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as
yourself." 9But if you
show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10For whoever keeps the whole law but
fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. 11For the one who said, 'You shall not
commit adultery," also said, "You shall not murder." Now if you
do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the
law. 12So speak and
so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. 13For judgment will be without mercy
to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
14What good is it, my brothers and
sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15If a brother or sister is naked and
lacks daily food, 16and one of
you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet
you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17So faith by itself, if it has no
works, is dead.
Gospel Mark
7:24-37
24From there
he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not
want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, 25but a woman whose little daughter
had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down
at his feet. 26Now the
woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon
out of her daughter. 27He said to
her, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the
children's food and throw it to the dogs." 28But she answered him, "Sir,
even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." 29Then he said to her, "For
saying that, you may go — the demon has left your daughter." 30So she went home, found the child
lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
31Then he returned from the region of
Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the
Decapolis. 32They brought
to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to
lay his hand on him. 33He took him
aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and
he spat and touched his tongue. 34Then looking
up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that
is, "Be opened." 35And
immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke
plainly. 36Then Jesus
ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously
they proclaimed it. 37They were
astounded beyond measure, saying, "He has done everything well; he even
makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."