A way to live a mission field of the wider world:
Be ready to work with people of any faith who want healing for the world.
Based on Mark 7:24-37 (see retelling below in the present tense); a reading that comes from the Revised Common Lectionary for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, 9/9/18.
Jesus is in Tyre, a Gentile territory. He cannot keep his presence unknown and a woman with a daughter who has an unclean spirit finds him. She, a Gentile of Syrophoenician descent and another faith, bows down at his feet. She asks him to cast out the demon.
Jesus says Jewish children should be fed first; otherwise it would be like throwing the children’s food to the dogs. Not subdued, she replies, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Her words lead Jesus to say, “For saying that, you may go – the demon has left your daughter.” She returns home and finds the demon has left her daughter.
Jesus returns to Galilee and the Decapolis. The people bring a deaf man with a speech impediment to him. Jesus takes the man away from the crowd, puts his fingers into the man’s ears, spits and touches his tongue. Looking up to heaven, Jesus sighs and says, “Be opened.” Immediately, the man could hear and speak plainly.
Jesus tells the crowd to tell no one but the crowd proclaims the healing to all. At evening, a crowd gathers saying, “God has done everything well; God even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”
A theme: Jesus heals those who come to him, including those who come from another faith.
