Truth telling

Mark 7:24-37

The church does not do truth telling well. We have a long history of it from trying to wipe out Jews because they killed Jesus to taking homelands and freedoms away from people who were different than us. There have been some brave enough to try and tell the truth in their own way, but it has never caught on as a universal thing we all should do. 

Today the syrophoenician woman reminds us of the truth. Maybe she saw all those times in which God reaches out beyond the borders of his people with love and salvation. Such as in the story of Hagar and Ishmael or Ruth who was one of Jesus great- great grandmothers from way back. Or maybe even the story of Jonah where God sends a prophet to a people not his own and saves them, even when Jonah runs in the opposite direction he is brought back. Or maybe she just thought her daughter was a child of God. We don't know. All we know is that she is willing to correct Jesus picture of her being outside of the promise. 

A young man named Donald Miller one Holy Week wanted to do something different in his college campus other than get drunk. He set up with a few friends confession booths. In these booths the people who came in didn't confess their sins, instead the friends and he confessed to the people coming in about all the wrong things the church has done. Once this got out people wanted to come to the confession booths. They didn't have time for a break. 

Truth telling is a part of the gospel, a part of the prophets and it wasn't saying what is popular. The real prophets hid out in the hills, lived on the margins, married prostitutes, and ended up dead. Jesus eventually ends up dead. He is not saying what is popular or easy. This is the good news of who we are. 

We should be truth telling people in love. This may mean welcoming people in from the margins and fringes. Those we didn't think were included in the church. Those who we look at as outside and sinful. Wouldn't that be a change for the church?