9 September 2012
James 2:1-17; Mark 7: 24-37
Music Television’s Unplugged
series debuted in 1989 (according to Wikipedia), offering viewers the
opportunity to hear the live acoustic versions of popular songs that were
usually electrified and often over processed in the music studio. For guitar
players like Eric Clapton, Bonnie Rait, and Mark Nopfler, it was an opportunity
to demonstrate that their musical talent was not dependent on the sound studio.
For guitar amateurs like me, it was a revelation. Hearing “Layla” on acoustic
guitar was like realizing that I’d never really heard it before. Oh, I’d
listened, but I’d never really heard. My ears were opened, unplugged.
They brought to Jesus a man who was deaf and had an
impediment in his speech and Jesus put his fingers to his ears and then he spat
and touched his toungue and he said Ephphatha which means “unplug yourself!”
Be thou opened! It is what we might say to the kitchen sink
when we are laboring over a clogged drain-- “Come on, unplug yourself!” Well it’s
what I might say anyway. Anyone who has walked into my office while my laptop
computer is misbehaving knows that I have a quirky habit of talking to my
appliances.
Faith unplugged, unclogged, unstopped… that’s what James is
appealing to in his letter. You think you get it? He says. Listen to yourself!
Look at the way you are treating people! You say “I believe” and then you treat
the poor like dirt and the rich with deference. It that how you love your
neighbor as yourself?
What if we were to reverse that? Say, treat the rich like
dirt and the poor with deference? Would that be better? Of course not! That’s
no better. Love your neighbor as yourself. Or, in the words of one of my
favorite acoustic musicians Eric Bibb: “Walk with the rich, walk with the poor.
Learn from everyone, that’s what life is for. But don’t you ever let nobody
drag your spirit down.”
Love your neighbor as yourself. And, love yourself as your
neighbor.
It’s the immigrant woman in the gospel of Mark who teaches
us how to do that, while Jesus plays the devil’s advocate. She comes to Jesus
for help and he insults her. Who among us would have the courage to persist?
Who among us would have the courage to be our own advocate? By standing up for
herself and her daughter, she cast out the demon. She became the exorcist.
Jesus announced it: For saying this you may go. The demon has left your
daughter.
She got it. She lived it. Faith. Unstopped. Unplugged.
This Christian life, this discipleship—it is not about
believing the right set of doctrines. It is about living unplugged, unstopped,
without blinders. It is about appealing to the goodness of all people, and
trusting in the mercy of God.
