This sermon was preached for the second Sunday of Creation and the baptism of Patrick Wayne on Sunday, September 8, 2024. The texts for this sermon were: Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23, Psalm 125, and Mark 7:24-37.
In her book on the Bible, titled Inspired, Rachel Held Evans retells the pivotal story of how Jacob became Israel. On his way back home, Jacob wrestled long into the night with a mysterious figure, refusing to release the stranger even when he dislocated Jacob’s hip, even when dawn was breaking. Jacob won't let go of the stranger until he blesses him - blesses him with a new name, Israel, which means he who struggles with God.
Rachel Held Evans leans on the story again as she tackles the hardest parts of scripture. She writes, “I'm still wrestling, and like Jacob, I will wrestle until I am blessed. God hasn't let go of me yet.”
I won’t let go until you bless me.
Jesus wants us to hang on, too. Throughout his ministry, Jesus praises persistence. He instructs his disciples with the parable of the persistent widow in the Gospel of Luke, who annoys an unjust judge into bringing about justice. He admires the commitment of the friends of the paralyzed man, who tear apart roofing tiles to get their friend to Jesus. When a desperate, bleeding woman reaches out to touch his cloak, he stops to bless and heal her. Perseverance is rewarded as a sign, an act of faith.
Then there is this story, the story of the Syrophoenician mother who begs Jesus to heal her daughter. Not only does Jesus refuse to heal her - Jesus insults her and denies her request because of her ethnicity. Nevertheless she persists. She pushes past his insult and won’t accept his refusal. She won’t let go of Jesus until he blesses her child.
There’s a couple ways to approach this sermon. What does this scene say about Jesus or God? is a challenging question and probably a very interesting sermon. What kind of God turns away someone who begs for healing? What does it mean that Jesus sees only the woman’s ethnicity and prejudges her for it? These are questions that make for great debates over Bible study or a pint at Theology on Tap. And yet, in this moment right now, as we prepare to baptize this beautiful child and as I prepare to leave this community I was drawn instead to this question: What does this scene say about faith? And maybe even what does this scene say about motherhood and fatherhood?
This mother’s love for her child gave her the courage to approach a Jewish religious leader as an outsider, a Gentile woman. It gave her the courage to not take no for an answer, to demand more from God. Notice how Jesus says to her, “For saying that…the demon has left your daughter.” More often at this point in healing stories, Jesus says something like, “Your faith has made you well.” I wonder if this difference points to Jesus’ admiration of the woman’s persistence. He recognizes that her talking back is her faith, her faith in action.
Parenting requires us to be persistent. This morning I’ll be baptizing the second child of Kristen and Vincent Long, a child who has already overcome health challenges in the womb and just after birth. You have both persisted against the odds, have been his advocate since the start. You will continue to be, through upcoming surgeries and milestones, and so much more.
At baptism prep, I always ask parents to tell me the story of the names they choose. In part because that’s one of the important acts within baptism: bestowing the two names this child will be known by sacramentally. But it’s also because our faith tradition and scripture deeply respects the power of names. All throughout scripture characters like Jacob are named and renamed for a special purpose. Names announce our vocation from God, carry our reputation. As our Proverbs passage says, “A good name is to be chosen rather than riches.”
Vincent and Kristen have indeed chosen good names for their child: Patrick, for Vincent’s late uncle, and Wayne, for Kristen’s father. I was particularly struck by what they said when I asked them what these names meant to them. They explained that these names represent their hopes that their son will have a better life, a happier, fuller childhood, than his namesakes did. To want more for your child than you had, to dream of a better, kinder world for your children - that is a beautiful, faithful prayer at the heart of motherhood and fatherhood.
But parenting is more than wanting and dreaming. It is standing up to demand what your child needs, not just from the world, but even from God.
I will not let go until you bless me.
Patrick Wayne’s two parents and godparents will promise today to raise Patrick to be resilient and full of faith. They'll promise to teach him how to love others and be loved by others. They will hold these promises for him until he grows into knowing what it really means to follow Jesus and love God and neighbor. Until he discovers again and again, like I hope all of us will do on that lifelong journey of life, that these promises are more complicated than they first appear.
Turns out following and obeying our Lord sometimes looks like wrestling with God long into the night. Having faith in Jesus sometimes looks like talking back. Faith sometimes means demanding more from God. Persisting through rejection. Not walking away until you are healed and blessed and whole again.
Here’s the other thing these parents will promise. You will promise to hold on with Patrick until he knows God’s blessing so well and so fully that you can do that brave, hard thing that all parents also must do - let go and trust that God’s got Patrick and Patrick’s got God.
Faith is holding on, preserving until God's promises and blessings are made real in your life. And yet, as all parents and godparents come to know, as husbands and wives and anyone and everyone who loves someone else deeply comes to know at some point or another, faith is also letting go at the right moment.
I was so honored when Kristen and Vincent asked me to baptize their son before I leave here next week, just as I was touched when Karen and Russell asked me to marry them and Cathy asked me to inter her husband this past month. I am grateful to everyone who has given me a few acts of final blessings to do for you before I go.
I am able to let go because you have blessend me, because through you I have come to trust deeply in God's blessing. You have blessed me in so many ways: with your wisdom, your kindness, your prayers, your soup and flowers, your coffee, eggs, and garden vegetables. I hope and trust I have blessed you, too.
In baptizing a child, we thank God for entrusting us with a child. But we also affirm that this child belongs, ultimately to God. There will be times for holding on and times for letting go. Times for demanding more and times to accept that the healing has already come. But through it all, Patrick Wayne is part of the larger family of all God's people.
When Jacob became Israel, he took on a new name. That name became the name of God's people, the house of Israel. Jacob's struggle expanded from a wrestling session between one man and a mysterious stranger to a community of people struggling with their God. But as the Syrophoenician mother knew, God's vision for the salvation of humanity was even more expansive than one people, one family. Through Jesus, through baptism of the Spirit, we, too, become part of God's people, part of the great, divine wrestling match.
We persist together. We demand more for one another. As even as we let go of one another when the time comes, we also trust: God hasn't let go of you or me yet.
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