People who use sacred texts have often found ways of selecting passages appropriate to their needs. Disciples of Confucius used a complex system of hexagrams, chosen by lot, to find images and comments suitable to their time, place and situation. In classical and medieval times, the writings of Virgil and Homer were used in a similar way. Sometimes the Bible was accessed by lot or dice or random procedures. The Church responded to the need to select appropriate wisdom from the Bible, by the daily lectionary, a selection of readings for every day in the year, which was originally used in monasteries, but has for some time been used in daily mass in the Catholic Church, and for private devotion in others. Obviously the choice of passages reflects a theology and the Christian calendar, but it also has an arbitrary element. It asks the reader, “Can this wisdom be applied to your soul, your community, your place, today?” This blog follows the daily readings and hopes to uncover some wisdom.

 Reading 1, 1 Kings 11:4-13

4 When Solomon grew old his wives swayed his heart to other gods; and his heart was not wholly with the Lord his God as his father David’s had been.

5 Solomon became a follower of Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, and of Milcom, the Ammonite abomination.

6 He did what was displeasing to the Lord, and was not a wholehearted follower of the Lord, as his father David had been.

7 Then it was that Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, on the mountain to the east of Jerusalem, and to Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites.

8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrifice to their gods.

9 The Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the God of Israel, who had twice appeared to him

10 and had forbidden him to follow other gods; but he did not carry out the Lord’s order.

11 The Lord therefore said to Solomon, ‘Since you have behaved like this and have not kept my covenant or the laws which I laid down for you, I shall tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants.

12 For your father David’s sake, however, I shall not do this during your lifetime, but shall tear it out of your son’s hands.

13 Even so, I shall not tear the whole kingdom from him. For the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen, I shall leave your son one tribe.’

 Gospel, Mark 7:24-30

24 He left that place and set out for the territory of Tyre. There he went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there; but he could not pass unrecognised.

25 At once a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him and came and fell at his feet.

26 Now this woman was a gentile, by birth a Syro-Phoenician, and she begged him to drive the devil out of her daughter.

27 And he said to her, ‘The children should be fed first, because it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to little dogs.’

the little dogs under the table

28 But she spoke up, ‘Ah yes, sir,’ she replied, ‘but little dogs under the table eat the scraps from the children.’

29 And he said to her, ‘For saying this you may go home happy; the devil has gone out of your daughter.’

30 So she went off home and found the child lying on the bed and the devil gone.

 The editors of the history of the Kings of Israel and Judah were working long after the events, and judged the monarchy by the strict standards of their own faith community around 200BCE.  Gentiles and their Gods were seen as the corruption which had destroyed the kingdoms and led to the exile. In this view they were the successors of prophets who lived before the exile, who had condemned the religious adventures of their kings. The Greek invasion of Israel, and the Maccabbean rebellion against it, further strengthened a culture which was, at best, suspicious of gentiles. The Book of Kings sees the rot beginning in Solomon’s reign. He is depicted as forgetting the origins of his wisdom and wealth in the faith of his father David, and as “whoring” after foreign Gods and wives. For these writers, Solomon is a prime example of how luxury and arrogance lead to idol worship and disaster. For this kind of faith, multi-culturalism is the way to hell. If we do not share it, we must nonetheless appreciate its virtues. It sees custom and devotion as fundamental moral values and not as items on a supermarket shelf. 

This is the view that Jesus expresses to the woman from Tyre. It may not have been his view, although he did see his ministry as limited to his own people, but he uses it as a (brutal) test of the woman’s resolve. Does she really want help from a Jew? Does she just see him as a convenient wonder-worker who happens to have turned up? The woman is more than ready for him. She plays the part of the little dog so well as to know it will get the crumbs that fall from the table. She shows Jesus clearly what his saying really means, what a bitter posture it compels her to adopt, and how great is the love that puts her in such a lowly place. Jesus opens his heart to her, because she has touched his own commitment to taking the lowest place out of love. His Jewish pride, which is not despicable, is overcome by her passionate love for her daughter. She receives far more than crumbs. In this encounter Jesus is shown as receiving as much as he gives. Even divine love needs help.