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Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues

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Jesus’ response to a persistent and determined outsider challenges our response to those who are different (Mark 7.24-30).

Context

• The BBC have asked the question: Where will the refugees from Afghanistan go? The UK has announced plans to accept 20,000 Afghan refugees over the long term. The British government's Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme will aim to allow 5,000 Afghans to settle in the UK in the first year. However, the challenge will be to local communities as they settle to truly show that all are welcome here. Countries neighbouring Afghanistan such as Pakistan and Iran may need support for the large numbers of refugees they receive.
• Although the Covid vaccination programme has been very successful, Sky News reports that there are still many cases and it is possible that boosters will soon be needed. Although there are many positive signs the future is still uncertain.
• There are many inspirational stories of Paralympians, such as those of Ellie Robinson and Niranjan Mukundan. The response to successful athletes tends to be positive, but are all disabled people fully welcomed into society?

Ideas for a sermon, talk or conversation

• Last week’s airlift from Kabul provoked widespread sympathy for those who were fortunate enough to escape and great concern has already been expressed for those left behind and how they will be treated by the new Taliban government. However, by no means all of those who have fled or are trying to flee have homes elsewhere. Many are Afghan nationals. How will they be treated as outsiders in a strange land. The SyroPhoenician woman appears to have been a displaced person. She was certainly a gentile who would receive less sympathetic treatment from the Jewish people. Maybe she had faced hard treatment and that was why she was so quick to respond to Jesus in the way she did. It is worth reflecting on how we will respond to refugees who move into our street. The encounter between Jesus and the SyroPhoenician woman was a real encounter. Generalised sympathy is one thing. Active support is another.
• As the Paralympic Games draw to a close once again, we have been inspired by the performances of athletes winning medals and moved by their stories. These are often stories of perseverance and determination where individuals have achieved much against appalling odds. In the Gospel reading Jesus rewards the SyroPhoenician woman’s persistence and willingness to stand up to him. He commends these as positive attributes. As we find ourselves in a new phase of covid19 when it is unclear what the future will hold, it is important that we should be persistent and determined not least in prayers for healing.

Questions for discussion

• What do you think Jesus meant when he said to the woman: Let the children be fed first for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs?
• Listen to an interview with Ellie Robinson. How does this make you feel? What can you learn from her and her story?
• Describe how you think that Afghan refugees felt when they landed in the United Kingdom? Is there anything you can do for them?

Stuart Wild is a Superintendent Methodist Minister on the Fylde coast in Lancashire.

Check-in

Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people

This week, our headlines have been filled with stories of those fleeing Afghanistan and arriving in distant lands empty-handed and full of fears for those they have left behind. There have also been many stories of an open and inclusive welcome: children playing in churchyards; and collection stations for clothing, nappies, cots and other essentials. Despair has been met with openness and inclusiveness in many nations around the world and, in many communities across the UK, our churches have been involved in providing this welcome.

Some of our young people may have experienced this welcome themselves. All of them will find themselves in the place of meeting and gathering with others they have much in common with and  those who are quite different to them, as they return to school this week. In playgrounds and classrooms, communities are formed as young people from a wide range of backgrounds, stories and experiences find opportunities to be open and inclusive with one another.

In this week’s passage, we see Jesus’ open and inclusive meeting with others, and an excitement that goes ahead of him, sharing the good news of what he has done. Whether in the big, life-changing moments, welcoming the stranger into our midst, or the small every day classroom conversations and corridor collisions,  our young people have the opportunity to be as open and inclusive, and to share their excitement of what Jesus has done for them.

Becky May is founder of the The Resources Cupboard

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