w-rest-le and nestle...

“What makes for A good answer or reply?”

I ask regarding my relationships.

Sometimes it is that we aren't scared to die,

because we're more concerned with truthful lips,

as we attempt communicating truth

that’s needed for true friendships to endure,

and do that out of love, to help and soothe,

instead of just to rid us of manure.

Do you remember that ol' girl who’d come

to Jesus, just to ask him to help her ..

.. her little daughter, who was sick at home,

I s’pose she wanted Jesus to defer,

his plans. He said that some things should be "first",

and others after that, would come along.

It wasn't right to let those "seconds" burst

through, just as though all order would be wrong.

And she might then have just burred right on up,

and said he mustn’t care at all for her,

instead of this she listened, then abrupt-

ly said that he was “Lord*”, and then inferred

some other options from his metaphor,

that happens in God’s world, that had occurred.

“Good answer.” He said, “Now go home for your..

..your daughter’s demon has left”, and she heard,

and acted straight away,  and then found out

that what he said had happened at that time.

Her “mother's heart” was glad I’d say, no doubt,

and she had wrestled with someone, sublime.

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*  Lord (=Gk: Kyrios) was the term used in first Century Common Greek for three things: 1) This was Caesar’s title, and 2) in the Jewish (/Christian) scriptures it was a euphemism for God’s Name, & 3) a common term of respect. [The English title “Sir”, is similar in the way it has two common uses, 1) to denote someone who has been knighted by the Monarch of England (or their representative), and 2) a title of respect used by a student to a male teacher, a shop assistant to a potential male customer, or to honour a male stranger.]

Then Jesus left and went away to the territory near the city of Tyre. He went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there, but he could not stay hidden. A woman, whose daughter had an evil spirit in her, heard about Jesus and came to him at once and fell at his feet. The woman was a Gentile, born in the region of Phoenicia in Syria. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. But Jesus answered, “Let us first feed the children. It isn't right to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.”  “Lord*,” she answered, “even the dogs under the table eat the children's leftovers!” So Jesus said to her, “Because of that answer, go back home, where you will find that the demon has gone out of your daughter!” She went home and found her child lying on the bed; the demon had indeed gone out of her. Mark 7:24‭-‬30

“Post-Christendom has left the church on the fringe of society, existing in the shadow of competing cultural priorities such as consumerism, careerism and individualism. These powerful forces have reduced radical Kingdom lifestyles to personal faith that operates within a private realm. As a result, Jesus’ call to Kingdom discipleship has been watered down, privatised and mixed with competing messages from our consumer culture.” (Quoted in the CS101 MOOC Week 10.)