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Beginning in late fall, throughout the winter months, until the first signs of spring, Grandma always had a picture puzzle going. The puzzle pieces occupied the surface of a card table in an out of the way corner of the living room. Grandma had boxes upon boxes of puzzles. They were stacked along the stairs which led to the attic. Once worked and returned to their boxes Grandma would trade them with family and friends for different puzzles. Overnight stays at Grandma's usually meant putting pieces into the puzzle. Sometimes we would finish one. This meant experiencing the joy of dropping the final piece into place and making the picture complete.

I recall one particular puzzle that we finished. Grandma was preparing dinner in the kitchen and the final pieces were quickly coming together. I picked up the last puzzle piece from the table top and attempted to place it in the one empty spot that remained. The color seemed right. The size and shape were similar but the puzzle piece didn't fit nor belong.

We all at times in our individual lives encounter situations, experiences, and people that, like that one last puzzle piece, seem out of place and just don't belong.

This story of the puzzle piece not fitting came to mind as I read, reread, struggled with, and actually agonized over this particular scripture lesson. The lesson describes for us a brief dialogue between Jesus and a woman. The woman sought Jesus out to receive help for her demon-possessed daughter. Like that puzzle piece, the lesson today shows us a side of Jesus that doesn't seem to fit. We have a portrait of Jesus who is acting differently than the Jesus Mark has been describing since the beginning of his Gospel.

Mark's presentation of Jesus to us is a Jesus who is very human. Mark's account shows us that Jesus, like us, is baptized and faces temptation as we do. Jesus, like us, gathers people together and makes himself accessible to people. He is a teacher of wisdom and a person of warmth and openness. Jesus, as Mark has been describing him, is rejected at times, but also is bigger than life. Mark's Jesus is one who walks on water and brings healing and wholeness to people who suffer illness and brokenness in their lives.

Based upon Mark's Gospel, we believe we know Jesus. Yet, seven verses of our text today suddenly reveal to us a Jesus who doesn't fit into the picture we're used to seeing.

We actually are left puzzled and we are forced to ask regarding Jesus, "Who are you?"

Jesus, in the lesson, went away from the region and from the people he knew so well. Jesus stayed in a home and didn't want anyone to know he was there. Jesus entered Gentile territory in a very secretive way. Jesus almost seemed to be engaged in a role reversal with Nicodemus. Nicodemus, you'll recall, came to Jesus by night so those Nicodemus knew wouldn't see him associating with Jesus.

Mark also gives us a very negative, demeaning picture of the woman who has chosen to seek Jesus out. She is a Gentile, a non-Jew, a pagan. She's a Greek woman from the part of Syria known as Phoenicia. More startling is that Jesus identifies her not as a person but as a dog, the lowest creature of society. This woman came seeking help for her demon-possessed daughter and Jesus responded to her in a rather harsh way. This story of healing reveals to us a Jesus who appears extremely uncaring and prejudicial.

The story leaves us shocked and asking Jesus: "Who are you? Who have you become?"

The Jesus in this healing story is the piece of a puzzle that doesn't seem to fit.

However, this woman of tremendous faith who sought Jesus' help does not argue with Jesus over his considering her a dog. Rather, she engages in a dialogue that proves very interesting.

Paraphrased, Jesus tells her after she begs for his help that the children (meaning the chosen people of God) must be fed first. Therefore, it's not fair for him to take the food of God's people and give it to persons like her who are seen as dogs.

This woman basically replies, "What you say, Jesus, is true. I have no right to expect anything. I'm not a privileged person. None of us are, but even dogs eat the children's crumbs which fall under the table."

What the woman is telling Jesus is that she doesn't want a whole loaf of the bread Jesus offers to his own people. She doesn't even want a whole slice or half a slice for that matter. The woman is simply asking and begging for Jesus' permission to have a chance to retrieve a crumb from such bread that falls to the floor.

Here is a woman who believes strongly and deeply in Jesus. Here is a woman who has a complete confidence and faith in the Lord, a woman who knows that a mere crumb of Jesus' love, a small scrap of his healing power, a minute amount of his leftover compassion will be more than enough to save her daughter. The woman has no doubt that a remnant piece of what Jesus brings from God shall deliver her daughter from the awful demon that has possessed and tormented her young life.

Here, at this very place in the story, God acts and brings a change to Jesus. Here God refashions the shape and changes the size of a puzzle piece that, up to this time, does not fit into the picture of God's making.

How do we know this? We know this because suddenly Jesus sees this woman as a child of God. Suddenly, Jesus permits her to go home. When the woman does, she discovers the demon gone from her daughter.

This unusual story forces us all to ask ourselves the question: Who is this Jesus who first treats the Gentile woman so differently than we have come to expect? The answer we receive is that Jesus, in this particular story, reveals himself to be a person much like ourselves. Mark gives us a very human Jesus. Jesus at this stage of his ministry is struggling, as we often struggle. He is attempting to discover who he is in relationship to God. He is trying to keep intact his loyalty to who he is, taking into account his culture, his people, his upbringing, and the traditions he's been taught. However, in God's sight, Jesus had room to grow and his ministry was also growing. And grow they did!

The good news is that we also have room to grow and we also are growing in God's sight. Mark uses this story of Jesus to show all the world, including us, that the gifts of mission and ministry of God are not given to or for a few choice persons, but are for all God's children.

Often times we say things in the name of God and the church that lead people to say, "Who are you?" Meeting the woman's need shows each of us that just as Jesus grew in faith and expanded his mission and ministry to others, we too must be open and do the same. Sometimes we say and do things which later cause us and others to wonder who we really are. Isn't it time we face up to who we are as God's children?

As the story shows, there is a part in all of us that wants to run away from people. We want to escape responsibilities and not tell others where we can be found. There is a part in each of us that wants to keep our faith to ourselves, neatly nestled inside the walls of our local churches. There is a part of us that is prejudiced and so we place all sorts of blame on people different from us. We create all kinds of excuses why we should not or cannot reach out and ease the pain or meet the needs of others. We rationalize why we at times ignore the empty souls and empty spirits of God's people. Others ask of us and we also are left asking ourselves, "Who are you?"

The good news of God, as we worship in this time and at this place, is that there is hope for each and all of us. There is a place for the size, the shape, the color, the style, and the beautiful variety of gifts that make each of us a special, needed piece of the total picture of God's unfolding kingdom within our midst.

The last week of August and the beginning week of September, 1997, will remain forever indelibly etched upon the hearts, minds, and souls of people everywhere. We all know where we were and what we were doing when we learned the shocking news of the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales and Princess of the world. We all know where we were and what we were doing when several days later we experienced more sadness when we heard about the death of Mother Teresa, a mother to our modern world. One walked the marbled halls of Kensington Palace and one walked the filth-littered streets of Calcutta, India. One was tall, vibrant, and young from a circle of great wealth and royalty. One was short, frail, and aged from the squalor of the world's worst poverty. Yet, both their lives were touched by the call of God that asked, "Who are you?" God helped both Princess Diana and Mother Teresa grow in faith and serve the diseased, the afflicted, the downtrodden, the outcasts, the maimed and broken of the world. These two lives were pieces of the puzzle of life that will forever reflect the love and the beauty, the commitment and the compassion of God's most faithful servants.

We too are God's puzzle pieces that, at times, just don't seem to fit or belong. We think things, we say things, and we often do things that are so different from what people and God know and hope for us to be. Yet, as the story of the scripture reveals, there is hope for all of us.

Back at Grandma's house that day so very long ago, I took the puzzle piece that didn't fit. I went into the kitchen and told Grandma it was the only piece left and it didn't fit. Grandma went to the mantle over the fireplace. She knew something which I was about to discover.

She picked up another puzzle piece that rested there and said, "Try this one."

The piece wasn't too much different in shape, size, or color than the other. However, it was changed enough so that, like magic, it smoothly dropped into place. The puzzle was now complete. The emptiness in the picture was filled and the scene that had been gradually coming into focus for weeks was now whole.

God's love changed Jesus over the years and he grew and faithfully fulfilled God's will. God's love can change any life in so many different and special ways, even yours. Once you allow God to touch your life, the puzzle and picture of your life will become clearer and more complete. Once God touches you, you shall be able to reach out with your life and, like magic, add so much to the lives of others around you.

Unlike Diana, Princess of Wales, you may never have wealth and royalty to share. Unlike Mother Teresa of Calcutta, you may never experience doing ministry in the squalor of great poverty. Yet, you can grow in faith and serve God wherever you find yourself in life. You can do good work. Always remember, every time you touch another person with your faith, every time you help meet a need, another person is healed. There is reason to rejoice. You can rejoice because what you have done has resulted in there being one less demon loose within God's world.