Seventeenth Pentecost
Mark 9:38-50
Seemingly a hundred years ago, when I was a freshman in High School we had to read J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. I hadn't thought of the book in years until I came across the main character Holden Caulfield's commentary on the Bible in some sermon material I was perusing this week. As I remember him Holden was an obnoxious, precocious adolescent but he certainly had insight here. He contemplates:
"I can't always pray when I feel like it. In the first place, I'm sort of an atheist. I like Jesus and all, but I don't care too much for most of the other stuff in the Bible. Take the disciples for instance. They annoy the hell out of me, if you want to know the truth. They were all right after Jesus was dead and all, but while he was alive, they were about as much use to him as a hole in the head. All they did was keep letting him down. I like almost anybody in the Bible better than the disciples."
Well Holden Caulfield and the Gospel writer Mark were certainly on the same page with that assessment. The disciples just can't seem to get it right. Just when you think they've made a break through they miss it again. But Jesus keeps trying--trying to teach them, trying to get his message across. First there's Peters confession when Jesus asks, "And who do you say that I am?" Peter goes to the head of the class when he announces "You are the Christ" But when Jesus explains that this will mean suffering and death Peter pulls Jesus aside to convince him otherwise and Jesus retorts to Peter "Get behind me Satan."
And again the disciples just seem to miss it. Some parents are trying to bring their children to Jesus so he might bless them. But the disciples send them away. Jesus is "indignant" and says Let the children come to me.
And the lessons continue, Just before Jesus is to enter Jerusalem in those last final days, while he is at Bethany, a woman comes with a costly jar of oil to anoint Jesus and the disciples criticize her for her generosity. Jesus has to say to them "Let her alone, why do you trouble her. She has done a beautiful thing to me."
With this portrayal I have to agree with Holden Caulfield assessment that "I could like almost anybody in the Bible better than the disciples."
Add to these failures our lesson for today. The disciples come to Jesus saying, " Teacher we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us."
But Jesus said, "Do not stop him, for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us."
This exchange between Jesus and his disciples is a bit ironic since shortly before this conversation, the disciples were unable to exorcise the unclean spirit from a young boy. The disciples tried to heal the boy, but they failed. Then this unknown, unlicensed, unapproved exorcist shows up and heals people. See? The disciples are criticizing this unknown exorcist for doing what they have failed to do, namely to cure someone. Let's say they knew the right words, let's say they had watched Jesus do it a hundred times, but when it came their turn to heal, they failed. So when they ran across this uncredentialed, unlicensed exorcist running around out there casting out demons in Jesus name, they ran to tell Jesus about it. " Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us."
But Jesus said, "Do not stop him for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me." Affirming, Inclusive, Gracious.
Though Jesus had been teaching and living the inclusivity of God's kingdom all along, the disciples still think competitively. They are still drawing lines that exclude and inevitably create hurt and bitterness. Notice their complaint that the exorcist "was not following us." US? As though Jesus is their singular, special, exclusive possession. Ego yet again.
Note how inclusive Jesus words are in response "who ever gives you a cup of water in my name...will never lose their reward. Anyone who does any act of mercy in Christ's name--however great or small- is affirmed and welcomed by Jesus. To act in Christ's name is to act as Christ would were he present, to act like the one who ate with tax collectors and sinners, included women among his followers, fed multitudes, stilled storms and hugged children.
But Jesus teaching moment is not through yet. Jesus begins "If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.." and goes on from there. Now I have to tell you there is a lot of disagreement about these words. Some scholars suggest that they have nothing to do with the previous teaching and certainly these words are considerably harsher than we are used to hearing from Jesus. But perhaps this exorcist or this one who gives a cup of water is one of "these little ones", a marginalized one; a child or a leper or a woman or a tax collector or a sinner or a newbie to the faith, One of the least of these; Then Jesus is warning the disciples against being contemptious, inhospitable, patronizing or condescending to them. Jesus declaration that those who do such things are better off drowned in the sea is certainly exaggeration but exaggeration to make a point. And that point is to express how much he values the full reception of everyone, including "little ones" in the community of his followers
Sometimes the disciples can be so dense. They just don't get it that Jesus message is for all people, not a message that restricts and confines but one that welcomes and gives freedom to all.
But you know it's kind of unfair to single out those disciples. This is a tough learning--a message that the church and the people in it have struggled with since the very beginning. Who is in and who is out?
Not so many years after the resurrection it takes Paul coming to Jerusalem to clarify the in group and the out group. Do new converts have to be circumcised and can they continue to eat what they want? Maybe the disciples in that council thought back to the lesson of the exorcist when they opened the communion to the gentile converts.
The followers of Jesus in succeeding centuries have defined in groups and out groups in a thousand different ways IN groups have defined out groups as those who dance or those who have instruments in church or those who have amplifiers and guitars, or those who let women vote, as those who have projection screens or those who don't. For some the in group is those who are proper and staid, for others the in group is those who show emotion. In groups and out groups. The church has split a thousand times, always with acrimony, always denouncing the other as not following "us".
Jesus means for the relationships in the community of faith to be utterly different than those of the surrounding world. "Imagine something different!" Jesus seems to be inviting his followers. What if the first aren't first and the last aren't last? What if there are no thrones? No rank? What if the dividing lines aren't carved in stone? What if the kingdom of God is not so much about doors and walls and gates and hall passes? What if the domain of God is organized by altogether different principles: whoever is not against us is in; whoever gives a cup of water in my name is in; whoever keeps a little one out deserves a terrible punishment?
Yea I could like almost anybody in the Bible better than the disciples--too bad those disciples are us.
Amen