Not Only with Our Lips
Reflections on Mark 9.38-50
RCL Proper 26B
30 September 2018
Holy Trinity Cathedral
New Westminster BC
Mark 9.38-50
9.38John said to [Jesus], “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” 39But 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. 40Whoever is not against us is for us. 41For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.
42“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. 43If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. 47And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, 48where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.
49“For everyone will be salted with fire. 50Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
It is no secret that the last few years has seen considerable tumult in the political lives of many countries. Here in Canada we are no exception. While partisanship is an inevitable dimension of human life, there are times when it seems the common good is held hostage to the demands of party membership to the detriment of everyone, regardless of where we place ourselves on the spectrum of political opinion.
This partisanship, as I see it, has created an atmosphere where more and more people talk about ‘us’ and ‘them’ --- immigrants versus longer-settled residents, minorities versus majorities, rural versus urban, ‘free market’ versus ‘social democracy’. The list goes on and on. There’s even a term for what we’re seeing --- ‘identity’ politics. If ‘identity’ politics means that we look more closely at ourselves and how we create meaningful and diverse communities where everyone can live and thrive, then I’m all for it. But if ‘identity’ politics means that we become so focussed on ourselves, our ‘tribe’, our ‘group’, that we cease to care about anyone beyond our boundaries, then I have to say ‘no’.
Today’s gospel is a case study in these two different ways of understanding ‘identity’. Jesus’ followers come across a travelling exorcist who is casting out demons in Jesus’ name. John and the others are disturbed by this and they give the man the first-century equivalent of a ‘cease and desist’ order. After all, this fellow is not among those who are travelling with Jesus on his journey that will lead him to Jerusalem and the cross. ‘He’s not one of “us”,’ John tells Jesus.
But Jesus operates on a different kind of ‘identity’. He looks at what the man is doing, regardless of whether he is physically following Jesus or not. No one disputes that people are being freed from their bondage; no one disputes that the man is actually doing a good thing, doing something that is a sign of the kingdom. He’s just not wearing the right team jersey.
For Jesus, as Mark describes his ministry, the signs of the kingdom are visible and concrete. The hungry are fed, the naked clothed. The deaf regain their hearing, the mute their voices. The lonely and outcast are brought into physical community, those in bondage freed. The rich are challenged to be generous, the religious to be open. The true disciples of Jesus are known by what they do in their daily lives more than they are known by the associations they keep. ‘We’ and ‘they’, ‘us’ and ‘them’, are not terms to be used lightly in Jesus’ vision of the kingdom of God.
Let me remind you of something that I said some weeks ago. Belonging to the Christian community is a means to learning how to behave as a disciple of Jesus so that we learn to believe in the kingdom as Jesus reveals it to us. Our gathering here Sunday after Sunday is intended to renew us with the strength of God and embrace us with the compassion of Christ so that we go forth to be agents of God’s healing and reconciliation in the world.
Ever since I knew how to read and to participate in the worship life of the Christian community, I have held one particular prayer dear to my heart.
Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit, be honour and glory throughout all ages. Amen.[1]
We praise God ‘not only with our lips, but in our lives’ as we work with others, whether of this community faith or another or none, to make God’s justice and kindness concrete in this world, even as we pray for the promise of the world to come. We walk ‘in holiness and righteousness’ not only with our Christian sisters and brothers but also with our sisters and brothers of many faiths and none. With them we confront the ‘identity’ politics of ‘us’ and ‘them’, a politics that will only ruin us all by robbing us of the glorious diversity of humanity.
So let’s keep our eyes open to see and our ears straining to hear the sights and sounds of God’s kingdom being brought into being by those who may be strangers to us. And then let’s make them our friends, because, God knows, the kingdom needs all the friends it can get.
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