30 September 2012

“Maimed, lame, blinded ... and salted with fire”
Mark 9:38-50 / James 5:13-20
OT 26B
30 September 2012


Today's gospel reading from Mark might be subtitled, a story about "whiners."
Make sure you include that w-h sound. Whiners.
In school, they're the kids who are always more concerned with your work rather than their own: whether your coloring stays inside the lines...or your handwriting is done the way the teacher showed the class...or if you are doing the proper number of chin-ups in gym...and if you don't, you'll be sure to hear it..."UMMM, I'm telling!"
There are adult whiners too. The guy at your job who criticizes the work you just spent two hours on, while he barely spent half the time on his and it looks like it...the neighbor who points out that your nice flowers really don't go well together at all, as she stands in her jungle of a backyard....the person who squeezes all the produce in the market and then complains that it's all mushy. All whiners.
Our Gospel text today has its share of whiners.
Remember last week how Jesus caught the disciples in their argument about who was the greatest. So this week, the text continues with the disciple John, his face maybe still burning hot with embarrassment at "being caught," trying to take the focus off of his and the other disciples' shortcomings by bringing up someone else who had to be doing something far worse than them.

Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.

Reminds you of first grade, doesn't it? UMMM, I'm telling Jesus!
But there's something more disturbing about what John says...more than just the "whiney" way in which he takes his complaint to Jesus.

We tried to stop him, because he was not following us.

This unknown exorcist wasn't one of them. So John reported him to Jesus.
Now, you've got to feel sorry for this guy, this unknown exorcist. I don't suppose that exorcist would have been one of the more popular jobs in the first century. It must have been a thankless job, all those people showing up with strange illnesses, or behaving in strange ways, contorting themselves around, cursing and spitting and pulling out their hair. Nowadays we understand these diseases better, we have names for them...mental illness, epilepsy...but in the first century these were blamed on demons. And the exorcist was the one people came to, to try and be cured.
But John reports that this was no fly-by-night exorcist ...

Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name...

This exorcist was actually healing these people of their "demons." How? By using Jesus' name. He was doing a good work in Jesus' name. You'd think that this would earn him at least some praise, some positive mention by those disciples who saw him. But no ... he gets a whine...

...because he was not following us.

He didn't do things like us...he didn't belong to the club...he didn't carry the proper credentials...TEACHER! Whine whine whine.
But Jesus knew what was going on. He could see what the disciples were trying to put past him. And he put an end to it with just a few words.

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.

Jesus knew something the disciples didn't. He knew that the good work which this unknown exorcist was doing, casting out demons in his name, had to be inspired by God even though the one performing these "deeds of power" was not one of the immediate followers of Jesus.
And here is an important point which the disciples did not learn until that first Pentecost, when God's Spirit descended on them and they all spoke in different languages of God's deeds of power. God is bigger than what they could comprehend in their little circle of twelve surrounding Jesus. The disciples wanted to keep the circle close, small and manageable so they could understand ... and yes, control it. Yet God defied their desire for control.
And here is something for us to understand, too, we who are disciples of Jesus today. We should watch what we say about our brothers and sisters in the faith ... and those who may appear to be outside it ... when they do something or say something that doesn't go the way we would like it to go.
There’s a commandment at work here … number eight. Luther puts it best, in the Small Catechism:

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. What is this? We should fear and love God, and so we should not tell lies about our neighbor, nor betray, slander, or defame them, but should apologize for them, speak well of them, and interpret charitably all that they do.

And what might that mean for us?
What do we feel, or think, or say, when we see someone who is quite obviously not like us, doing a deed of love? Maybe they’re Mormon. Or maybe they’re Buddhist. Maybe they’re Islamic. Maybe they’re a Democrat, or a Republican. The point is, they are other than what, who we are. And they’re feeding the hungry or helping the homeless, working for peace in the world or peace in our community. Do we question their motives ... doubt their sincerity ... reject what they’re doing, just because of the label we put on them?
Maybe we see someone doing a good work in Jesus’ name, or talking about how God is working in their life, when all we see, is what we judge to be a less-than-godly existence.
Or maybe it doesn't even have to be outside the faith. There is plenty of inside the church criticism around.
Some of it is good and necessary; what does Jesus really mean by ‘morality,’ ‘justice,’ ‘righteousness?’ How should Jesus’ followers advocate and do for those Jesus calls ‘the least of these’ ... the poor, the powerless, the orphaned and widowed, the vulnerable, the alien and sojourner in our midst, the helpless and hopeless?
But some words are not helpful at all. Perhaps we see something in another’s devotion or worship life ... or maybe, it’s how someone’s exercising leadership, or doing a ministry, a job or task in the congregation, that doesn't match up with how we think they ought to be doing them. Maybe we criticize, or judge.
What Jesus is saying to us here in today's lesson is, bluntly, knock it off. We need to pay attention to our own faith life before we criticize or judge others. Luther had a test in the Reformation times for church practice and teaching --does it proclaim Christ, crucified, dead and risen? Does it preach Christ’s free grace, forgiveness and hope for the world?
And this also applies to our "over the shoulder" glances at others who are doing deeds of power in Jesus’ name.
Are the deeds of power they are doing just different ways in which they, too, walk wet in the promises of God, the love of Christ, given in their baptism ... are their works just different branches of the same flowing stream of living water, proclaiming the love of Christ to the world? Then we don't criticize.
And that's what all that business about the "stumbling blocks" is about; the cutting off of hands and feet, the plucking out of eyes; better to be maimed, lame, and blinded than to criticize. Jesus is using hyperbole...a kind of exaggeration, if you will...to make a point. If something that another is doing, as they seek to live out their discipleship calling, if how they feel they are being guided by God to proclaim Jesus is bugging us, or doesn’t fit with our idea of how we would do church; well, we have two choices: we can either support them, by mentoring, coming alongside to offer constructive help or advice; or, we must simply let them be.
We must not interfere, micromanage, manipulate, or come along behind them to ‘tidy up their mess’!
Maybe they’re just starting out on the journey of faith, and have a lot to learn. Maybe they don't know as much about the traditions of the big-C Church, or this little-c congregation. If that’s the case, our place is to serve as mentor, helper, guide and friend.
Or maybe they did things differently where they grew up. Maybe they like different musical styles or preaching styles or liturgical styles, than you or I do. Then our place is to let them, where they are acting "in Christ," to do it without our hindering, or second guessing, or criticizing them.
This doesn't mean that Jesus is arguing for some kind of cushy feel-good blanket acceptance, where anything goes. That’s not what he’s saying at all. Hear again Jesus’ words – who does a deed of power in my name. This isn’t an argument over substance … that must always be the same .. Jesus Christ, crucified and raised, at the center of all that we do.
It’s just about different people doing Jesus-work in a different way from “us”
So we always remember to see what others are doing through our “Jesus-lenses,” and ask the question, are their words and actions proclaiming Jesus? If so, even though the form, the way they are doing things may be different from the way you or I might do them, or like them to be, we must let ‘’them’ do it ‘their own way’ without our interfering.
But, of course, we know that is hard to do. It seems that it's always easier to look over our shoulder, to see if our brother or sister is "doing it the right way," meaning our way. How can we keep from that backwards snap of the neck?
Again, we go to the text.

For everyone will be salted with fire.

Salt is the "active ingredient," if you will, in our lives ... it stands for that which makes us "tasty," that gives us zest. And Jesus knows what we need for lives of thankfulness, service and praise...and so he promises that ...

... everyone will be salted with fire.

With fire?
The fire is the Spirit...God's Spirit. The fire which descended on the disciples at that first Pentecost, which helped them understand the diversity that comes in service to God in Christ, through people, into the world God loves.
Jesus says that Spirit, his Spirit, descends upon us, too.
When? In our baptisms. In hearing his word proclaimed to us. As we gather in his name, and eat and drink at his Holy Meal. In all these time, in all these way, we are and will be salted with fire.
And as we are all different people, that fire will burn differently in us, with as many different colors as a fire makes when salt is thrown on it. But that is not bad news. It's good news to us. We can serve God as we are. We are being given God's Spirit...the Spirit which forgives our sins...the Spirit which gives us eternal life...the Spirit which sends us out to serve God through other people in the world, by proclaiming Christ's name and doing "deeds of power."

Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.

And so … not looking back over our shoulders at what we might see … we will keep moving ahead, together in Jesus, toward the promise that will, one day, be for us all.
Amen.