Sermon Preached on September 27, 2015 at Saint Thomas the Apostle, Hollywood
Mark 9:38-50
When I was a child I loved making secret and
exclusive clubs. I don’t think any of
the clubs me and my friends made had any particular purpose, but there were
certain things our clubs always had: a list of rules, a secret password, and a
very limited membership.
As children, somewhere along the way, I think that we
become very aware that there is value in exclusivity, that a group is only
worth something if we can point at something else and say “that is NOT part of
us!” This notion of exclusivity follows
us through our adolescence, straight into adulthood. We join fraternities or societies, we pledge
allegiance to countries and constitutions, and these often come with clear
guidelines that keep out the riffraff.
On one hand, these groups allow us to create close bonds with likeminded
people, and allow groups to focus their energies on a common goal. And as the president and founding member of
the Super Secret She-Ra Club, I can tell you that it feels pretty powerful to
be part of an exclusive secret society.
But what happens when we apply that same attitude to
being Christians? The church community
can be a very tight knit group, brought together, not just to share common
interests, but to be Christ’s body in the world. This is a huge responsibility, and this idea
alone can cause tension between who is seen as in, and who is seen as out. And this is further complicated by different beliefs
surrounding liturgy, music, politics, language - ideas that seem so important
sometimes that for centuries Christians have divided themselves over their importance.
In this morning’s Gospel it is clear that the
disciples hold a very particular view about what it means to be part of the ‘Jesus
club’, and not just anyone is a member.
What we hear today is a continuation of a much
larger conversation between Jesus and his disciples about what it means to
truly follow Christ. You may remember
that last week Jesus told them that he was going to be killed, but would be
raised again in three days. But the
disciples didn’t understand and instead they started to discuss their own
greatness. Jesus began gently trying to
change their perspectives by putting a child in their midst and telling them to
focus not on the greatest, but on the least among them.
For some reason, the disciples took this opportunity
to tell Jesus how they tried to stop someone who was not a member of their
group from casting out Demons in his (Jesus’) name. It seems perfectly reasonable that they would
be concerned about outsiders doing things in the name of Jesus. Jesus had power, and through him the
disciples had been given power too. They
were not comfortable with the idea of other people who were not with them using
the power of Jesus’ name. They had a responsibility
to protect the Jesus brand. But when
they tell Jesus about the outsider, he doesn’t seem to be quite as concerned
about the situation, in fact he tells the disciples to let others use his name
for good, and that “Whoever is not against us is for us.” Jesus does not seem to care about maintaining
the boundaries around his group. Once
again showing the disciples that human notions about power and belonging are
not important to Christ. Being a
disciple is to see past these human endeavors, these human priorities and focus
instead on the ideals of heaven.
Jesus goes on with a list of sayings that seem to be
a bit disconnected from his point, but are essential to the overarching theme
of what it means to be a disciple.
Quickly the rhetoric of Jesus becomes much more intense when he says,
“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.”
Jesus turns the concerns of the disciples around on them making it clear
that they should each be more concerned about the results of their own actions,
and that if their concerns for glory or status cause someone else to fall, then
they better wish they had never been born.
This is a pretty extreme declaration for Jesus to make. But we know, and many here perhaps have
experienced, how the actions and values of some who identify as Christian can
drive people away from knowing the love of God.
Thomas Merton expressed this well when he wrote:
Do
not be too quick to condemn the man who no longer believes in God: for it is
perhaps your own coldness and avarice and mediocrity and materialism and
selfishness that have chilled his faith.
Being a disciple to Christ is a great responsibility,
not just to ourselves and to God, but to each other. We must learn to see each as God sees us, not
divided up into groups based on nationality or political party, but as people
just struggling to find our way, people who do not need more burdens or
roadblocks. This is what we take on when
we choose to follow Christ. Ours is the
responsibility of inviting others in, rather than keeping them out. Ours is the responsibility of removing
obstacles and sharing burdens.
When Jesus talks about cutting off our hands and
feet rather than being thrown going into hell, as you might have gathered, he
was being metaphorical. But the truth is
that we have difficult decisions to make about our lives and how we choose to
live them, and it can feel as if we are cutting off limbs when we deny our
anger, our jealousy or our want.
Sometimes when we have to choose between Jesus and country, or Jesus and
politics, or Jesus and any earthly allegiances, choosing Jesus can seem like
the most difficult decision in the world.
Jesus does not ask this of his disciples, of us,
because he wants to make life hard, he does it because he wants to make our
lives more meaningful than we ever thought was possible. He wants us to allow the barriers between
ourselves and the love of God to be removed.
Because in that love, in God’s love, is true and lasting peace.
