18th
Sunday after Pentecost - Mark 9:38-50 - September 26th/27th
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
Man,
you thought it couldn't get worse for the disciples. It's been a
rough day for them that we've seen our last two weeks. First you've
got the 9 disciples who can't cast out a demon, then you've got them
arguing about who is the greatest - they have been failing and
knocking each other down a peg. Horrible. And then today, it gets
even worse. Poor John gets nominated as the disciple who has
recently annoyed Jesus the least to pipe up and give Jesus just a bit
more information, a bit more context to flavor the day. John
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."
Oh. So, disciples, on the day you had that episode
where you couldn't cast out a demon, you also tell Jesus that you
were trying to stop some other fellow from casting out demons in
Jesus' name. And why? Was he a charlatan who wasn't really casting
out demons? Was he demanding money and bilking people? Was he also
invoking Zeus and Ba'al and stuff? No. He wasn't following... whom?
He wasn't following... us. Did you hear it? Power and authority
have gone to the disciples' heads. Hey there bub, we're Jesus'
disciples, and *we* didn't tell you that you could do that, so cut it
out. Do you hear the ego, the pride, the vain glory in what the
disciples did? It is horrificially dumb and wrong - and it will be
the occasion for Jesus to teach both the disciples and us a bit. Let
us learn.
But
Jesus said, "Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work
in My Name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. For the
one who is not against us is for us."
Now, here I suppose I should quickly address that idea of "in
My Name". We don't generally think this way, but a person's
name, a person's title designates their authority. When Celia Beck
became Celia Brown, she suddenly had access and rights to all my
stuff - she can walk up to me and say, "I need you to write a
check for ____" and I will, because she's made whatever deal in
the name of the Browns... the rest of y'all just don't get to do
that. She has my name, she thus has the authority to act for my
family and use the family resources. Or if you like cop shows, you
have the old fashioned cops who will yell, "Stop in the... name
of the law". Not stop because I, Bob, said to stop, but stop
because I have the authority to exercise the law as an officer of the
peace, so if you disobey me you aren't merely disobeying me, you are
disobeying the state, the government, the law. And so Jesus makes
the point - this fellow is using My Name, My Authority, he is tied to
Me. I've got everyone and their brother complaining about Me,
scribes, pharisees, priests, crowds that don't like this or that -
some guy casting out demons in My Name isn't going to be complaining
about Me since he's relying upon Me, so leave him alone. Make sense?
And
then Jesus shifts gears to lay into the disciples a bit. Let's talk
about how authority works, how it flows. "For
truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink
because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward."
Did you catch it? Not because "you follow Christ" - not
because "you are so awesome and do good works" - but rather
because you belong to Christ. See, the disciples were thinking that
this Jesus thing was going to work like like a ponzi scheme - where
you've got the guy at the top, then the second tier... and then a
third tier, and hey there bub, you ain't no second tier, we're second
tier, you've got to get in down the line, serve us. We'll be the
teacher to you and you can be our disciple, and right now bub we say
shut it. And Jesus cuts across that - there aren't going to be any
tiers in Christianity - rather this. You all, all Christians, belong
to Christ. You all share His name and His authority. One baptism
(into His name), all of us brothers and sisters... not I'm a brother
but you're a third cousin twice removed. And indeed, we are all
given to call upon the Name of the Lord -
What is the second commandment - You shall not misuse the Name of the
Lord your God (and note, that implies that you have the right and
duty to use the name) - what does this mean? We should fear and love
God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie, or deceive
by His name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and
give thanks.
See - call upon the Name in every trouble. Put it to use. And you
foolish disciples, there was a man calling upon My Name when there
was trouble, demonic trouble - and you told him to stop. He at least
understood that demons could only be cast out by prayer, something
you lot had forgotten. Do you see how foolish and dumb you were?
You told him to stop praying.
And
with that we flow into the next verse - a verse that sometimes just
gets pulled out of context. "Whoever
causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be
better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he
were thrown into the sea."
Sometimes if we just jump in at this verse we will throw in any
particular sin that we happen to be annoyed with that day,
particularly if it's something our neighbor has done, and we lambaste
them. Not the point. This isn't the pappy looking at the his
daughter's date on prom night and saying, "remember, a shotgun
works as well as a millstone around the neck, boy!" Well, not
directly. What Jesus says here is much more direct. The sin in
question, the sin that sets up this whole discussion, is 2nd and 3rd
commandment stuff - it is telling folks to not call upon the Lord, to
silence the Word of God rather than gladly hearing it. You disciples
just told a guy not to pray - you caused him to sin. Jesus is
leveling a harsh accusation at the disciples - you messed up big
time.
And
the rest of the lesson flows from there. "And
if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to
enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the
unquenchable fire"
- and likewise your foot or your eye. And here Jesus is making a
simple point - if any of us were to go into the hospital and the doc
says, "there's gangrene in your hand, we have to amputate or you
die" - well, you amputate. And that's just to avoid death in
this life - that's saying nothing of unquenchable fire for eternity.
And so, disciples, you were messing up big time in telling that guy
to stop calling upon My Name. What drove you to that - what led to
you think that? Was it your hand or your eye? No. Now, was it your
pride and ego - then you better cut off your pride and ego lest that
pride and ego get you tossed into hell. What is it that makes you
hate your neighbor and despise him so - well, cut it out.
Now, dear friends, it's time to turn away from the
disciples' vileness, and consider our own. In order to apply this
lesson to us, let me ask you a question. Who do you not want here?
In this place, in this church - who do you not want to be here?
Dimes to donuts every one of you has someone whom you wouldn't want
to see here. Maybe it's family history and bad blood, maybe there's
a jerk from school or work? Someone who has hurt you in the past and
you have a grudge against them? Someone who wanted the church to do
X when you wanted it to do Y? Or even maybe they just have the wrong
skin color, eh? Maybe they just happen to be a bit too poor, come
from the wrong side of the tracks - just enough to make you
uncomfortable and you're glad folks like that aren't around here?
Fight those feelings down, smack them down, crucify them, repent of
them. Cut them off. Because - they - are - bad. Evil. Millstone
around the next bad, worm does not die and fire is not quenched evil.
You
see, for the disciples, Satan attacked them via their pride - they
wanted everything done their way, they wanted power and control. And
let's be honest, Satan probably attacks some of you the same way, in
your pride - where you want the congregation to ask how high when you
say jump. It happens. That's not good. That, in fact, drives
people away from the Church - because you've taught them that
opposition to any of your tomfool ideas is opposition to Christ Jesus
and His forgiveness. But we really need to expand this out because
Satan attacks more than just pride. Anything in us, anything that
would drive sinners who need Jesus away from this place needs to be
repented of - and please note, I don't mean drive away in some
milquetoast modern way - where it's "we can't talk about this
sin because it might offend people". No, this is a place of
God's Word - full bore Law, full bore Gospel. The question now is
what makes us want to separate people from hearing that Word of Law
and Gospel, from calling upon the Name of the Lord. No, we will
call sin a sin here -- but sinners are welcome here, to fight against
sin and to receive forgiveness, even the sinners we really don't
like. So whether it's pride, or ego, or hurt feelings, or being
grossed out or any -isms that we deal with, we need to beat that down
and repent of that.
Jesus
wraps up the section with something that is a bit cryptic at first.
"Salt
is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it
salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one
another."
At first this seems like a bit of a shift - but this is the idea -
you are the salt of the earth... in Christ. In Christ Jesus you have
been made salty, you've been filled with His life and forgiveness and
salvation, life, forgiveness, and salvation that you freely share!
And what happens when you look and find out that... eh, with this
fella over here, I'm not really being very salty, am I... I'm not
really wanting that forgiveness or life or salvation to flow over
towards him? How are you going to be salty again? Cause if left on
it's own - salt that has lost its saltiness is worthless... and you,
in your sin, are weak and powerless. Christ Jesus, though, is not
weak and powerless. There was a big word there in that last sentence
- "and
be at peace with one another".
Peace - that's the big word - Shalom, it's peace, forgiveness, love,
joy, everything put back right again. And Jesus is the one who does
it... because He forgives you. When you find yourself running a bit
low on love, a bit frugal with your forgiveness - come here, come
here to this place - and what happens? Here in this place, God gives
you His peace - communion Sundays, we hear the peace of the Lord be
with you always. Be salty, take and eat, take and drink. Or even
today in Matins, which really is a lovely service. What do we hear?
So, you had a hard time showing love, didn't want to call upon God's
name, wanted to cut other folks off. O Lord, open my lips, cause
You've got to be the One to do it -- and then my mouth will declare
Your praise, even to that person my sinful flesh doesn't like. And
make haste, hurry up and deliver me, help me - for my own flesh is
frail and I am weak. And He does. He gives you grace, He gives you
forgiveness. Everything that Christ Jesus did upon the Cross, every
drop of His death and resurrection is poured upon you here in His
Word, and so you are forgiven, you are salt again - because He is
merciful and good to you, and His prayer from the Cross "Father,
forgive them" has great power in its working upon you. In the
Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
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