Lectionary Refleciton — Proper 21 (26) (Year B)
38 John spoke up, “Teacher, we saw a man using your name to expel demons and we stopped him because he wasn’t in our group.”
39-41 Jesus wasn’t pleased. “Don’t stop him. No one can use my name to do something good and powerful, and in the next breath cut me down. If he’s not an enemy, he’s an ally. Why, anyone by just giving you a cup of water in my name is on our side. Count on it that God will notice.
42 “On the other hand, if you give one of these simple, childlike believers a hard time, bullying or taking advantage of their simple trust, you’ll soon wish you hadn’t. You’d be better off dropped in the middle of the lake with an anchor around your neck.
43-48 “If your hand or your foot gets in God’s way, chop it off and throw it away. You’re better off maimed or lame and alive than the proud owner of two hands and two feet, godless in a furnace of unquenchable fire. And if your eye distracts you from God, pull it out and throw it away. You’re better off one-eyed and alive than exercising your twenty-twenty vision from inside the fires of Gehenna.
49-50 “Everyone’s going through a refining fire sooner or later, but you’ll be well-preserved, protected from inextinguishable flames. Be preservatives yourselves. Preserve the peace.”
Other readings: Numbers 11.4-6, 10-16, 24-29; Psalm 19.7-14; James 5.13-20
When I was younger, I remember attending a church service with a close friend. In their particular church, they didn’t use any musical instruments. After the service, I asked him about it on the ride home. His mother answered from the front seat, “Well, sweetie, we don’t use instruments because the New Testament doesn’t say anything about using instruments in church.”
Many years later, I had a similar conversation with my paternal Grandmother; she belonged to the same denomination as my childhood friend. When I asked her about their not being instruments in worship, she gave the same response — the New Testament doesn’t mention them so they don’t use them.
“Well,” I replied, “the New Testament doesn’t say anything about pews or carpeting or air conditioning either, but you have those in your services.”
She thought that was a great point and said she’d check with her pastor about it.2
Over the years, I found out other interesting things about my Grandmother’s denomination. One interesting (if not disturbing) fact is they teach that their particular tradition is the only “right” tradition and everyone else is “wrong” and won’t be “going to heaven.”
What’s really fascinating is they’re not alone.
Other denominations have similar traditions and some are even stranger. I attended worship with another friend much later in life. In his particular denomination, only people who were members of that particular parish could partake of communion. And in another denomination I’ve seen different allowances from parish to parish. One parish only allowed people baptised in that tradition to take communion while another parish within the same tradition allowed anyone to take communion — the table of the Lord is open to all people.
So what should it be? Are only the people “in our group” permitted to receive communion? Is our particular theological bend the only “true” and “right” belief? Does this mean everyone else is “false” and “wrong”?
It seems to me that this is what Jesus was dealing with in our Lesson today.
John said that he and the other disciples came across a person who was expelling demons in Jesus’ name but they told him to stop “because he wasn’t in [their] group.” We see this same thing today. Not only in the stories I mentioned above, but a lot of us see others as a threat — they might not look like us or sound like us. They might not dress like us or have the same beliefs we have. They might not even love the same people we do. We tend to look at others like this with suspicion. We often deny that they could even be followers of Jesus.
“There’s no way they could be a real believer of Jesus because they’re gay.”
“There’s no way she could really be a pastor because she’s a woman.”
“There’s no way he could really be a priest because he’s married.”
But that’s the way the disciples thought. Jesus’ response is truly life-changing. It’s not only outside of the social and religious norms of their time but also of our time. Jesus said —
“Don’t stop him. No one can use my name to do something good and powerful, and in the next breath cut me down. If he’s not an enemy, he’s an ally. Why, anyone by just giving you a cup of water in my name is on our side. Count on it that God will notice.”
Jesus tells us to look at people differently. Don’t focus on the differences, notice the sameness. Buried underneath the differences are sisters and brothers. Society always tries to pit us against each other but Jesus tells us that The Way of God’s Realm is one of Unity, of Oneness. Sure, some of the practices of others may be different than ours or surprise us but that’s not something to be repulsed by. On the contrary. We should look at those differences as opportunities to see how God is working in others. Who knows, perhaps we’ll find something we can incorporate into our own practice.
I’m currently following the Reverend Jes Kast on social media. I was introduced to her through the social media of Nadia Bolz-Weber. If you’ve not heard of these women, I encourage you to click on the links and get to know them. Some people may not like this part or that part of them. Some people might not even like them because they’re women. But their love and support of each other is empowering. I’ve learned more about what it means to follow Jesus from these two women than I ever did growing up in the Southern Baptist denomination.
But then, and this is what I’ve been moving towards, these women are in the same faith tradition as me. That is, they’re followers of Jesus. But what about people who aren’t? Well, it seems that to Jesus, even people who may not profess him but still act in accordance with this teaching are “on our side.” God notices those people. If they aren’t an enemy, they’re an “ally.”
But Jesus doesn’t stop there, does he? He offers up the other side of the coin. And that coin is attitude of his followers. On one side of the coin, we shouldn’t be critical and judgmental of people who don’t follow The Way of Jesus they way we think it should be followed. But the other side of the coin is we better hope we aren’t giving other followers of Jesus a “hard time” or bullying them into believing they’re inferior to us or taking advantage of them in any way (in other words, making them stumble at our supposed superior spirituality). If we do, well, it’d be better if we weren’t even born.
And then Jesus tells us something that most of us have never been told — “Everyone’s going through a refining fire.” And since that’s the fact, we can either do the hard work of removing that part that isn’t like Jesus now or it will be removed later. And doing it later doesn’t sound too pleasant.
I think all of this in our lesson today is simply this: Treat others the way you want to be treated. Look for Christ in them. Realize that others are our allies, our sisters and brothers. And if we see anything within ourselves that doesn’t line up with the image and life of Christ, we must get rid of it. And how knows? Maybe that “wild & holy”3 person can show us a better way of following The Way of Jesus than we can even imagine.
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In the Love of the Three in One,
Br. Jack+, LC
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1. Scripture quotations marked (MSG) taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
2. I also pointed out that Saint Paul said he served and worshiped “the very same God served and worshiped by all our ancestors and embrace everything written in all our Scriptures” (Acts 24.14). This, I pointed out to my Grandmother, would include the use of instruments in their worship (see Psalm 150). She said that her pastor didn’t really give her a good explanation, stating that was the tradition of their denomination.
3. “Wild & Holy” is a tattoo that Rev Jes and her “hedge of protection” sisters share.
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