Last week we listened and watched the disciples interrupt Jesus important teaching on what he was about to face, crucifixion and death, with an adolescent argument that was nothing more than a quarrel about who was the teacher’s pet. I said last week that I don’t think of any of us would have thought twice if Jesus would have just replaced all of them with a new set of disciples. If they couldn’t get this elementary, basic understanding of Jesus ministry and destiny, how could they be trusted with the authority he was about to hand to them. If instead of listening and asking questions about what they didn’t understand yet, they broke out into a fight over who the most important disciple was. We have heard the story so many times, it is easy to lose the shock of it all. I’ve thought about this this week and think it may be similar to how we would feel if we were to show up to a seminary symposium expecting a deep discussion on how to interpret Jesus death on the cross in the 21st century, only to witness a handful of ‘soon-to-be’ ordained leaders arguing about who was the fastest runner. It made no sense then, nor does it now. I mean some of them got a book in the Bible named after them, but none of them seem to understand the depth of the ministry they were witnessing unfold before them.
And now, almost on cue, comes this week’s Gospel. Once again, we hear something powerful that is going on, only to be interrupted by the disciples’ jealous rage. Evidently someone is going around and casting out demons from folks, but since they don’t know who they are, what credentials they have, they are beside themselves that evidently someone is stealing their thunder. After all, they are the ones who should be getting all the accolades. They had all the appropriate credentials; they walked daily with Jesus, he had personally called them into a position of leadership, and someone had the audacity to circumvent the whole process. I mean this exorcist was helping people, after all it’s more than just inconvenient to be possessed by a demon. Those who were possessed were barely hanging on. There entire lives were in turmoil. Can you imagine? They couldn’t go to the places they used to go, because no telling what might happen. Families were probably in disarray, old friendships destroyed and quite frankly, how can you even earn money enough to survive when a demon keeps speaking out from your own voice, and I suppose saying things that were awkward at best and completely inappropriate at worse.
And so, someone, we can only guess who it was, stepped up to help these unfortunate demon-possessed people. Mark’s gospel tells us that it was more than just one person, and we also hear that whoever it was, was truly helping. Then, amid all of this drama, like the gang who couldn’t shoot straight, comes the disciples. We don’t know who said this, but whoever it was, I give them style points for completely missing the point. I mean who cares who it is that is helping these poor unfortunate demon-possessed people, at least someone is doing the heavy lifting. But that doesn’t matter to the disciples. What matters is that there is evidently a process. There is the right way to do things and this guy isn’t even on the same team with the disciples.
Maybe you know this, but part of the issue here is that the disciples were not the crème de la crème, as far as disciples go. You see even though these guys were all probably teenagers, they were not what we could call, the most sought-after group of disciples. In the first century, the whole concept of having disciples was not something Jesus invented. You may recall that John the Baptist had disciples, as did nearly every Rabbi that was an itinerant preacher like Jesus. Disciples were chosen at a very young age and simply began following the Rabbi, learning alongside them. Since Jesus’ disciples were already teenagers when they were called, we can accurately assume that they were not at the head of the class. If they had been, they would not have been available. Indeed, we know the occupation of many of the disciples before they started following Jesus. Andrew, Peter, James and John had been fisherman, while Matthew had been a tax collector, which shows he alone was certainly not qualified. If they had been seen as having promise, by the time Jesus began his public ministry at 30 years of age, these guys would have been snatched up by another Rabbi. But they weren’t. They were fishing, collecting taxes and whatever else- so just look at these guys as not the elite but just regular, run of the mill young people without much a future. Just sit with that for a second. Maybe that helps explain why they keep messing up; to put into terms we might understand… they weren’t head to Princeton and Yale or Harvard or Stanford or the University of Kansas. These guys either got their GEDs or dropped out of high school. I don’t know if that surprises you but I know it helps me. You see, too often we think God is seeking only the best and the brightest but that’s not who he chose for his disciples. He chose regular guys. And hang in there with me because we will eventually find that they never get it, all the way up to the crucifixion. When they finally do understand, it will because God sent the Holy Spirit to guide them into all truth. And the same is true for us. It is the Holy Spirit that reveals all things to us. That is good news because it’s not about us.
Yet I understand the disciple’s angst. Here comes this interloper, completely removed from the mainstream of this Jesus movement, doing things that are helping people, granted, but without the normal guard rails in place that would keep him from wandering off the ranch and God only knows what would happen then. What if he messed up the liturgy; forgot the order things are supposed to go, said the wrong things and even, has bad theology! That is like a life-time Southern Baptist trying to preside at an Episcopal Eucharist. What are we to do?
So they go to the main man, Jesus, to report what they have heard. I am sure they suspected Jesus would put a kibosh on the whole thing… reign this guy in. But that isn’t what happens, is it.
Did you notice Jesus reply? “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.”
To understand this, we need some context. It is at this point in the Gospel of Mark that Jesus is speaking openly of his arrest, trial and death. Perhaps you know this, but not only is Jesus openly teaching about his destiny, but physically he is making his way south to Jerusalem, where all the Holy Week stuff will take place. In other words, time is running out.
So, we’ve gone from the disciples arguing about who is the greatest to now, outrage that someone is doing their job, without proper credentials. Jesus is quite clear in his own mind, that he doesn’t have much time left to get these disciples, future leaders of this Jesus movement, up to speed. And so, he does the unexpected.
Instead of calling time out and taking everyone to a retreat at Camp Allen where he can explain this to them, one more time, he steps on the accelerator. You can almost feel Jesus’ impatience and frustration with the disciples. They are NOT grasping what he has been teaching. Time is short and what he is doing is incredibly important. He is teaching and living into Kingdom values where everyone is love, everyone is accepted, not just those who have cross all their Ts and dotted all their I-s. Jesus was ushering in a Kingdom of love, acceptance and inclusion and the disciples were expecting this movement to not be so messy; things just go better when they can be controlled. It appears that the disciples were completely off track, hoping that once the Kingdom comes in its fullness then they would be like a bouncer at a Texas Honky Tonk; deciding who’s in and who’s out. After all what would it look like if people who lived differently that us would be let in? What if they believed differently or worshiped in a way that no self-respecting person would?
It reminds me of a story that’s probably apocryphal but kind of sums this whole thing up into something that at least I can understand. It seems there was a man who accidentally wandered into his local Episcopal Church for a Sunday Eucharist. He got into his pew without reverencing, sung off key and kept dropping his Prayer Book and Hymnal. But what made it worse happened during the sermon. Every time the good Father looked up from his manuscript as he preached, this intrepid visitor was shaking his head in affirmation. Then he started murmuring and finally began shouting out to the priest: “That’s right. Preach it!” And then finally when the preacher paused he shouted: “Praise God. Preach!” The ushers, by this time very uncomfortable finally walked quietly toward the man who clearly didn’t understand how we did things and whispered in his ear: “Sir, we don’t Praise God in the Episcopal Church.
Whoops. Don’t get lost here because I believe Jesus is telling his followers something incredible: “don’t forget what is important.” He tells them: if they are not against us, then they are for us.”
Some might feel that the Gospel this morning is about condemnation, but it’s not. I mean there is a lot here about cutting hands and feet off, putting out eyes and an unquenchable fire. But what if Jesus isn’t condemning anyone but simply telling us what reality is. You see, left to our own devices we exclude and we judge. You see, left to our own devices we seem to say to God: “hey, you’re pretty busy, we’ll take it from here.”
Clearly Jesus didn’t and will not stand for that. He doesn’t need us to stand at the door and keep folks who don’t look like us, talk like us, or dare I say believe like us from entering. That’s not the Kingdom of God. Instead the Kingdom looks like Jesus: much more open, inclusive and hospitable that we’re comfortable with. Even through the disciples were so different from us, they reveal the reality of how we tend to operate, if we are left to our own.
But Jesus, if we’ll listen, keeps calling us back to the essence of the Gospel, the Kingdom or Realm of God that refuse to be tapped down but instead keeps breaking through. And in the Realm of God, the Kingdom, we find God at work through us, and around us and in us. You see it when you see mercy, kindness, justice, love, liberation, peacemaking, healing and all those Gospel values breaking into our world, into our lives and hearts, God is at work.
Let me draw your attention back to our opening prayer, the collect, that began our worship this morning: “O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure;” God shows us God’s mercy and pity and turns the tables on us and asks us to do the same.
But if we’re honest, this is a challenge for us. Look at how the Israelites in our Old Testament reading this morning, grumble and weep because they are upset that God replaced their salad bar with manna. And in the Gospel, the disciples grumbled and wept that Jesus was acting like not self-respecting God ought to act. Acknowledging our struggle is a good beginning but also remember this:
We don’t need credentials and we don’t have to stand at the door of a Texas Honky-Tonk making decisions about who is in and who is out. Instead, we are called to welcome the stranger and the stranger they are, the more welcoming we become. We have experienced God’s love, goodness and mercy, not because we belong to the group of the most likely to succeed but because that is just what Jesus does. Maybe we already get this, but if not, now is the time to understand what it is that God calls us todo. We are called to share with all, those like us and those unlike us, goodness, mercy and justices. As it turns out, we should not try to hold on to it because if we do, it will dry up. But if we keep sharing it with all, love, goodness, and mercy will overflow into the places that are parched with hate, condemnation and exclusion.
So we share wha we have. And that justice and love will flow down like a river, and we will cry out with joy and gratitude. It’s not what we thought. But one day all humanity will be filled with God’s goodness and love; so, while we await that day, let us be about making our circle wider and widers. In Jesus name.