St. John’s United Church

“Friend or Foe”

“Teacher, we saw someone using your name to cast demons out of people.
But he wasn’t one of us, so we told him to stop.”
Mark 9:38

“Mom, Billy’s spraying things with the hose in the front yard!” “It’s ok. I told him he could water the flowers. It’s hot out. If he gets himself or a few other things wet, it won’t hurt anything.” or: Mom, Susie’s playing with a rake!” “It’s ok. She’s just trying to help me in the yard. She can’t really rake leaves very well yet, but it’s all right for her to try.”

Children can get very concerned about having permission to do things, and sorting out who is permitted to do which things. Sounds like the disciples had the same problem. “Teacher, we saw someone else casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him.” He wasn’t one of us. He didn’t have our authority to follow you, so he shouldn’t have been trying to do so. We tried to stop him - we’re doing our best to make sure your work is being done by those properly authorized to do it!”

The disciples meant well, just as those older siblings meant well. They were only trying to help Mom take good care of the little ones. And the disciples were only trying to make sure that things were being done as they should be. They meant well. But they were misguided. Listen again to what Jesus had to say to them: “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.” Jesus tells the disciples that they have no need to be protective - that the one doing God’s work cannot be against God. If someone is acting with God’s power, then that someone belongs to God. That’s a lesson that runs counter to our thinking in many ways.

We find it so easy to think in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them.’ We assume that ‘different from’ means ‘opposed to’. I suspect it’s been going on since the beginning of human civilization, and it’s been manifested in religious intolerance for as long as religion has played a part in that civilization. Indeed, it’s a subtext to nearly every controversial current issue: global warming, stem cell research, abortion rights, gay rights, the death penalty, and so on and so on.

As Christians, we have plenty to argue about among ourselves without even considering the controversies we manage to conjure up when we get involved with people of other faiths! And that’s increasingly common, as our world grows more connected and our society more diverse. Even here in Brockville, we can no longer assume that our neighbors share our heritage, our values, or our beliefs. How, then, do we deal with those who aren’t like us or who don’t agree with us? Well…, as Christians, we look to Jesus for our example.
In last week’s reading, Jesus used a little child as an example to the disciples, teaching them to seek to have a vulnerable, childlike faith. Children aren’t normally instinctively mistrusting of others. If they’ve been raised by loving parents, they’re initial assumption is that adults are to be trusted. However, in today’s society, we teach our children to beware of strangers - and for good reason! It’s an unfortunate necessity that we have to teach them that lesson. But we’re not born with the instinct to mistrust others. It’s a learned behavior. By the time we’re fully-grown, it’s a well-learned behavior. We’ve learned to expect not to have much in common with those who come from different places, different backgrounds, different cultures, or different religions. We’ve learned to assume that anyone who isn’t clearly for us is against us. It’s an attitude reinforced by a society that popularizes conformity through advertising that tells us we need to fit in.

There are so many ways that we communicate who we are and what group we belong to - and don’t belong to. Teenagers probably do it best as they label and categorize themselves by their choice of clothes and of shoes, by the things their t-shirts say, by their tattoos and piercings, even by the way they cut or colour their hair or wear their makeup.
But we adults do it too - with bumper stickers and magnets and flags on our cars that tell everything from our political views to our favourite football or hockey teams. We also do it by the choices we make to live in certain neighborhoods, drive particular types of cars, wear designer labels, or buy certain brands. We say a lot about what group we choose to belong to and who we think we are and who we aren’t.

But that kind of thinking - about who fits in and who doesn’t - is all about grouping some people together and excluding others. And it’s exactly the opposite of what Jesus was talking about. Society tells us that anyone who doesn’t agree and conform is the enemy - anyone who isn’t for us is against us. But Jesus says that “anyone who isn’t against us is for us.” “Anyone who isn’t against us is for us.” And rearranging the words makes a world of difference!

What if we were able to think that way? What if we were able to overcome the mistrust we’ve had so ingrained in us and learn to assume, in the absence of hard evidence that someone is clearly an enemy, that those ‘others’ also belong to God and are also trying to do God’s work? Who would we welcome if we could think that way? Who would begin to look like our brothers and sisters? Iraqi people who happen to have been born in a country that was ruled by a cruel man and who now live in fear of violence and civil war? Good people who have been raised in the Muslim faith not because they are evil, but simply because it’s the faith of their parents and grandparents and grandparents before them? Fellow Christians who have different ideas about church governance, sacraments, inclusion of members or rules for ordination? Immigrant workers who enter this country, not because they’re part of a conspiracy to take jobs away from North American workers, but because they just desperately want a job where they can earn enough to feed their children?
We can still disagree with one another on policies and procedures and politics and all sorts of things - we’re not meant to stop thinking for ourselves - but we need to be reminded that “the other - the one with whom we disagree - the one who seems so different from us - isn’t automatically the enemy. If we don’t have reason to believe we’re dealing with an enemy, we are admonished to assume that this is simply another one of God’s people trying to live and to do God’s work in his or her own way.

And if that’s not hard to get your head around, the next part of the Scripture that Sheila read to us this morning has some really hard-to-take suggestions: “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell. If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. If your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out.”

It reminds me of the time Ed Peterman’s family discovered they had rats in the barn. They set out some traps, and, the next morning, when young Ed went out to see if they had caught anything and he saw something strange. One trap had been sprung, and while there was no rat, he noticed that the trap held the severed leg of a rat. He ran to tell his parents and when they saw the trap with the rat’s leg in it they explained to Ed what had happened. The rat knew that its life was at risk, so it chewed off its own leg to escape. “That’s the way rats are,” his father said. “Better to go on living with only three legs, than to die with all four.” And Ed marveled at the courage it took for the rat to choose to survive by chewing its leg off and leaving it behind.

And yet, that is what Jesus tells us to do. Now, I have to believe that Jesus is exaggerating here for effect. If we were to take this passage literally the world would be full of one eyed, one handed, single footed Christians! And St. Paul would be among them for he says, “For I do not do the good I want; but the evil I do not want is what I do.” And if St. Paul is going to be walking around with a hand cut off and an eye plucked out, imagine how many limbs the rest of us will be missing!

So…, while, I’m pretty certain that we’re not meant to take Jesus words literally, we can learn from them. And the lesson we can take follows on what Jesus was teaching just before. Jesus has instructed the disciples to be tolerant of others who are not part of their group or like them, but who, also, belong to God and are doing God’s work in their own ways. And here, then, he instructs them to get rid of those things that cause them to stumble - to get rid of whatever it is that prevents them from seeing others they way they should. In other words, Jesus says, “If there is prejudice in your mind that causes you to see your brothers and sisters as enemies, get rid of it. If there is fear in your heart that causes you to feel threatened by others, cut it out. If there is anger inside you that causes you to see others as enemies and to seek vengeance instead of reconciliation, cut it out. Get rid of whatever it is that causes you to be unable to live as you should - unable to see your brothers and sisters for who they are and to live and work beside them as God intends.

This morning, we gather around the table in celebration of Christ’s presence among us. But this morning, we also celebrate in a special way. This Sunday is celebrated as Worldwide Communion Sunday because, today we also are reminded that we are not alone in this celebration. The church of Jesus Christ around the world celebrates this same sacrament, and each time we do so, we become aware that we are part of the larger family of God. Our brothers and sisters in Christ – whether they are as near as down the street - or as far away as Egypt, Australia, El Salvador, Poland, Syria, South Africa - celebrate the same Christ who came and taught and lived among us, who died and rose again in victory to bring us salvation.

And so, as you come to the table this morning, be conscious of the fact that this is not an isolated act. We have a communion beyond our walls. And if we don’t get in touch with it – if we don’t understand that it is there - and open our hearts to it – then all that we do and experience inside these walls is futile. For the good news of the gospel is that we are part of something much larger - the body of Christ worldwide - gathered in Jesus’ name, working for God’s glory, and united by his loving Spirit. And for that we can say, “Thanks be to God!”

Acknowledgements: Sarah Keyser, Paul Laresn, Richard Fairchild

A meditation preached by the Rev. Myra Garvin at St. John’s United Church, Brockville
Sunday, October 1, 2006 – Pentecost 17B - Worldwide Communion