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First
Reading
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Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29 |
Psalm 19:17–14 |
James 5:13–20 |
Mark 9:38–50
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Especially in threatening and confusing times, it’s tempting to circle the wagons, erect high walls of protection and emphasize defensive preservation by reigning in most creative tendencies. I suspect that has happened in most so-called mainline church organizations over the past two decades. Inside church hierarchies there is much more concern about loyalty and discipline than about innovation. The original invigorating ecumenical atmosphere created by Pope John the 23rd is pretty much a memory.
Yet the paradoxical thing is that merely circling the wagons and defensively closing the doors rather than exploring new avenues rarely produces the desired results. It’s like trying to swim against a strong tide. You don’t survive or make any progress towards land by kicking harder and directly against the current, for you will exhaust yourself and likely be carried farther out to sea. That is why, for example, the spirit of ecumenical trust and goodwill lives on among most people of faith and has taken on a vigorous life all its own. It is no longer dependent upon being an official priority of any institutional body.
I wonder if this was not also one of the lessons Jesus was trying to teach his disciples in today’s Gospel from Mark. Jesus knew his teaching would open hearts and minds in new ways. His preaching would raise a lot of lasting questions and make some people squirm. Jesus’ resurrection would free and blow open more than a rock-faced tomb. The Gospel never isolates its disciples from the present world around them. Those who serve as forces of healing and reconciliation in the world are never a threat to God.
A few verses before today’s Gospel begins, Mark recorded the failure of the disciples to exorcise an unclean spirit from a child. In today’s passage it seems as if the disciples wanted to restrain someone was able to successfully exorcise evil spirits, simply because he was not one of their own group. The issue wasn’t whether or not the outsider was doing good in the name of Jesus, the issue was that the outsider was not a member of their own chosen circle. The disciples wanted to stop the outsider because he was unrecognized and therefore considered insignificant, much in the same way the disciples wanted to prevent young children from coming to Jesus because they were seen as deserving of little attention. Mark was warning his own Christian community against an overemphasis on any narrow view of legitimate ministry by exposing the exclusiveness of the disciples as opposed to the genuine openness of Jesus. The lesson to later Christians was to beware the tendency to turn inward, of putting loyalty to a particular group authorized to spread the Gospel, above faithfulness to the Gospel.
Jesus is saying that mavericks and outsiders are not necessarily opponents of the good news of God. Moreover, the response of graciousness, generosity, and kindness usually serve the people of God better than intolerance and hostility. Our mission, after all, is primarily to invite people in, not to throw people out. The vision of God is announced by building highways, not by erecting fences.
There have been many movements and ministries that originated outside any official church body. Many of these have been totally off the wall. But others have strengthened and spiritually deepened people’s faith. Often the church failed to heed Jesus’ words and initially was quite hostile to what later was proven to be very valuable and worthwhile.
Instead of being suspicious and jealous of outsiders, the disciples were counseled not to be afraid of self-criticism, and to reflect instead on anything in their own ministry and life that caused others to stumble or to be blocked from the love of God. The disciples were asked to examine how they looked at people, how they listened to people and how they handled people. Frequently the aberrations of Christianity develop because some important aspect of the Gospel is being neglected.
A certain spiritual guide was said to have counseled his pupils “Sincerity is never enough. What you need is honesty.” “What is the difference?” one of his followers asked. “Genuine honesty is never-ending openness to the world. Sincerity is believing one’s own propaganda”.1 Today’s lesson isn’t promoting an anything goes attitude. It is, however, reminding us those outsiders may have something to teach us, and that Jesus never forbade strangers, people living on the boundaries, and people different from us to contribute to the healing of people and the renewing of humanity.
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
