For and Against

9/30/18 (Proper 21/Ordinary 26 B, Semi-Continuous)

James 5:13-20; Mark 9:38-50

For and Against

“If you’re not for us, then you’re against us.”

This is the phrase we’re more familiar with, and we see it lived out all around us.  For example, there are quite a few folks in this sanctuary right now who have been very gracious with this pastor for being a fan of my Pittsburgh professional sports teams… but if I were to walk in next Sunday wearing Jayhawks apparel, I’d be sent home and told not to come back until I could find something more appropriate to wear.

This last week, we have been inundated, even overwhelmed, with this kind of “for or against” messaging and tribalism, and as we move closer and closer to November, that messaging is only bound to intensify.  So it was both provoking and refreshing this week to come across this passage in Mark’s Gospel in which Jesus turns that idea on its head.  As we pick up immediately where we left off from last week’s reading, Jesus is in the midst of having a heart-to-heart with his disciples, who had just been arguing amongst themselves about who in their group was the greatest.

The disciples are apparently uncomfortable with this line of discussion, so they try to shift topics to a little further outside their circle.  They bring up a man who was casting out demons in Jesus’ name and mention that they tried to stop him “because he wasn’t following us.”  If you’re not for us, if you’re not with us, following us, then you’re against us - right?  But Jesus tells them not to stop this person - that “whoever is not against us is with us.”  He tells them that even someone who gives Jesus’ followers a cup of water to drink because they bear his name will not lose the reward.

It’s something to stop and think about - it changes the paradigm we’re so used to working in.  Where the disciples are trying to draw lines and make differentiations, Jesus instead gives them a different perspective entirely.  Instead of looking inward, seeing everything in matters of us vs. them, Jesus shows them that their very understanding of who “us” is is too narrow in the first place.  This exorcist was casting out demons - something that the disciples themselves had had issues doing just a short time before - and that caused concern for Jesus’ followers, because he wasn’t one of them, he didn’t follow in their circle, wasn’t sitting in the same room with Jesus that they were.  And when the disciples have already been arguing amongst themselves about who is the greatest in their own group, it seems that they’re continuing to look for further means to put themselves above the others.  Where the disciples are concerned that the man is not with them, Jesus instead tries to show them that what this exorcist is doing, because it’s done in Jesus’ name, isn’t against them, and that no one who does such an act of power in his name could soon after speak evil of him.  Jesus is attempting to expand the view of the disciples, to help them better understand his previous words about what it means to truly be the greatest by being a servant to all.

This is such an important distinction for us to understand, especially when we live in a town with so many different churches, so many different ways that we express our faith and live it out on a daily basis.  There are a lot of ways in which I think we do a wonderful job in our community of truly getting this idea - we have an active and supportive Ministerial Alliance that works together for the good of our community.  We gather together to share in our faith with one another during the annual Christmas Hymnsing, the Thanksgiving service, and our Lenten Luncheons.  We frequently lift up folks from outside this congregation in our prayers as they deal with illnesses, accidents, and other tragedies.  We’ve come together as a community around a number of people to help cover hospital bills, purchase new clothes and things after fires, and more.  Many of our churches even work together to support one another in some of the different ministries that we offer - some of our kids have participated in Awanas at the Baptist church, attend the youth groups at the Baptist and Christian Churches, and participate together in various mission trips, revivals, and other opportunities that arise.  At the same time, without the generous help of the Christian and Baptist churches, we’d have a hard time transporting so many of the children in our community to our church as they come to take part in KidzConnect!

These are amazing things for me to see in this community, and I can’t emphasize just how thankful I am to see the way in which we work together to embody the Kingdom.  I grew up in a community where we did not have this kind of openness - we didn’t have a big youth group in my home church, and so when my friends from school invited me to attend theirs, I wasn’t allowed to because of the image that it might create in our church community that the pastor’s kid was going to some other church’s youth group.  And this is the case in many of our branches of the church even still today - we fear letting our youth participate with other churches because they might end up liking that church better and start attending somewhere else.  We can be protective of our own flocks, seeing other churches as competition instead of as partners together in ministry.  We can choose not to interact with other churches because they teach things differently than we do, because they celebrate communion in a different style than we do, or for any other variety of theological or personal reasons.

But when we keep the church divided, when we separate ourselves so strongly into us vs. them mentalities, we ultimately make the church and Christ’s witness to the world that much weaker.  This isn’t to say that we have to march in lockstep with one another, that we need to absolutely agree with one another on every little matter - we don’t always see eye to eye even in our own denomination, let alone with folks from other churches.  But we also need to remember that we still believe together in one God, one faith, one baptism, one communion of saints that we share with one another no matter what.  And when we keep those things in mind, when we continue to share in life with one another in this larger community of faith, and when we recognize that God can be at work even in the places where we’d least expect it, we keep ourselves open to the opportunities to grow, to learn, to understand one another more strongly and see how Christ continues to be at work all around us.

It’s this idea that James hammers home in these final verses of this book - that our faith is one meant to be lived out together.  James encourages the church to share with one another in prayer and suffering, in joy and singing, in seeking out healing through the laying on of hands and the anointing of oil, and that through our common work together, through our common worship, prayer, and witness, we as the church become so much more powerful and effective.  I can’t help but think about how this is so profoundly demonstrated during times of natural disasters, in particular - last year in the aftermath of hurricane Harvey, and this year as we are still looking at the destruction and damage caused by hurricane Florence, we can see our churches working so strongly together, even though they each have their own individual organizations that offer disaster assistance.  Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans and Catholics, Pentecostals, Non-denominational, and more… each are reaching out to help their neighbors as they recover from flooding, heavy rains, and the aftermath of the storms.  James tells us that these are the kind of Godly acts that bear good fruit, that bring about healing and wholeness, that even can lead to the rescue of those who have been lost to God.  And the amazing thing is that, time and time again, we are invited to be a part of that community of believers, to step into this divided world and proclaim that we believe in a God that ultimately brings us closer together through the love of Christ.

And I have to wonder… what might be God calling us to do further together?  What areas in our lives, in our communities, in our world are we finding ourselves so divided over right now where God might instead be calling us to remember that, if we are not against each other, we must truly be with one another, instead?  And how can we better live into that worldview?  I don’t think it’s a question that has an easy answer, but it’s one that I believe we must continue to struggle with, to listen to, to dwell with and keep ourselves open to.  May God continue to journey with us as we seek those answers together.  To God be the Glory.  Amen.