We are so many working for God’s dream
Sermon on Mark 9:38-50
Today’s Gospel is a true fire and brimstone kind of a sermon that Jesus preaches. A sermon laying out the tortures of the unquenchable fire versus the adversity of cutting off what makes you stumble. Not to cut off the people that bug you. But to cut off what might hinder you from seeing truth and beauty in others. To cut off what might make you cut off others.
Why is Jesus so explicit here? Because, again, his friends don’t get it. Last week they quarreled over who might be the greatest among them. Before that, they tried to withstand the idea that the Messiah came to suffer, not to fight. And that, if they wanted to follow Jesus, they, too, would be suffering. They too would have to get their act together and carry their cross for this world to change. Because change is hard. So hard, that many of us would rather fight desperately for a status quo to remain, even if it doesn’t serve us well. Even, if it makes us sick, destroys God’s creation, our church, our faith. Because so often we lack the vision of what a world serving God through our neighbors whole-heartedly could look like. And, if we have the vision, we mostly lack the energy to work for it. The divine enemy feeds on our lack of vision, on our fear of losing, on our need to be outstanding and special and recognized.
We, Jesus’ friends. The ones that are supposed to do as Jesus did, talk like Jesus did, to follow him. The Gospel of Mark has been very explicit about this in the past weeks.
Of course, Jesus being Jesus, calls us what we are when we don’t follow his path. “Satan”, he called Peter a couple of weeks ago. Which, I believe, was probably the worst name-calling Peter could have imagined. “Don’t be the divine enemy focusing your mind on human things!” Peter sure couldn’t hear that. He revolted.
Last week, Jesus told us to stop trying to be the best, the greatest. Instead, to focus on being who we are in God’s eyes, to see Christ in the nobodies of this world. And to not feel like we are at all better than any of those nobodies. Back then, those were children that people didn’t much care about. Nowadays, we almost worship our own babies while easily forgetting the grown children of God who aren’t able to outperform others, to succeed in a world that treats illness and poverty as an individual’s crime instead of what it is: A communal crime against the least among us, the ones we deem to be nobodies. A communal crime that is utterly preventable. If we chose to cut off what makes us stumble. If we chose community. If we chose the common good over our own little thirst for fame. If we chose to carry our crosses together like Jesus did.
Instead, we, humanity in general, and Christians specifically, burn a lot of energy fighting. We fight over words and meanings, over faith statements and how to properly do church. We fight over identities and property. And we often look with envy to those churches that have more, that are more, that seems to be more successful. Comparing ourselves to the apparently greater makes us feel even smaller, even less important, even less impactful. What can we do? We, with aging members and dwindling numbers? Despair, the best friend of the divine enemy lingers around the corner.
We have so many dreams, our hearts are big. But, who shall do the work? Who shall open the gates and feed the hungry and clean up afterward?
Thank God, Jesus shouts out the answer loud and clear in today’s Gospel. “Whoever is not against us is for us.” Look around, there is an abundance of people longing to participate in something bigger. Something that provides people with opportunities to move on in life. Something that will make Tri-City a better place to live in. We call that kind of a better life for all a hunch of the kingdom of God.
“Whoever is not against us is for us.” To work together for the kingdom of God is so important that we can’t afford losing workers over small potatoes. Even if to us they might look like large potatoes. The baked potato kind.
To work together for the least and the last in our society, to be everyone’s servant and to pull ourselves together as a community and carry the cross not just with the nobodies but for the nobodies, that is so important to Jesus – there is no room for religious arrogance. No room for fear and competition.
“Whoever is not against us is for us.” Jesus challenges our way of thinking. Like he basically does every single time we encounter him. Jesus’ friends thought they got it this time. And they were so close. They figured: “If someone is not with us, they must be against us.” It sounds almost identical with what Jesus preaches here. Almost. Yet, the difference couldn’t be greater. Jesus’ friends divide the world into a small group of true followers and a huge group of enemies to God.
Jesus turns that logic upside down. He tells us that everything good in this world, everything helping people without harming others, everything building the kingdom of God on earth, is done in Jesus’ name. Everyone can be a part of this grant project, this healing, liberating movement for all people on earth. Everyone can be a part. Everyone should be a part. Everyone has to be a part if we want to succeed. It’s a community thing.
And, Jesus reminds us that we really and closely and honestly need to look at what keeps us from joining those forces. Which fears are holding us back? Which assumptions do we make about the nobodies in this world? How do those assumptions inform our actions? Who do we welcome with open arms? Who do we fear? Who do we invite to our table? And who do we share with, but like to keep them at an arm’s length? Instead of embracing and hugging them like Jesus did with the little child, the little nobody back in the days.
Criticizing others is so easy. Arrogantly assuming that everyone could have made the choices in life we were able to make. While forgetting that there are, indeed, satanic forces at work in this world. Forces that try to focus our attention on keeping the status quo, on keeping us safe, on guarding us from the nobodies. Satanic forces that don’t grant everyone the same choices, the same chances, the same opportunities in life.
Jesus is very blunt about what he thinks of any kind of gate-keeping for what we claim to hold sacred. Whoever acts and speaks like this will “go to hell”. The word translated here as “hell” was literally the smoldering city dump just outside Jerusalem. Where trash was gathered and burned. It’s also the only time in the Gospel of Mark that Jesus directly alludes to divine retribution. The reason: There is apostasy within the community of faith. Jesus’ friends aren’t on the same page with Jesus. Now, THAT is a problem.
But, it wouldn’t be Jesus if there wasn’t another surprise waiting for us. At the end of today’s Gospel. Jesus’ fire and brimstone sermon ends with a most wonderful invitation: “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” Have the guts to stand up for what’s right. And be at peace with one another. Within our small congregation and within our larger church. Even within our multi-cultural and multi-religious city and world.
Peace not as a hypocritical quietness. But peace as the way to bring as many people as possible together in confronting and opposing the death-dealing forces. The forces keeping so many people from living to the fullest. People like our unhoused neighbors, whom many consider to be nobodies. People we try to avoid, we often try to help without actually meeting them. And, people like us. We, who want to love God in our neighbors but often struggle to do so to the fullest. People like us who long for the kingdom of God but wonder with whom to join forces, how to start. After all, we are just a small congregation. We are just a couple of hundred ELCA Christians in Tri-City. We are just a few. And there is so much to do.
Today’s Gospel is a story of great hope to us! It’s a vivid reminder that we are not alone in the fight for justice and peace, for the kingdom of God. It’s a reminder that there are many other people longing for the same world where everybody will be loved and valued. Many of our fellow workers for God’s world don’t share our faith. Jesus’ solution: ”Whoever is not against us is for us. 41For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.”
The Safe Parking Initiative by the City of Fremont in partnership with faith communities is a great example of what might be possible if we choose communal answers over fear and blaming and shaming. And, let me tell you something. In conversations with people from our ELCA sister churches, I have heard it over and over. People telling me: “If Christ the King goes ahead and offers their parking lot, we want to volunteer our time. We want to be a part of this program and help our unhoused neighbors.” Here is the thing. I wholeheartedly believe, that in helping and therefore compassionately loving our neighbors, we will be on the receiving end of compassion as well. We will drink a cup of water or tea with people we otherwise would never talk to. We will hear stories that will change how we look at this world and its people. We will feel liberated from a fear of the unknown. We will make it a little bit harder for the divine enemy in the fight for our souls.
There’s much to do. Let’s do it. Together. Carrying our crosses is a community thing. Withstanding the divine enemy is a community thing. We can do this. Whoever is not against us is for us. Amen!
