September 27, 2009
St. Paul's United Church, Richmond, ON
17th Sunday After Pentecost 2009
Mark 9:38-50
Read the passage: The Message or The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson
One of the issues we face in a multi-religious world is how to accept others as having insight into the nature of reality. Do other religions have truth? Is often how the question is posed. Then there are other voices that are not religious, do they have some truth? Do those outside the religious community have important insights we ought to pay attention to? Do other religions have something to teach us? Do other voices tell us something important?
In our world some want to reject that which is different. We have a tendency to say the opposite, no matter what the subject, and with no interest in the facts, and it is widespread. A well known talk show host provided an illustration of this very thing recently. They make their living by attacking those they disagree with, as if “nothing good can come out of Nazareth” ... or the United Church.
These questions about who is on our side are ones we share with those to whom Mark was writing. The background is a whole series of who is correct, who is the best disciple? Mark gathers up some sayings of Jesus to push the community into a wider and more inclusive view of the world.
It is also helpful to know that Mark writes after the destruction of the temple, around 70 C.E. Further, there were different Jesus movements and different Christ communities. That is, there were several different understandings of the experiences people had of Jesus, and different ways his teachings were used.
This is the background for "for and against." We know that not everyone was in the same group. Different groups had developed. In the face of oppression there was a danger that fear would create limiting boundaries.
As well, there was a danger of super orthodoxy - “here is our tradition and it is the only understanding that is possible - we have true doctrine.”
So here was a whole unknown group healing in the name of Jesus. Mark connects this back to Jesus’ openness and inclusiveness. Jesus had pushed the boundaries of inclusion so that the least were the criteria of inclusion. It was an attitude or a world view of openness to those who look after the common good.
Even if they don’t have the same name, caring for the common good makes them part of God’s kingdom. "Though we held everyone to be our opponents except those on our side, you counted everybody as your adherent who was not against you." This is Cicero - Roman statesman, orator, writer - writing about Caesar in the first century before Christ. Jesus' attitude rejects "us versus them," for all are part of God’s kingdom. A radical viewpoint that challenges our tendency to make enemies and then demonize them.
The early church, and we still today, worried about what is correct belief. One of the dangers of religion is extreme orthodoxy - cutting out those whose beliefs just don’t match ours.
It is true we need to judge what are authentic ideas, healing ideas. Also, it is important to hear those who criticize us, for we learn by listening to their concerns, even if we think them inadequate.
The metaphor of fire remind us that all of us need some purification. This comes in testing our words and actions in the mix of ideas and actions around us. Making good steel means removing imperfections.
Reading back from this primitive metallurgy, the sayings of cutting of the hand and plucking the eye out make metaphorical sense. Remember, those who were marred or had an incomplete body were abhorrent in society. To be blind meant one was a complete outsider - a sinner. Yet here one is called to deform one's body. Another reminder of inclusion.
The kingdom of God asks us to be aware of what values we have and if those values lead to destruction get rid of them. Cut off what holds back our passion for the good.
So it is to examine oneself for healthy and unhealthy ideas. It is a call to the examined life as the way of kingdom living. We can do that by examining what we hold to be true and if that idea leads to inclusion and openness.
Now this openness is not lacking in discrimination. Like it is said, the person can be so open his brains fall out. Belief needs reason. If an idea appears to be unreasonable than drop it. Faith needs reason. We need to ask hard questions of our value systems to see if they bring life or death.
This is why we need to ask questions from God’s perspective. In James we have a way of testing ideas. It flows from action to statement. We judge truth by the good it produces. So the way to judge is to see if the ideas lead to a more healthy and inclusive community, where those at the edge and risk are taken care of. Practice tells us what we believe. Good beliefs will always lead to inclusive and healing actions.
One of the common attitudes is that we can spilt actions from what we believe. "It really comes down to personal choice," Is how it is often formed.
When we say this belongs to me without any outside influence, it raises the question of who owns a resource. These are value questions. Personal choice is always based on a value or moral assumption. In an interrelated world we are always having an impact on others. In the ecological world we are asked to look at the size of our footprint as it affects other life forms.
We cannot escape reflection upon, and application of, our belief - our value - system. It is crucial for our life together. Our very existence is dependent on our praxis - which is good belief and good actions informing each other.
The job of faith is begins in introspection. This helps rid ourselves of ideas that lead to death. Reason helps. What we produce in action tests our belief. We move out of introspection, apply our beliefs as an offering to the world - to say here are ideas that will heal the common good. We have tested them. Try them out.
This is said with humbleness, for there are many voices which are not in our tradition asking for the same thing. Ultimate judgment is God’s domain and responsibility. All that is asked of us is to open our table of hospitality so the world is fed.
When we dialogue with those who are different we are all better for that. We test the ideas of others by how they add to our shared care of this world. When we see those who are different from us acting in ways that heal the common good, we can make common cause with them.
We are judged and they are judge by how our beliefs issue in care of the world. It is, then, how we live that tells us the truth about our statements. Did what you do make this person, this context better? In the end that is all that is asked of us.
George Hermanson
www.georgehermanson.com
