Sermons:
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For Us or Against Us
sermon based on Mark 9:38-50
Rev. Dr. Cynthia Huling Hummel
Several years ago
about two dozen of us went to Welsh West Virginia to do flood clean up. We came
from all over - men and women, young and old, those with skills and experience-
and several like myself- folks who were “grunts.” We had no particular skills.
But what we lacked in skill, we made up for in enthusiasm. We stayed in a church
manse and every day we went off to our job site. We were all given jobs to do. I
was assigned to tear down soggy sheet rock, a job which I really liked. There
was a young man who showed up at the work site every day. His name was William.
His hair was stringy and his clothes
were scruffy, but
his face was shining. William was there to help. And he hauled in supplies. He
handed people tools. He took out garbage. It was great to have a young person
with strength there to help out. And William was there at the site when we
arrived and stayed till when we left. I don’t know much about him. I remember
that he was in his late teens, early twenties perhaps. The one thing that I do
remember with great clarity was that William was an atheist. He told us that
right from the start. It was as if he was challenging us: “I’m an atheist. Is
that a problem?” Well it wasn’t a problem for me and I suspect that it wasn’t a
problem for anyone in our group. At least no one made any attempt to convert him
on the spot. I think we all knew that God’s Holy Spirit was clearly at work in
William’s life. William didn’t believe in God and yet, he was clearly doing
God’s work alongside of God’s people. So was William for us? Or against us? Was
he in the circle of God’s love? Or outside of it?
From the earliest days of the church, people
have fretted and fussed over who is in and who is out and how we decide it. In
the story that we have just heard, from Mark’s gospel, the disciples are
disturbed about a situation. And the disciples go to Jesus to report the
problem, “Teacher, there is someone casting out demons in your name. “ Now you
have to wonder why it bothered them. I mean, what was the problem: that someone
was casting out demons in the name of Jesus? Wasn’t that a good thing? Why were
they worried? Were they worried about the competition? Were they worried because
of denominational differences? Were they worried because he had a different
theology- that the one casting out demons was too liberal or too conservative?
Why were the disciples worried? The “demon caster” was doing God’s work. What
was the problem?
The disciples
soon disclose what’s on their mind. “Teacher, he’s not following us.” Aha! Not
following us.. Notice they don’t say, “He’s not following you, Jesus. They say,
“ He’s not following us.” It’s that old us versus them theology. That was the
problem. It was a problem for the disciples as it continues to be a problem in
the church today. When we practice “us” versus “them” theology, we forget our
mission. When we practice gate keeping (carefully monitoring who can come in and
who can’t), we forget our mission. When we draw the circle smaller, not wider,
we forget our mission. And what is our mission? To share and to show the love of
God that we know in Christ Jesus. Many of the mainline churches seem to be
arguing constantly over who can serve and who can’t. We fight about it at our
regional gatherings and church conventions. But serving was not a big issue for
Jesus. Jesus was not terribly concerned about the man casting out demons in his
name. He said, “Do not stop him. No one who does a deed of power in my name will
soon be able to speak evil of me.” We need to look beyond our theological
differences. We need to look beyond our denominational differences. We need to
look beyond the color of our skin and beyond the languages that we speak and
learn to serve the Lord together and to do mission together; to work together
side by side doing flood cleanup; serving in soup kitchens, handing out baskets
of food: things like this!
[continue]
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