Thursday, November 12, 2009
September 27 - Pentecost + 17
The disciples are as bad as my dog.
Many of you have met Kosar, my sweet little black lab mix. He's really a wonderful dog: loyal, smart, cuddly. He's a great companion, and a great guard dog. And he's a great guard dog because he's so darn territorial. Lots of you have seen that side of him, if you happen to come walking up the side of the church when we have Kosar outside in the back yard, or wander into the office if he's hanging out with me in the church. You've seen what happens – all the hair on the back of his neck & on his shoulders stands up; his tail goes straight up in the air; and usually you can hear him before you can see him, right? Boy, that dog can bark. He barks at the mailman, at the delivery guys on those nights when we're too lazy to cook, at the neighbors talking in their driveway. He warns everybody: This is my space, and I want you to back off!
But as vicious as he sounds, Kosar's really a big chicken. He makes so much noise because he's nervous. He's scared of new people. He's protecting himself & us.
–– Or so he thinks. And he's really quite effective. People usually do keep their distance until Andy & I get him to quiet down.
Well, the disciples in the gospel today remind me of Kosar at his territorial best. There they are, with Jesus, sitting in a house in Capernaum – this is a continuation of last week's story. And Jesus has been talking for a long time now about what lies ahead, about how he is going to be betrayed and put on trial, and killed. And in light of that, Jesus has been teaching them what it really means to follow him, to be his disciple. He has said, if anyone wants to follow me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow.
If you want to follow, you have to be willing to lose your life for my sake.
If you want to be first, you must be last of all and servant of all.
You have to welcome the least of these among you,
the people who have no rank or status or place.
& if you welcome them, you welcome me.
No sooner are those words out of his mouth, and John says to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.”
Their territorial instincts kicked right in as soon as they saw an outsider encroaching on their turf. They are the ones specially chosen by Jesus, they are the ones he has appointed to do his work in the world. How dare this interloper come along and cast out demons in Jesus' name?! That's their job! You can almost see the hair going up on the back of their necks, watch their tails pointing up in the air, hear their barking getting louder as they try to protect their territory, their special roles as Jesus' followers.
They were so threatened by what this other man was doing that they tried to run him off, they try to prevent him from doing miracles! And threatened, why? Because their role might change if they let other people in? Because they might have to share their influence and authority? Because they might have to change the way they are doing things?
How different might it have been if John or one of the others had gone up to this man in a spirit of welcome and acceptance, if they had seen what he was doing in Jesus' name, and celebrated that here was one more person trying to do God's work in the world, if they had gone up to him and said, “Hey, I see that you're doing this amazing stuff in the name of Jesus – have you ever met him in person? Would you like to?” If instead of being threatened by what he was doing, they had invited him to get to know Jesus better, to become not an outsider, but part of their group?
You would think after 2000 years, we followers of Jesus would get it, but we don't. You'd think we would have learned from these examples – the story of Eldad & Medad & Moses & Joshua in the Old Testament lesson, & the story of John & the disciples with the unnamed exorcist in the gospel, but we still haven't. We too, get territorial. We talk about wanting others to work with us here in the church & in the world to do God's will, to carry out the mission God has given us. But then along comes a stranger, someone who hasn't been following Jesus with our group, and watch out! Could be someone who's been a member of a church elsewhere who comes with new ideas and new ways to do things. Could be someone who's only had the tiniest taste of Christian teachings and the Christian faith – and they too come with new ideas, a new vision for how things could be. And somehow we get threatened. We don't want anyone usurping our place, so we rebuff those outsiders – even when they are doing great things in Jesus' name, we try to stop them. “That's not how we do it around here.” “We tried that once a long time ago, & it didn't work.” We have this tendency to push people away because of our differences – And when we do that, we're not just pushing them away from us, but from God, from Jesus. It leaves a bad taste in their mouth about the church, about Christianity in general, and we cause people to stumble in their faith. We put roadblocks in their way, instead of trying to see how God may be at work in them, and welcoming them to grow closer to Jesus by following him with us!
What I've noticed about Kosar & his skittish response to strangers is that he barks less when we can get him to focus on Andy or me. When we get his attention, when he remembers that we're watching out for him and he doesn't have to be the one doing the protecting, he stops worrying so much about those other people, stops trying to so jealously guard his territory. He focuses on our relationship, and that sets him free to just be, to enjoy these new people coming into his life.
That kind of relationship is at the heart of this passage. It's what sets us free from our own fears and jealousy and territorialism, sets us free to work together with each other, to share in God's ministry in ways we never would have imagined. Because the fact is, God can use anybody and everybody to carry out God's vision for the world. God works through new people in new ways all the time, and anyone who wants to serve in Christ's name is welcome! Once upon a time, you may have been someone standing outside of the group, curious about Jesus, wanting to serve in his name. And Jesus welcomed you in. Jesus welcomes everyone who wants to serve in his name. If you are new to the life of faith, or just new to this gathering of believers in this place, know that Jesus welcomes you! Jesus has a place and a role and work for you to do!
Our job as followers is simply to get out of each other's way... to be so about the business of following Jesus that we don't have the time to be territorial or jealous or skeptical of how God might be using someone else. Our call is to be so focused on Jesus that we can't be distracted by the fact that someone else is doing it differently. That's what that business about cutting off hands & feet & plucking out eyes is about – about getting rid of everything that gets in the way of following Jesus with single-minded devotion, so that instead of competing, we can work together, and rejoice that God has poured out the spirit on all of God's people. Thanks be to God! Amen.
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