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Whoever is not against us is for us
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
October 1, 2006, World Communion Sunday
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20; James 5:13-20; Mark 9:38-50

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20 So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, "What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled." Then Queen Esther answered, "If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me--that is my petition--and the lives of my people--that is my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king." Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where is he, who has presumed to do this?" Esther said, "A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!" Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen. Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, "Look, the very gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, stands at Haman's house, fifty cubits high." And the king said, "Hang him on that." So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated.
Mordecai recorded these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,

James 5:13-20 Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest. My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner's soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Mark 9:38-50 John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us." But Jesus said, "Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For 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.
"If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.
"For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."

BEGINNING

I used to belong to the Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things.[1]  The Albany, New York branch, of which I was a member, in one year put no less than twenty-two things on top of other things.   We were all quite proud.

But our pride in our work was soon overshadowed by anger at the sudden appearance of another group: the Association to Place Items Atop Other Items.   We were incensed.   How dare this group arrive and cut in on our action?   Further we noticed that when they would place a thing on top of another thing--we could see right through this 'item' business--that they would take the original thing and slide it under the new thing.   We argued, justifiably, that far from being an association to put items on top of other items, they were really putting items under other items.

Feuding between the two groups got so intense, and the court battles so protracted that as a result, for an entire year in Albany, New York, not a single thing was placed on top of another thing.   It was a dark time.

Now, of course, this story is ridiculous.   But, of course, a story can be true, even if it never happened.

Because so often, this kind of thing does occur, especially in the Church.   We don't like the way other groups do things.   We don't like that they are not part of our structure.   We are angry that they have different ideas about what it means to be Christians.   And so very often then, the work of the Kingdom is neglected.

THE TEXT

Our Gospel lesson records for us perhaps the very first instance of this dynamic in the church --even before it was a church.   The disciple John tells Jesus,

"Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us."   But Jesus said, "Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.

John here is making an objection to the ministry of this other, unnamed individual on the grounds that he was not following them, that is, the disciples.   John does not object to the man's mission, or to his works, or to anything the man might have said.   What he objects to is that the man was not working under the authority or direction of the disciples.

Jesus rebukes him by saying that whoever does a deed of power in Jesus' name would be able to speak ill of Jesus, and then adds "Whoever is not against us is for us."

"Whoever is not against us is for us."

That's a very different thing than "Whoever is not for us is against us."   For it implies that others might not actually have to support our particular way of doing something to be on the same side.   I suppose that's a fairly obvious observation.  

And yet, the "Whoever is not for us is against us" idea seems to be so much more prevalent in the Church.   And has been from the very beginning.

THE CHURCH

Almost at the very beginning of the Church divisions began to arise.   In the Jerusalem church, controversy arose between the Aramaic speakers and the Greek speakers, over issues of favoritism.   And then there was the question of how much Jewish observance was required of a Gentile convert to faith in Christ.   Did you first have to become a Jew in order to become a Christian?   St. Paul was often in the middle of debates like that.

And then divisions arose concerning the Gnostics and that heresy divided the church for a time.   And then it was followed by the Arian controversy and the great Christological debates of the fourth and fifth centuries, as the Church was divided over the nature of Christ.   And then this was followed by the increasing division between the Eastern Greek speaking church and the Western Lati n speaking church--a division that came to a head in 1054 when each excommunicated the other--an excommunication that stands till this day.

And then along comes the Protestant Reformation and the Protestant-Catholic split over works and faith that divided the Western church even further.   And of course, Protestantism began to divide amongst themselves according to issues of predestination and free will, infant baptism or believer's baptism, sacramental communion or memorial communion.   And the church continues to divide, further and further, over questions of ordination of women, ordination of gays and lesbians and other questions around homosexuality, the relationship of the church and the state, and a whole host of other theological and ideological issues that causes many within the church to declare themselves "in" and others "out".   "True" church and "false".

THE WORLD COMMUNION

Today is World Communion Sunday.   It is a Sunday on which we celebrate the sacrament of Holy Communion with Christians around the world.   Perhaps it is a tragic irony that the very sacrament that we celebrate as unifying the church is the same sacrament that so often divides the church.   The Orthodox will not serve communion to the Catholics.   The Catholics would serve communion to the Orthodox (though none of them would take it) but won't serve to Protestants.   Protestants would serve communion to Catholics (though most would not take it) but some might balk at serving those who did not share the same commitment to faith, or who were in doubt.   I once heard a pastor tell those of us that though the table was not his but the Lord's, that we ought not to take the communion if we had any doubt as to our commitment to Christ, lest we drink instead the cup of Judgment.

Methodists, like most Protestants, have an open table. But that openness is sometimes overshadowed by the deep rifts that still exist among the churches.

For, we all take our theology pretty seriously.   Especially those of us with degrees in theology.   And so it matters to a lot of people whether the elements of the communion really transubstantiate into the body and blood of Christ, or whether they convey the 'real presence' of Christ, or whether it is in the celebration of the Eucharist that Christ is present, or whether the elements are simply a memorial meal of that last supper in Jerusalem.   Just as it really matters to many whether a particular denomination's clergy can trace their ordination back through an unbroken chain of apostolic succession through its bishops all the way back to St. Peter (as the Orthodox, Catholics, Lutherans, and Anglicans can do).   And so we--particularly those in leadership--continue to reinforce the divisions that exist.

And yet Christ stands there beside us, prodding us: "Whoever is not against us is for us."

IF YE LOVE NOT EACH OTHER...

Last night, I had a strange dream.   In it I was watching--or part of (you can never be sure in dreams)--an old movie from the 80's starring Dustin Hoffman and William Hurt and people like that.   The movie was about a family that had come together to celebrate the publication of some writings of their great-grandfather, dead these many years.   At this family reunion were different members whose lives had gone in different directions.   Some had become rich, some had become poor.   Some were married and others divorced.   And it seemed there was a great deal of antagonism between them all.   And throughout the story the tension and discord mounts until one person, the spouse of one of the feuding family members, actually reads the writings of their great-grandfather aloud.   And in the words is a hope that his family will be united and strong, loving one another, living out the best lives they can for each other and for the world.   As I awoke, I realized that my dream had not been about a film I'd seen, but was instead about the Church.

We are that family.   Our denominations and sects feuding siblings more concerned with having things done our way than with the common cause that unites us all.   Because in all the divisiveness in the church we often lose sight of not only our mission but our nature.   The church is the body of Christ, seeking to transform the world and to make disciples for Christ.   Disciples are made when the church demonstrates its love of God and its sharing of that love with the world.

There is an old Shaker hymn that asks the question : "If ye love not each other in daily communion, how can ye love God whom ye have not seen?"   It is a stark reminder that if we cannot even love one another with whom we are in the covenant, we cannot truly love God.   And if we cannot truly love God, then we cannot truly share the love of God with the world and with others.

We speak of "communions" within the Church --by that we usually mean groups or denominations that will celebrate communion with one another.   Christ is like the in-law in my dream, the one who reminds us of who we are and calls us to be a communion of the spirit, united in common communion as the body of Christ --regardless of how we think the bread becomes the body of Christ.   Jesus reminds us that we are the body of Christ, already.

END

The disciples were upset because they came upon someone not under their direction who was doing the work of the Kingdom.   Jesus reminds them that it is the work of the Kingdom that is important.

The Church has so often acted like the Society to Put Things on Top of Other Things.   Our divisions can seem no less petty and silly. We have too often been jealous of our mission that we have forgotten that we are not doing our mission, but Christ's.   Christ reminds us of the broader communion that we share and that we are a part of. And reminds us that the work to which we are called, the work of the Kingdom, is done without regard to whether people do things the way we do, or think the way we think, or worship the way we worship, or follow the same organizational structure we follow.  

We are all part of a great and mystical communion, formed by the Spirit, united by the Spirit, empowered by the Spirit.   And if we love not each other whom we encounter in this mystical communion, how can we love God whom we have not seen?

 

Notes
[1] I am indebted to Monty Python's Flying Circus for this ridiculous sermon illustration.   See, http://orangecow.org/pythonet/sketches/ontopof.htm

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Copyright © 2006. Mark A. Schaefer

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