“I heard a story the other day
that reminded me of some members of my own extended family
big, outsized Texas personalities
I had an uncle who was a cattle commissioner here in Ft. Worth
white Stetson, Kakhi pants, little skinny tie - the whole nine yards
and I’ve got cousins …second cousins
whose father had made buckets of money as a Wildcatter in the East Texas oil boom
years and years ago and they’re still living the “Oil man” lifestyle
They all talked kind of like the cartoon character “Foghorn Leghorn”
“they was in Awl Biddnes Son”
[slight pause]
The story concerns a Lutheran pastor who had been playing golf with his buddies
and they had stopped in at the course lounge to review their game
and in walked a fellow named Hugh
Hugh was straight from Hollywood central casting
just what a Texas oil man should look like red-faced, large, and loud
Hugh always wanted you to know that he was in the house
He was a back-slapping, hee-hawing fellow
both on the golf course and in the town
Funny thing was that nobody wanted to play golf with him
because he was so overbearing, so obnoxious
But on this day, Hugh walked into the 19th Hole and was living large,
a beer in one hand and a cigar in the other
He came up to the table with this pastor and started talking loud
the only volume level he had,
so loud that the attention of the room naturally turned to him
He bellowed at the pastor
"You Lutherans don't believe in the Bible, do you?!"
Rather than take the bait, the pastor just looked at him and smiled,
hoping he would pass on by like Texas thunderstorm
hopefully without getting
struck by lightening
He went on, " I want to go to a
church that is Bible-believing. Do you understand me?
A place where the preacher is not trying to tippy-toe
around the hard lessons of Jesus
A preacher who will lay it on the line, not try to water down the Gospel
I want a preacher who will be bold and put it out there,
the full measure of the Bible, not hold back a lick
I want a preacher who will not let sinners slide and will call them out by name
I want the full Gospel.
I don't want a preacher to pussy-foot around the message of Jesus."
The pastor took a long sip from his glass
"You want the full Gospel, Hugh?
You mean the part about selling all you have and giving it to the poor?"
or the part about “taking up your cross”
or the part about “bearing the burdens of others”
A pregnant silence fell over the room,
after which Hugh responded, "Well,
not that part!"
The room broke up in laughter
Hugh left as quietly as possible
The Presbyterians, Methodists, and Episcopals were high-fiving
It was like David had slain
Goliath once again
But the story causes me to think - what part of the Gospel do I avoid?"
And the truth is that there's a tendency in everyone of us
to avoid the hard parts of the Gospel
when they are inconvenient to our habits, our lifestyles,
our ways of being in the world
[slight pause]
This inconvenient truth is found in our Gospel lesson for today
We are continuing on the road with Jesus
following the watershed moment of Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi
Last week, we remembered Jesus' call to servant-hood
to follow him in the way
And we remember that the disciples didn't get it,
as they argued about who was greatest among them,
with Jesus pointedly reminding them
that to be first is to be last, to be servant of all
Tough messages, on what it means to be a follower,
a disciple, an apprentice in the
way of Jesus
Here today Jesus is getting serious
with his students
He's using a somewhat gory but poetic image
of getting rid of anything that gets in the way of your following in his way
If your hand, eye or foot causes you to sin,
you're better to cut it off or pluck it out
The image here is powerful:
Whatever gets in the way of your discipleship needs to go
It needs to be jettisoned
[slight pause]
In the immediate setting of this gospel story
the disciples were on their way to Jerusalem
and it was the issue of
competitiveness that was getting in the way
It was competitiveness within the inner circle
as to who was greatest
This week it seems to be a competition between other groups
that were doing ministry in Jesus' name,
This text presents some ironies
In the verse just before it, Jesus had said,
"Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me,
and whoever welcomes me
welcomes not me but the one who sent me."
Now the disciples are trying to stop
someone who is acting in Jesus' name
In another verse the disciples will "try
to stop" little children from coming to Jesus
In response to this, Jesus declares:
"Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child
will never enter it."
Another irony is that this unnamed man, is casting out demons in Jesus' name
something that earlier in this chapter, the disciples were unable to do
But at this point their complaint against him
is that "he was not following
us."
They know that he is acting in Jesus' name
The problem is that he doesn't belong to our group
this passage may tell us that the Twelve saw themselves as the only ones
authorized to do such things
At this point in the story
are the disciples
"insiders" or "outsiders"?
They don't understand what rising
from the dead means
They don't understand Jesus'
passion/resurrection prediction
They argue about who is the greatest
Does their lack of understanding make them the "outsiders,"
while this unnamed exorcist may be an "insider,"
even though he doesn't belong to the group?
Do they sound like Hugh in my opening story
A professor of theology once said:
"Whenever you want to draw lines in order to mark who is outside the kingdom
and who is inside, always remember: Jesus is on the other side of the line!
Jesus is always with the outsiders!"
This speaks directly to our own setting
as we see Christian groups positioned against one another
It's amazing to me to see the bitterness between and within denominations
who declare that their way is the "right way,"
demonizing people who might approach the Gospel
from a different
perspective
I'm reminded of the seminary
where one of my buddies and I would argue all night long
about various theological concepts
That's the bread and butter of seminary life, you know
At the end of our dialogue, someone would say,
"Well,
and I will keep believing God's way!"
and then we’d accuse each other of theological imperialism
which now sounds funny
until we run into its
manifestations in congregations
Then it gets nasty
It devolves into judgmentalism
It concludes in name calling, and thus the body of Christ is painfully divided
[slight pause]
What was true for the disciples has been true throughout history
The world and the church have fought for centuries in a fence-building frenzy
The stories of the past schisms and divisions are legion
And, living out the tendencies of the same human nature,
we still act this way
in our time
Standing against this, Jesus’ words remind us
that Christianity is not the preserve of a privileged few
He reminds us that no one seeking to
do the Lord’s work is an outsider
He reminds us to welcome all people who are willing to join the journey,
following our Lord
Over and over again, Jesus’ words remind us to be including – not excluding
Over and over again, Jesus’ words rebuke us when we turn against others
because they are different
Over and over again, the life Jesus lived, and the way he taught his first disciples
remind us of the scandal of our divisions
[slight pause]
There is another side to this, of
course
Sometimes, conscience and practicality dictate
that we separate ourselves from others,
but the message here, at the very least,
is not to do so lightly – not to draw a line in the sand
except as a last resort
Jesus helps us work against the temptation to think that
“for me to be right, anyone
who disagrees with me must be wrong”
Jesus seems to be telling the disciples something like this:
“Look for the commonality
Recognize that there are many among you who might work or think differently,
but don’t jump to the conclusion that that makes them against you
or against me”
[slight pause]
Here Jesus gets simple in a wonderfully symbolic image
He who gives a cup of cold water out of commitment to Jesus' way
will find the deepest joy known to humankind,
simply because this servant-hood is how God designed us to be
When we give of ourselves,
even in the simple act of giving a cup of water,
we are participating in the divine
We are aligned with God's design of creation
And that sense of doing what God wills,
fills us with a joy that is beyond mere happiness,
fills us with a peace that goes beyond our understanding
When we get serious about our faith,
we have ears that can hear Jesus' call to us
to jettison those things that get in the way
of this image of servant-hood
We may have to pluck out the judgmental way
of viewing others that are
different from us
We may have to cut off the selfishness
that drives our lives
We may have to let go of the
resentments that clutter our souls
Anything that gets in the way
of us getting into the way of Christ must go
This is what it means to get serious about following Jesus,
not just being a religious affiliate in some church
or a patron at a museum of
religion
Jesus is getting serious
This has always been the radical call of Jesus to intentional discipleship
And it still is
We have this treasure, given
to us by God
And all we have to do is receive it
To embrace our true identity
is to know the secret about
ourselves that flies in the face of logic
God loves us as we are
It goes with the territory of being God's creature
This is the grace that is truly amazing
And the ethical corollary, is
that this is true for all people
We manifest this spiritual truth by being servants to one another
This makes it real, incarnate, in the flesh
My own experience of this possibility of spiritual transformation
comes when we break bread together and when we share the cup,
when we gather in the community of faith…
Here the vision of the kingdom of God
takes on flesh and
blood in relationship
[pause]
The second part of the Gospel is a
warning against giving scandal
Jesus warns against causing another to stumble, or be scandalized
to cause not to believe
I could argue that Jesus' words
indicate the seriousness of any and all sin
Whatever causes us to act contrary to God's will, needs to be dealt with
Our relationship with God has to be more important
than our most important body
parts
I think about other body parts Jesus might have mentioned
that might be more relevant to most of our sinful behaviors
What if your tongue causes you to stumble?
Have we ever uttered a swear word, an unkind word, a four letter word?
Do we need to cut out our tongues?
What if your brain causes you to stumble?
Have we ever had a sinful thought, a lustful longing?
Do we need a lobotomy?
Every part of our human body is
sinful
Every part leads us astray and away from God
What does Christ demand that you do with your sinful parts?
They must be cut out, removed
If we were to do that with our whole bodies, we would die
Christ demands our deaths
However, Christ also provides for our deaths
through our baptisms into his
death
Just what is the scandal in the question of ministry in the church today?
Is it that people who do not conform to customary patterns
are disregarding the authority of the tradition
and are audaciously stepping
forward to assume ministerial responsibilities?
Is it that members of the church,
both those who are in leadership positions and those who are not,
are insensitive to the prompting of the Spirit
and insist that the church continue to do things
the way they have always been done?
Might it be both?
[slight pause]
When in the throes of such a struggle,
it is difficult to have a
clear perspective
It is much easier to cling tenaciously to one’s own position on the matter
Today’s readings remind us that there are important values to preserve
on both sides of the issue
They also clearly point to the core of the matter,
namely, the genuine needs of
God’s people
Together, as a community, we must discover how these needs can best be served,
and we must discover this, while being faithful to both the authentic tradition
and the mysterious
ever-present Spirit of God
The story of today’s gospel is about the disciples’ attempt
to draw a circle around Jesus and themselves –
shutting out the one who was casting out demons in Jesus’ name
Perhaps a short, powerful poem by Edwin Markham can help us remember
that Jesus ordered the disciples not to exclude that man
and to recall that those who
are not against us are for us
Markham writes:
“He drew a circle that shut me out –
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in.”
Amen