October 01, 2006, Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost and World Communion Sunday
First Congregational Church in Thetford, Vermont, UCC
Psalm 133; Mark 9:38-50
World Communion Sunday affirms our unity with all Christians around the
world. What an amazing and beautiful image—two billion of us all around the
world all at the same table together. This can give us a wonderful, warm feeling—
until we think about it. Our joy gets a bucket of cold water over its head when we
realize that we are including at that table Christians who would be willing to bomb
an abortion clinic, or Christians willing to let their nation’s army kill tens of
thousands of innocent people.
We think of the bitter division within the world-wide Anglican and
Episcopal church over New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson because he is gay,
or we think of the lack of unity between the church on the top of Thetford Hill and
the church at the bottom of the hill in East Thetford, and World Communion can
leave a bitter taste in our mouth.
The past election made many moderate and left-leaning people feel
ashamed to say that they go to church, for fear that their reputation would be
tainted by what the religious right did and said. The center and left did not want
even to appear to be united with the right.
This is a problem, and not just because it spoils the sweet taste of World
Communion. It is a problem because Jesus came to teach us how to love and live
together. The motto of our denomination, the United Church of Christ, comes
from the last words Jesus prayed over his disciples, asking God “that they may all
be one.”
So it is a problem for faithful Christians not to be at peace with one another.
It is a problem that seems to have no possible solution. How can we be one with
people who are divisive and violent, people who attack us and hate us for our
loving stands on social issues?
We might be tempted to give up except for the hard truth that until we have
solved this problem, we will not be fully following Christ’s way. Until we solve
it, the world will remain in conflict.
So how can we all be one? To answer that question and solve the problem,
the best thing we can do is turn to the rest of what Jesus said. Think of teachings
like: do not judge; love your enemies; love your neighbor as your self.
Today’s gospel passage is a collection of teachings or sayings of Jesus that
Mark has spliced together. They do not exactly flow as a narrative, but they do
have this in common: they all have something to do with the last line of the
passage—“be at peace with one another.”
The passage begins when the disciples have been out walking and have
come upon a sidewalk preacher performing faith healings. The preacher was not
one of them, yet he was using Jesus’ name in his healings, invoking the power of
Jesus and God. The disciples thought this was wrong to do. Maybe they were
jealous that the healer was taking power and prestige away from them, or maybe
they were concerned that he might do or say something that would reflect badly on
them.
Despite good reasons to be concerned, Jesus was not. He 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.”
Imagine someone today performing miraculous faith healings. Maybe he
starts out invoking the name of some New Age higher power, but then one time he
tries using Jesus’ name. And maybe that time a healing occurs—a big dramatic
healing, one that is shocking even to him. Wow, he thinks, maybe there really is
something to this Jesus character.
Or imagine someone who has been fighting and fighting with an enemy she
hates. Then out of desperation she decides to try following Jesus and loving her
enemy. She does something kind in the Spirit of Christ, and it works! The
fighting stops. It’s a miracle. Wow, she thinks, maybe there really is something
to this Jesus character.
Jesus is confident that any powerfully kind deed done in his name will lead
to the person’s heart opening to the Holy Spirit.
Mark attaches to this teaching another set. First, don’t you dare do
anything to make people stumble in their faith. In other words, in this case, do not
go up to someone and tell them they are not allowed to use Jesus’ name or they are
not doing it right or that they have to be just like you. Do nothing to shake their
faith, even if you don’t care for their way of doing things because as long as they
are doing them in Jesus’ name, his Spirit can grow in them.
Then Mark follows that with another distinct teaching, saying don’t worry
about them, worry about yourself. If you are doing something that makes you
stumble—like being judgmental of others—cut that out, cut that judgmental part
of you off. Better to have your ego diminished and enter the peace of God’s realm
than to have your ego intact and live in the hell of your judgmental and divisive
ways.
At the end of the passage, Jesus uses salt as a metaphor for the flavor of a
human spirit that is connected to God. The last sentence is, “Have salt in
yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” You can read that ending in two
ways, as either imperative or indicative. If it is imperative, it means make sure
you are salty, make sure your own spirit is connected to God, and leave others in
peace about their own spiritual life. Or if it is indicative, it means, if you simply
focus on making sure you are salty and your own spiritual life is good and true,
then as a natural consequence you will be at peace with others, because that is
what comes of a God-connected spirit. Have peace in yourself and the world will
be at peace around you.
Once there were two monks who worked side by side in a monastery
kitchen and fought like cats and dogs—only like very polite, Christian cats and
dogs. Their words were respectful and deferential, but underneath they were
growling and hissing and biting and scratching.
For instance, “I may be wrong, honorable Brother Louis, but it may be
possible that you could save both soap and hot water if you washed the dishes in
my humble way.”
Or, “Have you ever considered, O wise and venerable Brother John, that the
potatoes might boil better if you let the water heat up first and then dropped them
in? Perhaps that humble thought would prove worth your contemplation.”
Meanwhile, they were each going to the Abbot behind the other’s back
asking for a different job with a different monk. They each blamed the other. “If
he were only less proud and more humble, and would listen to reason,” they said
of the other.
After years of this, in exasperation, the Abbot called them in together. They
began to accuse one another—very politely but as stubbornly as ever. Finally the
Abbot cried, “Peace! Do you not see what is happening here? You are each
accusing the other of the same thing. What you should be doing is each accusing
yourself. Look at your own faults, work on being less judgmental and more
forgiving. Try seeing the kind deeds the other does and praising them, instead of
focusing on your opinion of the other’s failings.”
From then on every time John saw Louis wasting soap and hot water, he
looked away, saw his own judgment and anger, asked God to forgive and remove
his own flaws, and forced himself to think of something good he had seen Louis
do. And Louis did the same about the potatoes and John. And before long, there
was true unity and peace in that kitchen, even though they still strongly differed.
Several years ago our Mission Committee did an exercise during worship
asking every person in church that Sunday to write down things we each had done
outside of church that were in the spirit of Jesus Christ. People wrote about
helping a neighbor or serving on a non-profit board—amounting to hundreds of
different kind deeds that we do out in the world.
If we went down the hill to the East Thetford church where they read the
Bible more literally and they view social issues more conservatively, and we asked
them to do the same exercise, I bet they would generate the same kind of list—
maybe different organizations that they contribute to, but the same out pouring of
well-intentioned charitable lovingkindness. As Bill Coffin used to say, we have
far more in common than we have in conflict.
Yes, other Christians may judge us. Yes, we may have strong, principled
disagreements. But we need to trust that the kind deeds anyone does in Jesus’
name will work to join them to him. We have to trust that their spiritual life will
work itself out. We have to be careful not to do anything to weaken their faith.
We need to switch our focus from our annoyance or rage at them to dissatisfaction
with our own faults, looking at how we can deepen and strengthen our own
spiritual connection to God. Have salt in yourselves, have peace in yourselves,
and be at peace with one another.
If we can cultivate this attitude, then World Communion Sunday can be a
taste of pure joy, even though we still disagree with other Christians. It can be a
source of joy because when we do a deed of power in Jesus name like loving our
enemies and having peace in our heart, the miracle of it can give us faith that the
Holy Spirit can do anything—even lead us to a global church at peace with itself,
working as an instrument of God’s peace all over the world.
Let us pray in silence….
Sermon 10/01/2006