Year B
Mark 9:38-50
The Rev. Denise Vaughn
Embracing Our Sinfulness
A subject we don’t talk about very often in the Episcopal Church is the subject of sin. Today our texts in varying ways talk about our human vulnerability or sin. Not the subject I would have picked for Youth Sunday but I don’t get a choice in choosing the readings like some denominations. As many of you know, we follow the three year Lectionary which pretty much determines which lessons we will read each Sunday. Let’s face it sin is not a very popular subject because no one likes to be told they are doing something wrong or that they need to change their behavior. Yet, no matter how unpopular the subject is, sin is very much a part of our lives every day. I’m not telling you anything new. We can see our own behavior at times and we can see a world that is full of sin.
The bible repeatedly pictures the people of God as a troubled community, a sinful community, either having recently endured a time of hardship or anticipating one in the near future. Distress never seems far away nor are acts of sinfulness, acts of turning away from God. Acts that can separate us from God is the terrible truth of human nature. Sin is mentioned 308 times in the OT and 107 times in the NT. The truth is, God has given us the ability to make choices in our lives and sometimes our choices are questionable and we can see our rejection of God’s will for our lives. Yet, it is also clear in the scriptures that in those moments of trouble when God’s presence is called upon, courage and hope are available and despite our sinfulness, the good news of divine grace is that we are forgiven and loved by God.
All the texts today address the issue of divine aid and courage. The theme woven throughout is a message of healing and a return to shalom, or wholeness. In Numbers, we find a community dysfunction or sin. The children of Israel turn on their leader, Moses; and Moses in turn shifts the blame to God and God responds with the giving of the Spirit on the Seventy to help carry the burden of the people. Very early on in Israel’s story, they moved away from an authoritarian, Spirit filled leader model to a Spirit dispersed on the people model of leadership. A style of leadership I much prefer because by our baptism we are all empowered by the Spirit. The Eldad and Medad episode takes the point further by showing that God can work outside the established lines and God’s healing power knows no bounds.
In the last eight verses of James’s letter, he finishes calling his congregation back to the wisdom of God. The wisdom of the world has led them into all kinds of trouble, not the least of which are the divisions that sin and sickness have caused among them. Their trouble is not in their minds its in the acts of their life together, which is why James gives them concrete things to do: pray for one another, sing songs of praise, call for the elders, anoint with oil, confess to one another, bring the wanderers back home. The language of prayer as a resource for the healing of the sick is a further reminder of God’s availability in times of difficulty and distress. Prayer, instead of being a gimmick to persuade God into doing something, is depicted as a gift to the church, an invitation to ask for God’s help.
Then we come to the narrative from Mark. Nowhere in all the New Testament is Jesus so graphic about the wages of sin. No wonder this text does not show up on many people’s lists of favorite Bible passages. Mark is speaking to some of the concerns of the church in his day with one being the disciple’s sense of self-importance. The disciples have been given the authority by Jesus to cast our demons in his name. So, naturally they thought this authority was confined to them. In Mark’s day, they belong to a rather strong early Christian community which provided them a sense of identity, belonging, protection and support. One of the risks in a strong community is a feeling or thinking that God’s love is limited to a select few which can make a community so focused on itself that it loses the capacity to relate to those outside. This tension between being inclusive and being exclusive was a concern for the church then and is today. The issue concerning the man who was casting out demons is not whether he is acting in the name and power of Jesus, but whether he is a part of the chosen group.
The outsider is forbidden “we tried to stop him” just as later in Mark’s gospel the children are forbidden to go to Jesus, all exposing this sense of exclusion on the part of the disciples. When they told Jesus about the person, he tells them “do not stop him.” Jesus puts them right: the power of his name extends beyond the insiders. Good works done in his name are to be celebrated and acts of kindness are to be acknowledged because the works of Jesus are not exclusive but inclusive. “For truly I tell you, whoever gives a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.” The Jesus movement of love is bigger than the disciples.
The text today is wedged between the discussion about receiving a child from last week’s gospel and being careful not to cause such a child to sin, to preserving oneself from sin? We must not put stumbling blocks in the way of others who are seeking to find their faith in Jesus. With vivid language that underscores the seriousness of the issue, Jesus directs the disciples to reflect on their own style of life and ministry. Then he warns them, and now us, about the risk that we may stumble and that being right with God and our neighbor must be taken seriously. Instead of seeking a life centered in ourselves, these strong words call us to seek a life centered in Christ. They demand we ask ourselves the question, “What do I need to cut out of my life that keeps me from being the whole person God made and means me to be?
God gave us Jesus to follow on his way to Jerusalem, to the cross and ultimately to the resurrection and to seek what that means in our lives. Will disciples be willing to take up their cross, deny themselves and follow? It becomes clear from Jesus’ words that saltiness, those qualities that would preserve and enhance their strong community, involves being humble in their relationships with each other, giving of themselves for others, reaching out and accepting all the people around them. As Barbara Brown Taylor writes: “If there is anyone in the world equipped to care for people body and soul, we are. We are God’s baptized, who have been given the gift of second sight. We know there is more going on than meets the eye. When we look at people, we see them whole the way God meant them to be. If we want to be whole, we can use our two good eyes to see the world the way God sees it and we can use out two good feet to carry us into it as deeply as we dare, and we can stretch out our arms to someone in danger of stumbling, so that God can steady and save us all.”
This is the compelling call of Christ’s gospel, to “Be at peace with one another.” To embrace the world in its brokenness as we ourselves have been embraced in our brokenness by Christ, who was on the cross healing us, making us whole, and restoring our relationship with God and one another. So yes, we don’t talk a lot about sin. Not because we want to deny it’s reality but because of the reality that we are loved and forgiven and this experience empowers us to embrace the world and one another in the name of Christ.