1st October 2006 : Pentecost 17 : Year B
Mark 9:38-50
Around the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq George W Bush made a bold but illogical statement that in the war against terror we were either for the United States or against the United States. I don’t know whether Mr Bush intended to allude to the words of Jesus we heard a moment ago in the gospel reading but it’s refreshing to have those words to reflect on.
They too are bold words, scandalous words, spoken almost in throw-away fashion and so seemingly-innocuous that we can hear them, raise our spiritual bats and let them pass through to the ’keeper as if they shouldn’t concern us or don’t really matter.
According to Mark, Jesus sez this in reference to the exorcist who is not part of the disciples’ band of brothers:
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.
The disciples sound petulant, churlish and spoilt. Here’s some dude muscling in on their exclusive territory.
But what the disciples say reveals more about them, their attitudes and their ignorance than it does about the extra-ecclesial exorcist and his actions:
Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and
we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.
How little the world has changed! If we wonder about religious intolerance and extremism we see the seeds of it in those sadly candid words. Except that the implied impotence of the disciples who can only "try" to stop the unorthodox demon-expeller has long since become a ruthless and violent reality purchased at the expense of tolerance, dialogue, understanding and the words, deeds and teaching of Jesus himself.
Notice how self-absorbed the disciples are: "we" saw someone … "we" tried to stop him … he was not following "us".
Jesus stops this last attempt to draw him into the whirlpool of ignorance by counterpointing the disciples’ "in your name" with a pithy lesson on what "in my name" really means and implies.
This is the difference. To do something in the name of Jesus is powerful – filled with, full of power and divine authority. But it’s much more than a vague formula that we can easily counterfeit and pass off as the real deal whenever it suits us or to rationalise violence and atrocity.
What we do in Jesus’ name MUST speak of love and compassion. It MUST bear the fruits of healing and wholeness. What we do in the name of Jesus MUST come through and with the power of the Holy Spirit and it MUST transform the world and its people from places of darkness into dwellings of hope and peace.
Our history is filled with scandalous examples of atrocity committed in the name of Jesus. Folks, we don’t need Da Vinci code to feel outrage at these shameful deeds. Inquisition, for one. The rape and murder of Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Chatila, committed by Lebanese Christians while the Israeli Defence Force who were supposed to be protecting the refugees apparently heard none of the screams or gunfire, saw none of the blazing buildings. The Crusaders who captured Jerusalem and then slaughtered the 30 000 Muslim inhabitants.
Often our intolerance simply and complexly takes the form of psychological abuse. Everything from using scripture to shame and belittle those who hold different perspectives to spreading hate and fear via the internet. If you have a strong heart or a genuine medical need to increase your blood pressure you could check out http://www.godhatesfags.com/ some time.
Is this what Jesus lived, died and rose again for? If this is the face of Christianity is it any wonder that so many receive us so negatively, with feelings ranging from distrust through to outright hatred?
And yet in all this we still find Jesus and his words:
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
Scandalous and shocking words indeed because they throw open and wide the window of the Spirit, not only showing us how the Living God operates on the face of this planet but inviting and challenging us to climb through and participate.
It’s a challenge and invitation that demand that we remember that the name of Jesus is the same thing as Jesus himself. But much more than that!
To do something in Jesus’ name is to transform that thing. No matter how dark the thing may be, Jesus’ action of love and compassion will transform it. This is why it is not possible to do a deed of power in his name and continue to speak evil of Jesus.
But we err greatly and unspeakably when we try to confine the things of God within a building, or within an institution, or within the religions that our institutions have a genius for emasculating and perverting.
Remember the story of the Muslim child named Isa who became lost and wandered into a Jewish quarter of town. A Jewish family found him, took him in, fed him and offered him warmth and security, knowing that he was Muslim. They contacted his parents and reunited him with them. The story involves not a single Christian yet the actions scream Jesus! They speak of the love and compassion that the Living God asks us to show and find when we climb out of the windows of our confining, self-absorbed "we/us" systems. It’s a story that tells us about Jews and Muslims behaving, not like Christians, but like Jesus.
And the irony is one that Matthew’s gospel might not have missed. In Matthew Jesus’ parable of the judgement of sheep and goats sez Insofar as you did it to the least of these, you did it to me … Isa is the Arabic translation found in the Qur’an for … Jesus …
The film Joyeux Noel is the story of one of several incidents on the western front in World War I in which German, French and Scottish troops climb out of their trenches on Christmas Eve and for one day forget their hatreds and animosities, leaving behind suspicion and distrust to exchange gifts and discover a shared humanity.
What they discovered beyond that – the discovery that informed their actions and their ability to refuse hatred and violence – was the love and compassion of Jesus, something that goes beyond restrictions.
We try desperately to box Jesus in, to delude the world and ourselves into thinking that the good and great and glorious things of Jesus belong solely to us. But always we find Jesus breaking out and throwing open the windows and doors.
The invitation remains to step outside, to do great deeds in Jesus’ name. What deeds shall we do today, this week, this lifetime – what deeds that speak of love and compassion – the only authentic measure of our faith?
