SCRIPTURE: Mark 9:38-50
TEXT: 39But 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. THEME: Treat everyone with kind regard, God maybe teaching us something. INTRODUCTION In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is revealing a life beyond the one we are living, for something renewing with God and with others. SCRIPTURE Someone was casting out demons in Jesus’ name. John was surprised as this person was not with them. Jesus doesn’t seem as alarmed. Let them be. God is working through that person; they are on God’s side and part of what God is doing. This reveals the complexity of God’s working in multiple ways, through multiple people, in a variety of settings. We get the story of how God works though the family of Abraham and Sara, but could God also work through other families, people and cultures? Could God through the Holy Spirit work in the spirituality of people to draw them to God’s self? I think of the agape concept of love that was held by the Hawaiians called Aloha or the sense of the God of Creation through the Lakotas with the Great Spirit, Wakan Tanka. Imagine what we could have learned about God if colonizers listened first, instead of trying to convert the conquered with their version of God? Jesus seems to be okay with other people’s journey of discovery with God, learning about himself, and the work of the Spirit through their lives. Interesting, it is not about controlling God as it is about God’s work being active beyond our understanding, our culture and our experience. There is a sense of preserving what we know about God and there is also a discovery of who God is through a variety of sources such as science, nature, wisdom, life, cultural revelations and others experiences of the sacred and the holy. Jesus warns us to be discerning so we don’t become an obstacle to someone else’s relationship with God. Sometimes our conception of God is limited to preserve our own beliefs rather than considering something different that would expand our view of God. APPLICATION How is our faith lived beyond the preservation what we believe? Wayne Cordero, the pastor of Hope Chapel said, “To lead in the church, you have to keep on reading.” In other words, we have to keep learning in order to lead the church. We have to relate our faith to what is going on in the world and find God’s truth in how to live in these challenging times. This is why the TIA had sponsored the ETCL events, bringing seminary professors here to conduct workshops for us. And why programs like CTEL via the internet from PSR are important for our continued learning. Our theology evolves and can never contain everything there is to know about God. Over the years, Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu and the Dali Lama, two inspirational world religious icons have become friends. When Krista Tippet ask Archbishop Tutu about this friendship, he responded by saying that his God is far greater than what his Christianity could contain. In other words, there are things that Archbishop Tutu can learn about God from the Dali Lama. Our faith has more to it than preservation. Missionaries brought Christian Endeavor to Micronesia but when they left, the Micronesians were left trying to preserve the faith they received. Their Christian faith became locked in time. Preserved, regulated, protected, resisting change or evolution over the years. Stagnant of new thoughts, insights or discussions that would help their faith grow with the changes of the people. Instead, their faith was regulated and controlled by being held to an old colonial standard and culture. The last key to help us to have a faith that is not only preserving what we believe but is being informed by what God is doing is to be discerning. This is why when John, seeing someone who is not with them, doing things in the name of Jesus, he questions it and asks. We do the same by taking our questions to Jesus in prayer. Then Jesus discerns what John has seen as people are being freed from their demon possession. Jesus is given credit for this powerful work; this will also draw people to God. For the hearer of this passage, as well as for us, this is legitimizing what we do as part of Jesus’ continued ministry through us. Since Jesus is not around in the same way to give us a definite answer, we must depend on each other. We bring our “What about this...?” kind a questions to each other and ask for others to engage in this discernment together. We check the Bible to see if something there might help shed some light to what we are wondering about. We listen to see what God may be telling us. We read what other Christians around the world may be doing about what we are wondering about. And then we try it out and see what the results of our participations are like. I always try to be in the company of people who are smarter than myself. It makes me look smarter. The former resident theologian of the Catholic Church in Hawaii and I served on Molokai at the same time. During the time when a movement was brewing in the Catholic Church about Mary, the mother of Jesus becoming a “co-redemptrix” along with Jesus, I bumped into him at St. Anthony’s. I asked him what he thought about Mary being a “co-redemptrix” with Jesus and he gave me a thumbs down. Then he said, “Anything that takes you away from Jesus is no good.” I like that, simple, plain, and a good theological grid to carry. Why carry the burden of another step to get to Jesus? To that point, we do not do the work of discernment by ourselves, we need to engage with others, to listen, to discuss, to convince, to journey with us in our crazy ideas about God, to confirm the fruits of the spirit being displayed, to witness love, so we all can share this understanding and experience of God. CONCLUSION One commentator said that this part of Mark was added on later. Maybe for the continued ministry of Jesus being done through us and others. Expanding the parameters of the ministry of the disciples to include us; as a witness to what Jesus is doing in our time, of what Jesus is doing through our culture and to what Jesus is doing in our setting so far away from the Middle East. What we know about Jesus is more than trying to preserve our faith but to continue to learn, expanding our theological boundaries to take us to new discoveries and living expressions of what it means to love God and to love our neighbors.
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