A Caution against Bigotry. Mark 9: Pastor Andy Kinsey. September 18 th, Whoever is not against us is for us.

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1 Prayer of Preparation A Caution against Bigotry Mark 9:38-41 Pastor Andy Kinsey September 18 th, 2011 Whoever is not against us is for us. - Mark 9:40 O Lord, help us to discern your Spirit at work in the world and help us to hear your Word that we might understand more fully how your salvation is intended for all. In Christ s name we pray. Amen. The Message The disciples are worried that there are other people who are ministering in Jesus name who do not belong to the inner circle (Mk. 9:38). It seems there are persons who have heard of Jesus message of the kingdom and have run with it, healing the sick, proclaiming good news, and exorcising demons. In fact, one of the disciples, John, comes to Jesus in a panic, sharing how one outsider has been using Jesus name without permission. John wants to be praised for attempting to stop this person from casting out demons. It s as if John is expecting Jesus to give a high-five : See what I have done, Jesus! But Jesus shakes his head in disagreement: Don t 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 (Mark 9:39-40). Jesus answer reminds the disciples that just because there are persons who do not belong to us does not mean they cannot do God s work. A few scenes earlier Jesus had been telling the disciples about what it means to follow him. He had instructed them that one of the reasons they couldn t exorcise demons was because they lacked faith in God s power (Mark 9:28-29). He also had taught them that true greatness was not about sitting on a throne but

2 about welcoming little ones that is, children: the kingdom of God belongs to such as these (Mark 9:33-37). Jesus came to reach everyone./1/ John Wesley s Sermon It is sometimes a hard lesson: we all can fail to see God s power breaking into this world, bringing healing, overcoming evil, exorcising devils. We all can fail to see the good others may be doing, especially those who may not belong to our group. The founder of the Methodist Movement, John Wesley, had a similar challenge in 1750 when he warned the people called Methodists about developing what he called a party spirit ; Wesley cautioned the Methodists against bigotry, against thinking that they were the only ones who could carry out God s mission./2/ In 18 th Century England that concern primarily took on the relationship between Protestants and Catholics; yet it also included others. For example: Suppose, Wesley said, I should see a Papist, or a Turk, or a Jew, or a Deist casting out devils. Should I forbid them either directly or indirectly? If so I should be no better than a bigot. /3/ In other words, there is a need for caution: Christians in general and Methodists in particular need to be aware of how the demons of bigotry can posses them, preventing them from seeing God s goodness at work in others. Such a view is in keeping with Christ s own teaching, as when he told parable of the Good Samaritan: people from outside our religious tradition are also capable of compassion. They can serve God too. It s why Methodists, in Wesley s view, did not need to see themselves as the only Christians, or as super Christians, going beyond what Jesus had taught./3/ They didn t need to think of themselves as somehow superior to others, or free to do or believe what they wanted, using their faith as they pleased. 2

3 Instead, being born of God s Spirit within, they were to have the mind of Christ and walk as Jesus walked. They were to fulfill Christ s law as God s servants. They were to examine themselves in light of God s way as revealed in the scriptures. When John Wesley instructed the early Methodists he did so with all kinds of literature. He devised forty-four sermons on the Christian life, for example, arranging them into three sections: 1) how to become a Christian, 2) how to be a Christian (which dealt with the Sermon on the Mount), and 3) how to grow as a Christian. His sermon dealing with bigotry was in the section on growing as a Christian. Wesley understood the enormous damage bigotry could do to others, to ourselves, and to the faith of Christ, when we place ourselves in the position of God, thinking we know God s laws better than God! We can become victims of our own opinions if we are not careful, missing what God is doing, missing the point of what God is trying to communicate! In fact, says Wesley, we could be wrong. That s the danger. Concerns When we think of the some 30,000 different denominations today we may want to ponder these concerns here. It seems we have done good job at sticking to the opinions of our own group at the cost of listening to God. As United Methodists we certainly do not see ourselves as the one and only church but as part of Christ s universal church, tragically divided, yes, but one, holy, catholic, and apostolic nevertheless. Our doctrines are in keeping with the scriptures and the wider Christian tradition. Our mission is to make disciples of all nations. Our witness has not been to look down upon other Christians but to find ways of advancing God s kingdom together. 3

4 Our rule of life has been to do all the good we can to all the people we can as long as we ever can in Christ s name! Our faith is grounded in Christ s atoning work on the cross. We do not wish harm upon anyone. To be sure, we have not always done a good job at fulfilling this mission. Throughout our history we (as well as other Christians) have allowed other spirits and attitudes and practices and powers that run contrary to Christ to creep into our hearts and minds, perverting the gospel. We have not always been an obedient church. We have not always practiced the law of love. Sadly, we have not heeded the teachings of the scriptures. In doing so, we have developed our kind of party spirit, or a kind of thinking that says our way is the only way. It reminds me of the story I once read by the Roman Catholic priest Anthony de Mello. He told the story of a Catholic priest, a Protestant minister, and a Jewish rabbi. They were engaged in a heated theological discussion, when, suddenly an angel appeared in their midst and said to them: God sends to you his blessings: make one wish for peace and God will fulfill your dream. The Protestant minister said, Let every Catholic disappear from our lovely land. Then peace will come. The Catholic priest said, Let there not be a single Protestant left on our sacred soil. And what about you, Rabbi? the angel asked. Do you have no wish of your own? No, said the rabbi. Just attend to the wishes of these two gentlemen, and I shall be pleased. It s always a danger to think that if we can just get rid of this group or that group we won t have problems anymore. History, of course, is full of examples of where this kind of thinking may lead. I can remember so well in 1988 walking through the streets of Gottingen in 4

5 Germany. Peggy and I were living there during the fiftieth anniversary of Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass in 1938 the night when the Nazis targeted the Jewish people with violence, thus beginning the Holocaust. I can remember walking past what was once the synagogue, trying to imagine what had happened. It was difficult. It was a reminder, though, of what can take place when we allow prejudice to consume us, or when we fail to respond to outright bigotry. That s an extreme example, but sadly, many folks still have a difficult time seeing beyond their own race, religion, or party, even denomination or congregation. It s why we need to be carefully taught, as the words to the song in South Pacific remind us: it is one thing to disagree; it is another thing to think that the person or group with whom we disagree or with whom we may have differences deserves enslavement, or defamation, or, worse, death. The Christian life is a life of constant examination and confession in light of the gospel. When Jesus tells the disciples to leave the man alone who was casting out demons, he was instructing them to understand what is of God and what is not of God. At the time, he was probably viewed as the killjoy of the party. However, what Jesus was doing was reminding the disciples that God can use others who are different who are even unbelievers, like King Cyrus of Persia to carry out God s purposes (see Daniel 10 and Ezra). God can accomplish what he needs to accomplish through a wide variety of means. The bigot does not think this is possible: he or she forgets that Christ came to reach everyone and that there are those outside our circle who can, and often do, make God s goodness visible. Such a view is not about indifference, thinking it doesn t matter if we believe in Christ or not, but rather is about a call to discern ever more deeply what 5

6 is of God: it is about bearing Christ s name as we offer cups of water to strangers (9:41), and reminding the world and ourselves that whoever is not against us is really for us (9:40); in the end, it is God who will truly get his way! That s what we believe. In the God will get his way. May we have the eyes to see! Amen. Notes 1. See Pheme Perkins, Reflections on Mark s Gospel in The New Interpreter s Bible (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), p. 639; see also, Lamar Williamson, Mark (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1983), p See John Wesley s famous sermon, A Caution against Bigotry in The Works of John Wesley, Volume 2, Sermons II (34-70), Edited by Albert Outler (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1985), pp. 61ff. The title of this sermon, of course, comes from Wesley s sermon. 3. See Wesley s A Caution against Bigotry, p