St. John’s Episcopal Church
Tallahassee, FL
Numbers 11:4-6,10-16,24-29 Mark 9:38-50
Well, good morning, everyone.
I hope all of you
who are gathered here
and all of you worshipping with us online
were spared the worst of Hurricane Helene.
While we here in Tallahassee
are greatly relieved that
Jim Cantore’s presence and predictions
did not result in all that we feared it would,
our hearts are nonetheless very, very heavy
for all our brothers, sisters, and friends
to the east of us—
especially in Perry and Taylor County—
and up through Georgia and the Carolinas.
If any of you here at St. John’s
are in any kind of need after the storm,
please let us know,
and for all the rest of us,
please stay tuned during the announcements today
for ways that you can be part
of relief efforts in our regions.
But here we are.
You have come here today
hungry for a word of grace,
so let’s dig into the Gospel
and see if we can shake loose
a blessing or two.
* * *
Last week,
our Gospel reading
was all about the disciples
arguing over who among them
was the greatest.
And I don’t know if you remember,
but what Jesus did to shut them up
is he took a child from the crowd,
held him close, and said,
“Folks, you need to be more like this.
Stop with the competition.
Stop with the one-upsmanship.
Stop taking advantage of one another.”
What I didn’t tell you last week
is that we need to be careful
not to sentimentalize that moment.
Maybe you think of Jesus
taking a small child into his arms,
and you get all warm and fuzzy feeling.
But here’s the thing.
Jesus did not put that child there
because children are
precious,
and wonderful,
and cute,
and sweet.
Jesus put that child there
because back then,
children meant next to nothing.
They could not work.
They got in the way.
They were another mouth to feed.
Back then,
children were seen as a necessary nuisance
until they could actually
do something useful for the family.
So when Jesus says,
“Welcome this child,”
what he is saying is,
“Get your ego out of the way.
Stop comparing yourself to others.
Stop trying to figure out
what people are worth.
“Instead, be small.
Be least.
Be unimportant.
“Let God be God,
and you’ll be surprised
what God can do.”
And this is my first point for today:
Our God is a generous God, a giving God.
Since before the beginning,
it has been in God’s nature to give.
But too often we cannot receive
because we cannot let go.
Jesus is saying,
“If you’re going to be my follower,
you’ve really got give up some control
and see what God is doing.”
* * *
I mention all of that from last week
because today’s Gospel reading
picks up right where we left off.
Same people.
Same place.
Same conversation.
As far as we know,
Jesus is still holding that child, [1]
and he has just said,
“Stop with the selfishness.
Stop with the politics and bravado.
Be more like this child.”
And yet—and yet!—John,
one of his key disciples,
pipes up and says,
“Teacher! We saw someone
casting out demons in your name
and we tried to stop him,
because he was not following us!”
Again with the selfishness,
the resentment,
the trying to contain and control
the things of God.
Jesus looks at John,
and you know what he says?
He says, “Dude, don’t stop him.
Whoever’s not against us is for us.”
It would be as though one of you
came to me and said,
“Lonnie, you know what I heard?
I heard the Trinity United Methodist
is growing, and growing fast!
I heard that Good Shepherd Roman Catholic is doing great!
I heard that St. Peter’s Anglican is packing them in!
What are we going to do about it?!”
You know what I would say?
I would say, “Good!
We’re not going to ‘do’ anything about it.
God is doing something good
in our city and in our neighborhood.
Blessed be the name of the Lord!”
And that, my friends, is my second point.
Our God is a generous and giving God,
but the more you try to control
where the blessings spill out next,
the less likely they are
to spill out of you.
We see this here with John being so worried
about rogue blessings happening “over there”
that he’s not even thinking about the blessings
that could be happening here.
Same thing in the Old Testament today.
Joshua gets so angry
when he sees blessings
pouring out of two men
named Eldad and Medad,
(distant cousins, of course,
to Crawdad and Doodad).
Eldad and Medad did not go to
the official “blessings boot camp”
that Moses had arranged
for the 70 elders of Israel.
Joshua comes running to Moses
and says, “Moses! Those guys
are prophesying like crazy over there,
but they weren’t at our meeting!
What are you going to do about it?!”
“Aw get a grip, Joshua,” says Moses.
“I wish this would happen to everyone!
I wish everyone in Israel
were this open and receptive
to allowing God to use them.”
Like Joshua, like John,
we are so reliant on control,
so afraid of losing something,
that we forget the fact
that it is God who is in the business
of pouring out the blessings, not us.
Being angry that God is doing it through others
just makes it less likely
that he’ll be able
to do it through us.
* * *
Finally, we get to the part in Jesus’ teaching today
where Jesus—still holding that child in his arms—
says, “Look. If y’all keep focusing only on yourselves,
you’re going to become a stumbling block
to the those who are like this little child.
“It would be better for you
to cut off your hand, your foot, your eye
than to keep going the way you are
and wind up in hell.”
Now each time he makes reference to hell here,
he uses the word “Gehenna.”
By that point in history,
Gehenna was a common word for “hell,”
but what you need to know
is that it was also the name of an actual place
near where Jesus was talking.
Gehenna was a valley outside of Jerusalem
where people had once made child sacrifices.
By the time of Jesus it was considered so accursed
that it was used only as the continually burning trash-heap
for everyone who lived in the city.
It was the perpetually smoldering town dump.
It was where people threw their garbage.
It was also the place where the bodies of criminals
undeserving of a righteous burial were thrown. [2]
Knowing that,
you can see how it became
synonymous with hell.
It is as though Jesus is saying,
“Whatever it is inside you
that makes you sinful and selfish—
whatever makes you manipulative and controlling,
whatever makes you worry over scarcity,
whatever makes you doubt the goodness and enoughness of God—
tear it out and go throw it in the dump.
You don’t need it.”
There is a word for this in the Christian life.
It’s called “repentance.”
Would that the leaders
of our churches,
of our governments,
of our society
would hear and heed that same message.
Turns out, the One who would one day
stand silent before Pontius Pilate
for crimes he did not commit
has no need of disciples
who bluster and bully
their way to the top.
And this is my final point.
Our God is a generous and giving God,
and if that is the case,
then you and I are made
to be generous and giving, too.
In all things—
with our money,
our love,
our support,
our friendship,
our forbearance
our forgiveness
our grace—
in all things,
you and I have
a spiritual need to give.
Why? Because that is what God is like,
and God has made us in his image.
Anything that gets in the way,
it’s time to tear it out
and let it go.
* * *
I do not have to tell you
that we live in a broken world . . .
a world in need . . .
a world where hurricanes hit
one place and not another
without any rhyme or reason.
That’s not new news.
In fact, it’s very old news.
There’s nothing happening today
that hasn’t been going on
for generations and generations before.
But the very fact that it’s old news
gives reason and need for Good News.
So . . . what’s the grace for you today?
The grace is that you and I
have come to know the Good News.
The grace is that you and I
know Jesus
and can be
and should be
and are
his hands and feet in the world.
The grace is that you and I
were made in the image
of a generous, giving, good God,
and when we get out of the way
and let our own fears and worries go,
that same God is ready and able to pour out
that same generous, giving, goodness
through us.
God is ready, y’all,
and people around us are in need.
It’s time to let go,
and let God’s blessings pour forth.
Amen.
[1] Ruge-Jones, Philip. “Commentary on Mark 9:38-50.” Working Preacher. Luther Seminary. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3787. 28 Sept. 2018
[2] Barclay, William. The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Mark. Westminster John Knox: Louisville, 2001. 268-269.