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Pentecost Cycle B Proper 21 September 27, 2015
Numbers 11:4-6,10-16,24-29 Ps 19
James 4:7-12 Mark 9:38-43,45,47-48Lectionary Link
One of
the reasons that I am Episcopalian is because we as the middle way in between
Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, we have natural built in tendencies for
being ecumenical. By ecumenical, I mean
that we look for common grounds with all people of faith to affirm what we
believe to be good. By composition we
are rather mongrel in that we are constituted by what we have borrowed from
other Christians who are in the Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant
traditions. Our very identity is formed
by our chief heirloom, the Book of Common Prayer. Our practice of the Book of Common Prayer
essentially forms us to be people who are committed to pray together no matter
what our differences are. Because there
are as many different Episcopal views as there are Episcopalians and since we
do not have an "infallible" church leader to correct us, it gives us
more flexibility to be a truly open communion.
And even though many of us believe that our Roman Catholic brothers and
sisters have a ways to go regarding the roles of women and gay persons and
married clergy in the church, (Remember we had permission to pray in English
more than four hundred years before the Roman Catholics did, so their
innovation process for some practices of church justice is quite slow), we can
still rejoice in the witness of Pope Francis in our country this week. We thank God for his witness to four American
heroes, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton
and to the values which each these persons espoused for the betterment of the
common good of all people in our country.
We rejoice in his humility and his constant request of asking people to
pray for him. His humility was known
after his election when he said he would never speak ex cathedra, which means
he would never take on the mantle of an infallible pronouncement. And this was a hearkening back to the
practice of the last great Pope reformer, Pope John the Twenty-Third whose 2nd
Vatican Council gave the Roman Catholic Church, finally Books of Common Prayer
or liturgies in the vernacular languages.
Imagine that! In the 1960's Roman
Catholics were finally allowed to hear the liturgy in their native
languages. However, we need to remember
in matters of justice for all people in the church, four hundred years is too
long to wait for change, or that is at least what many Episcopalians think.
But let us rejoice with Pope Francis for his
bringing a refreshing new emphasis to what is important to all Christians.
I believe the Gospel reading today is proof
about the early ecumenism among the various Christian communities which were
spread throughout the Roman Empire. We
find evidence in the New Testaments of Paul and Peter disagreeing about
practices of Christians. We find that
Paul is often critical of his Gospel rivals even while we find Paul being
thankful about the fact that Gospel was preached and not necessarily about how
it was preached.
The communities which brought about the
Gospel of Mark understood the oracle of Christ to say, "Don't stop other
people from doing the good work of
healing in my name just because we don't personally know them. If they are doing them in the name of Christ,
then that is the right motive. They
don't have to be sanctioned by you as official apostolic authorities."
In almost every ecumenical discussion, the
major area of disagreement has to do with the authority of the ministers. It is very hard for churches to check the
"ministerial egos at the door."
Churches are essentially divided about who are the legitimate successors
of Jesus Christ and we use the Bible, tradition and communion size to establish
our claims of authority and what do we often miss? We miss the fact that it does not matter who
the minister is, what is important is that the message of health and salvation
gets accomplished.
The Scripture reading gives us some hints on
the practice of health and salvation within the communities of faith. The great leader Moses was a singular leader
like the Pope, but he realized that one person could not be Omni competent in
ministry. He realized that authority
could not be exhausted by the head leader; rather authority was shared and
diversified because the Spirit of God was available to all to bring their gifts
for the good of the community. In
baptism, we believe each person is baptized into gifts and authority for
special ministry. Though leadership may
be a certain ministry, the most important aspect of leadership is to
orchestrate all of the gifts of the community for the common good. Salvation and health in a community is known
when everyone discovers one's gifts and releases them in practice for the benefit
of the community.
The music of Bach and Beethoven can be played
and directed by many artists and conductors and still remain the beauty of Bach
and Beethoven. We may prefer certain
interpretations of Bach and Beethoven even as Bach and Beethoven remain greater
than their interpreters. The same is
with Jesus Christ; Christ remains greater than any of us who seek to heal and
comfort in his name. And Jesus Christ is
the main reason for us to check our egos at the door and always defer to the
greatness of the health and salvation offered by Jesus Christ.
The Gospel reading today gives us a hint to
healthy practices which might be summarized as fasting and avoiding hell. Can you imagine a doctor writing this prescription: Fast and avoid hell? Probably good advice. The words of Jesus are exaggerated language
about the necessity of fasting in modifying our behavior towards
excellence. If your eye and hand offend
you, pluck it out, cut it off. AA is
based upon the reward of permanent fasting called sobriety. Sometimes we have to access the Higher Power
at the springs of our will to simply give up doing things which are harmful to
us. May God give each of us the wisdom
of health to know when, where and how long we must fast from harmful behaviors.
And another good practice of health is this:
Avoid hell, and not because we are afraid of little demons with pitch-forked
tails. The word for hell referred to the
garbage dump near Jerusalem. The literal
meaning of hell is Waste. Avoid wasting
our lives at all costs. This is the
practice of good health. Waste means
that something gets discarded because it has been broken or is no longer
useful. Our lives in our bodies run out
of energy soon enough, so let us not hasten the process by the misuse of all of
the resources in our lives. Avoid hell,
let the notion of wasting our lives be the most literal frightening notion of
hell for us.
Another key to personal and community health is to be at peace with one another. Jesus called us to be peace makers and we are healthy when we know how to live in peace with one another.
Another key to personal and community health is to be at peace with one another. Jesus called us to be peace makers and we are healthy when we know how to live in peace with one another.
The Epistle of James gives us another good
tip for the practice of health within our community. Pray for one another. Like Pope Francis, don't be afraid to ask for
prayer and commit to pray for each other.
St. John's has a prayer chain hosted by Robert and it is a vital way for us
to practice an orientation toward health.
And what is another good health and salvation
tip of Jesus? Be spicy. Be like salt.
When I eat plain popcorn, I might as well just eat a teaspoon of saw
dust, but when I put some salt and butter on the popcorn it makes the popcorn a
different experience for me. Why do so
many people seem to respond favorably to Pope Francis? He looks like he's having fun. He looks like he wants everyone to have fun
in doing good. That is what salty and
spicy Christians do; they make others say to the waiter of life, "I'll
have what he's having; I'll have what she's having." Each of us need to find the source of spice
in our Christian lives and then live as those who complement this life so
others can see health and salvation in practice is not boring but lots of
fun. There is too much suffering in life
for us and for everyone for us not to find the right ways to manifest the spicy
fun of life. I suggest that we look to
infants and children to help awaken the fun sides of our personalities which
can be so suppressed by adult problems.
So now we have some practices of health and
salvation for us. Exercise our gifts for
the common good. God did not give
exclusive and exhaustive authority to leaders.
Don't regard the goodness achieved by others to be a threat or
competition to our own good works.
Submit to the wisdom of the practice of fasting when we need to. Avoid hell; avoid wasting the resources of
life. Live at peace with one another. Pray for one another especially
when we have special needs. And be
spicy. Be the complementing zest of life
for others to see how wonderful the health and salvation of Christ is. Amen.
