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Jesus is king
of a lot of things and to a lot of people. In this morning’s lesson he is
certainly the king of hyperbole, or exaggeration. Hung by a millstone around your
neck and thrown into the sea! Cut off your hand if it causes you to stumble1
Cut off your foot because it’s better to go lame than to get thrown into hell!
Tear out your eye! Unfortunately through the centuries a person here or there
has taken Jesus’ exaggeration literally and done one of those bodily harming
things to him or herself.
Perhaps as a reaction to that kind of
biblical literalism, a few years ago I spotted a rather lengthy headline. “The
danger of ‘spiritual, but not religious.’”[1]
The description of the article said, “More and more people are rejecting formal
religion for a hodge-podge approach to spirituality that stresses positive
feelings. Alan Miller (the author of the article), argues that such an attitude
is a cop out that avoids having to deal with important questions.”[2]
I think it’s a temptation in today’s
pluralistic, multi-religious, grab-all-you-can-get world to scoff at the writer
of the article and even to accuse him of perhaps bigotry to other religions. Or,
to think he has an inflexible attitude about his own religion being the best. Whatever
his variety of religion is was not made entirely clear in the article. But that
in itself is an easy out and precisely what he is claiming in his article. The
prevailing sense of “bits and pieces” religion leaves much to be desired
precisely because it neither asks nor answers the hard questions and gives us
no tools for doing either.
Now do I like
the hard questions? No, no, and no! And I’ll bet you don’t either. For one
thing, they’re just…well, too hard. The Gospel is hard and confusing. And for another thing it’s got a multitude
of hard questions going on in this one short section of about a dozen or so
verses this morning.
One of those
hard questions is why we get so exercised about people running off and doing
their own thing instead of doing it our way. After all, the unnamed
caster-out-of-demons in the Gospel could be seen to support precisely what Alan
Miller complained about in his article. He complained about a scatter-shot
approach to religious belief that results in casting out demons but has little
depth or purpose other than for people to feel good about themselves.
When you look
more closely at our biblical story today however, you see this is not the case.
The difference here is outcome, outcome in both action and result. The writer
of John’s Gospel may have been more upset that the person casting out demons
was successful because the disciples willingly admit they themselves were unsuccessful.
How does that look to others seeing this new religion?
What this makes
me think about is how these same successful or unsuccessful actions are present
in the church today. One of the primary ways it shows up is in leadership. Leadership
from everyone, not just from the stated leaders.
Most of us think we would never sink
to using that time-honored phrase, “We’ve always done it this way.” Nor would
we be so rude as to say, “We’ve never
done it that way.” Episcopalians are
far too polite to say such things.
We might not actually say it, but our
actions in response to the “prophesying” of a new member, a younger member, a
child, a newly-on-the-scene clergy person, or even a first time guest can mean
the difference between the recognition and honor of new ideas and new spirit.
It can mean the dead end of failing to recognize the action of someone because
it isn’t our usual way.
There is also a
way to refrain from disturbing the status quo by simply not supporting or
encouraging something by what we do. We may not openly discourage whatever it
is, but we fail to actively support it. Ideas, programs, new classes, ways of
tackling administrative bottlenecks, all rise up and then sink back into the
mud if they remain unsupported by action.
Remember those times in scripture
when Jesus asks someone before healing them, “Do you really want to be healed?”
Or asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” Wise of Jesus to ask.
What a pity we often support and
encourage someone with a new idea or way of doing something and then gradually
withdraw our support through our busyness or our lack of presence. We show our
inability to decide we really want to be healed from the old unsuccessful way
to be free to improve or begin a new way. No wonder people with new ideas and
energy often just drift away.
We would never
be a stumbling block to one of these little ones who want so deeply to believe
in Jesus. We would offer them that cup of water. We would offer them that cup
that overflows and blesses. We would watch and admire and support their casting
out of metaphorical demons in our midst. We would support, encourage, and take
action to keep their new ideas alive and thriving.
We would
preserve ourselves for the future by being salty, by retaining the flavor and
goodness of all the meals we’ve had in the past. And, we would taste and see
that the new dishes offered by the new prophets among us are salted with support,
encouragement, and action. This moves us into a salty, well-flavored future
preserved by the new seasoning that keeps us fresh and open to Jesus in our
midst. AMEN.
The
Rev Nicolette Papanek
©2018
[1] http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/29/my-take-im-spiritual-not-religious-is-a-cop-out/?hpt=hp_c1 Accessed 30 September 2012
[2] Ibid.
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