On
this World Communion Sunday many congregations will be gathering together around tables laid with bread and wine to remember
the love of God shown to us through the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Of course not all traditions and not all churches
observe World Communion Sunday. There will be many here in Beckley who
do not even realize it is World Communion Sunday.
That’s
terrible isn’t it? Who do those other churches think they are not doing things the way that we do them here at Beckley
Presbyterian Church? I mean we’ve been around in this town for around 130 years and some of them have only been going
for a year or two! Why can’t they wise up and get with the program? I just don’t understand why some of them are
so popular when they are so plainly not Presbyterians!
And
whose idea was it to have a World Communion Sunday in the first place? I didn’t
vote for it, I wasn’t asked. Were you? I mean who’s in charge of the churches around here?
That
kind of questioning…“Who’s in charge when it comes to what goes on in Jesus’ name?”… is
the same kind of questioning that our Bible reading from Mark places before us. Here’s the situation. The disciples
have their heads full of questions. Questions about what sort of Messiah Jesus would turn out to be. Questions about what
true greatness looked like.
John’s
got all these question marks swirling around in his head, so he goes off for a walk on his own to try and get focused. He
turns a corner and encounters a group of people doing an exorcism for some poor tormented soul. John’s thinking, “I
know about this stuff. Seen Jesus do it a few times.” He’s ready
to offer his expert advice.
As
he approaches he hears them praying. They are praying, “Help this person, In Jesus’ name… help him…Lord,
in the name of Jesus.” And the person is responding. They are looking calmer. Something good is happening here!
This
makes John’s blood boil. Who do these people think they are? He didn’t recognize any of them, and they didn’t
seem to realize just how important he was! “I’m a disciple of Jesus, don’t you know!” So John gives
them a mouthful of bad advice and then heads off to find Jesus. Jesus would put them right. How dare they!
The
reply John receives from Jesus totally confounds him. "Do not forbid them; for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon after to speak evil of me. For
he that is not against us is for us.”
Do you see what’s going on here? It’s a control issue. John thinks he should be in control.
He’s not, so he calls on Jesus to control the situation. Jesus, in effect tells him that there was nothing to control…
because God was already in control of the whole situation. In fact Jesus sees possibilities where John could only see problems!
Jesus suggests that wherever loving service is being expressed then people are opening up for themselves a real possibility
of encountering God’s love.
This wasn’t something to get mad about but something to be glad about. John, don’t you
get it? “He that is not against us is for us.” Anything other than
outright opposition to the Kingdom was something that favored the growth of the Kingdom.
Such did nothing for John’s personal rewards account or enhance his reputation as being the greatest
disciple whoever walked on the planet… but John, do you see… it’s not about you… it’s not even
about Jesus… it’s about God’s will being done, about God’s love not just being spoken about but acted
upon. “For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because
you bear the name of Christ, will by no means lose his reward.”
Who’s
in charge? You know that very statement is all about issues of control. That’s what this passage is about. If you drove
past the church during the week you may have noticed that it said on the notice board “WHO’S IN CHARGE.”
Underneath it said “Rev. Adrian J. Pratt.”
And
I’ve got to tell you, there are days when I wish I could be in charge. If I could get all you folk to put double the
amount in the offering, I could ask for a pay raise. If I could get all those folk in those other churches and all those folk
who never go near a church to turn up here on a Sunday… then wow… that’d look good on my resume.
I’d
meet Saint Peter at the gates of glory and he’d smile and say “C’mon on in Saint Adrian of Beckley, Here’s the keys to your
mansion... We are so pleased to have you grace heaven with your presence.”
You
see I think that’s what John was expecting from Jesus. That as he had rebuked those ignorant disciples for using Jesus’
name, Jesus was going to slap him on the back and say, “Good job. You can sit with me at supper tonight. I’ll
reserve a special table just for us!”
Instead
Jesus turns the whole thing around and calls us to examine our own personal control issues. First off he chastises John for
the potential damage he had done to those who were taking their first steps in discovering the power of His name. To discourage
those who were just starting out on the road of discipleship was a terrible thing. Verse 42: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were
hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”
It’s a harsh picture, but a necessary one. It is important that we realize how damaging our
proud and unfaithful actions can be to those who are just starting out to find faith. I’ve heard too many stories of
folk who started to go to churches and then, when they tried to suggest something or sought to understand something, some
“know it all” church member cut them down and belittled them so completely that they never came through the door
again.
We can be so proud. So insensitive. So judgmental. So controlling of others and not in control of ourselves.
Jesus then turns the spotlight on our darkness with a glaring intensity. “If
your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go to hell, to the
unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet
to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes
to be thrown into hell.”
When people look at this verse they invariably pick on the wrong things. Cutting off hands and feet,
gouging out eyes, what kind of talk is that? We need to come at it from a different angle. It’s a verse about sin and
the avenues through which sin comes into our lives. Remember what has just happened? John is standing there before Jesus feeling
as tiny as an ant at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. He thought he was doing right and he was shown to have been doing everything
wrong because of his misplaced pride.
Here’s Jesus saying, “John, if you want to control something, then work on controlling
yourself.” Sin, in these verses, is attached to hands, feet and eyes. Hands, feet and eyes have to do with what we touch,
where we travel and what we see.
Remember as a kid going shopping and your mum or dad would say, “You can look but don’t
touch.” “But mum, I want too”… crash!… “I
thought I told you…” Remember somebody said “Listen, you don’t
want to go there. If you do there’ll be trouble.” And you went there and you got into trouble! You know how temptation
gets at us. We look. We desire. We want it. We can’t live without it. Next minute we’re in deeper than we can
handle.
Another way of phrasing “Cut it off” is to
say “Cut it out.” It is as though we are complaining to God that we
have a problem with this or that sin, and God tells us loud and clear “So don’t touch it, so don’t go there,
so don’t look at that! Cut it out!” Cut it out. Change the way you are doing things and you won’t be in
the situation that causes you to fall. Refocus. Redirect your path. Get some hands on experience of something that causes
you to be a positive influence rather than something that causes you to sin.
Better that than to be thrown into hell “Where their worm does not die, and the fire is not
quenched.” Did you notice the worm in that verse? Or rather to whom
the worm belongs? Listen again, verse 48, “their worm does not die.” Whose
worm? The person who insists upon carrying on with their destructive habits and fails to deal with the sin that’s
eating them alive.
Sin is like a tape worm. It clings inside us. The more we feed it the more it grows. It ruins our
appetite. It saps our vitality. It takes away our taste. It makes us sick and unable to function in the way we were created
to. Tape worms are personal. They don’t eat some body else. If you want to get rid of them, you take care of it. You
get it removed and you are careful to watch what you consume.
Jesus concludes His talk with a word of encouragement. “Salt is good; but if the
salt has lost its saltiness, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." In the context of His conversation with John He is saying, “John
you messed up, learn from your mistake. You are like salt in the world. You are, by your actions, bringing my Kingdom to others.
Don’t lose that. Let me burn away what’s bad, and let’s all move on… together… in peace…
being who we are meant to be.
Around this table on World communion Sunday we have a chance to acknowledge our own misplaced pride.
We share bread and wine that point us to the forgiveness that Jesus Christ offers. His love corrects us, so we can get our
lives back on the right course. He promises us peace and the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Our calling as individuals…as the Beckley Presbyterian Church…as part of the community
of churches here in Beckley… as part of a worldwide church, some whose tradition will and some whose tradition will
not be celebrating this World Communion Sunday…is to lay our lives before Jesus Christ as a response to the tremendous
love He has shown by laying down His life on the Cross, to seek daily to live as disciples of the Kingdom, and seek to be
a means of resurrection life to others.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
