There are several different versions of this story, and
you may have heard one of them before. Our 3rd, 4th, and
5th graders even experienced this story last week in Sunday School. It
goes a little like this:
An old, wise prophet was asked by a young child, “What is
the difference between spending an eternity in God’s presence and an eternity
away from God’s presence?” The old, wise prophet said, “In both places, there
is a long table filled with food. All of it is amazing, perfectly cooked,
perfectly seasoned, incredibly fresh, and no matter who is at the table, it is
their favorite food. There is more than
enough for everyone at the table to have their fill. Now, all of the people who
are in God’s presence for all of eternity are fully satisfied, and it looks
like are enjoying the meal. The people spending eternity away from God’s
presence look like they haven’t eaten in days, maybe weeks. There is all this
wonderful food in front of them, and yet, they are starving.”
The
young child has a puzzled look and says, “How can one group be starving and the
other full if there is plenty of food?”
The
wise old prophet had a heart-breaking smile and says, “Here’s the catch: Each
of the utensils are Five-Feet long. The people who are starving are all trying
to feed themselves; the people who are full are feeding each other.”
In many ways, this is a story not only of
eternity in or out of God’s presence, but a story of Christian community, too. We
have been hearing for the past several weeks about what it means to be in
Christian community through the writing of James, the brother of Jesus. One of
the things I love about this New Testament letter is the sheer timelessness of
it. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament contain all things
necessary to our Salvation and are vital to our understanding of God, and how
God has moved through human history. Much of it is also better understood if we
know more of the context and timing of the letter or book being written. Paul’s
letters to the fledgling church in Corinth, for example, are great pieces of
Christian teaching on their own. But when we understand the commercial and
political realities the people of Corinth were facing, the letter becomes all
the more clear. (And in case you’re wondering, Corinth made Las Vegas look like
Mayberry…)
But
James’ epistle to the followers of Jesus scattered about the Middle East has
this quality that some say leave the epistle as one of the lesser studied books
of the New Testament, even though it was one of the earliest written by someone
who was an eye witness to the life and teachings of Jesus. While James’ Letter
is often called a book of wisdom, putting it in the same genre as Proverbs and
the Song of Solomon, this letter focuses on those facing temptation and trial
because of their faith.
Over
the past several weeks, we have heard James speak of the human tongue as the
rudder of a ship or a bit in the mouth of a horse. James talks at great length
in chapter 2 about “faith” and “works.” That faith is fine, but it doesn’t mean
much without some elbow grease behind it. He has warned against partiality
among believers, and about being “do-ers” of the Word, and not merely
“hear-ers.” That last one is one of my favorites, and one that challenges me
every time I hear it. James’ letter does what Jesus himself did: It comforts
the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable. In today’s passage, he talks about
the need to be a people of prayer, not only for ourselves, but for those in our
community, too. We don’t pray, of course, because God needs the reminder that
someone is in need of divine intervention. God knows that much. We pray so that
we can be open to God’s response of how we might share the Good News with those
who need to be comforted, especially those in our immediate community. Maybe
it’s by our physical presence or the laying on of hands and anointing of oil.
Maybe it’s through the comfort of a meal. Or maybe just some flowers and a note
that says “I’m praying for you.” Much of what is written in the closing passage
of the book that we heard today is about that work of faithful people.
So, what
does Christian Community look like to us, right here, in a whole other part of
the world, nearly 2,000 years after James’ writing? I’d venture to say, “much
the same.” Oh, sure, we have toys and tools that James and his flock didn’t
have, but we continue to strive to be a people of God who care for each other
through in times of celebration and mourning, with prayer, meals, hospital
visits, transportation, doing a little grocery shopping, maybe? We are a people
who strive to know more about God and Jesus and the Bible, and we know that we
don’t plod along those paths alone, but we walk with each other, hold each
other’s hands while we hold each other accountable. And we know that putting in
“sweat equity” in Christian Community is just as important in the kitchen as it
is out in the field or in an office.
If we
are to respond to those in our community with prayer and healing and works of
compassion, James’ epistle then begs the question who exactly is in our community? Yes, I know that Jesus answers the
question of who our neighbor is in
the story of the Good Samaritan. But Jesus’ Disciples face the question of who
is part of their community in today’s Gospel lesson. They get all worried and
maybe a little uppity because they saw someone casting out demons in Jesus’
name, but this someone was not a part of their group. You almost have to wonder
how John said it to Jesus, right? Maybe with a little trepidation: “Um, so,
yeah, Jesus, um… There was this guyyyy…” or maybe he was more like the
tattle-tell on the playground: “Jesuuuus! There was this guy, and I know
he shouldn’t have been doing things in your name because, well, you know… he’s
not one of us!”
But
Jesus doesn’t have time for any of that. “Do not stop him,” Jesus says, “for no
one who does a deed of power in my name will be able to speak evil of me.”
Jesus, I think, is beginning convey that this movement he’s started is getting
to be bigger than he is. (And we can discuss at some other point whether or not
Jesus could have anticipated how big this movement would get…) Here’s someone,
and Mark doesn’t name him, who may not have even been able to pick Jesus out of
the crowd, but knows and acts on the teachings of Jesus to help heal people of
their ailments. The very human side of Jesus could get very concerned about
“controlling the message,” or keeping tabs on who’s doing what in his name. But
the very divine Jesus knows that God is at work, and that the message and the
healing that was happening among God’s people was proof that Jesus’ ministry
was working.
The
reality is that it’s a bit of a strange moment for that exchange because it’s
right in between two scenes with children. Another example, maybe, of the
disciples just not “getting it.” At the end of last week’s Gospel, Jesus put a
child on his lap and said if anyone welcomes this child, this person who is
near the bottom of the rung in society, then they’ve welcomed me. And after he
tells the disciples not to worry about someone casting out demons in his name,
he turns again to a child and says,
“Y’all better not lead this one astray or you’ll wish you hadn’t.” The answer
to who is in their community is
right in front of them: It’s not only the people they know and trust, but it’s
the people who are on the margins of society, who are seen and treated as less-than,
as second- or third-class.
Jesus
is turning things, as he constantly does, on their head. This notion of
Christian Community that he’s laying out, that will continue to grow in the
years after his death, resurrection, and ascension, it’s not going to look like
what community may have looked like in the past. James is taking things a step
further, too, when he talks about confessing your sins to one another. Unheard
of! People only confessed their sins to God, not another person. But here again,
if we are to be supportive of each other, if we are to not only hold each
other’s hands, but hold each other accountable in our walk with Christ, then we
can’t always keep to ourselves those things that keep us distant from the
Almighty. And like John and the other disciples learned, community is a process
in which we learn and grow. It doesn’t happen overnight. And as James and his
friends found out, it doesn’t always happen easily.
If you
were to ask me the biggest struggle we have in our journey with Jesus towards
Christian Community, it is telling the story of how we are just that. It’s
telling the story of how we as people of faith have reached out to each other
in prayer and in helpful works; it’s telling the story of how we have been able
to walk with others who are struggling to know where and how God is in their
life; it’s being vulnerable enough to tell how and where we ourselves have
found the joy that comes from being with other people who are faithfully
walking with Christ as well. It’s not that we don’t have the stories to tell;
it’s sometimes that we are unsure of how to put them in words.
James
calls on the faithful to be bold in asking for prayers and believing that those
prayers will be answered. Jesus is showing his disciples that their community
is bigger than they realize and includes those whom we might not always think
to include or want to include. The challenge that Jesus and his brother James
leave us with today is to be bold in our faith: To tell the story of how our
faith in Jesus and being part of a Christian Community has changed our life and
the lives of those around us, and to recognize that sometimes, the way our
faith in Jesus has changed our lives is by loving and welcoming into that
community those whom Jesus would have welcomed and loved.
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