Dr. Dale Miller, October 1, 2006

Thinking Outside the Box

Mark 9:38-50

The day after Martin Luther King Jr. was shot in Memphis, Tennessee there was a large group of Memphis clergy who decided to march to City Hall. The clergy gathered at St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral. The vicar of the church took the cross from church, held it high over his head, and led the procession toward City Hall. As the clergy made their way down Poplar Avenue an elderly woman shouted at them from her front porch: "Get that cross back in the church where it belongs!"

In the Gospel of Mark, John rushes up to Jesus in a panic, all out of breath, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us." He wasn't with us. He stepped out of the group by himself, in your name.

John seems to be saying: Stop them! Get that cross back into the church where it belongs. Get God back into the church where God belongs. There should be no unpredictable, frightening encounters with God on the street. God's house is here, right here. We've set off a space for worship, a beautiful box where God can be found. Here we can encounter God once a week and then retreat to the safety of our daily lives.

Jesus responded to John by saying, "Don't forbid him. For he that is not against us is for us." It didn't matter that the healer got his medical training off the back of a book of matches. Jesus wasn't even concerned about his professional credentials. Jesus seems to be more concerned about good deeds rather than good dogma, right action rather than correct thinking.

Perhaps the important thing is not that our head is on straight with "correct" doctrine or "right" theology, or that we can claim allegiance with the one true church, or the one pure group. The main thing is that we are with Jesus.

How do we get on Jesus' side? That's the issue. Jesus' own life defines true discipleship. Can we cite anywhere in the gospels that Jesus checks out his disciples on matters of correct doctrine or insists that they recite a creed? Rather, in this scripture, he urges his disciples to get on his side: namely, the side of those who match words with deeds, to be ready to be surprised and rejoice whenever good work is done, whether it is done in the street or accomplished by an exorcist.

The kingdom of Jesus is bigger than any church's attempt to keep God in a tightly defined box. We need to be where Jesus is.

Today is known as World Communion Sunday. Millions of people in Christian churches around the globe celebrate communion in a sense of mutual unity. It is estimated there are more Christians in Africa than in the whole of North America, and more Christians in Latin America than in Europe. It is a fact that over six million new converts have been added to the Christian community every year on the continent of Africa in recent decades.

What this means is that in sheer numbers the axis of the Christian faith is shifting from Europe and North America to the Third World, which is sometimes called the "Two-thirds World." In Christ there is no east or west. On World Communion Sunday, we are reminded that all humankind is present at the same table as guests of Christ. Today, we think of Christians in Pakistan, and Iraq and Venezuela and throughout the world, coming to this table of our Lord. This is his table, the Lord's Table.

The sacrament of communion proclaims that as Christians already we are one, no matter how much we want it otherwise and keep insisting on it otherwise, for Christ cannot be divided. Christ is one. Today we proclaim that we are one in Christ Jesus, "all distinctions have vanished" (Galatians 3:28). Christians around the world recognize the need to be where Jesus is.

And where is this Jesus? Let me be quick to say that this passage from Mark is not really about the loss of body parts. Mark is dramatically telling us that Jesus is concerned about us becoming the person who gives a cup of water, becoming a person who does not put stumbling blocks that deny grace to the little ones, and becoming a person who will provide the salt for the living of life.

Salt is an interesting image. In our modern times we usually think of salt in a negative fashion. It's bad for our body. We need to watch our salt intake. In the ancient world, however, salt was worth its weight in gold. Salt not only made food taste better, it was absolutely necessary as a food preservative. Since they didn't have access to a refrigerator, the best way to preserve meat was to salt it.

Salt was so valuable that people often used it in making covenants with one another. If I wanted to make a binding covenant with you, we'd both get out our pouches of salt. I'd sprinkle a few grains of my salt in your bag, and you'd do the same to me, then we'd shake the bags up. My "salt" would be mingled with your "salt," and we would be bound in covenant to one another.

A king who had three daughters once asked them how much they loved him. The first daughter said she loved him more than all the gold in the world and he was pleased. The second, not wanting to be outdone, said she loved him more than all the precious gems in the world, and again he was pleased. The third and youngest daughter who was always so loving and sweet said that she loved him more than all the salt in the world. He was outraged. What could be more common than salt? He was hurt and upset and stormed out.

The youngest daughter, realizing how hurt her father was, went to the palace kitchens and ordered the chef to put no salt in the king's food until further notice. After two days without salt in his food, the king ordered the chef to come and see him, and he complained that for two days the food had been so insipid and tasteless. He demanded an explanation. The chef stammered an apology and bowed deeply and told the king of the instructions he had received from the king's daughter not to put salt in the food. It was then the king realized the tremendous compliment his daughter had paid him. It was he who gave her life its flavor and meaning.

When Jesus is concluding his teaching to his disciples by speaking about "salt," he is trying to say that once the disciples allow pettiness, selfishness or pride to flatten their discipleship, they will never be able to regain the original sharp, distinctive, pleasing flavor of following their Savior. Salt that has lost its "saltiness" is worth nothing. Jesus urges his followers to remain salty.

If we want to live outside the box of our spiritual comfort zone in order that we can provide some seasoning for this world then I challenge us to think and live in new and vital ways.

• We won't live life "as usual."

• We won't live in a world that is content to keep "the way things are."

• We will live in a world of miracles - where peace can happen; where hunger can end; where healing can take place; where love can make a difference; where life is wonderful.

• We will live a life that lives for something

• We will live a life that stands for something

• We will live a life that longs for something

• We will live a life that proclaims something

• We will live a life that betters something.

All too often we allow God to be trapped in a small box, convinced that the power of God is barely strong enough to keep us functioning. We need to know that the power of God keeps the entire universe going. The power of God is different from our power. God comes to us in God's way, not my way or your way, but God's way.

Piano virtuoso Arthur Rubenstein once said: "I'm passionately involved in life: I love its changes, its colors, its movement. To be alive, to be able to see, to walk, to have...music...It's all a miracle." And then he added: "I have adopted the technique of living life from miracle to miracle."

A father and daughter were flying cross-country from New York to Los Angeles. The little girl kept looking out the window and exclaiming: "Daddy, Daddy, there's a river...Look, Daddy, there's a farm...and a barn. Daddy, Daddy, look at that hill down there...and there's a beautiful pond with all sorts of ducks in it."

The father was busy reading a book, and kept repeating "uh, huh, uh, huh," until he became a little irritated, then embarrassed by his daughter's excited chatter. Finally he turned to the passengers seated nearby and apologized. "Please forgive my daughter. She still thinks everything is wonderful."

Do we still think everything is wonderful? Do we believe in a God that cannot be contained in any box? Do we follow a Jesus that wants us to be salt for this world and see the miracles in each day and in every person? The choice is ours.

Theologian Jurgen Moltmann argues that the greatest mystery of human existence is not the reality of evil, or injustice, or hatred. Rather, the greatest mystery in the universe is human freedom - the freedom that God has chosen to given you and me that enables us to order our lives in any way we see fit. We are free to become a Mother Teresa or an Adolph Hitler. We are free to give our lives to God, or free to crucify Jesus the Christ.

This morning is World Communion, an opportunity to receive the grace of God. The grace of God calls us into a covenant with the entire global community. Will we allow God's grace to have its way with us and in us and through us? The final work of grace is to make us gracious.

Above the doorway of a church in London a prayer has been carved into the stone: 

O God, make the door of this house wide enough to receive all who need human love and fellowship; narrow enough to shut out all envy, pride and strife. Make its threshold smooth enough to be no stumbling block to children, nor to straying feet, but rugged and strong enough to turn back the tempter's power. God make the door of this house the gateway to thine eternal kingdom.

In a moment we shall join with millions of Christians around the world as we commune at this table that extends today to every corner of the universe. Now, as you partake of the wine of new life, sip the new wine of love, drink the new wine of forgiveness, gulp the new wine of peace, swallow the new wine of amazing grace, empty the cup of wonder, and experience the last drops of the new wine of final victory, please allow the love of God to flood your life with the passion of Jesus Christ.

Spice up your life. Break out of the box of ordinary living. Claim God's grace for your life today!