RISKING ALL TO WELCOME ALL
Sermon preached by Dr. Mark Smutny
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Pasadena Presbyterian Church
John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward. “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched. “For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
- Mark 9:38-50
Mark 9:38-50 presents a challenge not only to decipher but to tolerate. In twelve verses we see images of demons cast out, millstones hung around necks, threats of hands and feet cut off, eyes plucked out and intimations of hell — not particularly appealing to our modern sensibilities. Threats of amputation and eye gouging do not seem to be the building blocks for a motivational sermon for the launch of Stewardship season. On second thought I’m willing to try anything to avoid another of week of staff furloughs to balance the budget. Let’s give the passage a second look.
Our story from Mark 9 begins with John, a disciple, coming to Jesus reporting that he and his compatriots had encountered some unknown casting out demons in Jesus’ name. To the ancients, to claim the Divine's name was to claim his power. The text reads, “John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.”
For a moment, please, set aside your skeptical questions about what demon-casting is and, instead, focus on the problem that seems to be bugging the disciples: the question of identity. They’re troubled about who is identified as a certified, bonded, licensed, and governing-board approved Jesus follower and who is not. The unknown character the disciples encountered, who seemed to be pretty effective in using Jesus' power to heal and cast out demons, had no demonstrable membership certificate in the Jesus club of which they were exclusive members, and they were pretty riled up about him. Who did he think he was?
We all know about exclusive clubs because each of us has memberships in such clubs. The first such club I recall belonging to was a tree house club. My brothers Greg and Jeff and I made up that first tree house club when we were only kids. We built a primitive tree house out of two-by-fours and scrap plywood in the poplar tree beside our house. My female cousins who lived next door were clearly not invited to ascend into our exclusive club. My brothers and I set the rules for our tree house club and we determined that the tree house was for boys only and not for girls. Those were the rules. We would not and could not allow Cindy and Vicky Smutny into our club. The rules made some insiders (the boys) and some outsiders (the girls). That's how it is with clubs. There are outsiders and there are insiders.
That's how it is with every community: sports clubs, service clubs, debate clubs, ladies tea clubs, Rotary, Lions, Sertoma, The Jets and the Sharks, The Hatfields and McCoys, Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants, Sunnis and Shiites, the Crips and the Bloods. That's how it is with this church community of Pasadena Presbyterian Church. A community has to have some sense of boundaries in order to give a sense of belonging and identity. If we have no sense of identity, if we believe anything, if there is nothing that makes us distinctive, then our sense of being a unique community evaporates and we offer nothing to anyone. We need a strong sense of community and a strong sense of identity so that people will find here a place of belonging, a place of prayer, support, challenge, justice, and compassion. We have rules. We don't accept just anyone. Do we?
John the disciple seems pretty concerned that the unnamed demon caster was not a certified Jesus follower with a certificate of church membership, whereas Jesus seems completely unconcerned, saying, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.” Preserving the power of his own group does not seem to be in the forefront of Jesus’ priorities. If healing was being done, if compassion was being extended, he said go for it. He seemed singularly unconcerned about issuing certificates of church membership for entry into his disciples’ club. He didn’t seem to care who was ministering, only that ministering was going on and that people’s lives were being saved and that people’s lives were being transformed by the power of God.
A decade ago, the governing body of Pasadena Presbyterian Church adopted a Vision Statement that adorns the front of every worship bulletin and serves as a beacon at every major entrance to this church campus. From time to time, it's good to read it again and be reminded of what we say we believe. It's our identity statement. It tells the world and us what kind of club we are. In its essence the Vision Statement declares that this club, this church community, is a club not of exclusion but of embrace. We are a club not of isolation and insulation but a club of welcome and inclusion. It hints of a willingness to venture into new ways of being church that welcomes all of God's children regardless of culture, class, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual identity and, by extension, anything else in all of creation that separates human beings, one from another.
For a decade, our Vision Statement has declared to the public and to ourselves that our identity, our club, is fundamentally grounded, first of all, in a vision of God's inclusive love and secondly, in the radical hospitality of Jesus. Through this Vision Statement we declare to the world and to ourselves that since God's love is for all, our love is for all. We declare to the world and to ourselves that since Jesus extended the boundaries of his table fellowship to the broken edges of humanity, we, as his followers, extend the boundaries of our church fellowship to the very edges of humanity. That is what we say we believe. That is how we try to live. We are saying that our club is Jesus' club, and we, like Jesus, are willing to be remarkably unconcerned about who we let in. After all, you let me in. We let you in: a lamb of his flock, a sheep of his fold, a sinner of his redeeming.
For a decade, we have prayed fervently and worked diligently to implement this inclusive vision of God's love. But the vision was planted much farther back, back in the 1920s and 1930s when Dr. Freeman led this congregation to courageous ventures in international mission; back in the 1940s when Dr. Blake condemned segregation in Pasadena swimming pools and Pasadena housing stock; back in the 1950s and 1960s when Dr. Little thundered with his prophetic voice against the injustices that fueled the Civil Rights era. The prophetic voice in our decade-old Vision Statement is but an echo of giants upon whose shoulders we stand, upon whose voices we gain courage to speak the Word of God for our time. This club is their club as well. We do well to honor them.
In our time, compelled by this inclusive vision, we have innovated with startling experimentation; other times we have bumbled along with caution and fear. At times we have been lifted by the Holy Spirit to the highest aspirations of church life; at other times we have been held down by feet of clay.
At our best, as church insiders, we have tried to deploy our empathic imaginations to picture what it might be like to walk in the shoes of the outsider, the outsider looking from the outside of the church club looking in. We've noticed that the outsiders looking in today are not the same outsiders that looked in fifty years ago in the 1950s when the church club had 4000 members. Fifty years ago, most outsiders looking in at PPC looked like Western and Northern Europeans, which is what the insiders largely looked like. Back then, for an outsider to become an insider wasn't all that difficult, since everybody looked a lot alike, and thought alike, and experienced life in a fairly mono-cultural way.
Today, our surrounding community is a global community of amazing racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity. Today, our task is to welcome the outsider whose fears can be substantial. Today we have to use our empathic imaginations and picture their fears: the fears that as outsiders they will not be welcomed; the fears that they will be shunned, excluded, judged, reviled, scorned, ignored, profiled, treated as less than Americans, less than Caucasians, less than the precious children of God that they are.
We here at PPC have worked diligently and prayed daily to see that these fears will not come to pass. Indeed, we have worked at PPC to see that outsiders will discover that here at PPC, in this house of God, in Jesus' house, all God's children will be embraced and welcomed. Our Vision Statement says that is who we are. It says we are a church community not of isolation and insulation but of God's inclusive love and Jesus' radical hospitality, where each human being regardless of culture, nation, race, gender, sexual identity, or economic means is precious and welcome. Here no one is any better or any worse than anyone else. For instance, the man who wears this doctoral gown with the three doctoral racing stripes down his sleeves has exactly the same value before God as the woman from El Salvador who is now worshiping in Spanish in the Freeman Chapel, who has little education, and who is now praying for her son to stay out of gangs in Highland Park. She and I are the same before God. We are both of infinite worth. The claim is so completely radical – so thoroughly egalitarian – it is liberating Good News that comes from a loving, radically inclusive God and a loving, welcoming Jesus, and a church who wants to be in their club.
Now we know having adopted this Vision Statement ten years ago and having taken the values imbedded in this Vision Statement very seriously, and having prayed regularly to implement this vision, and having made thousands of decisions over the years, we have come to the place in late September of 2009 where PPC is now one of the very few Presbyterian churches in our entire denomination that is multiethnic, multilingual, multi-class, an inclusive congregation growing in many dimensions of our ministry, while most Presbyterian congregations remain largely mono-cultural, mostly of one class, and often in decline, especially in urban America. We ought to pause for a moment and recognize that among all of our financial challenges, what an amazing road we have been on. It's been a lot of work. It's been chaotic at times. It remains chaotic at times. I know the future ahead is very bright. I just don't know what the future is. I am reminded of the third stanza of Amazing Grace: "Through many dangers, toils, and snares, We have already come; 'Tis grace has brought us safe thus far, And grace will lead us home."
Today, I think what we need to do is pause and give thanks, and then rededicate ourselves to a vision of God's inclusive love and Jesus' radical hospitality. I for one like being a part of Jesus' club. He risked all to welcome us all into his club. It's what he did for us. Let us, in turn, extend his welcome for others. With his help, we will not fail. We will thrive. We will be raised again. Thanks be to God. Amen.