Whose Side is Jesus on, Anyway?

September 27, 2009
Pastor Michele
  

 Mark 9:30-50
Who's Side is Jesus on, Anyway

 We shouldn’t be looking for Jesus one side or the other of human conflict, Jesus is reaching out across the abyss helping us to love one another in the midst of and in spite of our disagreement.

Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Most of us like to take sides – I suspect there is something in our human DNA that makes us want to always pick the winning team, the winning candidate, the winning argument –somewhere deep in our being we have this deep desire to be on the winning side. You see it all over the place – in caring about whether the Viking or the Packer win, in arguments between democrats and republicans, is heated disputes between the squeeze from the middle or roll from the bottom toothpaste users – these disagreements becomes a part of how we identify ourselves and think. And I’m pretty sure that while this tendency might add some spice to our lives, it hasn’t made human co-existence any easier. Because what happens is we end up focusing on what we disagree on, not what draws us together. And all too often these disagreements end up defining our relationship.

And this tendency to pick sides, to want to define who’s in and who’s out, who’s right and who’s wrong appears to have existed in Christian community for at least the last 2000 years – listen to our gospel today.

We catch up with the disciples who are doing their best to faithfully follow Jesus and yet the minute they get word that there was a stranger, a guy out there –who was casting out demons in Jesus name. Well, their blood started boiling. He wasn’t one of them, he wasn’t on their side. He didn’t know what they knew, heck he had never even met Jesus, as far as they were concerned he was riff-raff – and was clearly not qualified to cast out demons in Jesus’ name. So, the disciples were sure he had to be stopped – and they were certain anyone would agree with that.

Anyone, it turns out, but Jesus.
I can almost hear Jesus say, Are you guys kidding me? For goodness sakes, he’s casting out demons in my name – how can that be a bad thing.

And then he told the disciples in no uncertain terms to stop putting up roadblocks to people who wanted to follow him, to stop defining who is in and who is out, to stop fretting over whether other followers have every matter of doctrine down perfectly. Instead, he told them that when people are calling on his name, and doing good things, for goodness sakes, give them the benefit of the doubt. And he told the disciple that whoever is not against us is for us – so find a way to live together in peace.
This was an important lesson for the disciples, and I know it is equally important for us – we will be better disciples if we stop trying to prove that Jesus is on our side in every religious and political and social debate that we enter into. Because, the only side that matters to Jesus is this one – the side that loves the lord our God with all our heart and all our mind and all our soul and it’s the side that loves our neighbors, even the ones we disagree with, as ourselves.

If we stop focusing on winning arguments and start focusing on loving God and loving our neighbors we will, undoubtedly, find vast areas of agreement – vast areas where we can work together, peacefully, faithfully, with Jesus to bring about the Kingdom of God.
That’s our call as disciples, and while we aren’t all that good at it yet, I’ve seen some glimpses of it recently and I’d like to share them with you.

One of those glimpses came after my father died last month. His funeral left me spinning – both because of my grief and because of the lack of welcome I felt as a Lutheran and a pastor at the church where his funeral took place. The next morning was a Sunday and I was in great need to be among my own people. So, I found my way to Ascension Lutheran Church in Green Bay Wisconsin.
It was not just the day after my Father’s funeral; it was also the first Sunday after the contentious vote at our church-wide assembly regarding some sexuality issues. If you aren’t already aware, the church voted to allow individual congregations, if they so choose, to both bless same-sex relationships and to call pastors who are gay or lesbian in committed, long-term relationships. It was a notable week for the church and disagreements abounded.

Well, the pastor, a man named Luther Swenson, started his sermon that day saying he felt compelled to address the voting that happened that week – and he started his sermon with about six or eight points – highlighting what the two sides of this debate were saying about each other – while I don’t remember the exact points they went something like:
You will hear that the people opposed to this vote – that is those who do not agree with ordaining gay and lesbian pastors – are uncaring, not worried about other people and clearly dislike all gay and lesbian people; this is not true.

And, you will hear that the people who supported this vote – aren’t faithful and don’t believe in the authority of scripture. That instead they believe they can twist Scripture to support anything they want it to say; this is not true.

Well, he went back and for 6 or 8 points and he beautifully and carefully refuted so much of the divisive language that had been used that week. When he finished these points it still wasn’t clear where he, personally, landed on the issue. In the end, he told us -- he did not agree with the vote. But, he didn’t stop there – he didn’t draw any lines in the sand – what he did was he reminded his congregation that the most important thing about the ELCA isn’t our policy on ministry. The most important thing is our shared belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the foundation of all we teach and preach and believe. Pastor Swenson then reminded his congregation that nothing in these resolutions change that. Yes we disagree on certain issues, some of which are near and dear to our hearts, but that doesn’t change the fact that we continue to agree on the most important thing -- that the church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ our King -- and as long as that was the case we should continue to be the people of God, together.

That sermon was pure gospel to me. Especially in light of the fact that I was coming off of my Father’s funeral where I felt as if some rather meaningless disagreements between denominations had led to divisions and had left me feeling unwelcome at another Christian church. Pastor Swenson proclaimed that what holds us together is far more important than what divides us.

Which is pretty much the same thing Jesus was telling the disciples in our gospel today. He wouldn’t take their side when they tried to argue that they were right and the demon-casting interloper was wrong – Jesus wouldn’t let them draw lines and say we’re in and you’re out – Jesus witnessed that we should love one another– even when we disagree, we should live together in peace, even when it’s hard.
. . .
And I’d like to tell you about another glimpse I got -- of that attempt to live in the Kingdom of God in peace -- of finding common ground instead of fighting ground. It was another sermon that was preached on the Sunday after my father’s funeral – by Nadia Bolz-Weber, she is a pastor serving a congregation in Denver that strongly supported the resolution that was passed. I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to quote from her sermon because it was so beautifully written, but before I start I need to give you one point of order. At church assemblies when a resolution is voted on, if you agree you vote by holding up a green card and if you disagree you vote by holding up a red card. Before the vote, comments are requested, and they rotate between people who agree – those standing in the green line and those who disagree – standing in the red line. You need to know that to make sense of her words – with that I quote.

I watched the proceedings with my heart in my throat. If these policy changes hadn’t been approved I honestly had no idea what I could possibly come back to you and say. Watching people’s comments I would try to fight off thoughts like “man, that guys an idiot” with more or less success. I watched people say prayerful things, hurtful things, thoughtful things, and idiotic things on both sides of the aisle. Yet there several of my friends were: standing faithfully at the Green microphones. . . . And I couldn’t help but think…if Jesus was here, he’d be standing in the green line. And then a young pastor got up to speak at the green microphone and the first thing he said, in a quivering voice was “anyone else frightened to speak? I’m shaking. Please pray for me” and the man standing right next to him in line at the red microphone reached over and laid his hand on him and prayed while his brother of the opposing view point spoke.

Then I knew that Jesus was really in between the red and green microphones. Not in some sort of neutral “Jesus as Switzerland” sort of way, but in the you must lose your life to gain it sort of way. Jesus is between the red and the green microphones…between the red and the blue states offering us life and salvation in the Words of eternal life and in the Sacrament of his own body and blood. Jesus right there between the liberals and conservatives speaking the word that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. . . .

I’m very aware of how much these policy changes mean to this community I love but I’m also aware of how painful these policy changes are to a minority in this denomination I love.


There are words of eternal life, but they are not our words. So Let us not go to ourselves because as deeply as we hold our beliefs about inclusion, or social justice, or as deeply as we hold our beliefs about social conservatism or personal morality…we do not have the words of eternal life. We have our beliefs, our convictions, our understandings of scripture and hear me clearly…these are not to be taken lightly or walked away from. But they are not the words of eternal life. Jesus, the true Word of God standing between red and green, points us to life and life abundant. Not the empty satisfaction of being right because we are the majority or because we are the righteous minority, but counter-intuitively the words of eternal life tell us that we must die. We must die to self and live to Christ.   http://sarcasticlutheran.typepad.com/sarcastic_lutheran/2009/08/a-sermon-following-the-elca-church-wide-assembly.html posted 8/23/2009

My dear friend, let’s face it, there is something in our DNA that makes us want to be right, to want Jesus to be on our side -- Just like the disciples wanted Jesus to tell that man casting out demons to stop because he wasn’t one of them, just as Pastor Bolz-Weber initially wanted to believe that Jesus was in the green line because that’s where her heart was.

But the heart of what it means to be a disciple – isn’t winning, it isn’t putting up roadblocks to keep others out – Jesus didn’t die on the cross to keep the riff-raff out –my dear friends, we are that riff-raff.

Jesus died because even as flawed as we are -- we are loved, welcomed, accepted in the Kingdom of God. And, as his followers we are called to follow his lead – and our gospel today tells us that includes dying to our need to be right, dying to our conviction that Jesus is on whatever side we are on. Being a disciple, living in Christ, living the life God intends for us -- means following Jesus and reaching out across the abyss of disagreement to our neighbors, to our friends, even to our enemies – reaching out in love – as hard as that can be -- and finding the path for living a faithful, peaceful life and building the kingdom of God -- together. For whoever is not against us is for us. Amen.