Surprise!
Mark 9: 38-50 September 28, 2003
"Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us."
[39] "Do not stop him," Jesus said. "No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, [40] for whoever is not against us is for us. [41] I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.
[42] "And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck. [43] 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 into hell, where the fire never goes out. [44] [45] And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. [46] [47] 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 to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, [48] where "'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.' [49] Everyone will be salted with fire.
[50] "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other."
CCI: God is wanting to surprise us, we must remove roadblocks to God’s surprises.
Intro: How many of you like surprises? They come in many different forms. There are suprise parties; there are wonderful surprises like the book of memories that was prepared for me last night at our Jubilee Celebration. There are the surprises like the days your college kids show up at home unexpectedly. I remember the surprise on my mother’s face when my brother announced he and his wife were having their first child 12 years after they were married. How about the Tigers coming back from 8-0 to win their 4th in 5 games!? How many of you like surprises?
There are other surprises as well. There is the surprise of discovering a illness in your life. We are surprised by debt at times. We are surprised when we see a car traveling in the wrong direction on the highway! We are surprised when we learn of betrayal. How many of us like surprises?
A surprise is an event or occurrence that does not fit into our frame of reference. It is unexpected, sometimes pleasant, sometimes painful.
I would like to suggest that our God is a god of surprises. The new series on CBS, Joan of Arcadia, tries to capture that truth. God uses surprising people, and appears in surprising forms. But in reality, these little surprises barely scratch the surface.
The Bible is full of surprises! Unfortunately, we are too familiar with the stories to be surprised by them any more. Think about how surprised Jesse, David’s father must have been when Samuel anointed David to be the next King. Jesse had forgotten he even had a son named David! Imagine the surprise of Moses when God called him to lead the people out of Egypt, he was an exile, a murderer, almost 80 years of age and he had a speech impediment. What about the surprise that God would continue to love the nation of Israel even through all their rebellion and sinful ways?
For the new reader of scripture these are surprising. And for the disciples, Jesus words in today’s text were surprising as well.
Jesus’ life had been shocking from the start. The announcement of his impending birth knocked Mary off her feet. The angelic proclamation of his birth in Bethlehem, terrified the shepherds. The fight of his parents to Egypt was certainly not what was expected.
And then there were the people Jesus chose to associate with. Peter, a fisherman with a foul mouth and so impulsive he could be blessed on minute and called a tool of Satan the next. Matthew, a tax collector who had betrayed his Jewish brothers and sisters to make a few extra dollars. And then there was Simon the Zealot, a man whose entire life was devoted to driving the Romans out of Israel by any and all means. Not to mention the Prostitutes, tax gathers and sinners that Jesus spent time with. Jesus seemed to always be outside the expected. And this passage is no different.
One day, while John was out on an errand for Jesus, he came upon a a man he had never met. A crowd had gathered around him, John listened in and he was shocked. This stranger was casting demons out of people in the name of Jesus! He had no right! He did not spend time with Jesus! In fact earlier, John had been unable to cast out a demon, and now this stranger was stealing his thunder! He was horning in on their miracle business with the name of his Friend! So John stopped him and immediately went to Jesus to report this interloper.
Listen to Jesus’ response from the Message “Jesus wasn't pleased. "Don't stop him. No one can use my name to do something good and powerful, and in the next breath cut me down. [40] If he's not an enemy, he's an ally. [41] Why, anyone by just giving you a cup of water in my name is on our side. Count on it that God will notice.”
You see, the disciples thought they had this thing figured out. They were the in-crowd and every one else was the out-group. They had spent time with Jesus, they had listened to his teaching. They had become his friends. They had left their homes to follow Jesus. And that certainly carried privilege with it.
It is comfortable to be part of the in-group isn’t it. In school cliques develop quickly because children want to know who is in and who is out. Much of the world revolves around who is in and who is out. The nation of Taiwan is in turmoil because they have been excluded from the WTO and the United Nations. They are out! And they don’t like it. Unions and political parties live or die on who’s in and who’s out. Even among followers of Jesus we have carefully built categories for determining who is in and who is out.
Baptists and Catholics; Presbyterians and Orthodox; Fundamentalist and liberal; Conservative and Moderate; Evangelical and Charismatic; Denominational and Independent. To us, these categories are very important, but to God, they mean nothing. God does not respect our carefully established categories of in and out.
In the book of Numbers, Moses called all the leaders of the nation to the Tabernacle so that God would bless them. Two of those leaders did not show up. Eldad and Medad just did not go the Tabernacle, maybe they were too busy, maybe they were mad at Moses, we don’t know. But suddenly, the Spirit of God fell on the leaders and they began to prophesy. I don’t know what that looked like, but it was obvious that something had happened to them. And while that was going on, a man cam running up to Moses and said, “Moses, you must do something, Eldad and Medad, those guys who did not come when you called, they are prophesying too!” Does that sound familiar? This was John’s concern as well. And Moses said, “I wish all God’s people would prophesy!”
You see, the attempt to create a group of people who are “in”, is actually an attempt to put God in a box so we can know what God will do and who God will use. Curt Cloninger is an actor who uses drama to help us see God more clearly. One of his monologues is about God in a box. In this he speaks of the way we have tried to control God. How we insist that God will only act the way we understand and will only accept the people we accept.
But God can not be boxed! Jesus welcomes any who will simply give a glass of water in his name! Jesus refuses to be limited by our ideas of right and wrong or our ideas of in and out.
And then he told his disciples, if you stand in the way of anyone who would do something in my name, even if it is a child, it will not be good for you, in fact, it would be better if you simply drowned. Then he even went farther, if there is something in your life that causes you to not walk with me, then you need to get rid of it. If you blame your eyes for your lust, then dig them out and get rid of them, it’s better to be blind than to go to hell because of your eyes, if your hand makes you steal, then cut it off and throw it away, it is better to be maimed than to be thrown into hell because of your hand.
Do you see what Jesus is saying? He is telling us to get to the heart of what is happening. Your eye is not to blame if you lust, it is your mind that looks at others as objects rather than people in the image of God. Your hand does not cause you to steal, it is your greed that makes you think you have a right to anything you want.
Jesus is calling us to get rid of all the roadblocks in our lives. They may be things. If you are constantly in debt because of consumer credit, you need to get rid of the credit cards. If internet pornography has you in it’s grip, you need to either get rid of the internet connection or block that material. If you live to shop, you need to stay away from the mall. However, while these steps will help, they do not solve the problem. Your greed will not go away because the credit cards are gone, your lust will not vanish because it’s blocked on the internet, your materialism will not disappear because you stay away from the mall. We need to be refined. We need surprised by the fire of God! Eugene Peterson translates verse 49 this way, “Everyone’s going through a refining fire sooner or later.” We need to be refined. We need God to burn the stumbling blocks from our lives. We need the walls around our in-groups and out-groups to be consumed by the flames of God’s surprising love.
Do you like surprises? Wether you like them or not, God will surprise you. Today, I urge you not to be prepared to be surprised, rather be open to God’s surprises! Look for the unexpected blessings and in unpredictable actions that point to God’s actions in this world. Be open to the surprises of God, and then, remove any barriers to your walk with Him. Let God examine your heart, let him use his refining fire to clean your heart. Do something to remove those barriers, and then be still and experience God as God is revealed all around you.
