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Sermon for the 19th Sunday after Pentecost

First Reading: Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29

 4The rabble that was among {the Israelites} had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! 5We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. 6But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”

10Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the Lord blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased. 11Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? 12Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers? 13Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ 14I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. 15If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.” 16Then the Lord said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you.”

24So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. And he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tent. 25Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. But they did not continue doing it. 26Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. 27And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28And Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, stop them.” 29But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

 

Psalm 104:28-37

 28All of them look to you to give them their food in due season. 29You give it to them; they gather it; you open your hand, and they are filled with good things. 30You hide your face, and they are terrified; you take away their breath, and they die and return to their dust. 31You send forth your Spirit, and they are created; and so you renew the face of the earth. 32May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in all his works. 33He looks at the earth and it trembles; he touches the mountains and they smoke. 34I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will praise my God while I have my being. 35May these words of mine please him; I will rejoice in the Lord. 36Let sinners be consumed out of the earth, and the wicked be no more. 37Bless the Lord, O my soul.  Hallelujah!

 

Second Reading: James 5:[1-12] 13-20

1Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. 2Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. 3Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. 4Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you. 7Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. 10As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. 12But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation. 13Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 17Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. 19My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

 

Gospel: Mark 9:38-50

 38John 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.” 39But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. 40For the one who is not against us is for us. 41For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward. 42Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 43And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. 47And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ 49For everyone will be salted with fire. 50Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

 

Badger or Bonobo

We’ve all seen them, those furry looking creatures that poke their heads out of their holes when we drive by.  You know the ones; they weigh some 10 pounds, are about 18” tall and can move pretty quickly for such a clumsy looking animal with such short legs: we call them groundhogs.  Not only do we see them along the sides of the roads, at times we deal with them burrowing under our outbuildings and generally making a nascence of themselves.  However, for the most part, these burrowing creatures are herbivores and prefer to be left alone.  If you approach them, they’ll run and do whatever they can to avoid any contact with people.  To a certain extent we’re lucky here in this part of the country, we deal with groundhogs and not their bad-tempered cousins, the badger.

Badgers are quite different from groundhogs, not necessarily in appearance, but in attitude.  Badgers are a bit bigger than groundhogs and they have a diet that includes small rodents.  And while badgers generally avoid humans, they can at times be much more aggressive.  Some badgers have been known to be overly aggressive and even go on the offensive.  Testimonies from people who have encountered them say that badgers can be snarly, vicious, and terribly aggressive, especially if you come too close to their burrow or nest.

People who have had bad encounters with badgers will recommend that if one crosses the road in front of you, give it a wide berth.  Otherwise, you may be running for your life.  Badgers have very sharp teeth and a feisty attitude, and are a naturally aggressive animal with few natural enemies.  One horrifying report from Lancaster, UK detailed a two-day rampage by a badger which attacked five people, in a hair-raising reign of terror.  The animal began biting everyone in its path for no apparent reason.  Another report, from Ayrshire, Scotland, described a woman who was found dead after being mauled by a badger when her car broke down.

While these may be extreme instances, people, who have experience with badgers, recommend that you consider going the opposite direction if you see one in your path.  Here’s a thought…maybe we should view temptation, sin, and repentance like badger encounters: when we see it, or succumb to it, turn and run the opposite direction!

Another trait of badgers is they are also relentlessly territorial.  Their competitive, aggressive nature makes them one of nature’s least favorite critters to encounter.  And while this information may surprise you, when you stop and think about it, humans can be aggressive and territorial as well.

When speaking of the human traits of aggressiveness and territorial tendencies, I must confess, I have difficulty tolerating any large spider or insect-like creature that dares step foot into my house.  And I don’t know about you, but sharing my home with rodents is equally distasteful.  I will aggressively seek them out and eradicate them.  These of course are the more humorous and reasonable examples of our territorial tendencies.  Still, we as humans can be aggressive when confronted, and are territorial in many ways, and this tendency can extend far beyond visitations by unwanted critters.  Unfortunately, the human animal can, to varying degrees, be aggressive and territorial with our fellow humans as well!

Sociologists tell us that human beings have both a “tribal” and a “social” nature.  While we do value inclusiveness and openness, our primary tendency is to focus on ourselves, on those we deem as family or friends, and on those with common interests or opinions.  These constitute our inner circle, and we make them feel far more welcome than those who differ.  At base, human beings are instinctively territorial.  When someone challenges us or someone from our inner circle, we tend to become aggressive and protective.  This is the root of all bias.  It’s these tendencies that we see Jesus addressing in the first part of our gospel reading for today.

In our reading from St. Mark, Jesus continues to teach His disciples what some have called “Lessons in Leadership.”  Last week, after Jesus catches the disciples arguing about which of them is the greatest, He sits them down and redefines what it means to be a leader.  In a statement, that I’m sure shook them to their core, Jesus said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all” (Mark 9:35).  Jesus turns the tables upside down and tells the disciples that we’re to shed our aggressive and territorial tendencies and lift others up instead of our selves.  And this push back against our human penchant for individualism continues in today’s scripture in which Jesus challenges our territorial and competitive natures in His disciples’ concept of leadership.

Encouraging His disciples in the practice of self-awareness, Jesus encourages them to tone down their competitive tendencies when St. John begins to complain about someone outside their circle, who isn’t identify as one of Jesus’ core followers, casting out demons in Jesus’ name.  Picture the scene if you will.  St. John complains that they tried to stop someone, not of their group, who was casting out demons.  I mean, how dare they!  Then Jesus, with the child, quite possibly still sitting in His lap to teach them a lesson in humility, responds, “Whoever is not against us is for us.”

Then without so much as missing a beat, Jesus continues, “If any of you cause one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck, and you were thrown into the sea!”  Let me pause for a moment and make the statement that Mark chapter 9 really should be taken as a whole.  I realize that this chapter has a lot to take in, and we created a lectionary to help us learn about Jesus’ life and ministry, but sometimes the divisions they’ve made do not do the passage justice.  This is the case here, and in our Old Testament reading as well.  We really need to back up and consider the entire chapter of both these readings in their contexts.

In the case of our gospel passage, Mark begins chapter 9 with Jesus’ transfiguration, revealing to Peter, James, and John who Jesus truly is.  Jesus then casts out a particularly difficult demon, proving that nothing is beyond His control.  Next, He tells the disciples that He is to be cruelly treated and will die, but in three days will rise again.  Sadly, the disciples can’t seem to grasp what Jesus is telling them.  After this, the disciples are caught arguing about which of them is the greatest.  To teach them about humility, Jesus takes a child and sets him in His lap telling them that the kingdom of heaven in like the child and we must become like them.

Then, with the child still sitting in His lap, Jesus begins to instruct the disciples in kingdom leadership, and then tells them of the consequences of irresponsible guidance and teaching.  Jesus then ends this chapter by telling the disciples that they need to be the salt of this world, to be agents that preserve and heal.  Finally, Jesus tells them to be at peace with one another.  As I said, there’s a lot to take in in this chapter and we need to read all this in context.  That said, I digress.

Jesus, in teaching His disciples about humility and leadership, has just made two foundational statements we need to ponder, “whoever is not against us is for us” and “If any of you cause one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea!”  Jesus is warning us to put aside our judgmental attitudes, our competitive spirits, and our exclusionary treatment of others, and to “be at peace with one another!”

Again, Jesus is telling us that the kingdom of God is counter-cultural and rubs against our sinful, self-centered nature.  And the reason?  Jesus knows that continuing in such an aggressive and territorial manner will harm and constrain our ministry in ways that will inhibit our call to not only love God and love others, but also our command to go and make disciples.  For us to be part of the “Jesus Leadership Development Program” means that we need to widen our circle, broaden our view, put our territorial instincts aside, and become collaborative agents, working together, even with those who may not be part of our inner circle, to share skills and build a kingdom of love, peace, and value for all.

Aggressiveness and territorialism claims a deep-seated place in our psyches.  Our instinct for aggressively defending and protecting our “territories,” no matter how we define them, comes from our human desire for safety, security, status, identity, and sadly, our general mistrust of those we don’t know.  Sin in our world caused our ancestors to develop tribes to protect valuable and needed resources from raiders, and to ensure survival of the group.  And this instinct is still alive and well in our psyche today.  We lock our doors, secure our vehicles, and secure our property.  What’s more, technology in the form of electronic surveillance has invaded our society.

Anytime you go to an ATM, you’re on camera.  Here at church, we have 8 cameras constantly recording what goes on around our property.  Then there are Redlight cameras, Traffic cameras, security cameras, Ring cameras, and the list goes on.  If you live in one of our larger cities, your every move is under the constant watchful eye of someone’s camera.  Like it or not, “Big Brother” is always watching.  And while these can be useful tools, it just reinforces this territorial tendency we, as individuals, and as a society, have.

This territorial and self-protective instinct is hard to keep at bay, even though we humans today don’t face the same challenges of survival and food that we did in days gone by.  Our challenges on one level, the desire for safety and security, are the same.  On another level, however, our challenges are different.  Today, we use locks, security systems, and fences to protect ourselves and families.  This brings us to a lesson we’ve also known for centuries; collaboration works better than going it alone.

For as long as humans have existed in communities, we’ve learned that cooperation and teamwork are essential to furthering our communities and workplaces.  When we share skills, empower others, and risk relationships, we can generate ideas together that foster innovation which can lead to a more “civilized” society.  Leadership gurus today encourage people in workplaces and institutions to develop better ways of trusting each other, and of pooling resources on projects that will benefit a wider community and embracing a broader identity.

Harvard Business Review, in their January issue, notes that moving from a territorial mindset to a collaborative mindset requires 1) building self-awareness 2) moving from a “me” attitude to a “we” attitude and 3) building trust and shared commitment.  In Mark chapter 9, we see that Jesus is doing exactly this with His disciples.  He’s trying to help them see their neighbors differently, to recognize their biases, and to embrace those around them who are working for God’s kingdom as well.

Jesus is teaching them to not only to accept others, who are faithful in their Christian walk, as valued and worthy followers of His, but to accept those who may work parallel to them and join them in their mission.  Here at Bethel, we see success in this approach in our efforts with our youth through Youth and Family nights, VBS, and our Day Camp program.

Jesus is saying we need to be open to expanding our disciple group to anyone who shares our mission, shares our commitment to the faithful teaching of God’s word, of living according to God’s commands and statutes, and our reverence for God.  To do this, we must help them to understand themselves.  But more importantly, we must teach others to understand Jesus, God’s mission, and their role in carrying out their call to a life of discipleship.  To do all this, we must learn that our stories are a small part of God’s plan, and that our role as leaders is not to seek status, hierarchies, or stake out territories, but to expand our vision to include all God’s faithful people.

Leadership in God’s kingdom means we must lower our opinions of ourselves and learn to lift up our neighbors, to see others as equals and as people in need of God’s blessings.  Furthermore, we must commit to Jesus’ mission of love, having faith in Him, trusting His vision, and not acting on our lesser inclinations.  This requires letting go of “control” and embracing faith in Jesus’ mission, letting go of self-interest, and becoming interested in our neighbor’s needs.

Being a disciple of Jesus will feel adversarial at times to our natural human inclinations.  And if we allow ourselves to fall into “territorialism” as a disciple of Jesus, we will begin to stifle all that’s important and vital to Jesus’ mission.  For the church this becomes all important.  The good news is that we humans, unlike badgers, have the opportunity to tap into other aspects of our nature; human beings also have the potential to act in truly compassionate, loving, tolerant, and giving ways.

According to scientists, one of our closest relatable DNA ancestors is the bonobo.  Unlike chimpanzees, bonobos are peace-loving, gentle animals.  They’re known to share their food with others, express empathy, invite others into their communities, and welcome cooperation between groups and families.  While many species of the animal kingdom have struggled to maintain dominance, the bonobo curiously seems to be becoming more and more domesticated all on their own.  Somehow, they have realized that they will thrive better and more abundantly through compassion and kindness rather than dominance and aggression.  We can learn a lesson or two from our animal friend, the bonobo.

Whether in our homes, our communities, our churches, or in our nation, the more we cultivate Jesus’ vision of collaboration, compassion, empathy, and sharing rather than territorialism, competition, control, and tribalism, the more we will understand God’s kingdom vision.  Jesus said, “For God so loved the world…that He gave His Son.”  Jesus’ lesson here in Mark chapter 9 on leadership is counter intuitive and counter-cultural, and it’s a lesson of love and success for working in God’s kingdom.  And we do this for God’s glory, not our gain.

Amen

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