As I walked alongside Cooks River, I became aware of substantial quantities of rubbish in the mangroves at the side of the river and more floating down the river to join it - bottles, cans, polystyrene, plastic bags... Further along my walk I came across a sign listing five councils that "care for" Cooks River. Then signs - I saw at least three - headed either "Water Board. Sydney, Parramatta, Blue Mountains" or simply "Sydney Water" and bearing a warning that "trespassers" and "persons dumping rubbish" will be prosecuted - "penalties up to $20,000 apply".
As I walked, I wondered, What has the Water Board - or Sydney Water - to do with this dirty stream? Surely they don't plan to process this unsavoury mix for human consumption! Apart from the threatened fine, I wondered whether it was to safe to enter the water for other reasons! And all that rubbish - I had been warned about it - how many people had been fined for dumping rubbish? Was the rule about rubbish being enforced?
Some people say rules are made to be broken. Other just see them as relative - if they help you, keep them; if you can't see the point, ignore them. Nobody has the right/authority (so it goes) to make a rule for everybody - "don't tell me what to do!"
Arriving back at the pool - the "aquacentre"! - I had a few minutes to wait. I spotted a detailed sign that advises patrons about the rules of the pool. It was a long list, so I only noted a few of the points. No littering - rubbish to be placed only in the bins provided. No smoking. No alcohol or drugs - offenders would be immediately removed from the premises. The rules - with no "up to $20,000" threat, but with adequate supervision and enforcement - resulted in an attractive, clean pool.
Then I thought about the Church... Are we called to be "inclusive" - like Cooks River? or to be full of the divine grace that welcomes, forgives, cleanses and transforms?
The disciples had been rather touchy about their status in the Kingdom - which of them would be the greatest? (Mk 9.34)
In today's reading, one of these ambitious disciples, John, comes to Jesus with some concern - "Teacher, we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us." (v. 38).
John was one of the three who had gone with Jesus up the mountain where he had been transfigured before them. When they came down from the mountain, they had found the other disciples surrounded by a crowd and teachers of the law were arguing with them. The issue - their inability to heal a boy with an evil spirit (8.14-19).
So here was someone doing what they had just failed to do, even though it was part of Jesus' commission to them when he sent them out two by two. That hadn't been so very long ago and "they drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them" (6.7-13).
The objection here was that "he was not one of us" - literally, "he was not following us". It wasn't so much that he was using Jesus' "name", but that he was unauthorised.
"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, for whoever is not against us is for us" (vv. 39-40).
In Matthew 12.30, we have what seems the reverse of this, "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters". That's a different situation where Jesus was challenging people to make a clear response for him. The man in Mark 9 wasn't one of the twelve, but he was clearly a disciple. He showed that he was a disciple by healing in the name of Jesus.
There's a mess in the world. For Christ's sake -and in Christ's name - clean up the mess!
Whose side are we on? "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. And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin (stumble), it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck" (v. 41-42).
If there are people giving cups of water in Christ's name, don't stop them! They are doing the right thing. They are working on our side.
In the midst of their argument about who would be the greatest, Jesus had taken a little child in his arms and said, "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me" (v. 37). When Jesus speaks of "these little ones who believe in me", is he simply referring again to little children? Children are certainly included, but so are ordinary humble disciples - like the one they had rebuked!
The judgment is harsh. It would be better to enter the Kingdom of God maimed - having lost the offending hand, foot or eye - than to be thrown complete into hell-fire.
There's a mess in the world. For Christ's sake -in Christ's name - clean up the mess!
I thought about the Church... Are we called to be "inclusive", a collecting place for the rubbish of the world - like Cooks River?
Well, yes, all are welcome. "God so loved the world…" and our love should be as inclusive as God's. But God so loved the world that he didn't plan to leave it as it was. His love was full of the grace that welcomes, forgives, cleanses and transforms. That's why he "gave his one and only Son".
But God's wide open "inclusive" love is also "exclusive" - "that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life". The danger of the Church today is that we seem intent on God's welcome - "affirmation" we seem to want to call it - but not on the response that opens the person to forgiveness, cleansing and transformation. If we don't speak of this gracious call and invitation of God, we are putting a cause of stumbling in the way of "his little ones" and merit his harsh condemnation.
We are human sinners, redeemed by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. As the people of God, we receive a whole variety of human sinners, not to give them a worthy place as "rubbish", but to recycle them - forgiven, cleansed, transformed by the grace of God. That will take time. But God loves us all so much that he doesn't leave us as we are - he hasn't finished with any of us yet!
Back to Sermons