Read: Mark 9:38-50
There are some really elite clubs out there.
Is anyone here a member of Disney's Club 33?
NO?....I didn't think so.
This super-exclusive club at Disneyland costs $10,000 for an individual membership, and carries annual fees of a couple thousands dollars after that. Club members get to ride the exclusive Lilly Belle train car, and they can eat in a semi-secret dining room in New Orleans Square--the only place in Disneyland that serves alcohol. As of 2007, the club wait list was 14 years; and they have stopped taking inquiries.
Is anyone here a member of The Core Club?
NO?....I didn't think so.
If you have insane amounts of money, and only want to interact with others who do, this is the club for you. The only membership requirement is that your annual earnings rank in the top 1% in the US. In this club, business networking is encouraged, conceit is expected, and entitlement is given.
Now, here's an elite club.
Does anyone here belong to the Ejection Tie Club?
NO?...Too bad.
There are only 5,607 members who have achieved the very ill-earned club membership standard for this club. They have ejected from a plummeting military aircraft and survived to tell about it. Each member receives a very swanky necktie for surviving their emergency ride. This is the only club where you literally have to get thrown out in order to get in.
How about the Giga Society? Anyone here belong to that club?
NO?...I didn't think so.
This may be the most elite organization in the world. Membership is open only to those who can outscore 99.9999999 percent of the world's population on at least one intelligence test from the Society's accepted test list. This means that, in theory, one in every billion people can qualify, putting the Society's membership at no more than about 7-8 in the world.
These are some of the most elite clubs in the world.
They seem a bit ridiculous, don't they?
Why do you think people would want to belong to such elite groups?
Well, remember back when you were a kid. Were you the kid who had the tree-house with the sign on the front "DO NOT ENTER WITHOUT THE PASSWORD"? Or, were you the kid who wasn't welcomed into someone else's tree-house? Whatever the case, we find ourselves at very early ages longing to belong somewhere, to feel as though we are "insiders". How many of you, when in college joined fraternities or sororities? The secret rituals, hand-shakes, traditions all have one goal at heart, that is to make its members feel a sense of entitlement, a sense of belonging.
This brings us to the practices of the church?
As common as is the sign on the tree-house that reads "DO NOT ENTER WITHOUT A PASSWORD", so are the practices of elitism in our churches? And, even though they seem innocent, and well intended enough, today's gospel reading calls us to re-evaluate the things we do that "create stumbling blocks for the little ones." Here, we ought to read "little ones" as those who are the newbies in faith and church membership.
John, the apparent spokesperson for the disciples comes to Jesus with a tattle-tale report that they saw someone casting out demons in Jesus' name, and that they told him to stop because he was not one of their group. Now, we might remember that it wasn't long ago in Mark's gospel that those same disciples were unable to do this very thing because of their lack of faith. Now, we have them, enviously, wanting to stop someone from casting out demons, and the only reason they offer for their behavior is that this person is not one of us. He does not belong to their fraternity. Jesus tells them that anyone who is not against us is for us, and then proceeds with a teaching about stumbling blocks that, with all the hands, eyes and feet being lopped off, would surely have made his chastising point. His point is still one for us to be mindful of today.
The church is not a country club. It is not an elite organization. More to the point, the church ought to be
the LEAST elite club in the world.
Ecumenical is a good word to learn here.
It refers to efforts that reach across boundaries of the Christian faith with the end goal always some sort of mutual ministry. In the disciple's example; instead of putting a stop to the outsider's ministry an ecumenical effort would have opened the way for the disciples to join the outsider, possibly even learn a thing or two.
Today, there are lots of great ecumenical ministries in our community. Steeple to People is a great example. This ministry is, basically, a consortium of many local churches. Presbyterians, Methodists, Catholics, Mennonites, Anglicans, Lutherans and others all pulling our resources together to meet the needs of the poor in our area. Or, we might say, to cast out the demons of economic injustice.
Where possible, though, Jesus calls us to be "ecumenical" inside our churches as well, not just between them.
We could start by questioning our assumptions and practices to ensure that they are founded on solid theology and not some sort of accidental elitism.
For instance...
What is our basis for defining church membership?
What "hoops" do we ask people to jump through in order to be considered an active part of our church?
There are theological and philosophical answers to questions like these, but perhaps practices like these are creating accidental elitism. We need to be very careful that people in our churches with different education, social standing, maturity, training, etc. aren't our own "little ones who believe" (v.42)
Jesus was concerned with something so much larger than just one person casting out demons. He wanted to be sure that his future church would never fell like a country club. Instead of being the most exclusive club in the world, he wanted it to be the most inclusive club in the world.
This is why the nail scarred hands of Christ reach out to all people with the gift of grace, not just to the people who belong to the Christian club. Christ died so that all people would be saved. And, this is why our congregational mission statement includes the line that calls us to "Welcome all!"
So, how do we turn our churches into the least elite places in the world? Well, that is our challenge. But, when we do, even as we do, we will be "bearing the name of Christ" (v.41), and neither insider nor outsider will need to feel that he or she is "not one of us."
Amen
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