Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 27, 2009
The Gospel: Mark 9:38-50
Sermon: "Am I my brother's keeper?"
The Rev. Dr. Vicki L. Smith, Rector
The Gospel: John 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." But Jesus said, "Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.
"If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell., And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.
"For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."Mark 9:38-50
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost - "Am I my brother's keeper?" September 27, 2009
From the beginning of time, it has been our question—Am I my brother’s keeper? Cain asked this, after he’d killed his brother by the way. Generations later, in the lesson we just heard, Moses echoed Cain’s concern: Did I conceive all these people? Did I give birth to them that I must nurse and care for them? And still, many, many generations later, we also ask: what’s our obligation to one another? Does God really want us to take care of all these people that we don’t really have anything to do with? Do we have to take care of people that we didn’t even give birth to? Are we, in fact, our sister’s keeper?
Unlike Cain, we’re good with taking care of our families. We’ve got that part down; we know God wants us to care for them. But what if we widen the circle a little—what about our neighbors and our friends—how much are we responsible to them? Or even a little wider—Reidsville and Rockingham county—how about all the people within those boundaries? Or even the widest circle of all—all God’s children on this round earth – what’s our obligation to them?
God’s answer is the same as it has been for eons: we are our brother’s keeper, just as Cain was supposed to be to Abel and Moses was for the people of Israel. From the beginning of creation, God has made us connected to one another, responsible to and for each other’s well being. God gave this responsibility to Adam and Eve, expanded it to include Cain and Abel; with Moses God expanded the circle to include all the people of Israel and our Gospel lesson this morning broadens God’s commandment even further. In the lesson this morning, Jesus speaks eloquently, albeit harshly, about our responsibilities to one another. He reminds us of our responsibility to the “little ones”—including children of course, but also any who are powerless or vulnerable, any who are seeking faith but wandering in the wilderness, any who are lost or defeated. Jesus warns us powerfully about putting stumbling blocks before any of these.
Imagine that each of us walks a path through life. This path will by its nature have ups and downs, peaks and valleys, good times and hard times. That’s simply the way of the lives God has given us. Imagine further though, picking up a rock from your path and tossing it into someone else’s way. That’s creating a stumbling block for another of God’s children.
As a society, we put the stumbling blocks of poverty, hunger and lack of education in lots of people’s paths. To be sure we have enough, we keep others with too little. To have inexpensive goods in our stores, we pay starvation wages to workers in other countries. To avoid a tax increase for those of us with good jobs, we cut the funding for schools. Those are surely stumbling blocks on somebody’s path.
On a more personal level, we place stumbling blocks on another’s path when we criticize them unfairly because we are jealous; when we disrespect them with our words and actions showing them that clearly they are not of interest to us. We put a stumbling block in another’s path when we tell them with words, laws and social structures that they are so worthless—by virtue of the color of their skin, sexual orientation or economic status--- that even God doesn’t care about them. We put a stumbling block in another’s path when we consider them “throw away” people— when we join Scrooge in saying that if there are poor people around, they should just die and decrease the surplus population. “Those people just have babies to get the welfare money you know.”
Even as Christians and as a church, if we pay more attention to our budget than our ministries, if we undercut one another with gossip, if we criticize and condemn, we throw stumbling blocks—for our church and for each other. Whenever what we do or say blocks the path to fullness of life—we have put a stumbling block in someone’s way. Especially since what we as Christians do reflects back on the God we love and serve—the stumbling blocks we toss in front of others are the biggest of all, because someone may just think that we speak and act for God.
Jesus calls us not only Not to place stumbling blocks in another’s path, but to work to remove the ones that are there. Jesus affirms that we are our sister’s keeper—we are responsible to and for one another. And Jesus really means it. That’s why there’s all that hyperbole about cutting off hands and plucking out eyes. Jesus is serious about the sins we commit against one another.
Harry B. Adams, formerly of Yale Divinity School, wrote about today’s gospel lesson that “We need to ponder the risks for us if our failures of love, our distortions of the way of Christ, our too narrow understandings of the truth and our quickness to pronounce judgment cause others to stumble as they are trying to find the way of faithful living.”
There’s a lot at stake here, for James reminds us that “if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul.” That is our task—to seek those who are wandering, to remove the stumbling blocks from another’s path, to help to save another’s soul.
That is an awesome privilege and a terrifying responsibility. As Moses said, it can feel more like a burden than a privilege. We easily join with him in saying that we cannot do this alone.
Of course we can’t—but we don’t have to. Notice that God didn’t take the responsibility from Moses, he gave him others to help—even Eldad and Medad who were apart from everyone else. God has given us others to help, so we’re all in this together. Jesus says that whoever is not against us is for us. We really are all in this together—not just the people of St. Thomas, not just Episcopalians, not even just Christians. Whoever is not against us is for us. We may not all want to do things the same way but we are call to work together for the benefit of all God’s children—we are called to work together to lever those stumbling blocks out of the way.
It didn’t matter that Eldad and Medad were outside the camp; it didn’t matter that the exorcists who so bothered John didn’t travel around with Jesus. They were all doing God’s work together. It doesn’t matter if we are Baptist or Catholic or Pentecostal—we are all our brother’s keepers and our God calls us to work together for the good of his children.
Cain asked, Moses asked and we ask, but the answer is always the same: yes, you are created to live in community; yes, you are made to care for one another—yes, you are indeed, your brother’s keeper.
In Jesus’ Name
Amen