This Story is NOT an exclusive! Mark 9:38-50

The disciple's concern seems to have been a reasonable one: they observed someone casting out demons and not doing so in Jesus' name. Shouldn't someone doing such an act give credit to the one who had perfected the method of doing so? If others were permitted to commit the acts of healing that Jesus performed, without attribution, wouldn't that dilute the brand? Jesus gave a wonderful response: "Whoever is not against us is for us!" WHAM! So much for exclusivity and being a special member of the club!

The disciples knew that they were on to something special with Jesus. When folks discover that they are a part of a movement that is achieving some form of notoriety, they sometimes want to keep the group small. Think of children, boys or girls, who found a kid's club in the back yard. It may be for girls only, for boys only, or for the kids who founded it, only. Such an activity is the first exposure to a form of exclusivity for many of us, and it feels good. It is grand to be a part of a group to which not just anyone is invited. Harvard is proud of its acceptance rate of just nine percent this year. When I was in college, fraternities and sororities tended to define themselves by whom they excluded, and not by whom they admitted.

Christians have not learned to let go of the club mentality, in some instances. Some churches seem more like country clubs, while other churches limit membership to those with beliefs that conform to the majority of members. But such places forget Jesus' admonition that those who imitate us are at least not working against us.

Christianity is a faith of the open door. Throughout the centuries, some faith communities have spent more time and money trying to figure out how to keep people out rather than how to make even more folks feel welcome. We need look no further than recent debates in American churches to see that we have a long way to go before all of the fences come down. My own denomination has been a great disappointment to those for whom the open door has been a hallmark of our heritage. Thankfully, a recent agreement with another denomination enables a full exchange of clergy between our faith communities. The Lord does, indeed, work in mysterious and wonderful ways.

Preschool: The Image of Christ. Mark 9:30-37

There are several preschool classes that meet right next door to my campus. Often, we see the children playing on the quad, or the really tiny ones being moved around campus in mega-strollers that rival SUV's in size and comfort. The older toddlers will sometimes come on campus "leashed" together like a sled-dog team, always with a tot at the head of the line leaning forward to try to make the group walk to his or her pace. Last week, some of the older kids, in the four-to five year range, were playing on the quad. Two little girls were giggling as they kept pushing the other to the ground, only to have that child arise and push her opponent to the ground. The teachers had gathered the other children and were moving out, but had to pause while these youngsters played out their shoving match, with full belly laughs punctuating the mid-morning air.
Whenever I see these children on campus, I stop and watch them, with a mixture of laughter and tears. I laugh, because their laughter and frolicking nature is infectious, and I cannot help but to join in. Sometimes there are tears, because in these little ones I see my daughter, now a beautiful woman, when she was in preschool, walking along, singing, smiling and laughing. At other times I see my son, a handsome young man now, when he was little more than a toddler, ball cap on backwards, trying to climb on the jungle gym.
Perhaps it is because I am a father that I so love the instance in Mark when Jesus places a child before the disciples and tells them that when they see a child, they are seeing him. In that day, children were considered nuisances, invisible and powerless. Being a parent, I cannot fathom how such an idea about children can exist, even though I know of changing cultural norms. When we become parents, something that happens to someone else's child happens to our child, in a way. We identify with all children as if they were our own. We feel protective, proud or happy for them, just as their parents do.
A couple I know adopted a little girl from China. She had been found in a field when she was three weeks old. She had been left to die. Thankfully, she was rescued, and a little less than one year later, she was in a new home with a loving family. Jesus tells us that such children are the embodiment of Him. Christians cannot look into the face of a child without seeing the eyes of Christ. Think about that the next time children are playing in a yard or making noise with their excited chattering. At such times, we hear the voice of God!

It's Not Our House - Mark 7:24-37

One common trait of many clergy is that they know what it is like to live in a house that does not belong to them. Though parsonages are becoming less common, there are still plenty of them around. Clergy families move into houses that have served as home for generations of families, and some of those houses have all manner of color schemes reflecting the personal taste, or lack thereof, of those who lived there previously. My first parsonage was falling apart when I arrived as a single pastor, with holes punched in the walls and a rocking toilet in the bathroom and shreds of wallpaper hanging from the ceiling downstairs. The master bedroom was painted lavender, and the kitchen had gray plastic tile up the walls and across the ceiling. When I left, five years later, the house was charming and greatly improved, at least, in my opinion.
The lesson from Mark this week reminds Christians that we inhabit a house that was not built for us. Our spiritual home was built for the children of Abraham, and we, through family circumstances, have become heirs of the house. Though we seldom think about it, we have more in common with the Syrophoenician woman in Mark's account than we would care to admit. Jesus treated her with feigned hostility, reminding her that she was technically allowed in the house, but she had the place of annoying pets who were tolerated, at best. The term "dogs" was commonly used at the time to be descriptive of all Gentiles. The actual Greek word would translate as "little dog" or "puppy." Of course, we twenty-first century types imagine a cute and cuddly puppy whom no one could despise. The view in the ancient near east was not as loving, and Gentiles were despised. Scholars have puzzled for a long time over Jesus' hostile treatment of the woman. In the best light, he is described as having thrown a challenge to the woman to see how she responded. In the worst light, he is portrayed as a man of his time and place, complete with ethnic prejudices. Regardless of the motive, his words about the children's food being kept from the dogs must have cut like a dagger in the heart of the women whose daughter lay ill. She loved her daughter enough, and perhaps had enough faith in a God who would embrace even those outside of the "family" to dare call on God's mercy. Jesus could not resist, and the child was healed, without even having to be in Christ's presence. Heidi Husted, writing in the Christian Century on August 16th 2000, states that this is the day that the gospel "went to the dogs." Mark shows us how Jesus opened the good news of the gospel to the world. We Christians are not the first heirs of the "big house" but we have been invited to make it our home. Can we do any less than offer the same hospitality to the excluded in our world today?