Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Today’s text
Mark 9:38-41

John said to him, 'Master, we saw someone who is not one of us driving out devils in your name, and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him.' But Jesus said, 'You must not stop him; no one who works a miracle in my name could soon afterwards speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us. 'If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, then in truth I tell you, he will most certainly not lose his reward.

Reflection

Party spirit is the curse of much religion and virtually all politics. We arrogate truth and goodness to ourselves, discounting or denying the goodness and truth present in others--other churches, other faiths, other cultures, other political persuasions.

Just so, we deny God’s cosmic project … and Presence.

Why would Jesus’ disciples want to stop those who set a soul free with the power of Jesus’ name?

Why not go talk to the people healed and released from bondage? Why not celebrate the power of the life of God in the life of human souls?

The disciples react as if someone is poaching on their turf. They act as if the mystery of God’s loving power is a personal possession that makes them more important, as if it is something to be guarded and kept from others.

But it is not. God’s loving power is a call to enter the world of the broken to love and heal in Jesus’ name.

The healing presence of Jesus is bigger than us, bigger than our church, bigger than our theologies and our understanding of who bears and reveals his holy kingdom.

The kingdom of God’s healing is revealed far beyond us, even in small acts of mercy and hospitality, in deeds as small as sharing a cup of water.

We are a part of a great worldwide--no, cosmic--mission, to give, restore and celebrate life, a mission to wipe away tears, to pour out the mercy of the One who is all merciful, pushing back the forces that disfigure and destroy.

The mission is to gather all that is into intimate sharing with the Infinite Source of life who loves all creation.

The Holy One is at work everywhere, setting souls free, drawing hearts into the Divine Heart of Love, creating space for life to thrive with beauty.

Our privilege and blessing is to know ourselves as part of this great loving project, celebrating the power of God’s love and life wherever and in whomever it appears, knowing always that it will.

Jesus healing love surprises, showing up in people and places, in the hope and generous hearts of those you might imagine less, well, spiritual than you are.

Celebrate it. Let it lift your soul to the heights, for in that moment you are not threatened but reminded that his holy presence dwells also in you.


Pr. David L. Miller