Welcome Them
Mark 9:38-42 (NRSV)
38 John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” 39 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. 40 Whoever is not against us is for us. 41 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.
42 “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.
Note: the first couple minutes of this week’s message were not recorded. Here is the transcript, followed by the audio of the rest of the message. Enjoy! :)
You know…this scene is an interruption. Just before this, Jesus is talking about, essentially, what most matters. And he suggests that service—that is, self-giving care, attentiveness to needs combined with a readiness and ability to meet those needs well—that’s what matters.
Jesus grabs a child, hopefully with the parents’ permission—it just says he “took a little child and put it among them,” but I assume Jesus wasn’t a kidnapper—Jesus says “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”
It sounds a lot like Matthew 25, a favorite passage of mine, when Jesus suggests that things like giving drink to the thirsty, tending to the sick, and welcoming the stranger, are not only crucial actions, they are the very way we encounter the Divine. When we care for others in this way, we experience God, we care for God, we welcome God into our hearts, our world.
John, a disciple, seems to drop this non-sequitur of a question into the moment…
(for more, listen below…)
Queries:
How have I encountered light and love and truth and goodness and beauty in a faith tradition that wasn't my own?
When have I found an unexpected ally?
When have I discovered someone who seems to be engaged in the same holy struggle as me, despite noticeable differences between us?
What do the children in our lives need from me, from us?