Offering a cup of water full of love

 Pentecost 18, 2021 sermon, delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY.

Text: Mark 9:38-50

The disciples approach Jesus with a concern in the reading this morning. They complain (or almost whine) to Jesus that someone else is casting out demons in his name, but isn’t a part of the group following Jesus. They aren’t with the “in” crowd, they aren’t one of the “cool kids” who hang out with Jesus and follow him everywhere he goes.They think that this person is committing a sin. But the sin here is not about breaking a religious law or laws, it is instead the sin of jealousy and possessiveness, and of working against others who do Jesus’ work. Curiously, Jesus’ response to their complaint is “So?” He is not too impressed with their concern and looks beyond it to why they are concerned. The disciples are focused on appearing pious or righteous rather than being focused on sharing their gifts from God with others, and they sound jealous, or at least defensive about this other person’s work in Jesus’ name. They might be thinking that this person has done something that they aren’t able to do, or that that person did it better than they could. Maybe they don’t worship the way that the disciples do, or they know something more that the disciples know.
 
The disciples are still learning about the life and ministry that Jesus is calling  them to live. They may be insecure about being able to live that life and insecure about their relationship with Jesus and God. But Jesus counters that attitude by drawing their attention to an act that is so simple, so unlike casting out demons, yet is equally profound: giving a cup of water to someone. The motivation for action in Jesus’ eyes is the compassion shown to the other person, not the reason for giving the cup, or even that he said that it should be done. It isn’t about the drama of the action, but instead about embodying God’s love and caring for the other person. The disciples see only the drama instead of the love in the person casting out demons in Jesus’ name, thinking that only Jesus can have that dramatic power. They ask Jesus to stop them, but Jesus says no, don’t try to stop them because they will be part of us in time. Don’t stop those who do my work in my name, and deny them the relationship that you already have with me.

When we are insecure about our relationship with God as the disciples were, or jealous of God’s love toward someone else, or unsure of what a fulfilling spiritual life looks like, we get bent out of shape. We sweat the small stuff like are the right prayers or hymns being sung? Should we be letting “them” have a role in the service or in a committee because they don’t measure up in some way? Shouldn’t we be giving money to that group instead of this one, because they don’t follow what we believe? Those attitudes reveal that our piety, or righteousness has become the focus of our spiritual life, and we become suspicious of others who continue Jesus’ work that’s different from ours. Pursuing righteousness for its own sake can lead people to warp their lives to fit their ego, rather than centering their lives around God’s will and being humble. The brokenness that warping represents is addressed by Jesus when he talks about figuratively cutting off offending body parts that lead to brokenness, rather than continuing in false righteousness. As hard as we try, we can never win at competitive righteousness, where the goal is to be the most righteous, the most perfect Christian, the most loved by God. Those who try often end up dying spiritually or becoming a caricature of themselves, moving further away from who they could be the harder that they try. Jesus is saying that we must get rid of whatever drives that need to be righteous because that need is the opposite of why we should be doing things in his name.

This focus on acting righteous at the expense of being righteous reminds me of an exchange I had years ago in a Usenet religion group with a Christian man. He said that something bad had happened to someone he knew because God was trying to get through to them, to get their attention. I replied that I couldn’t believe in a sadistic God who hurt the very people who God loved, just to tell them that they were traveling down a “wrong” path according to someone else. I asked him how he would feel if God lashed out at him. He replied that he hoped that he would be able to withstand whatever God would do to him. I got the impression that he would welcome misfortune or personal catastrophe as a test and demonstration of his faith and righteousness, and a sign that God favored him. His focus seemed to be on his appearance of being righteous, rather than on acts or words of compassion that would naturally show his righteousness. I imagined how someone in an abusive situation would feel hearing that God would condone violence against them, or about how far someone would go to prove their righteousness if they felt that they didn’t measure up. I thought about how someone who mourned the loss of a parent or child would feel when told that “This is God’s will. Be happy that they are with God now.” These are the things that we need to cut off from ourselves when we don’t stop to question our motives for acting or speaking. Whether out of jealousy, or a desire to be righteous, or anxiety about doing the right thing, we must get rid of what drives us to focus on the action, and instead focus on showing love and compassion for the sake of loving them.

To be secure in our righteousness and not give in to jealousy, or to be possessive of God’s favor, we have to let go of the idea that God created a zero-sum world, where there is only so much of God to go around. That someone can cast out demons when we can’t, or bring to bear a gift from God that we don’t have doesn’t mean that we are by default lesser. It doesn’t mean that there are limited opportunities to reach out to someone that are taken away from us by someone else. Some of what we have isn’t taken away by God and given to someone else. Each of us has a ministry that we can bring to others, one that is different from the one we want but is beyond our reach. We do not fall short of opportunities to love and serve because someone took them away from us. We fall short because we attempt to define where and when we will act most righteously. We fail not because someone is spiritually better than we are, but because we are focused on doing righteousness in specific times and places, rather than being righteous everywhere, all of the time. To be righteous, to be a follower of Jesus, we just have to start with a simple cup of water, offered purely out of love to someone who is thirsty. That’s all it takes to be “for” Jesus, to continue his work here, and anyone can do it. No drama, no competition, just you, and me, a cup, and love.