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  • B January 15 2023
September 27, 2018
“Mark 9:38-50”
 “Whoever is not against us is for us.” No one is against you. We are all in this together. And we rely on the radical individuality of our congregations to know that this is true.
We forget that we are all in the same proverbial boat, or pond, depending on your preferred metaphor. And we need to stick together, not for the sake of an affront against, a battle lodged, or a fight for, but for the sake of camaraderie and collegiality.
As soon as our denominations, our church, our faith, becomes that which we need to defend, we’ve given up on true dialogue and openness to conversation. We’ve shut the doors and decided that our confessions are better than others.
Faith is not about competition. Faith is about conversation. It is about support and community. We need a lot of reminders about that. Which is why this story again from Mark, and these words again from Jesus.
So now, put that to your preaching. But more so, put it to your parishioners. They need to know that the goal of faith is not winning, unlike our culture. They need to know that the goal of believing is not who can be better, whatever that means. They need to know that being a Christian is not about comparison but individual expression, as individual as the incarnation.
Good grief, if we all believed the same way, how boring would that be? Not even our Scriptures propose that. The reassurance of particularity is grace itself, so says God’s commitment to the incarnation.
Our penchant for “we saw someone” needs to be replaced by faith’s “we see Jesus.” And in Jesus, we see God. Our God is here.
[thanks Karoline Lewis!!!]
Blessings,
Pastor Mike

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