All for One and One for All

THIS WEEK’S GOSPEL: MARK 9:38-50 (MESSAGE)

John spoke up, “Teacher, we saw a man using your name to expel demons and we stopped him because he wasn’t in our group.” Jesus wasn’t pleased. “Don’t stop him. No one can use my name to do something good and powerful, and in the next breath cut me down. If he’s not an enemy, he’s an ally. Why, anyone by just giving you a cup of water in my name is on our side. Count on it that God will notice.

 “On the other hand, if you give one of these simple, childlike believers a hard time, bullying or taking advantage of their simple trust, you’ll soon wish you hadn’t. You’d be better off dropped in the middle of the lake with a millstone around your neck.

“If your hand or your foot gets in God’s way, chop it off and throw it away. You’re better off maimed or lame and alive than the proud owner of two hands and two feet, godless in a furnace of eternal fire. And if your eye distracts you from God, pull it out and throw it away. You’re better off one-eyed and alive than exercising your twenty-twenty vision from inside the fire of hell. Everyone’s going through a refining fire sooner or later, but you’ll be well-preserved, protected from the eternal flames. Be preservatives yourselves. Preserve the peace.”

 Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno or One for All, All for One is the less well known traditional motto for Switzerland and more popularly recognizable motto of The Three Musketeers, a French novel by Alexandre Dumas in 1844.  This motto implies loyalty, community and interconnection.  But what does this motto have to do with the Gospel lesson and Jesus’ harsh metaphor for discipleship?  Cutting off one’s hand or foot as well as plucking out one’s eye doesn’t seem very unifying does it?  Initially this lesson feels divisive and brutal.  However, taking a closer look we can find the deeper message of community and connection.

From the beginning, the disciples are trying to divide Jesus followers into the ones sanctioned to behave in certain ways and those who aren’t, into insiders and outsiders, into us and them.  Jesus challenges them to live differently by accepting all people – no matter what.  By not accepting people who are living and working for the good of all regardless of their label the disciples are amputating life-giving, life-affirming relationships that honor God and neighbor alike.  Through their fear and lack of control over what others are doing in Jesus’ name, the disciples are limiting their own ministry in the world.

Where are some of the places in our lives that we have limited our relationship with God by excluding, dismissing or demonizing others who either believe differently than us or live differently than we do?  What keeps us from being fully committed to being disciples of Jesus?  How are we being called to work together, embracing difference, in order to better reflect God’s love and grace in the world?

Join us this Sunday, September 30 at 10:00am at Christ Church, United Methodist as we hear lessons that remind us of the importance of each person’s role in community. It will be a day in which we embody the motto of the Three Musketeers, “All for One and One for All.” Please plan to stay after fellowship on Sunday and join in the Choir Rehearsal or Lectionary Bible Study both taking place at 11:30am.  All are welcome!