Sermon: Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Mark 9:38-50

September 29, 2024 

Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church, Pastor Jonathan Linman

“I alone can fix this.” We hear this promise (or threat?) in some form from politicians seeking office, purporting that they are the ones who can cure what ails us in this country. But it’s not just politicians who succumb to the presumption of “I alone can fix this.” We hear versions of this in sayings like, “that’s a man’s job.” Or “this is women’s work.” Or only white men are fit to be in charge. And on and on it goes. 

Clergy also succumb to this go-it-alone mode when we arrogantly think that the work of the church is essentially up to us, that everything depends on the pastor. 

It all boils down to the sin of being a “control freak” which is a version of a classic definition of sin as misplaced trust. For “I alone can fix this” reveals that we trust more in ourselves than in God and God working through other people. 

Each of us has aspects of this dynamic at work in us and in the ways we conduct our lives. “If it weren’t for me,” we might say to ourselves, “nothing around the house would get done.” Or “If I want something done right,” we might also say, “I’ve got to do it myself.”

Again, this self-referential, self-focused attitude is part and parcel of our sinful nature. And these control freak tendencies can cause us to stumble. When today’s gospel reading mentions the word sin – “if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off” – that word is better translated as stumble, as in “if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.” (Mark 9:43)

Well, “I alone can fix this” can cause us stumble right into suffering hellscapes of our own making. Take Moses, for example, in today’s reading from the book of Numbers. He alone was in charge of the whole rowdy bunch of Israelites guiding them through the desert wilderness. And he had had enough of them and their complaining when he cried out to the Lord: “I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me. If this is the way you are going to treat me, [Lord] put me to death at once – if I have found favor in your sight – and do not let me see my misery.” (Numbers 1:14-15)

So, the Lord graciously gave Moses a break and offered him the gift of a community of leaders, granting seventy elders of Israel a portion of the spirit of leadership given to Moses, that the elders would share in leadership and take the singular burden off Moses’ shoulders. What a gift of grace!

But that story has another extraordinary moment when Moses offered the same kind of generosity to other leaders who were not among the seventy. To revisit the story we heard from Numbers: Eldad and Medad were not in the tent of meeting with the others, and yet they were prophesying, exercising leadership without having been authorized to do so. And so, Joshua complained: “My lord Moses, stop them!” But Moses generously replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord’s spirit would be put on them!” (Numbers 11:29)

And this generosity of spirit, which results in a collaborative, shared approach to leadership, is the antidote to the control freak burdens of the arrogance of “I alone can fix this.”

We, of course, see this same generosity of spirit in today’s gospel reading. John and the twelve disciples saw a man who was not one of the disciples casting out demons in Jesus’ name, and they tried to stop him. But Jesus replied in the same gracious vein as Moses: “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. Whoever is not against us is for us.” (Mark 9: 39-40)

But it’s so very hard for us frail, stumbling humans to give up control, to stop being control freaks about this, that, or the other thing. Sometimes it takes our hitting our own versions of rock bottom for us to “let go, and let God.” Sometimes we become like Moses and proclaim, “enough! I need help.” But it’s hard for us ask for help isn’t it? I know it is for me. And I may want to give up control of some things, but not of others. And I may want to share control one day, and the next, I’m back to the usual, “I alone can fix it.” It’s all very complicated.

That’s when we need to hear the tough love words of judgment as we heard also in today’s gospel reading where Jesus advocates for metaphorical amputations for the sake of our being better prepared to enter into the dominion of God. 

To paraphrase these verses: if a hand, foot, or eye causes us or others to stumble it’s better to cut it off or tear it out and enter God’s reign maimed or lame than to be banished to valley of wailing outside the comforting confines of God’s reign – and that’s what hell here means, by the way, Gehenna, the valley of wailing. 

I encourage you to not think of Jesus’ amputation sayings as words convicting us of sin and administering punishment and ultimately resulting in our banishment to hell. No. Rather think of these passages in terms of nurturing our healing and restoration to greater health and vitality. 

Sometimes a surgeon has to amputate a toe or a limb in order to save the rest of the body for greater health. Sometimes cancerous tumors need to be surgically removed and treated with chemotherapy and radiation for the sake of restoration to health. 

I believe that’s what Jesus is advocating for in these hard words of tough love. In gardening terms, we call it pruning – you cut back your plants in due season to make for greater, more robust growth and fruit bearing next season. 

In spiritual terms, we call it purgation. The Christian mystics speak of the importance of purgation – of being purged of that which gets in the way of our spiritual maturation. Purgation involves acknowledging what causes us to stumble and then praying for God’s help in removing those obstacles. When that happens, then we experience, according to the mystics, illumination and ultimately greater union with God. 

But remember, pruning, purgation, however you want to term it, is for our health and well-being – to be pruned, purified and purged of malignant dynamics that make for our stumbling, like being control freaks, and assuming everything depends on us. 

Well, folks, here’s the thing, the good news: when it comes to the core of the Christian message, it doesn’t depend on us! It’s what God does and what God has done in Christ on the cross and at the empty tomb. It’s not about us; it’s about God and God’s decisive acts in Christ. Or in recovery language: let go, and let God.

Christ’s death and resurrection are the source of our being pruned and purged of that which ails us, like needing to be in control. For it’s on the cross where God’s love and mercy and forgiveness are unleashed for us and for the whole world. And it’s Christ’s resurrection that makes available to all the power of new life in Christ.

When we are led to submit to this loving discipline shaped by the cross and an empty tomb, then we are graciously freed from and absolved of our captivity to the demons like “I alone can fix this.” In this new found freedom, our faith is ignited and we’re salted with fire, the fire of the Holy Spirit. 

This liberating power of Christ’s death and resurrection is available here, of course, Sunday after Sunday. And our order of service follows the pattern of purgation, illumination and union with God as described by the Christian mystics. Think of the waters of baptism that wash over us for forgiveness and new life as akin to the ocean breakers, the waves that eventually cause all the rough stones to be made smooth. Our purgation, thus, begins in baptism and continues with our confession of sins at the font week after week when absolution purges us of the sins we confess.

Then we’re illuminated by the word of scripture read in three bible passages and sung in a psalm and then proclaimed, preached, as I’m doing now. 

And having been illuminated by the word, then we take our place at this table to be united with Christ in the sacramental meal. So, it’s purgation, illumination and union with Christ on offer here every time the Holy Spirit gathers us on the Lord’s Day.

This spiritual process that gets enacted among us week after week bears the fruit of our increasing generosity of spirit like that of Moses and Jesus as we welcome others to a shared, collaborative approach to leadership. This generous spirit of welcome leads us to seek relationships ecumenically with others Christians, but also with people of other faith traditions and even with secular people and organizations of good will concerned about love, justice, and peace. They may not belong to our fold, but they’re doing God’s work just the same. Moses saw that. Jesus affirmed that. And we, too, embrace this generosity of shared leadership. 

Thus, our life together begins to resemble the patterns described in today’s reading from the letter of James when we pray together and sing songs of praise together and call together the elders of the church to pray and anoint with oil in the Lord’s name those who are in need of healing. 

And continuing to live in the generosity of “would that all the Lord’s people were prophets” we seek out those who have wandered from the Lord to bring them back, thus saving them and covering a multitude of sins (cf. James 5:13-20).

People of God, isn’t this exactly what our crazy, divided world needs, a world filled with people who think they can only “go it alone”? 

Truly, the world’s needs are too much for us or anyone to say, “I alone can fix this.” We cannot do in on our own. But in Christ, in the church and among others of good will, many hands make for lighter work! Thank God that there are other prophets out there exorcising the world’s demons in the holy name of God just like us…. Amen.