Ephesians 4 (selection); Mark 9:38-41
A man who was walking across a bridge on the Monocacy river not far from here came upon another man standing right on the edge about to plunge to his death. The first man shouted, “Stop! Are you a Christian?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact I am.” “Well so am I. Are you Catholic or Protestant?” “I’m Protestant.” “Well so am I. Are you Baptist or Methodist?” “I’m Methodist.” “Me too, that’s amazing! Are you just a plain Methodist or a United Methodist?
“I’m a United Methodist.” “I can’t believe it, so am I. But tell me, are you from the West Virginia Conference or from the Maryland Conference?” He answered, “The West Virginia Conference.” To which the first man said, “Well in that case, go to hell, heretic,” and he pushed him off the bridge.
***
Even Jesus’s disciples pushed someone from the bridge. One day as they were walking around the area of Capernaum, John, the disciple whom Jesus loved so dearly, came up to Jesus and gave a report.
“Teacher, he said, we just saw a man we haven’t seen before –he was not one of us. And he was casting out demons, but he was doing it in your name. So, we played by the book: since he was not trained like we have and he was not chosen as we have, we told him to stop and go away.”
Like the guy walking across the bridge, Jesus’s disciples had pushed someone off the bridge. What is worse — they expected to be congratulated.
“Good for you, after all we can’t let this Kingdom of God business get out of hand.” How little they understood what Jesus had meant the moment he chose them.
For he chose them to help him promote a new lifestyle where God’s grace flows freely in all directions and reaches out to all kinds of people, even those we may consider to be different from us or belonging to a different clan or tribe.
Was Jesus upset? I bet you he was! “Guys, how many times I have told you that whoever is not against us is for us!”
***
In Jesus’s times everyone believed in demons –everyone believed that both mental and physical illness was caused by the destructive influence of these evil spirits. Now there was one very common way to get rid of those demons, to cast them out, to drive them out to “exorcise” them, a word from the Greek exorkizein, literally meaning “to banish” an evil spirit.
If one could get to know the name of a still more powerful spirit and command an evil demon in that name, the lesser demon was supposed to be powerless to resist. This is the kind of situation we have here –Jesus’s disciples had seen a man using the all-powerful name of Jesus to defeat some demons, but instead of supporting him, they tried to stop him because he was not one of them.
Jesus got really upset, for he had taught them that no one could do a mighty work in his name and be altogether his enemy. “Didn’t I teach you that there is a far more than one way to God, that truth is always bigger than anyone’s grasp of it, that we are each entitled to speak out what it is in our mind and heart?”
Why was it so hard for John and his buddies to grasp such a truth? Now imagine –if this happened to Jesus’s disciples, how could it not happen to us? For we can be as intolerant, as territorial, as narrow-minded as John and his buddies.
Even though we know that we are to be as welcoming and tolerant like Jesus, we still have quick tempers and very easily draw divisions and fuel turf wars.
***
When I was six or seven, I began to wonder why some of my little friends rooted for a soccer team other than mine. If they did root for my own team, the world as I then saw it would be a much better place. Of course, I never thought of rooting for their team – why should I?
Now, a grown-up approaching 76, and by the absolute grace of God a die-hard Yankee, take my word, I’ll never root for the Orioles! By the absolute grace of God, a die-hard United Methodist, I’ll never root for anything different.
By the absolute grace of God, a die-hard Democrat, I’ll never give a Republican, not even my best friend or my own spouse or child, any credit, even if they deserve it. And you’d better cast your vote my way, or I will cast you off the bridge! Oooops –am I in trouble?
***
As we drag our feet through a new electoral wilderness, once again I ask myself that old question – why couldn’t everybody see it my way, root for my party and my candidates? Why do you wait to go out and cast your vote my way?
Don’t you see it? It is so sad to stand divided! Now, if you voted my way, this massive polarization would disappear, and the world would be a much better place to be! After all, we all want the same thing, don’t we?
To cast out any evil spirit that may harm our democracy, our way of life and living, our blessings and our destiny. The problem is, things are not that easy, for you may feel the same way I do – so we fight, and we keep fighting.
In the process, we end up deeply divided by a few hot themes or issues — immigration, reproductive rights, taxes, globalism vs. nationalism, etcetera, plus the personal traits and golden promises of our different candidates. Divided we stand, but for how long?
You are not alone if you feel exhausted by so much polarization – and quite worried that we may be paving the way for even more tension and conflict. That’s the reason why more than ever before we ought to ask ourselves in prayer, “Aren’t we children of God? If we are, couldn’t we do anything to deal with this crisis of trust?
***
You may want to know that this massive political and ideological polarization has less to do with ideas or themes, and more to do with identity and emotion. Identity and emotion – two of the most basic human traits deeply inscribed in our DNA. Both identity and emotion lead us to choose what we consider exclusively ours, the way we see it, and to reject what we consider to be alien to us, the way others may see it.
I’ll give you an example – if I don’t see the immigrant as the root problem of so many evils in our system today, I will immediately identify with them and their plight and become very emotional fighting you if you feel the opposite.
Why? Because I feel that your own view threatens me – you become an existential threat to me. And you see me as an existential threat to you, for my position is undermining your own sense of order and safety.
Forget then about dialogue and cooperation across the aisle — we all go on the attack, for we all feel that any of these hot issues at play are a matter of life and death. Ugly campaigns with billions of dollars invested in graphic messages full of ugly words, hostility, and even lies.
So much doom reinforces such a perceived existential threat — fear takes over, emotions go through the roof. But aren’t we children of God called to work for peace and reconciliation as we all pursue a common dream?
God is calling us to confront and to tame fear and he gives us the blessed assurance that he will always have our back as we work to bring peace and reconciliation. Now we are in a much better position to engage folks with opposite views in a “friendly” conversation about any hot issue that may be dividing us.
In the process we will discover that we are not as distant from each other in matters of ideas or politics as we sometimes believe, that so much of the problem has to do with feeling threatened and acting upon very strong response emotions.
A recent study by the reputable The Journal of Politics surveyed 13,000 Americans on this question, “How extreme do you think the people in the opposing party to be?” Forty-nine percent of respondents said that voters of the opposing party were extreme in their positions, but the survey found that in reality, only 14 percent of voters could be considered extreme in their positions.
That’s good news, my friends, for we are not that far apart from each other as threatened identity and emotion may have led us to believe. Good news indeed, for now we know that there is much more room for dialogue and cooperation, for a common vision grounded on tolerance.
***
One final thought — don’t you enjoy the moment the game is over and rival players and coaches walk to one another to shake hands? As children of God, we ought to reclaim and promote the same attitude when we discuss politics, or any other hot or controversial issue.
It will never be easy – it has been easy with me — yet we must learn from the Christ, who never placed himself above anyone, rather he humbled himself to show us that being right or winning an argument or casting someone off the bridge should never be the hallmark of a true disciple.