Pentecost+18/Proper 21B (Mark 9:38-50)

There’s no “us versus them” in the eyes of Jesus. For the kingdom of God to be experienced and thus lived in one’s life, there’s no place for rivalry. No division is allowed in the kingdom of God because God’s reign is God uniting all of us and the entire universe in Christ. “Who is not against us is for us,” says Jesus. Whether those people who use his name to cast out demons actually follow him or not, Jesus is not interested in getting credit. Neither is he so into obtaining copyright to his name. “Jesus” is not to be confused with designer labels. 

Jesus’ main concern, however, seems to be with his close friends who have decided to follow him. The fact that his friends police those who cast out demons in his name shows us how they’re thinking of themselves. They might believe they’re the only ones who can properly use the name. They are the only legitimate owners of that name. They might be jealous and envious of these other followers of Jesus or users of Jesus’ name that they can do the work without having to follow Jesus like themselves. They might argue, “I have sacrificed this much and you haven’t. You’re not entitled to use the name of Jesus and cast out demons. Not in my house!” Well, Jesus would say, “There’s no house to begin with! Instead, I got salt for you to have in yourselves!”

There’s an inner split in the mind of Jesus’ friends. They otherize those who use Jesus’ name and cast out demons. They internally create a stumbling block in their mind which divides themselves from others. Hostility towards others would be one fruit of that inner division so is a judgmental attitude to others. How easily am I to judge others based on their looks? How biased am I to others who are superficially different from me? We do not see others as they are when we first seek differences in them. For example, when I walk on 40th street in the city, I find myself immediately noticing the “homeless” people sleeping on the ground. I don’t first see people, my fellow human beings before I describe them as homeless though it may capture their current state. I have a choice to see them as human beings just like myself and then imagine joining their discomfort of sleeping on the concrete ground. 

This immediate reaction of looking for differences rather than similarities creates a stumbling block that disconnects us from others. When we see others as they are, that is to see and accept them as they are, not as we are, there’s no us and them but one human connection. In this respect, our celebration of Holy Communion signifies this human connection in Christ. We call this holy because it makes all of us whole and holistic. We call this communion because we come together to be in union with one another. Jesus’ provocative remarks of cutting off our hands and feet and tearing out our eyes that cause us to stumble then direct us to first examine our hearts and pay attention to our habit of splitting and creating a dichotomy between us and them. 

When we have a hostile spirit of judgment and discrimination, we are not whole, holy, and holistic in our very nature. We’re internally divided and then become depleted. Things or traits in people we avoid are that which we want to remove in ourselves because we also have them in common. We hate them because we know what they are and what it is like for us to have them. What I hate about others is what I hate about myself as well as what I want to push away from myself. We might project onto others what we hate and discriminate against. There’s no peace but obsession with purity. We put a stumbling block not only to others but also to ourselves on the way to freedom in Christ. 

What do we do to have peace, to be whole within ourselves and with others? Jesus gives a metaphor of salt to ponder on. Notice Jesus in today’s gospel lesson doesn’t tell us to be the salt of the earth as in Matthew 5:13. Instead, he says, “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” Salt is essentially for flavoring and preserving food. Salt may be compared to the undivided mind that seeks the union with others and God in Christ. This salt of unity flavors our neighbors as well as ourselves with love, compassion, and kindness and preserves all of us in union with God in Christ. As salt for food is harvested from evaporating seawater, our spiritual practice of contemplation is a means to evaporate seawater of internal divisions to harvest the salt of unity. Amen.