Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Mark 9:38-50
on October 1, 2006 at Batesville Presbyterian Church
on October 1, 2006 at Batesville Presbyterian Church
When the disciples told Jesus about an unauthorized person who was casting out demons in his name Jesus said, "Do not stop him. Whoever is not against us is for us." Jesus saw zero degrees of separation between his authorized and unauthorized disciples. The mistake of disciples then and now is to think we have a copyright on the powerful name of "Jesus." Christians are constantly struggling to determine the boundaries between who is "in" and who is "out" and Jesus is constantly redrawing the boundaries to include everyone. For Jesus sees zero degrees of separation between humans and God.
Jesus challenges disciples to seek the same union with God he experienced. This union with God is a treasure that any person may seek and find but it is not an easy path and in fact it is very costly. We must be totally committed to this path to obtain union with God. So Jesus tells his disciples,
"If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed — to obtain union with God in this lifetime with one hand missing — than to have two hands and live in hell — a state of separation from God.
And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life in God's kingdom lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell — to live in a state of separation from God in this lifetime.
And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for to achieve union with God in this lifetime with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell. For in hell — in the state of separation from God in this lifetime — the fire of your ego is never quenched.
We can see the hell to which Jesus refers all around us: War, violence, greed, and destruction of the earth for profit. These are the way of hell on this earth. Jesus calls us to another path. He calls us to follow the inward path to the kingdom of God which is union with God in this lifetime. Much has been made of Jesus statements to cut off our hand or foot or cut out our eye. They sound like such radical solutions to a problem that we rarely experience. The cure is radical but so is the disease of following the ego. But the goal is so wonderful — union with God in this lifetime — that the level of commitment Jesus challenges us toward seems like it may be worth it. Imagine achieving a state of union with God in this life. Imagine living your life and experiencing each moment a sense of zero degrees of separation between yourself and God. That is the kingdom of God. That is what we are challenged to pursue.
Now when we hear Jesus challenge us to a level of commitment that would cut off our hand if it held us back from union with God our ego kicks in and we resent the idea that Jesus would challenge us to such a high level of commitment. The ego feels threatened. By ego I am referring to the false self that abides in each of us. The ego — the false self — is the source of the thoughts that run constantly through our heads. The thoughts in our head come from our ego, not our soul. Jesus calls us to go deeper than our minds — to go down deep into our bodies — to the level of the soul. The ego — our mental jabber — will do anything to keep us from moving beyond it and going deeper into ourselves. The ego will keep us distracted from the deeper self by focusing on anything it can find — our past, our future, even the present moment if it can get us to find something to complain about in the present moment. The ego, our mental jabber, loves to complain about other people and also situations. We think we don't want to be where we are in life. We want to be somewhere else. Or perhaps we want to be someone else. We craze to be
recognized, acknowledged, remarked upon.
Many people are always waiting for the next thing to react against, to feel angry about. Their anger and outrage is like a drug. They need a fix several times a day in order to satisfy their craving. This too is hell on earth for the person who lives it and for those who must live and work with this person. Complaining and craving for anger like a drug — this is our ego and this is what Jesus calls us to move beyond if we would enter what he calls "the kingdom of heaven" which is the realm of God tha lies within us.
In contrast the cravings of the ego, Jesus calls us to walk the path of humilty. Humility is the key to power in the realm of God within us. In one of his parables, Jesus says, "When you are invited, go and sit at the lowest place ... for everyone who humbles himself will be exalted." Instead of trying to be a mountain, teaches the ancient Tao Te Ching, "Be the valley of the universe." In this way, you are restored to wholness and so "all things will come to you." (Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, 216) Humility is what the disciples lacked in our lesson today. They felt themselves superioer to the unnamed disciple who cast out demons in Jesus' name. They rebuked him but Jesus encouraged him. The disciples got trapped in their ego and cut off from the power of humility.
Humility is our lesson for the day on World Communion Sunday. As we join with disciples of all races and denominations from all over the globe we come to the communion table we acknowledge we do not have a trademark on truth. We do not have an exclusive contract with God. Jesus sees zero degrees of separation between East and West, Catholics and Protestants, Greek Orthodox and Syrian Coptic, Pentecostal and Presbyterian. Zero degrees of separation.
Jesus saw zero degrees of separation between his authorized and unauthorized disciples. Jesus sees zero degreees of separation from us and other Christians. Jesus offers to all the same bread and the same cup. Some religious leaders once asked Jesus to condense the entire Old Testament into one sentence and Jesus said this. Love God with all your heart and mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. That means see yourself when you see your neighbor. For in the kingdom of God — in God's realm within — there is literally zero degrees of separation between any two human beings and between any human being and God. Zero degrees of separation.
