“John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he is not of our company. Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him.” Jesus went on to talk about what causes us to sin, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.” “And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna.”
Demons are believed to be a malevolent supernatural force. They are feared for their believed ability to take possession of people causing them to sin. Jesus seems to indicate the possession or sin does not take control of the whole person but rather a part, “If your hand causes you to sin… if your eye…. What do we do if our mind causes us to sin, it being possessed by a malevolent force; ‘We saw the Haitians bettering themselves, driving out the demons of white supremacy and poverty in your name Jesus, and we tried to prevent them because they are not of our company.’ As Jesus’ disciples misunderstand the malevolent force at work and think they have found it in a healer, so MAGA misunderstand the malevolent force at work and think they have found it in Haitians. As Jesus’ disciples are aggrieved, believing someone else is taking their special place, so MAGA are aggrieved, believing someone else is taking their special place. It is not only a problem that white supremacists must erroneously identify themselves as discriminated against in U.S. society. It also a problem that those people against whom they discriminate, Blacks, specifically Haitians, must be identified as a malevolent force because they are advancing. How dare anyone heal anyone. MAGA want us to believe the Haitians are not of our company, meaning not of our association, not of our nation. Supremacists, like the complaining disciples and the complaining MAGA, decide who’s in and who’s out. MAGA are deciding this lately in the matter of U.S. citizenship. They promise to round up and mass-deport noncitizens based on their “serial numbers.” They are planning to end automatic citizenship for children born in the U. S. to immigrants, violating the 14th amendment. Jesus wants us to know others are of our company, meaning companions, especially in healing. Jesus is telling us that whatever it is that has taken possession of us, diminishing our companionship so that we cannot appreciate healing – cut it off. No matter how painful it is. Should it feel like we are losing a hand, an eye, a self identity – cut it off. Bear with the pain, for a shared life in the Community of God is the healing result.
Anthony Gittins in his book, A Presence That Disturbs: A Call to Radical Discipleship, writes of disciples needing to move between the pairing of stranger and homemaker. We are sometimes the person who is out of place, vulnerable and uncertain and yet we must gather the courage to dwell in such space. Is it the case that we are more often the homemaker, living in our place, secure and certain, needing to gather the courage to invite others into such space? It is a daring and adventurous risk-taking, encouraging others into becoming and sharing the divine healing power that is theirs to witness. It is what the many white people of Springfield, Ohio are inviting of their Haitian neighbors. It is what the Haitians are inviting of their white neighbors. They are bringing out the healing best in each other. Gittins offers that homemakers can exercise control. We would therefore be wise to also be the stranger in life. It is something we hesitate to do, someone we hesitate to be. We are discomforted. Being a stranger is counter-cultural to self-reliance. It seems to have no redeeming features. Gittins disagrees. As the stranger we discover a different life story from what is typical. We learn we have additional, uncommon and heretofore unknown resources. As a stranger our presence expands the dimensions of what was a previously smaller world. As we are the stranger, we experience people’s goodness and openness as mutually enlivening. We are called to be vulnerable, as homemaker, as stranger. It is the life witness of Jesus at home in the world and inviting the same of others, and a stranger in this world inviting the same of others.
Prayer: Spirit, help us to move between the center and the edge always rearranging the world to heal it.
Question: What disturbs me about another – that is helpful? What fails to disturb me about my self – that is harmful?
September 29, 2024 Mark 9:38-43 Twenty Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time