Innies and Outies
Mark 9:33-50 and Esther 7:1-10, 9:20-22
September 27, 2009
As a teenager I was, like many of us during those susceptible, nervous, peer-influenced years, rather self-conscious. And it wasn’t the grand ideas and notions of life that caused me serious consternation. Rather, the seemingly mundane items of daily living were the objects of my insecurity—like my haircuts, or using the most up-to-date language, or trying not to say too much or be too excited about the things I liked, or the ways my socks were scrunched down, or the way I wore a braided belt, or my belly-button.
Innies were the coolest navels of the day when I was a teenager, or so I assumed; and I, unfortunately, had an outie. What’s a teenager to do! I remember days when I would wait until everyone else but me was in the swimming pool, at which point I would rip off my shirt with deftness and casually, but swiftly slink into the pool, so that my insignificant outie would be seen by as few people as possible. And as time went own my outie, probably because of the lack of affection I showed it, slowly recessed and finally disappeared, never to be heard from again.
Until now, when it resurfaces to provide a strange segue into our passages from Mark. Though these texts don’t deal directly with belly-buttons they do speak about the relationship between in-groups and out-groups (innies and outies, if you will) and how we are supposed to respond as Christians in a diverse and changing world.
Our primary text from Mark is particularly difficult to understand. One reason for this is because it seems to follow no logical path. First we read a person who is not a disciple casting out demons in the name of Jesus, then we suddenly jump to a stranger giving the disciples cups of water and finally we hear of death by drowning, cutting off hands and feet, gouging out eyes, hell, and finally being at peace. What a strange collection of images!
It is helpful, I believe, if we follow this morning the work of theologian Ched Myers, who segments this passage into two sections—the first section dealing with the way a Christian community relates to those outside its bounds; and the second instructing us how to live within our own Christian community and the standards to which we should hold ourselves accountable.
The theme for the first section, which relates how the disciples are to perceive people outside of their Christian community, can be summed up with Jesus’ simple and powerful phrase: “Whoever is not against us is for us.” This adage, which many of us know well, hopefully strikes a deep and beautiful chord in our souls. Yet much of our world and our American cultures today seem to be in disagreement with this profound teaching of Jesus. More often we hear “Whoever is not with us is against us.” The differences in these two perspectives are dramatic, decisive and extremely consequential.
If “whoever is not with us is against us” is our norm then we will undoubtedly live in fear and trepidation of people who may be different than us. “Whoever is not with us is against us” assumes that we have the best way, that we have the only way, that our way is undoubtedly the proper way of God and life. It is presumptuous and lacks any appreciation for the diversity of life that God supports here on earth.
“Whoever is not with us is against us” is rife in our culture today. It can be experienced most readily in the segmentation of news media. Blogs, websites, newspapers and some cable news networks especially tend to live as if this was the only commandment carved in stone when Moses trekked down from Sinai. We must be wary of those who look different, who act different, who don’t agree with us, this idea wants us to believe.
Yet Jesus, whose life ultimately ended in a violent death, did not perceive the world that way. The community of Mark and the early Christian followers of Jesus were in a precarious position. The Jewish communities from which many of them came were angry at them for their perceived hypocrisy—why would they leave their Israelite heritage to join this small band of people who thought Jesus was the Messiah?
The Roman Empire also had early Jesus followers under its thumb because they were refusing to worship the Emperor as God and they were following a rebel named Jesus who was killed as political enemy of Rome. The early Christians were tiny in number. They were ridiculed by loved ones and they had every reason to live in fear of those outside their group.
Yet, despite these treacherous realities, Jesus says and Mark records that the early disciples should not live in fear, but in hope. They should not be afraid of those who do things differently, but should trust in the good intentions of any person, as long justice, righteousness and wholeness was goal. “Whoever is not against us is for us.” Whoever didn’t directly condemn and persecute early Christians could be seen as examples of hope in a difficult world. They should not be scorned but encouraged.
A superb modern day example of this openness to those outside typical Christian communities can be found in an organization called Star Light Ministries. Begun by a friend of mine who now lives here in Richmond, this particular group feels called to work radically with a segment of our population that is frequently scorned and despised—exotic dancers. Their website describes their work like this:
“Star Light shares unconditional love and friendship with women who are exotic dancers so they will not forget they are also loved and valued by God. We help them build supportive communities and find resources for successful living…These women face many challenges. Many times their support systems of family and church have abandoned them because of the work they are doing. Star Light believes that these women need support and love, like all women. Star Light walks alongside these women.”
I can imagine that if the disciple John were living today, this ministry might have been one that he criticized saying, “We saw some people casting out demons in your name and we tried to stop them because they were not following us.”
“Whoever is not against us is for us.” Live not in fear of people doing things differently. Do not be afraid of outsiders. For one reason, because most of the time they are well intentioned and good; and secondly because the most important criterion for us as Christians is not how we do things, but that we maintain a commitment to righteousness, justice and peace in all situations. This is the crux of the first section of our passage today.
And now we turn to the latter section of Mark’s story. The one that would make a great horror movie and is filled with grotesqueries galore.
Perhaps a parallel would help in our understanding of this segment. Printed directly in the center of the flag of the country of Northern Ireland is a bright red hand. This image is known as the Red Hand of Ulster; Ulster being the 6 northern counties on the island of Ireland that make up the small nation. The general, though highly debatable story, goes that the land of Northern Ireland at one time hand no rightful heir. So a boat race between two rivals to the land was organized. The winner would be determined by whoever was the first one to place their right hand upon the gorgeous ground of Ulster.
At first the boats raced neck-and-neck, but then one of the claimants began pulling away. Seeing that there was no way he would catch up with his rival, the captain of the second ship took drastic measures. Removing his sword from the sheath, he bravely and quickly chopped off his own right hand and threw ashore, besting his rival and claiming the land as his own.
To love something so deeply that a person is willing to mutilate one’s own body to obtain it. This is how seriously Jesus understands the importance of the early Christian community. It is a particularly difficult concept to understand in today’s churches, because here in America and the Western world Christianity is well-established and mainstream; and when any organization becomes so dominant, it loses its radical edge and succumbs to maintaining the status quo.
I doubt we could find very many people in the entire United States today who would be willing to cut off their own offending hands, eyes or feet for the peace of their Christian community. Instead, we would probably just head down the street to a different church where the requirements weren’t quite so steep!
Most scholars agree that Jesus was using hyperbole here. He wasn’t really encouraging folks with a habit a disturbing the peace to mutilate themselves for the sake of community wholeness, but rather was strongly enforcing the importance of living in peace and seeking righteousness.
And we have to consider the times. The community Mark was writing to was facing tremendous obstacles that scholar Ched Myers believes was causing the breakdown the early Christian community. People were being persuaded to defect from the early church and betray their former friends and compatriots and Mark wanted to reinforce that a commitment to the way of Jesus was of utmost importance. It was better to be maimed than betray Jesus’ community of righteousness and peace.
And it is peace that is the key concept here. The final words in our text today are “Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.” In times of doubt and trouble the Christians were to maintain the seasoning of their faith. They were not to go for the easy way out. They were to seek ways of living together with radical love and hope, while maintaining a commitment to righteousness. Without internal cohesion that group of early Christians might very well have disintegrated completely and if they had we would not be sitting in these pews here today.
So for the innies of that early Christian population, there was a strict commandment to maintain their cohesive unity: to keep their faith in the midst of betrayal and defection, to practice peace in a violent and troubling world, to stay committed to righteousness, love, and hospitality when their senses may have told them otherwise.
For the innies we have a commandment to take their faith as seriously as they took their lives. For faith was their life. And while maintaining this commitment they were also to love, care for and be open to the outies, to those not in their group, but who were still listening to and following Jesus in a different way. If people were practicing the justice of Jesus, support their efforts, because living with righteousness and loving neighbors was what was most important. The faithful outsiders were to be supported and nurtured, not discriminated against and left out.
Holding ourselves accountable for our actions, and appreciating the diverse ways other people live with justice and righteousness, these are our lessons for today. We are to love our community of faith as dearly and deeply as we love our own eyes, hands, and feet, while at the same time we are to see the wisdom of those who may do things differently. We are to hold ourselves to the highest standards of righteousness, love and justice, allowing our own community to be the example of peace by in which the outside world finds hope.
For “whoever is not against us is for us.” So “have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.” Amen.
http://starlight-ministries.org/wp_blog_1/, accessed on September 26, 2009.
Walker Percy, Love in the Ruins, Picador Press, 64.
