Word to the Wise
Sunday, September 29, 2024 - 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time - B
[Num 11:25-29; Jas 5:1-6; Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48]"Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets! Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!" [Numbers] At that time, John said to Jesus, "Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us." Jesus replied, "Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us." [Mark]
Who is "in," and who is "out?" In every organization, there are those who are "in" and those who are "out." There are the formal members and those who are not. Within the formal members, there are those who have influence or power [the "ins"], and those who do not [the "outs"] This is a phenomenon one witnesses in public/political life but one may see it in religious organizations as well. Jesus had to constantly remind the disciples about status and power. Was there an "in" group among the disciples? It would seem so with Peter, James and John, whom Jesus included in the transfiguration and the Garden of Gethsemane! They were his first disciples. But Jesus rebukes John, in today's passage from the Gospel According to Mark, for trying to deter someone not in the immediate group of disciples from "casting out demons in your name...because he does not follow us." The meaning is clear. When it comes to preaching the gospel, it is not a matter of who preaches, but the message that they preach.
There are examples of this in the letters of St. Paul. He had associates who ministered with him. But his opposition to other preachers had to do with the message - the "gospel" - that they were preaching about the necessity of following the Law of Moses in order to become Christians.
Both Jesus and Moses today remind all of us from Pope to pew person to be careful about the "inclusion/exclusion" tendency when it comes to preaching the gospel and exercising power in Jesus' name. The cleric/layperson distinction might be a good place to start thinking about this! AMEN