Attending to the context of our Gospel passage today, the whole of chapter 9, brings us straight away to a question – what is it doing there at all? We start at verse 38, and verse 37 finishes talking about children. Then we have our passage, and another verse, 41. Then verse 42 picks up the thread and again is talking about children.
Our passage is completely out of context. It has no place in the narrative – and this shows it is something important, something the Gospel writer Mark, really wanted to include somewhere in his account of the life of Christ.
Because though our Gospel today is short in length it is long in meaning and importance. This text, a mere 63 words in English, can bring us to both some of the deepest spiritual principles of our tradition, and some hard truths, truths that may shake us up a little.
Our text is full of unexplained friction and dissonance, things that should not be happening, but things that seem, to the disciples, perfectly fine. John, on behalf of them says to Jesus ‘we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him.’
Straightaway we see these students of Jesus have formed a little in-club – “we”.
Now John was one of the earliest disciples, one of the earliest students of Jesus – and maybe the rest of the group, the rest of the “we” in the text were also early disciples. In any case, this little in-group, like little in-groups the world over, in churches, in clubs, schools, workplaces, anywhere we humans gather, this little in-group does what in-groups always do: they police the boundaries of the larger group.
The in-group act as gate keepers – who can be in, who must be out, who is allowed, who is forbidden – the in-group claims the authority to make these decisions, claims the power of membership and the life the broader group offers. In fact, they come to claim what the broader group is and does.
But even worse in our gospel today are these words “we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.’”
The in-group of disciples do not try and stop the unnamed man because he may be doing harm, or because of any false teaching or any theological principle. No, they try to stop this healer – and in the ancient world, casting out demons was healing – they try to stop this healer because he was not following them. Not because he was not following Jesus, but because he was not following them.
They have usurped Christ; they have usurped God.
This usurping of God, this deifying oneself is always the dangerous end result of unchecked religious in-club boundary making.
And so, this is probably why Mark includes the passage. Mark was writing around 65-70 CE, a time of wonderful and creative diversity of early Jesus Movements, movements that had names like Saviour Clubs, Supper Clubs, Association of the Anointed and many more. But all which, in pluriform and gorgeous multiplicity, centred on Christ and his power to save, to heal and restore life.
But diversity and difference often engender the controlling impulse of the boundary making in-group, here clearly John and the others he names as “We”. They do not want others being part of the movements of Christ who refuse to follow them, the human ones, but rather follow the Living One, in his Name.
And Christ here is really clear. If we work in His name, if we do a deed of power, and the Greek here for ‘power’ is the same as ‘miracle’, if we work in the Name of Christ, we cannot anymore speak ill or evil of Christ.
Amazingly we have material remains, archaeological finds that may depict what this passage is referring to. There have been discoveries of Roman Pagan healing tablets, tablets with prayers and formulae for healing.
Though clearly Pagan, those dating from the second and third century begin to have a new Name next to the names of the Pagan Goddesses and Gods – Christos. The Name of Christ was known to be healing, salvific and life giving, and so he was included in the prayers for life, and slowly He began to be known.
And this is what Christ is saying: being in his Name we, like those ancient Pagan healers, are changed, we are transformed, we are formed towards him, because we partake of him.
This is because in the ancient world, and still today in many First Nation cultures, names, especially divine names are really, really important. The name of a God IS the God. The name of Christ IS Christ. When we speak, when we chant, write, attend to, meditate on the Holy Name, we make He who is the Name present in our lives and in our world.
And that ultimately is what Christ cares about; not about who or what human person or faction or in-group we follow, but whether in his Name we are changed and in that change we help heal the world.
And though written at the start of the Christian era, speaking to the tensions inside what becomes the early church, our Gospel today is continually alive.
The history of Christianity is populated by the graves and the memorials, the destroyed and rejected lives of those people, mostly good Christian women, men and companions who got on the wrong side of Church leaders who acted like John. Leaders who essentially wanted people to follow them, follow their church tradition, their theology, their doctrine, and not the presence, not the Name of Christ.
And though it is easy to think of others, other Christians not far away, we are always minded to ask ourselves – “Am I John?” Am I part of the in-group?” “Do I police the boundaries of our Church, of this Church assembling here at St Cuthberts?”
It is of course not easy to step outside ourselves, remove ourselves from our actions and motivations as these questions require us to do.
Fortunately, our First Testament reading today may help. From Sirach we hear of that greatly underrepresented and shockingly ignored divine figure who was with God at the Beginning of All, Woman Wisdom.
Woman Wisdom will teach us, will exalt us, Her children and will hold us when we seek Her. She will instruct us and be with us.
Of crucial importance is that the early church identified Jesus with and as Woman Wisdom. So, to seek Her, to seek Wisdom is to seek him.
And because Wisdom was at the beginning and assisted God in Creation, we may find Her and find Christ within all Creation, within all the diverse and wonderful nature and all that lives, all that seeds, sprouts, grows, withers and dies and silently bears His name.
So, our questioning our important and vital questioning of our hidden motivations, if we are subtly, like John, usurping God – these questions can be given to God. They can be handed over to God, to Christ, to Wisdom as we walk a bush trail, bathe in sunlight or reach our hands into soil and life. We bring questions of ourselves to the divine in nature, seeking Wisdom and we will receive Her instruction, Her Answers and Her joy.
In the Name of Christ, Amen.