Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
September 30, 2018
Scripture: Mark 9:38-50
Let me tell you a
story.
Once upon a time, in a
land far, far away, in a village that was too small to be found on any map,
there was a bakery. Now one day, a
stranger came in to the village, and went in to the bakery, and told the baker,
“I’m going to teach you how to make gringleyhops. Nobody else here knows how to make them, but
they will be the most delicious thing that you’ve ever had.”
And so the stranger
taught the baker how to make gringleyhops, and wouldn’t you know, it didn’t
take very long before they were the most popular thing in his bakery. People were lined up out the door and down
the road to try and buy them before they ran out each day.
People could see that
there weren’t enough to go around, but the baker was keeping the recipe as a
closely guarded secret. He wouldn’t
share it with anyone. But a couple of
people with some mad baking skills got together, and they took a gringleyhop
and worked on reverse engineering a recipe.
It took them several tries to get it right, but in the end, they were
able to recreate a perfect gringleyhop.
Now the baker, he
wasn’t happy with this turn of events.
He did everything that he could think of to stop these upstart bakers
from making his gringleyhops. He
tried stealing their firewood so they couldn’t heat up their ovens; he tried
barricading their door with thick planks and nails; he even tried setting fire
to the upstart bakery, but fortunately the fire didn’t take.
Don’t get me wrong –
the baker still had plenty of customers and still sold out of gringleyhops
every day. Maybe the line down the
street was a bit shorter, but there was no impact on the baker’s bottom line.
A year later, the
stranger came back to the village, and the baker ran up to her and cried out,
“You have to stop these upstarts! You
gave the gringleyhop recipe to me!
Help me to keep the recipe to myself!”
Now the stranger just
shook her head and said, “I gave you the recipe for gringleyhops so that
everyone in the village might have them.
Why are you jealous because your neighbour is helping you?”
(pause)
In our gospel reading,
Jesus’ disciples are behaving a bit like the jealous baker in the story. Someone else is healing on Jesus’ behalf, in
Jesus’ name, and they want to stop him because he isn’t part of the
in-crowd. But Jesus stops them. Jesus says, if this other person isn’t acting
against us, they must be acting for us.
God’s love and God’s
mercy isn’t limited to some sort of inner circle. There is more than enough to go around. It isn’t some sort of zero-sum game that they
are playing. Just because there is love
and healing and mercy for our neighbour doesn’t mean that there is less for
us. God’s love really is limitless – we
don’t have to play by the rules of scarcity that the world tries to teach us.
Let’s try another
version of the story:
Once upon a time, in a
land far, far away, in a village that was too small to be found on any map,
there was a bakery. Now one day, a
stranger came in to the village, and went in to the bakery, and told the baker,
“I’m going to teach you how to make gringleyhops. Nobody else here knows how to make them, but
they will be the most delicious thing that you’ve ever had.”
And so the stranger
taught the baker how to make gringleyhops, and wouldn’t you know, it didn’t
take very long before they were the most popular thing in his bakery. People were lined up out the door and down
the road to try and buy them before they ran out each day.
The baker quickly
realized that he couldn’t keep up to the demand by himself, and so he said to
himself, maybe I should expand. Maybe I
can hire some other workers to help out.
I can be the supervisor, and have others working under me.
And so the baker put
up a help-wanted poster, and the next day people were lined up looking for work
rather than for gringleyhops. And the
baker went down the line of people and eliminated them one by one. One elderly man he didn’t want because he was
too old. Any women were also eliminated
from the line because the baker said that they wouldn’t have the strength for
the work. A young man with a limp was
excluded by the same reasoning. And
another young man, hoping to find work to feed his family who often went hungry
was also excluded – the baker said that his clothes were too raggedy and
wouldn’t give a good impression of the bakery.
And so the baker soon
had a crew of healthy young men working for him, and they made gringleyhops to
sell to the village.
A year later, the
stranger came back to the village to see how the gringleyhop project was
getting along. The baker was very proud
of his work. He said that he had raised
prices on the gringleyhops, and with an efficient crew he was making so much of
a profit that he was soon going to shut down his bakery and move to the city.
Now the stranger just
shook her head and said, “I gave you the recipe for gringleyhops so that
everyone in the village might have them.
And now you have raised the prices so that not everyone can afford them;
you have taken work away from people who needed it, and soon you will be leaving
the village so there will be no gringleyhops once again.”
(pause)
Getting back to Jesus
and his disciples, if you go back a few verses from the passage we read today,
you will see that the disciples were arguing about which one of them was the
greatest, the very best disciple of all.
Jesus took a child, the most vulnerable and powerless person in his
society, and says that if you want to be a good disciple, you are to welcome
the poor and the vulnerable and the powerless as if you were welcoming Jesus.
Jesus must still have
the child with him, because in our reading today, he tells us, using very
graphic images, that if any of us cause one of these little ones, these
vulnerable ones, these powerless ones to stumble, then we are better off dead.
These words of Jesus
really struck a nerve with me in a week that has seen a very publicized hearing
in the courts of power in our neighbours in the US. A woman who may have been violently assaulted
stood before those in power, and was subjected to intimidation and questions
about the assault, and was then made more vulnerable and powerless by those who
refuse to believe her.
Jesus said, "If any of you put a
stumbling block before one of these little ones, these vulnerable ones, these
powerless ones, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung
around your neck and you were thrown into the sea."
Let’s try one more
version of our story:
Once upon a time, in a
land far, far away, in a village that was too small to be found on any map,
there was a bakery. Now one day, a
stranger came in to the village, and went in to the bakery, and told the baker,
“I’m going to teach you how to make gringleyhops. Nobody else here knows how to make them, but
they will be the most delicious thing that you’ve ever had.”
And so the stranger
taught the baker how to make gringleyhops, and wouldn’t you know, it didn’t
take very long before they were the most popular thing in his bakery. People were lined up out the door and down
the road to try and buy them before they ran out each day.
The baker quickly
realized that he couldn’t keep up to the demand by himself, and so he said to
himself, “Why don’t I start up a cooperative for the people of the
village. Anyone in need of employment
can come and gain valuable job skills, as well as a salary. Each one can be given tasks appropriate for
their abilities, and together we can make gringleyhops to feed the village.”
And the baker did as
he had planned; and a year later, when the stranger returned to the village to
check in on the gringleyhops project, she saw a village where everyone was well
fed and where neighbours helped out neighbours.
And the stranger smiled.
(pause)
May we all trust in
God’s message of abundance. May we do
our part to spread God’s love and mercy in the world. May we protect the vulnerable, and empower
the powerless. May we be at peace with
God, at peace with one another, and at peace with ourselves.
Amen.
Preparing the Gringleyhops?
(Image: Public Domain)
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