If You're Not Against Us, You're With Us!

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
October 1st 2006
World Communion and Peacemaking Sunday
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“It You’re Not Against Us, You’re With Us”
Micah 4:1-4; Mark 9: 38-41

In recent history it has become somewhat controversial to talk about peace. Despite this, we are going to do it anyway. After all, like it or not, all who believe in Jesus Christ and seek to follow him are called to be peacemakers. Since we have much to talk about this morning we will not begin with a defense of this biblically based assertion. In other words, we are not going to revisit the specific locations. It is enough to say that if we interpret the bible through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus it is impossible to say that God is pro-war. Instead, this morning we are going to spend our energy focusing on the need for, and the practice of, peacemaking.
Peacemaking in its truest form is broader and more inclusive than international relationships. Peacemaking is something which is to be practiced in many forms. It can include relationships within families, faith communities, neighborhoods, nations, as well as inside each individual. Each one of these areas is interconnected and none is excluded from the call to be peacemakers.
Jesus encounter with John is all about the call for peacemaking. In this encounter we see how Jesus reveals a simple request for what it is; a destructive and divisive human tendency. The sin at work in this request is our human need to divide people up into opposing groups. It is something which begins in early childhood in an attempt to define the world in simplistic ways.
As a child I remember playing many games which seemed simple but which are opposed to the calling to be peacemakers. I want to use three examples of these games, I am sure you could add your own. The first and earliest division was Boys verses Girls. Later came Cowboys verses Indians, and finally the one played most often; smear the queer. As children we were not even aware of what we were doing, yet we learned the lessons well that: Men should dominate women, white, and light skinned people, should control the dark skinned people of the world, and that gay people could be used as societies punching bag. While many of our childhood simplicities are left behind, these are lessons that will take lifetimes to unlearn. In fact, instead of growing up and moving beyond the childish us verses them mentality many cling to these overly simplistic ways of seeing the world. Peacemaking means to, in the words of the apostle Paul, put away childish things.
The good news is that we are not the first people to face these issues of peacemaking. Every society in history has had their own way of deciding who will hold the reigns of power and who will be excluded. Even the earliest disciples of Jesus were not immune. John comes to Jesus and says: “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” In this request John, and the other disciples, have fallen prey to the childish us verses them mentality.
John’s concern is not that this other person does not follow Jesus. In fact, John is mad because this person is not “following us.” The disciples seem to believe that they have monopoly on God. If you want to get to God, they think, you have to go through them. So, instead of spreading the good news and welcoming all people to come and follow Jesus, the disciples expect that people will come and do things their way. Jesus says: “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.” Jesus is really speaking to the disciples in all ages.
Jesus encounter with John’s sounds much like a story of Moses and Joshua. In the book of Numbers chapter 11:27-29, Moses is faced with a similar problem. Joshua learns that there are two people in the camp who are prophesying for God but are not doing it in the way that Joshua and others believe is appropriate. Joshua then tells Moses to stop them. Moses replies: “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets…” Instead of expecting a monopoly on power and God’s favor, both Moses and Jesus point all believers to a new way of leadership and new way of community. This is peacemaking.
Last week I talked to a friend who pastors in another city about a recent struggle in that church. The church has grown and at first many longer term members expressed joy. However, as the new members began to take on leadership roles, things turned ugly. It turns out that the new members had a different way of doing things in the church and this was not well received. The tension and resentment, on all sides, grew so deep that many people left the congregation. As they have begun the process of healing they have found great wisdom and encouragement from the passages in Mark and Numbers. Peacemaking, for that community, meant internalizing the words from Jesus; “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.” And the words from Moses; “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets…”
Peacemaking is not easy. Since we struggle with peace in our souls, our families, and our churches, it can leave us wondering if there any hope for our neighborhoods, country or the world? Because peacemaking is difficult on a small scale, the vision for international peace from the prophet Micah makes him seem like a dreamer. When Micah speaks of, “the days to come,” it sounds a lot like “Once upon a time.” Many interpreters of this vision have followed in that line of reasoning by claiming it is beyond our reality and beyond our capacity. While it is clear that this vision speaks beyond its current reality it does not remove responsibility from human beings.
In this vision the people and nations have two specific roles to play. The first action of the people is this: “Peoples shall stream to (The mountain of God), and many nations shall come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” God does not force them to come. The people and nations come to God on their own accord. Once the people of all nations learn the ways of God they: “beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” This future vision is not about human passivity. It is a beautiful vision of peacemaking which comes as a result of obedience to God.
What makes this vision so amazing is that Micah knew the horrors of war first hand. The war faced by Micah was not half a world away. He was not insulated from the death and collateral damage. Yet, in the face of the reality of war, he knew that God had another plan, and was willing to share it. These words from the prophet stand as living testimony to hope and peacemaking.
Being peacemakers, in the tradition of Micah and as followers of the Prince of Peace, means that we are called to say; no, to violence “out there.” But it also means that we are called to say; no, to violence in this community of faith, in our families, and inside of ourselves. It means we must struggle against our human instinct and childish inclination to define who is “in” and who is “out.” It means we will have to give up the nonsense that “if you are not with us, you are against us,” and instead listen to Jesus who says: “Whoever is not against us is for us.” This may seem foolish in our world, but this is the way of the believer, it is the way of a peacemaker, it is the way of Jesus Christ. Amen.