Twenty-Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time
October 1 , 2006


Do you root for the home team? Or, How loyal a fan are you?

This time of year, with baseball reaching its Hunt for Red October, you’ll see a lot of people wearing Cardinal Red. Or Rams blue and gold. Or Mizzou’s black and gold. Or UMSL’s maroon and gold. With homecoming games and big rivalries an easy thing to wrap energy around, it is very easy to root for the home team. Home-team loyalty comes almost as easy as breathing. Today’s readings tackle that a fanatical home team loyalty on two different fronts.

First is the issue of who belongs to the organization – who is allowed to be a card carrying member of the faith. I learned about that the hard way yesterday morning. I was at the family place out in Hillsboro and needed to get the NEW gate pass to the property where we have a house. The woman at the desk was very protective of those swipe cards, and rightly so. So, because my name was not explicitly on the property deed (It lists Mary and Fred Kempf Et Alia (Latin for “and others” - she didn’t understand that I was one of the ‘and others’) I, apparently, was not eligible to be given the same card my brother and brother in law already have in their possession. Even though I am the one who does most of the upkeep on the house.

It was the same for that un-named exorcist of the gospel. Because his name wasn’t on the ‘official list’ of disciples, it was obvious that God could not be using him to bring about the kingdom. In the first reading it is even worse. Eldad and Medad were on the list, but skipped the graduation exercise to be a prophet, yet there they were doing the prophet thing right with the rest. John expresses his ‘fan loyalty’ - “We tried to stop the exorcist because he was not following us.” Joshua invites Moses to do the same thing- to stop these folks because they didn’t have their union card.

Both Moses and Jesus respond in the same way. God will not be limited by your loyalties and your loves. “Would that all were prophets. Whoever is not against us is for us.” So, just when you think you figured out where and how God will be active in your life and world, watch out. Moses and Jesus are able to see God at work in surprising places and persons, so they counsel tolerance toward outsiders who manifest the spirit of god. God does not always root for the home team. And that’s okay.

Secondly, Jesus continues his comments now looking at the behavior of those INSIDE the organization. In hyperbolic language, he invites his disciples to avoid scandal – actions that lead others to sin. If your behavior, you exclusion of others, your pride, your wealth (as James reminds us in the second reading) leads others to sin or leads yourself to sin – then go after that tendency with out hesitancy or delay. Using images of parts of the body, Jesus addresses the body of believers in the early church – and holds them to a very high standard. They must not harm the body and the spirit of other believers. Our behavior, as a church, must be so welcoming, that EVERYONE finds a home here. And that is perhaps one of the bigger challenges in our faith. So I got to thinking about hands and feet and eyes. Do our hands greet the stranger in our school, that awkward student who sits in the corner of the classroom and never says a word? Do our eyes make folks who might have different philosophies or orientations or visions of life welcomed and loved instead of outcast and shamed? Dos our feet carry us to the neighborhoods where habitat for humanity is working, do they walk with the student who is struggling in a relationship? If your hands, eyes and feet aren’t loving the community with all you are – then watch out, Jesus warns.

In this season when we root our lungs out for the home team, we who follow Jesus are called to a dangerous loyalty. One that looks for the spirit of God in surprising places, and one that lives so uprightly, that no one is scandalized, but rather all are brought deeper in love and community and fellowship.

So cheer, hoot and holler for whatever team that claims your loyalties. On this team, led by Jesus though, follow him and befriend and love all who join you in that journey…