One of Us

I remember high school as an affiliation of all kinds of people. We were to be united in spirit under the identity of the school’s name, the mascot, the alma mater, the fight song, and things like that. In theory, all of that “Rah, rah, hooray for our side,” brought us together, but I remember us being a little bit tribal. Sub-sets found affinity within their group.

I remember with discomfort how terrible we—on the wrestling team—were on one issue. Our practice space was down in the basement under the gymnasium, wrestling mats covering the concrete floor. Sometimes a student, not on the wrestling team, wanted to cross through our area from the weight room to the set of stairs up to the gym floor level. A reasonable expectation, but we would insist they used the other set of stairs and not traverse our room. Sometimes wrestlers would convince trespassers they were not welcome with actions I now would consider assault, not communication. I could not bring myself to participate in such bullying but was there to coax them to release the poor guy, so he could find that other way upstairs.

I don’t know what it is about me and our species that makes us territorial, making others the suspicious “outsider”. We too easily go there. We discover from the Gospel we will read this Sunday, that Jesus is looking only for people to align with the power of God for the good of others. He is not fond of pushing the more typical associations, and the usual divisions. We learn everywhere we look that Jesus is doing a whole new thing with who he is and what he is up to.

John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “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. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.

Being on the team is an elusive reality for Jesus. His disciples can’t quite figure it out. In this instance, it has to do with aligning with the power of his name to do a powerful deed for good.