Who is not against us is for us!

Mark 9:38-40

John said to Jesus, ‘Master, we saw a man who is not one of us casting out devils in your name; and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him.’ But Jesus said, ‘You must not stop him: no one who works a miracle in my name is likely to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us.’

Numbers 11:25-29

GOD came down in a cloud and spoke to Moses and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy leaders. When the Spirit rested on them they prophesied. But they didn't continue; it was a onetime event. 26 Meanwhile two men, Eldad and Medad, had stayed in the camp. They were listed as leaders but they didn't leave camp to go to the Tent. Still, the Spirit also rested on them and they prophesied in the camp. 27 A young man ran and told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!" 28 Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses' right-hand man since his youth, said, "Moses, master! Stop them!" 29 But Moses said, "Are you jealous for me? Would that all GOD's people were prophets. Would that GOD would put his Spirit on all of them."

Food for thought!

What do you think of these two Readings? They both deal with something called jealousy and tolerance. Jealousy does not always come from bad people alone; sometimes it comes from good people like you and me. Did you notice that in the Reading from Numbers who is jealous is Joshua, who had been Moses' right-hand man since his youth; and in the Gospel Reading it is John, the Beloved disciple?

Even good people can be jealous. I can be jealous; you can be jealous. So the question is, why do people who are blessed become jealous of other blessed people? Good people like Joshua and John intolerant of other people trying to do good? Why do we stop people who are doing, not evil, but good? John says that it is because they do not belong to our group!

Many Christian people lament that God no longer has a place in our world today. Maybe we are looking for God in the wrong places. If we looked beyond the Tent of Meeting and beyond those who belong to our group, it might surprise us to see that God is as active in our world today as He has always been. He may be working with those we regard as the wrong people, and in places we deem to be the wrong places.

It is wrong for any of us to think that our church has a monopoly of salvation. Why? Because there are many ways to God. He has his own secret stairway into every heart. He fulfils himself in many ways; and no man or church has a monopoly of his truth.

But--and this is intensely important--our tolerance must be based not on indifference but on love. We ought to be tolerant not because we could not care less; but because we look at the other person with eyes of love. When Abraham Lincoln was criticized for being too lenient to his enemies and reminded that it was his duty to destroy them, he gave the great answer, "Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?" Even if a man be utterly mistaken, we must never regard him as an enemy to be destroyed but as a strayed friend to be recovered by love.