Teacher, we saw a man using your name and we stopped him!

Mark 9:38-43.47-48

38 John spoke up, "Teacher, we saw a man using your name to expel demons and we stopped him because he wasn't in our group." 39 Jesus wasn't pleased. "Don't stop him. No one can use my name to do something good and powerful, and in the next breath cut me down. 40 If he's not an enemy, he's an ally. 41 Why, anyone by just giving you a cup of water in my name is on our side. Count on it that God will notice. 42 "On the other hand, if you give one of these simple, childlike believers a hard time, bullying or taking advantage of their simple trust, you'll soon wish you hadn't. You'd be better off dropped in the middle of the lake with a millstone around your neck. 43 - 45 "If your hand or your foot gets in God's way, chop it off and throw it away. You're better off maimed or lame and alive than the proud owner of two hands and two feet, godless in a furnace of eternal fire. 47 And if your eye distracts you from God, pull it out and throw it away. 48 You're better off one-eyed and alive than exercising your twenty-twenty vision from inside the fire of hell. 49 "Everyone's going through a refining fire sooner or later, 50 but you'll be well-preserved, protected from the eternal flames. Be preservatives yourselves. Preserve the peace."
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!

Both the first reading and the gospel 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 first Reading who is jealous is Joshua, who had been Moses' right-hand man since his youth; and in the Gospel Reading 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 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 in the wrong places. If we looked beyond the Tent of Meeting and beyond those who belong to our group, or religion and church 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 paths to heaven. God has his own secret stairway into every heart. He fulfills himself in many ways; and no man or church has a monopoly of his truth. This is why we have to be tolerant with people we consider outsiders; people not belonging to our group, our church, our religion.

Mk. 9:41-42
Whoever gives you a cup of water to drink on the ground that you belong to Christ, I tell you truly he will not lose his reward. And whoever puts a stumbling-block in the path of one of these little ones who believe in me, it is better for him that a great millstone hang about his neck and he be cast into the sea.
The teaching of this passage declares that any kindness shown, any help given, will not go unnoticed. Jesus says, WHOEVER, that is, anybody of any race, sex, religion or colour. He does not say any Catholic or any Christian, but whoever! This means that there are many disciples of Jesus out there that we do not know; that do not belong to our group. It means further that at the end of our life the question will not be about our religion but rather about how many cups of water we have given to laws were broken but rather, how much help we rendered to the needy.
And it is to be noted how simple the help is. The gift is a CUP OF WATER. We are not asked to do great things for others, things beyond our power. We are asked to give the simple things that anybody can afford. “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.” (Deuteronomy 30: 11-13)
The opposite is also true. To help is to win the eternal reward. To cause a weaker brother to stumble is to win the eternal punishment. To sin is terrible but to teach another person to sin is infinitely worse. God is not hard on the sinner, but he will be stern to the person who makes it easier for another to sin, and whose conduct, either thoughtless or deliberate, puts a stumbling-block in the path of a weaker brother.

Jesus mention the “hand” the “foot” and the “eye”. These are our three problem areas when it comes to dealing with sin. The “hand” refers to “the things we do.” The “foot” refers to “the places we go.” The “eye” refers to “the things we see or desire to have.” These three words describe the problem areas where we humans are tempted most. They are the areas that need our attention, other wise they can lead us to sin, as often they do.