Whose team are we on?

Text: Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29 and Mark 9:38-50

I’ve heard that disputes within organizations are often not about a decision that is made but about who it was that got to make the decision. Everyone may agree that the decision is sound, but someone or some group within the organization believes that they should have been the ones to decide, not the ones who did.

And so conflict will ensue within the organization. We might call this a turf battle. It may manifest itself as not-quite-friendly competition among individuals or groups engaging in the occasional skirmish, or it may devolve into an outright war, and thus become the seeds of the organization’s eventual destruction.

No doubt you’ve seen this in some form. At work, at school, in your family, in the political arena.

The turf warrior marks out the territory: This is my activity, this my sphere of influence, this is my decision. You stay over there and do something else. I mean, look, the fact is, my team is just better. For example, my team is kind. So don’t let me catch one of your team members being kind, because my team is the kind team, and if I see that one of your team members is being kind, that’s just going to complicate things a lot for me, see?

This is an old story. We see two examples today.

From Numbers, we hear that a group of 70 elders was handpicked by Moses to share the burden of caring for the people with him, after Moses had cried out in the wilderness to the Lord, why do I have to take care of all these grumpy whiny people by myself? I’m not their mother! 

And so the handpicked elders took their place in the leadership, which was signified by the presence of the Spirit of God upon them. Great.

But then someone spies Eldad and Medad, who are not among the handpicked leadership, also exhibiting the Spirit of God, and now we have a problem. Eldad and Medad are not on our team. Our team does the good stuff, and here they are also doing the good stuff, so you have to stop them, Moses! They cannot do good stuff. That’s our turf.

And Moses retorts, for Pete’s sake, stop it. I wish everyone would do the good stuff. The world would be a better place if everyone showed the spirit of God in their lives, no matter what team they are on.

And then along comes Jesus’s disciple John, who apparently had forgotten that story from the Torah. Here he is, a handpicked follower of Jesus who has been given the power to heal people who were beset by demons, whatever that means. And he sees someone else healing people from their demons and goes back to tell on him. “Jesus! Some guy who is not on our team is healing people out there. That’s got to stop. He can’t do that. That’s our turf.”

At this point, I have to wonder if the monks who copied out the Gospel of Mark in the 5th century decided to omit that Jesus then rolled his eyes so hard. For John not only told on the unauthorized healer but he declared that the reason why this was bad was because he was not following us. Us. Not that he wasn’t following YOU, Jesus. He was not following us. He is not on our team, which by the way, check this out, has become a subset of your team now.

In the 1st Century, Matthew, Mark, and Luke reported Jesus saying that a house divided against itself cannot stand. In the 19th century, Abraham Lincoln repeated that declaration. No doubt countless others have too, in every age. It obviously is very hard for us to overcome our tribal instincts. We sort ourselves into teams and are proud members of our teams and root for our teams and then at some point we begin to see those on other teams as something less than we are. Less talented, less educated, less kind, less deserving. And sometimes what may have started out as friendly competition, checks and balances in the game of life, devolves into branding those on the other team not only as the other team, but The Other itself. They are not just less, they are worthless. Maybe they are not really even human. 

It may be an old story but it is not ONLY an old story. It’s still being played out. Demonizing those on the other team has these days become like a national sport - on TV, in the public arena, in the market square. Let’s see what derogatory names we can call those whose positions on this issue differ from ours. Let’s see how successfully we can paint them with this broad brush and stoke up the fear-mongering to solidify our team. Let’s see how far we can go with our disdain and judgment, even if it means dividing our own families into camps that do not speak to each other any more. 

And so - I can't come over to your house for dinner unless I know what team you are on. I can't go on a date unless I know that you agree with me on the issues that are important to me. I can't spend Thanksgiving with you unless you are on my team . . . 

And we are unable to see ourselves sowing the seeds of our own destruction.

But as followers of Jesus, we are to be a people of hope. We believe in transformation. So maybe we could hope that the last cry of the turf warrior could go something like this: you better not agree with me on THIS issue if you disagree with me on THAT issue, because if you show yourself to be a complex human just like me, and if I realize that you actually share some of my values and concerns, and that even if you don’t share all of them you’re not actually my enemy, well - that’s just going to make it hard for me, see? 

That’s going to make it hard for me …. to continue to see you as Other, hard for me to keep calling you names, hard for me keep to keep obeying my tribal instincts, hard for me to keep refusing to recognize you as my neighbor who Jesus has commanded me to love. And then who will I be?

Who indeed? Transformation is a beautiful thing.

We are all made in the image of God, no matter what team we are on. Healing is good, no matter who does it. Kindness cannot become the property of only those who follow us. Goodness and mercy do not have limits. God’s lavish love and blessings are not anyone’s to keep for themselves or to deny to others. 

So let this be our daily prayer: Lord, help us to learn to be at peace with one another.