Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The church has struggled throughout her history to decide where the boundary lines are between that which is Christian and that which is not. The question is who is “in” and who is “out.” It is important to note that those who claim no special relationship with Jesus Christ are considered to be outside. That’s not hard to determine.

When there is trouble within the Christian communion, then one faction is having trouble with another faction. The issue at hand may be a very troubling issue. One example would be over the person and work of Christ. What is one to believe if one may be counted within the communion of the church? Is Jesus an example of a good man whose moral life we should emulate? Well, yes, but that is not what defines a Christian. Many non-Christians believe that Jesus lived and was a good man. There is something among the faithful that insists on more in the understanding of Jesus. An outsider may believe in the goodness of Jesus. An insider will confess that in some way Jesus has a unique relationship with God. In fact classic confessions of faith insist that God is so present in the life and work of Jesus that we cannot speak of God without reference to Jesus.

Thus, we confess in the Nicene Creed.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father.

In 325 A.D. those persons who did not confess this relationship were categorized as “heretics.” Their teachings were called “heresy.” Heretics were considered outsiders. This could be dangerous where Christianity was considered to be the official religion of a particular kingdom or principality. To be a heretic then meant to be outside the protection of the king or even to be the enemy of the king. Heretics were dealt with harshly and often executed in the name of Jesus.

To call someone a heretic was to threaten people with the loss of life or standing in the community. It meant exclusion from the dominant community of faith and from society and its protections. It was a scary thing to be called a heretic. There were many theologians of the church who understood the violence associated with the use of accusations of heresy and the designation of a teaching as heresy. These theologians realized that faith could not come about through the use of force.

Martin Luther was dismissed by Rome as a heretic. He experienced the threat of death first hand as the Pope declared him excommunicated and under the ban. This meant that Luther was no longer protected by the normal rules of civility and could be killed in the name of the very faith that he was trying to reform.

In our own day the use of the term heresy and the designation of people as heretics is not common. Maybe that is because we have lost a definitive sense of what is Christian and what is not. The main thing to understand is that when the term heresy is applied, it is used to exclude people and to help the faithful to know what is orthodox teaching as opposed to the heterodox teachings of heretics.

With the violent history of the use of the language of heresy and heretics the church has backed away from overuse of the term. For example, the Roman Catholic Church has engaged in a highly significant dialogue with the Lutheran Churches on topics such as the doctrine of justification by faith, the papacy, Mary Mother of our Lord, and our understanding of the ministries and ordained ministers of the church. We have agreements on the understanding of justification and on Mary, but we do not agree on the office of the Pope and on the nature of ordination. We ordain women. The Roman Catholic Church does not.

Still, the dialogues go on. In many instances Lutherans feel like the outsiders when we dialogue with Rome. We are excluded from Holy Communion in Roman congregations. We, on the other hand, invite all the baptized to the Lord’s table. Lutherans do not believe that faith in the pope is necessary for faith in Jesus Christ. We pray for the pope because he is such an important person in the world and for the churches.

What are we to say? When we dialogue, do we call a spade a spade? Or do we express our understandings of matters of faith in such a way that the conversation can move on knowing that we cannot dismiss others radically or exclude them from the Christian communion.

This is exactly what the author of the Gospel of Mark is driving at in today’s reading. Listen to what is going on. John is the brother of James. Both are known as the “sons of thunder.” John comes to Jesus and says,

Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us. (Mark 9:38)

This is one of the funniest stories told in Mark. The evangelist tells us that already two times Jesus has taught the disciples that he must suffer, die and rise again. They reject such teaching as incomprehensible. Jesus has also commissioned his disciples to preach the message of the kingdom of God, to heal the sick and to cast out demons. After their awesome experience at the Transfiguration, the disciples return from the mountain. A man begs them to heal his son by exorcizing a demon that possesses the lad, causing him to seize and be injured. The disciples are unable to carry out the work. Jesus shows up and does the exorcism.

After their failure at their work, John tells Jesus that they tried to stop a man who was successfully doing his work of exorcizing demons in Jesus’ name. The reason for their action was that the man was not following them, the ones who are unable to do such a great work in Jesus’ name.

Jesus’s response is most interesting. He tells them not to stop the man because no one can do such work in Jesus’ name and then speak ill of Jesus. Jesus then declares a very useful proverb.

Whoever is not against us is for us. (Vs. 40)

Jesus thereby declares that the boundary between the circle of disciples and others who operate outside that boundary is not the decisive factor in our understanding of the church.

Jesus then declares,

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. (Vs. 41)

What is the Gospel of Mark driving at? This is what I think. Be careful before you start drawing lines between you and others who are working in Jesus’ name.

Dear congregation, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America just struck down a dividing line. We did not alter Christian doctrine, but we did alter Christian practice. We finally conceded that persons living in lifelong, publicly accountable, monogamous, same gender relationships might do work in Jesus’ name. We are no longer supporting a rule that operates in the opposite direction saying that it is impossible for God to use such persons in the work of the kingdom. I don’t think God likes this kind of language.

Granted, dropping this rule is a departure from church tradition. Time will tell whether it is a departure from the Lordship of Christ or an extension of his Lordship over all the world. There are those who reject this move. There are those who welcome it. Most are simply waiting to see what it means for them. The elimination of the old rule will have little impact on the life of our congregations who are still free to act within the demands of their own consciences.

It seems to me that before we start calling each other heretics or trying to demonize people working in good conscience that we should simply recognize that God does not draw boundary lines in quite the same way that we do. We like it when Jesus says, “Whoever is not with me is against me.” (Matthew 12:30) But what about today’s reading?

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.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.