November 18, 2001
Mark 2:13-27; 23-28
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"It's all in the Company You Keep"
Dr. Tom Richards
Executive Secretary Of the NACCC

Traveling throughout the country I have realized more than any reading alone could confirm, that we are a culture yearning for spiritual  renewal. But there is also a religious unrest from those who fear the diversity of opinions as to what that spiritual yearning is all about.  God's name is being used as never before, which places unheralded responsibility on the company of God's people to speak and act with clarity and compassion.

In the name of God, who invites us to a world In which mercy fuels love, and love fuels acceptance, and acceptance fuels hope. Amen .

The English poet and satirist Jonathan Swift once wrote:
We have just enough religion to make us hate,
but not enough to make us love one another.

Not a very uplifting sentiment, is it?  But, then, we are in a political and cultural environment where there seems to be more and more finger-pointing going on.  Is it any doubt, then, that religious convictions seem to provide more fuel for dividing people than bringing them together.  So disenchanted are so many that the us against them permeates almost every business, labor dispute, board of directors, group or organization's discussion.  Lay-offs, economic downturns, and a host of other factors contribute to the intensity of die situation.  As us-and-them grows, care and compassion are challenged.

In some ways we see a similar situation unfolding in our scripture this morning.   There is Jesus, once again, pitted against his critics.  A heated debate is ensuing centering around the company and practices he keeps.  "Just who does he think he is?" asks one with haughty self-assurance.  A traditional Jew, eating with Gentiles, and then telling his disciples it's OK to break the Sabbath laws?" says another.  "That wouldn't have happened twenty years ago," one says shaking his head.  "Just another phase, some upstart, smart aleck.  Give him a year and he'll be a tiling of the past," says another under his breath.  "What kind of ministry is this guy talking about, anyway?" yet another asks.

But those who were eager for a new way of doing things were probably just as self-righteous.  "God's love is for everyone!" their spiritual sensibilities may be shouting.  "Stop shutting people out with old, dead rules, which divide people into the nice and neat and the loose and wrong. Don't we understand the love Jesus is trying to offer this world?"

Religious folk can be many things, but one of the things we tend to be, to our detriment, is overly judgmental.  And.-the real tragedy is we use religion to justify it.  Judgments flare up so quickly, don't they?  They divide so cleanly.

Looking at the verses before us this morning, we are challenged to find a little more compassion in our hearts - for those on the other side of the prejudices toward Jesus, as well as those on the outside, whom Jesus is trying to bring into the fold.  Appreciating the long history of what came before this incident with Jesus, we can better reflect on the magnitude of Jesus' actions.  Just what was he doing in this encounter?  Why was there such division over it?

He was keeping company with the wrong people.  He was shopping at the malls on Sundays.  He was spending money on the Sabbath.  He was trading money on the Sunday.  He was doing therapy with people on Sunday.  He wasn't attending worship services.  He was breaking religious law.  He was making a mockery out of everything he had been taught.

In readings like this, it's easy enough to side with Jesus, and to demonize the authorities who question him.  As a theologian I'm always tempted to make them the bad guys.  And... I suspect.  I'm not alone.  They foolishly follow old rules, and only God knows why.  (After all, we have Churches that are dying, not because they lack the message, but because they love the way they've been dealing with that message so much, that they don't appreciate the need or desire to translate the message for the culture that yearns to hear it in a new way).

All you have to do is read the Old Testament as opposed to the New Testament, and by putting them in that position, it is pretty much guaranteed that "old" will be seen as bad and "new" will be seen as good in your eyes.

Look at some of St. Paul's comments, for instance, about the old law and the new law (and some of Jesus' own words), and it's easy to see how we could pit ourselves against our heritage.  Why, when we so deeply believe Jesus came to bring God's offer of love and reconciliation, do we find it so tempting to use his teachings to put others in the wrong?  Jesus was a Jew, after all, but one who openly chose not to follow all the holy laws of their shared tradition.

Lionel Blue wrote a book entitled, "To Heaven, with Scribes and Pharisees."  In it he states: "To the outsider the attention that Judaism lavishes on food is excessive.   But insiders know that the question of food involves, however clumsily, the meaning of ritual, the relevance of purity, and the survival of holiness." Have you ever heard Judaism described in such a way?  These details seem small, but to Judaism religion IS detail.  But, this is the truth behind the accusations falling at Jesus' feet.  He just wasn't concerned with torah.

You've heard the expression, You are judged by the company you keep?

These were the words my 22 brothers and sisters and I heard from my father. "I don't want you hanging around THOSE boys.  They're always in trouble!" he would say.  "So and so said they saw you and a bunch of boys hanging around the school parking lot.  Only kids  looking for trouble hang around in parking lots!"

When I came home and announced that I had joined an all black band, he asked, "Are you ready for what that might mean to those around you?"  He wanted to warn me that I might take some flack from others.  "I don't care what others think," I said.

Then, later, I came home with my best friend, Ralph Ritacco, whose family was very strict Catholics, my father asked me, "Have you thought about what it means in this neighborhood, to have an Italian Catholic friend?"  He wanted me to be aware of the company I was keeping in a white middle class Anglo-Saxon neighborhood of die-hard protestants.  "I don't care what others think," I said. 

When people ask where I last served a parish and I say "Nantucket," often the reply is "Whoa!  Nantucket!  And you left?!"  Implication.  Resort.  Beaches, reputation. You had to have been in great company.

Sometimes, I admit, I play along.  "Yeh... tough duty. Did I tell you that I officiated at Jack Welch's wedding?"  "No!  You did?"  Now we're talking serious company!

When Doug and I first started showing up at meetings together, he would introduce me to business people, and new people in our Churches, as his successor.  It was somewhat comical.  Some of them would look up, and then look down at me, ask, "YOU are Doug Lobb's successor?"  (And, I want you to know Doug, I felt bad for you, because obviously they were making fun of how tall you are!). But there have also been genuine "Wows!" from people I have known for years, who are genuinely happy for me! 

And do you know what, I walk taller as a result.  (Well, OK I'm pushing the walking taller bit, but you know what I mean?)

It's great to be in such good company - the company of the committed to Christianity in the Congregational Way. I'm proud to be in such good company.

After all, you and I are judged by the company we keep.  The phrase reminds us in a startling way that for most in our society the company we keep is a key indicator of our standing in life, our position and our priorities.  Jesus chose to keep company with gentiles rather than with Jews - a radical decision.  One that, for the authorities, caused irreparable separation.  When he broke with tradition, this actions ruined his credibility with his own.  He went against Jewish ritual, purity, and holiness.  It didn't matter to those who were offended that he was ushering in a new way to God.

For Mark's gospel it DID matter.  This was, after all, the first Gospel to proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ's radical ministry of reconciliation - an ethic of care and compassion.  This particular chapter was written some twenty years before Matthew and Luke, thirty before John's gospel, and it strikes out with boldness and determination.  He calls fishermen and tax collectors, no birth narrative, no lineage, no frills - right to the point.  "This is not only a great prophet," Mark tells us, "This is the Messiah!  It's a new day and a new tradition of worship of God."   We're challenged not just to keep company with our own kind but with those who want to follow Christ.

Mark has two things in mind.  One: Jesus' ministry breaks with the traditions to bring God's mission and mercy to those outside the fold. Two: it served as a warning to those who were part of Mark's community.  They wanted everyone to have the same experience.  The group he spoke to, after all, was a group of converted Jews.  Some contended that earlier laws had to be observed as they struck out on this new way to salvation.  This meant that, as far as some of them were concerned, newcomers, even non-Jews, had to become Jewish before they could join them at the table for worship.

Mark was quick to say "No!  No!  No!"  The Jesus Mark described, brought a new order to things, one that accepted people as they are.  Circumcision, the Sabbath laws, the rituals of temple worship, didn't need to be a mandatory requirement for everyone.  How often we hear the phrase these days, "It's simple.  There's ONE way.  Why can't people see that?"

It is OK says Mark that we are a diverse clan.  The only tiling that matters is that we are faithful, devoted servants of the Christian way of living.

"Judged by the company we keep."  Within the theology of Christian renewal and integration we can see that our actions often do speak louder than our words; that who we reach out to, and how we treat them, is one of the most significant ways we practice our faith.  No, food restrictions and Sabbath ritual are not the most significant part of Our tradition.  But, loving our neighbor, offering care and justice to the poor, offering comfort to the forgotten, living a life of love, is.

Theologian John Bennett put it so well, "The distinctive element in Christian ethics is the primacy of love, the self-giving love that is known fully to Christian faith in the cross of Christ.”

Mark's Gospel reminds us of this truth. The central ethic of our faith is one of inclusion, of the all-embracing love of God, offered to the world each and every day, by you.

We all hunger and thirst for God, for purpose and community.  Knowing our own paths of searching, we remember those struggling outside these sanctuary walls: the addict who wakes up desperate for a fix; the child whose home was traumatized by terrorism; the person beaten by an abusive partner; the family struggling with the violent child; first, second, perhaps even third generation Muslim Americans who suffer from prejudice; Afghan refugees who are in war within and without; those who suffer present-day economic woes - they seek community, closeness, and compassion.  We know that it is such as these, all who are weak and heavy laden, who are the focus of our faith.  Jesus says to all of us "Take my love to all corners of the earth.  Give it to everyone you meet.  Let no one go un-reminded or untouched."

We see this ethic of inclusion at work in Mark's entire Gospel.  People are more important than things.  Men and women are always more important than what they have.  Love is always more powerful than hate.  Workers are always more important than machines.  The foundational law of our faith is we give glory to God through our love for one another, strangers and friends alike, Jews and Gentiles alike.

The poet writes whimsically: Bad company is a disease; Who lies with dogs, shall rise with fleas.  Well, but bad company lays not so much with a particular type of person, but rather in a certain state of mind.  Rigidity, cruel intentions, self-righteousness, prejudices, bigoted certainty are all what make religion a vehicle of hate and separation, rather than love and compassion.

The company we keep in many ways is so reflective of the salvation we seek. Let me be sure you heard that: The company we keep in many ways is so reflective of the salvation we seek.  May we choose to keep company with God, and so live in the world with love.