[Propertalk] Gospel Quotes for Mark 9:38-50 - Part 2

[Joe Parrish]

Once, on a bus tour of Egypt, we were led into a "school." It turned out to be a carpet factory where children sat hour after hour before huge looms, weaving lovely rugs to grace the living rooms of Western tourists like ourselves. They were beautiful children who flashed us shy smiles, and their hands flew so rapidly over the looms that we could scarcely see them. 

I remember a young woman from the tour, a college student, hugging one of the little girls and weeping- weeping that this child should have to forfeit her childhood, and her hope for the education that might lift her out of poverty, for the sake of the few dollars she was earning for her family by making rugs for tourists. Somehow, just by visiting, we all felt complicit in the exploitation and destruction of spirit that was going on in that so-called school. And even on the individual level, is it not the sad truth that most child abusers were abused as children themselves? In the justice of God, then, how will such people be judged-with the punishment befitting abusers or with the compassion befitting the abused? 

CHRISTIAN CENTURY September 13-20, 2000, Page 902 

Joel Marcus 
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3. Salt has also been used as a substance of preservative through the ages to maintain and keep; things live longer.
4. Salt has also been used to melt snow and make ways in a very snowy circumstance--an agent of transformation in the presence of a Christian can make a way and a hope out of no way because of the transforming presence of the Holy Spirit in our life.

5. It brings flavor and taste. That means that salt brings taste to the tasteless and flavor to something that does not have any flavor.

http://day1.org/496-being_salt_to_the_world

Gemechis Buba 
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...in Washington, D.C., we were meeting persons, inviting them to join us in our work. I was walking down the street one day and I met a man sitting on a bench and I stopped to chat with him, and suddenly he said, "Are you a preacher?" 
I said, "Well, matter of fact I am." 
And then he almost sneered. He said, "Tell me, what difference does it make in my life that Jesus Christ died on a cross two thousand years ago?" 
I could have talked to him about some theories of the atonement out of theology, but instead I looked at him and asked, "Do you have some friends?" 
"Yes," he said, "I have friends." 
I said, "Suppose one gets in trouble." 
He said, "You hang in with him." 
I said, "It gets really severe." 
He said, "You still hang in." 
I said, "It gets really rough. When can you cop out?" 
He looked at me in amazement and he said, "Man, if he's your friend you never cop out." 
Then I smiled and said, "And God came to us in Jesus as our friend, and we're in trouble and He hung in. Our trouble got really difficult, and He hung in. When could Jesus cop out?" 
The man looked at me and it was almost as though lights went on in his eyes. He smiled. He said, "You mean that is why Jesus had to die?" 
I said, "That's one reason. He came and said, `Your problem is now my problem.'" 

http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/augsburger_3820.htm

Myron Augsburger, 1995
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Envy, jealousy and the real thing.  These are two of the themes that run through the texts as first the followers of Moses and then the followers of Jesus are struggling with who has the spirit or power of God for their lives.  "Someone other than us is prophesying," they complained to Moses.  "Someone else is casting out demons," they complained to Jesus.  The reality is that there is work to be done, a world to reach and God will get the task done through those who give themselves to it - authorized by human authority or not!

http://www.lectionarysermons.com/octr01-00.htm

John Jewell, 2000
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Once upon a time, some members of the staff of a local parish were very distressed when they learned that a group of women parishioners had begun gathering for bi-weekly theology discussions. The staff members feared that without the proper direction from pastoral leaders, these people might develop an erroneous understanding of their faith. When the pastor learned of the staff concerns, he reminded them that they were not the sole custodians of the faith of the community.

http://www.agreeley.com/homilies00/oct01.htm

Mary G. Durkin
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