Mark 9:38-50

Year B - Pentecost +18 or Energy to Witness ¹⁸

September 27, 2015

Mark 9:38-50

1) From the New Community Bible: “The community of Jesus must reject the temptation to exclusivism and groupism. They cannot claim to be the exclusive dispensers of God’s gifts. God, who is the source of every good, can make use of anyone to bestow his blessings. Just as Jesus ruled out personal arrogance (9:33-37), he now rules out group arrogance.”

2) Try this sequence:

1. Everyone will be salted with fire. (A Pentecost reference?)
2. Salt is a good thing; but if it loses its saltiness . . . . (Fire is a good thing; but if it loses its journey to the street and being shared, how can you make it fire again?)
3. Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another. (A Pentecost reference?)

What group are you part of or stand with? There’s a fire there.

How do salt and fire lose their identity? Arrogance (to claim or seize without justification) loses our place as we claim the space others are gifted to hold.

The sharing of salt is an ancient sign of hospitality. Again from New Community Bible: [Verse 50] “speaks of preserving the salt of hospitality and friendship in their day-to-day life. This has to be a distinctive mark of the disciples of Christ, the loss of which will make them worthless.”