Coffee Houses and The Little Ones

 

Pentecost 18

Mark 9:38-50

I remember the year we decided to stop doing coffee houses.  They had been a long-time tradition in the campus ministry.  It was the big event every semester.  The whole campus was invited.  People would read poetry, play music, tell stories, share a rant, and drink coffee together. (I also remember the year we got the new-fangled espresso machine!)  But, every year, fewer and fewer people came.  Every year it was harder to get people to volunteer for all the planning and preparation required to pull it off.  Even more, it took so much time and energy from the small handful of people in the ministry that we didn’t have much time to do anything else.  The beloved tradition had not only become ineffective, it was getting in the way of ministry.  Change was necessary.  So we ended it.  Those few who were still deeply invested in the tradition cried out loudly.  “But, we’ve always done it that way!”  (Which was an amazing thing to hear from twenty year olds who had only been around for a few years).  Letting it go was not easy.  But, we did.

In Mark 9, Jesus suggests radical surgery for those things within the community of faith and in our personal lives that become stumbling blocks to our faith and even more, to the faith of those “little ones” who are not a part of the community.  The disciples complain to Jesus about someone casting out demons who “is not following us” but Jesus tells them not to stop him.  The disciples want to be in control, but  Jesus reminds them that God’s Reign is bigger than their comfortable little community. 

We who are “in the church” can get so tied up in our long-standing traditions, practices and customs that we can miss the new thing that God is doing just outside our big wooden doors.  Those traditions, practices and customs can become stumbling blocks to the faith of the “little ones” who believe but who have, for many reasons, been alienated from the church.  “But, we’ve always done it that way!”  can get in the way.  In our hearts, we know that change is necessary, but it can be so, so uncomfortable.  Radical surgery is necessary, but painful.  Too painful for many.  But, Jesus always calls us to remember the little ones.  Jesus always calls us to set aside our selfish need to be in control, take up our cross, lose our lives in him, embrace the servant lifestyle and participate in the Reign of God. 

The only other option is to keep doing coffee houses until the room is empty and the mic has gone silent.

Peace,

Bishop Mike