Scripture

38 John said to him, ‘Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.’ 39But Jesus said, ‘Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me. 40Whoever is not against us is for us. (Mark 9:38-40)

Reflection

God uses unexpected people to do his work. (There are plenty of examples of that in the Bible: Moses, Jospeh, David…the rag-tag bunch of first disciples!) I experienced that when I was exploring my call to ordination: God using the most unexpected people to ask me, “When are you going to get ordained?” (Even someone who professed not to believe in God asked me!) God can and does work through all sorts of different people. We should not limit what God can do, or how he does it, because that person does not comply with our stereotype of who is able to do God’s work! It is a pretty incredible demand that the disciple, John, is making…..he’s trying to limit who God can work through! Let’s not fall into the same trap.

It can be uncomfortable to see others - people who we have deemed as “not being Christians” - doing things to help where they have seen a need…… and we either haven’t seen the need or, worse still, have ignored it!

Revd David