Mtr Mary Trainor

“...for whoever is not against you is for you.” Luke 9:50

Dear friend,

My two best friends throughout elementary, middle and high school were fundamentalist Christians. I am not sure when that began for them, but by high school it was firmly rooted.

My family went to church very seldom. On the rare occasions we attended, it was the Community Presbyterian Church, as a matter of convenience. It was just a block from our store—and “the kids need to go to church somewhere.”

There came a day in high school when my fundamentalist friends and I made a deal: We would attend each others’ churches. They went to the same church, which meant I would go with them one Sunday, and then they both would come with me the following Sunday. So, I went to theirs. But the following Sunday, they both were sick. The next Sunday, the same. Then confession time: they told me their parents would not let them to attend a Presbyterian church.

“...for whoever is not against you is for you.”

The Gospel for today’s Daily Office (Luke 9:37-50) is chock-full of rich topics: fresh off the mountain of transfiguration, Jesus healed a boy his disciples could not heal; he foretold his death; he gathered a child to his side by way of settling the disciples’ bickering over who was the greatest; and he pumped the brakes on their desire to stop someone—who was not one of them—from healing. “Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”

When my schoolmates did not attend my church, I was hurt. It seemed narrow and judgmental. But it was not exceptional, I am sorry to say.

Each of my parents, though they seemingly had shrugged off the jackets of their own Christian formation, nevertheless carried into adulthood biases they learned as children.

My father’s father was a staunch Roman Catholic; my mother’s family, equally staunch Southern Baptist. And by staunch I mean condemning of any church but their own.

This divide was never more apparent than when the Roman Catholic John F. Kennedy sought and won the U.S. presidency. The ensuing arguments nearly broke up our home.

My friends and my parents had something in common. Fear. Intolerance. Ignorance. But mostly fear. Fear of getting faith wrong and paying eternal consequences. And that same fear drove a wedge between them and cherished relationships. Each and every one of them a follower of Jesus, who worried that the other followers of Jesus were doing it wrong. They should have been reading Luke 9.

The disciples in our Gospel account also operated out of fear. Fear that the “other”--though doing godly work--was an affront to Jesus, and must be stopped. Jesus said no.

Out of a desire to secure what is precious and holy, it is all too easy to step on love, crush hope, block healing.

“...whoever is not against you is for you.”

Mtr. Mary