John said to him, "Teacher, we saw a man casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he was not following us." But Jesus said, "Do not forbid him; for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon after to speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is for us. For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ, will by no means lose his reward.

"Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kindom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. For every one will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its saltness, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." Mark 9:38-50 (RSV)

"No one who performs a miracle in my name will be able soon afterward to say evil things about me. For whoever is not against us is for us." (vv. 39, 40, TEV)

Two words in our vocabulary conjure up opposite types of persons: the tolerant and the intolerant. One seems to wear a white hat; the other, a black one. Two little verses set these types in clear contrast. Jonathan Swift wrote:

We are God's chosen few,

All others will be damned;

There is no place in heaven for you,

We can't have heaven crammed.

Edwin Markham wrote:

He drew a circle that shut me out

-Rebel, heretic, thing to flout.

But Love and I had the wit to win

-We drew a circle that took him in.

These two attitudes underlie this passage in Mark's Gospel. Here we note three groups of sayings of Jesus, each of which suggests either the presence or absence of tolerance.

I

First of all (vv. 38-40), we have Jesus' disciple, John, coming to him and raising a complaint. John and his brother, James, were sons of Zebedee and were nicknamed "Sons of Thunder," because they were somewhat precipitous in their actions and judgments. What upset John this time was the sight of a man, who was not a member of the disciples' group, exorcising a demon from another man and doing so in the name of Jesus. The belief current at that time was that "if one could get to know the name of a still more powerful spirit, and then command the evil demon in that name to come out of a person, the demon was supposed to be powerless to resist." (William Barclay) Jesus' response to John was a cryptic remark:"He that is not against us is for us." This settled the case of John's intolerance.

And so with us. Intolerance stalks our footsteps whenever, in life's affairs, we condemn people who do not do everything our way. For example, take our Christian worship in all its multiple forms and practices. Don't we still have, in our churches, people who say to their neighbor, "You worship God in your way, but I'll worship him in his"? Intolerance scowls and says there is only one way to God - mine! Others have no right to their own thinking. "It's a fearful thing," writes Dr. Barclay, "for any man or any church to think that he or it has a monopoly on salvation." And G. Johnstone Jeffrey commented, "See that you do not deny the name of Christian to another because he or she is not wearing your label, denominational, ecclesiastical, or theological." Christian tolerance invites us to sit down together and assess our beliefs and doctrines by the kind of people they produce, by what these do for human need, and how limited really are our little ideas in the face of Christian truth. Bare intolerance has no place in Christian thinking for, as Dr. Barclay commented further, "Everyman in need has a claim upon us because every man is dear to Christ."

II

Second (vv. 43-48), Jesus indicates the dangers that lie in tolerance, in laissez-faire, in indifference to things as they are regardless of their obvious insufficiency. Always Jesus set before his disciples the greatest goal of all, namely, life; and for him that meant being in the Kingdom of God. What was meant by the kingdom? Simply this: wherever God's will was recognized and done. In his prayer given to the disciples, the petition reads, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Now this is not attained by our own wisdom, talents, or powers. It is received as a by-product of faith, commitment, and complete surrender. But this does not mean we can remain inactive, nor is it suggested that we can tolerate allowing our spiritual capacities to continue in a half-developed state. Discipline, self-denial, and sacrifice are meant to prevent any organ, spiritual or bodily, getting in the way of our goal. We are not to tolerate the do-nothingness of lazy tolerance. G. K. Chesterton reminded us, "Merely having an open mind is nothing." All of us must stand for something or else we shall fall for anything. Ours must be a discriminating tolerance.

III

Third (vv. 49, 50), Jesus talks metaphorically and uses, as his idiom, salt, an element very familiar to his people because of the role it played in their whole culture and economy. The idea here is that there needs to be an intolerance of tolerance. And the character and activity of salt illustrate aptly what Jesus meant. The Christian life is not all softness, relaxation, and "me-too-ism." There must be salt in it, for salt, like fire, has a purifying function. Moreover, it brings out inherent flavor and preserves what might otherwise decay. For us, in daily life, G. J. Jeffrey wrote about salt, "There must be something in it comparable to the stinging saltness of the sea-breeze, smarting, stimulating, giving tone to our whole system."

Here is implied, moreover, that for you and me to be truly Christian we must have strong convictions about what we believe and about how we act and why. They must not be wishy-washy and tolerant of all fuzzy opinions and attitudes. Jesus said, "Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." This is the happy combination of an informed intolerance and a balanced tolerance. An open mind is a tolerant one, but it cannot tolerate that which prevents us from becoming and continuing in what life in God's kingdom requires. "Sooner or later," wrote Ned Rorem, "you've heard all your best friends have to say. Then comes the tolerance of real love."