Cut it Out!

Jesus said, "If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell., And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched."  Mark 9:46-49

Yowza!  Jesus does not mince words this morning.

The narrative arc of chapter nine is one in which everybody around Jesus stumbles.  They don’t need blocks they’re tripping all over their feet.  Which probably has something to do with why he tells them to cut them off.

The chapter starts with the Transfiguration.  You all know that story.  Certain disciples get invited up the of the mountain with their teacher – where they see a manifestation of his divinity.  He transfigures before their eyes and radiates light with Moses and Elijah on either side, surely it was a life changing moment – and THEY got to see it.  Not everyone else – just them. No wonder they feel they are special – such proximity to holiness.

But they have to go back down – and when they get down there it seems despite that proximity – none of the holiness rubbed off.  They encounter a desperate father.  His son has been convulsing with demons and the father begs Jesus to heal him.  And adds – I asked your disciples to do it – but they couldn’t.

Oooooh – I bet that didn’t feel good.  No one likes that feeling – when the limits of our abilities are exposed.  I can think of several times that week where I struggled through that.  How about you?  I go from shame to embarrassment – with thoughts like – I don’t know what am doing – until finally working through to – nope, I know what I am doing – but there are simply limits to what I can do.

I don’t know if the disciples cycled through that when they were confronted by a failure?  But the father articulates it.  When he presses Jesus – and Jesus says – I’ll heal your son, to believe I can?  The father replies – Lord, I believe – help my unbelief.  The father is going to try to believe – but knows he has his limits – he has his doubts.  Jesus heals his son.  I don’t think Jesus is bothered by doubts.

Jesus does seem to be bothered however by the disciples’ egotistical behavior and actions which surely masks their insecurity at having doubts.

Jesus tells them he is to be betrayed, killed and in three days rise again.  They respond to that – not by asking him to please talk about that because it’s a pretty terrifying prediction – but by arguing which one of them is the greatest – who is going to then get the seat of power.  And Jesus says – wow guys – what I mean is whoever is first (by your standards) needs to be last.  For the most important thing you can do is with your words and actions bring people to God – whoever welcomes even a child (and as Josh talked about last week, children were not worth a lot back then) whoever welcomes someone in my name brings God that much closer.

So that was last Sunday - Now take a look at your bulletins and read the first verse – someone read it aloud – Teacher – we saw someone casting out demons IN YOUR NAME and we stopped him.

Do you think they stopped him because the disciples couldn’t do that with that Father’s son – and they’re jealous?  Do you think the disciples believe there isn’t enough God to go around – and only the people in this transfiguration club get to bring people to God?

The disciples don’t say they tried to stop him because they weren’t following Jesus – they tried to stop him because he wasn’t following “us” – the disciple club, the transfiguration club – perhaps we could even say – he wasn’t following their particular church.


So there's a guy from another church whose been getting quite a lot of press this week,  Pope’s been in town!  And who cares what team he’s on because – we all love – well, I don’t know if you love him – I love what I’ve seen of him.  A lot of people I talk to – particularly people who have fallen away from the church say – but I like this new pope..

How come?  Because he is a welcoming – in the name of Jesus presence.  

Do you remember his first Maundy Thursday – you know when we do the washing of the feet – the Pope is supposed to invite priests/bishops to the Vatican and wash their feet.  But what did he do?  In Jesus’ name he welcomed the least of these – he went into a prison – he washed the feet of prisoners – he washed the feet of Muslims– he washed the feet of women.  He went into a place of outcasts and physically welcomed them in God’s name.

We like this pope because he doesn’t want to live in a fancy palace but chooses the simpler apartment.

We like this pope because he skips lunch with the politicians to be with and eat with the homeless. We like this pope because even though he hasn’t changed any doctrine – he puts relationships with people over doctrine.  He encourages religious leaders to focus on relationships over rules.  On ways of embodying the gospel over judging those we consider unworthy of it.  Pope Francis shows – how you act in the name of Jesus is a lot more important than what you say in his name.

And when Pope Francis does speak – as did to congress this week.  He doesn’t criticize or judge or demonize ideologies or parties.  He builds people up – encouraging everyone to remember we strive for goodness – we want to work together – we have more in common among us than we do opinions that divide us.  He  doesn’t put stumbling blocks in people’s way – and he doesn’t act as if there are any stumbling blocks in his.  He goes and does what Jesus call us to do.

What if instead of going over to cut someone off from acting in Jesus’ name – because he wasn’t doing it their way – John the disciple went over to that guy casting out demons and said, “Hey – Hi – I’m John, this is Simon Peter and we’ve been trying to do what you’re doing – but we don’t seem to have the hang of it yet – could you help us?”  What if instead of acting out when they realized the limits of their abilities – when they were caught by their fear and doubt – what if they had asked for help?  What if they had reached out – and said – maybe there are other ways – other people that we could learn from – that we could invite into our Jesus movement.

Jesus told the disciples part of you will have to die to follow me.  You will have to deny parts of yourself in order to act in love.  I don’t think Jesus wants us to cut off parts of our bodies – I think Jesus is trying to get us to understand something really important about life in God – we humans tend to react in our fear or doubts or anxieties – by acting out.  We go straight to blame when we’re hurt – we get defensive when we’re scared.  Jesus says to those acting out disciples – those parts of you – you don’t need them – they don’t help you – they are stumbling blocks – get rid of them.

The chapter ends with this saying about salt.  Salt was a preservative back then that kept food from going bad.  In our day – salt is really used to bring out the good in a dish.  To enhance flavors that are already there.  To be used so that when someone eats they exclaim, "Thank you, that was divine!" Focus on the divinity within you and pay attention to what keeps you from it.  There are people all around us – some as famous as a Pope Francis – others, known just to you and me – who enhance our goodness. Let your hearts be caught by their spirit.  So that  we too can bring out the goodness in  others – we too can see the stumbling blocks in ourselves and decide to get rid of them.  We too can catch people’s hearts by the way we live our lives – the way we invite people into remembering what is good.  And frankly – it just feels a lot better to lift people up than to cut people down.  It feels good when we see our leaders to do it – and it feels good when we benefit from it.  So why wouldn’t we focus on feeling good?  I mean – its’ called the good news for a reason.  Amen.

The Rev. Arianne R. Weeks