St. Paul’s 9-30-2018 – Proper 21
Marfa Ministerial Alliance 5thSunday Worship
What begins with the disciples trying to score points with Jesus for stopping someone who is doing the work of the kingdom – healing and casting out demons – ends with Jesus telling us all to be salted with fire! In between there is all this talk of stumbling around and lopping off limbs, tearing out eyeballs and being thrown into “hell”: All in all a fun day with Jesus on the road to Jerusalem.
This is all a part of a longer section of Mark’s gospel concerned with discipleship – faithful discipleship. That is, What is expected of those of us who would call ourselves Christians?This really is a question about what it means to be human. We are to be spiced up, healed and purified by fire and salt. Oh yeah, and stop stumbling around.
Fire in the ancient world was used to purify things. Still is. Get rid of that deadly e. coli bacteria with fire, lots of fire. Just as we were all eating our spinach fresh and loving rare hamburgers, now we are told to boil the spinach to death and go back to “well done” burgers.
Which bring us to salt. Salt was used to preserve foods, extend shelf-life if you will. It was also used to spice things up. And finally salt was used medicinally.
Altogether these sayings on fire and salt suggest several things. Healing within the community of Christ is necessary to be a disciple of Jesus – especially healing that is reconciliation rather than division and challenging one another’s credentials. (We might note the vast difference in meaning between Jesus’ Whoever is not against us is for us,vs. what we hear in our politics these days, You are either with us or against us.) Further, the salt that flavors us distinctively as Christ’s own people is meant to keep us from blending in with the surrounding culture. This distinctiveness implies eliminating – lopping off – those things that cause us to stumble – things that get in the way of being good and faithful disciples so that we can all do the work of the Gospel. The contribution of Christians to the health of the world depends on our own wholesomeness. The life of the world depends on us. The same could be said about Marfa and the surrounding communities—our world close at hand.
Another metaphor for all of this might be pruning. We need to prune away those things that block us from following Jesus and fulfilling our Baptismal Covenant so that we can grow in those ways that make us more human. The Christian life is a life of following and pruning – pruning and following. This pruning is not so much for our sake as for the sake of the Gospel.
Most of what needs to be pruned away is a modern world that teaches self-centeredness and self-reliance (independence) as the key to the fullness of life. Whereas Jesus calls us to be those people who dare to say that the secret of life – and death – is giving oneself away: reaching out to others, to the world and to God. It is a call to a radical dependenceon God, and radical interdependenceupon one another. Some may call it collectivism, but from beginning to the end the Bible outlines God’s Dream that we would depend upon God alone, and take care of one another. The earth is the Lord’s and everything therein. Psalm 24 If it is all God’s, we are God’s appointed stewards of everything. And everythingis to be used for the common good of the whole human community – nothing is to be set aside for personal gain. Going way back to God providing Manna daily for the Hebrew people on the way to the Promised land, No more and no less then they needed daily. God envisions a society in which everyone has enough, no one has too much, and if you try to accumulate too much it sours on you. It is God’s Dream of Shalom – justice and peace for all people, respecting the dignity of every human being. All are children of God…no matter what their country of origin, race, sexulality, economic status or religion….
For the consequences of accumulating and withholding goods that are to be used for the collective common good, a close reading of Joshua 7:1-16 (The Sin of Achan), and Acts 5: 1-11 (The Sin of Ananias and Sapphira). Using the wealth and goods of the whole community to be redistributed to those in need is a Biblical imperative with grave consequences for those who act otherwise.
God has gifted us with himself – the Word became flesh and dwelt among us – and if we wish to achieve fulfillment, we, too, must give ourselves away. Moral progress comes only as we learn to acknowledge life as a gift – not earned or achieved – but given.
To be wrapped up in ourselves, self-centered and autonomous, says Jesus, quite simply is hell. In the text the word is actually Gehenna – which is a place. Gehenna is a valley outside Jerusalem which to this very day is a burning, worm infested garbage dump. It also used to be the site for human sacrifices to the god Molech. There is always fire smoldering in this valley, and over time it became a geographical metaphor for what happens to those people who have little regard for others, the environment and the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jesus.
It is interesting to note, that Gehenna in the real world is a product of our own creation. People go to the edge of a cliff and toss all their personal refuse over the cliff. I don’t care to enumerate all the times I dump my personal stuff on others, on the earth and on God. This dumping is sin. Sin, says our Baptismal service, is those things that corrupt and destroy the creatures of God, including God’s creation.
Sin is related to temptation. So, when gas is cheaper we think we can go back to pouring even more pollution into the earth’s atmosphere and pay less for the privilege! Hell, it turns out is of our own creation and is determined in the here and now. Hell might be some future destination. We will not know for sure until we die. In the meantime, we manufacture hell every day for those who are hungry, those who cannot afford health insurance, those who suffer from disease fostered by toxic pollution, the capability of nuclear arms to destroy this planet and so on.
And Hell is not a condition that affects just the individual; Hell exists collectively in human society as well. Hell is the drive toward self-reliance, self-autonomy, whether of individuals, communities, churches, governments, or nations. The Anglican priest and poet John Donne said it best some 360 years ago, “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…”
So, the answer to the question, Why is Jesus talking about Hell and cutting off limbs and plucking out eyes? To impress upon us the importance that what we are doing right here and now matters. That all that we do and all that we say has eternal consequences. We can choose to create Hell, or become purified by fire and seasoned with the salt of Jesus. We can squabble over who is the greatest and who can or cannot heal and cast out demons, or we can welcome everyone who does the work of Christ who has already redeemed the whole world on the cross. We can be those people who hold on to all we have, or become those people who give ourselves away. We do this not for our sake but for the sake of the Gospel, for others and for the world.
The world and everyone therein needs us. The world needs us to embrace God’s Dream of radical dependence on God, and radical interdependence with one another.This is what is so important and symbolic of our coming together for our 5thSunday gatherings. We have been given the means to create Heaven or Hell. People who embrace God’s Dream reach out to others without casting them as victims, but seeing them as opportunities to express the love and compassion God desires for all. We are called to be people of fire and salt. Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another. Shalom– God’s vision of a world in which everyone has enough, no one has too much, and a reverence for the Earth and all its resources is valued by all. God’s Shalom: As an alliance, let us live and share God’s dream.
Let us pray
Lord,
Come be the salt in our life that we then can be the salt in other’s lives.
Lord, Teach us how to not be stumbling blocks in the little one’s lives.
Lord, teach us to accept each other even though we are different in our practices and our form of worship and church government.
Lord, Teach us to be the salt that this world needs.
Lord, help us in our walk to be your disciples.
Lord remind us it is for such a time as this
that you have called us to be your disciples,
to spread the salt of your grace and love in this world.
Lord remind us to spread your hope in a world that sometimes feels hopeless.
We pray in the name of the One who knows us and loves us
Jesus Christ.
Amen
Opening Prayer.
Christ Jesus,
we come into your presence
from many different places.
We come with songs of joy
and shouts of gratitude.
We come carrying heavy burdens
and sighs of suffering.
As you welcome us into your house,
lift our burdens
and receive our praise.
Salt us with your grace
and flavor us with your mercy.
Bind us together,
that we may be at peace with one another
and be strengthened to go forth
in service to the world.
In your holy name, we pray. Amen.
Benediction.
Today and every day,
take care of one another,
knowing that each of you is God’s gift
to this community and to the world.
We go forth this day with the
Blessing of God almighty…..