The Rev. Joseph Farnes
All Saints, Boise
Proper 21B
Fire-and-brimstone Christians rarely talk about THIS part of Jesus’ preaching. Worms and unquenchable fire – that’s vivid! This should be right up their alley! But this teaching of Jesus never seems to play into their theology.
I’m going to make an educated guess as to why: it’s because Jesus is telling us to work on our OWN stuff, rather than pointing out someone else’s stuff. Jesus is not telling us to amputate others – though throughout history Christians in power have cut down other people spiritually and physically – but Jesus is giving us a powerful image of cutting off our own hand, our own foot, taking out our own eye so that we can enter into life.
It’s our own stuff we have to work out. How are we standing in the way of our own life in Christ? What do we cling to that we must let go of? What path are we walking that we must leave? What is it that stands in the way of life in Christ?
Notice that it the Gospel reading today didn’t say “eternal life”. It just says “life.” It’s not so we maim ourselves so that we may get eternal life as a reward or an eternity in hell as a punishment. No, it’s about Christ’s life now working in you. We cut off what does not bring us to abide in the life of Christ now. Following Christ isn’t about getting to some paradise after you die – it’s about abiding in the life of Christ now and forever. Now.
And the upheaval it creates: in Jesus’ imagery, the people who are most alive are the ones who would be seen for what’s “wrong” with their bodies. The people entering life without a hand, a foot, an eye – from a limited human perspective, we only see what is “lacking”, what’s “missing.” But God’s life is more. Is there room in the Kingdom of God for a prosthetic foot, a cane, an eyepatch? Or would we be aghast at such perceived imperfections in the perfect kingdom?
But, then again, we also focus so much – too much – on the individual. We look at the individual, whether it’s ourselves or someone else, and we find all the flaws. Things that simply couldn’t be allowed in the perfect life of Christ, in the perfection of the Kingdom of God. When I look in the mirror, I can see all sorts of things “wrong.” I see the evidence of some of my Scandinavian ancestry in the skin tags that show up in the perpetually dark circles around my eyes. In the mirror I see the eyebrows and beard hairs that point in every which-way. Does the Kingdom of God take this mushy face and mold it into something else that appears to be better? Why would the Kingdom of God, why would the life of Christ get rid of a perfectly fine instance of a human face to replace it with something else? This face of mine – contrary to what some might say – is very alive. It is lively. It is expressive. It is human.
In our humanness, we see a glimpse of the whole of humanity. In our humanness here at All Saints, we see a glimpse of the whole community. Christ’s life flowing in one part enlivens other parts. The life of Christ is not just about an individual – it is about the community, the society, the whole human family, the whole creation. Christ, our way, our truth, our life – in him we move and have our being. His life flows in us, in all of us, in all of us together.
So we return to that fire-and-brimstone image. If we’re not cutting off a hand or plucking out an eye, what are we doing, then?
It’s much harder than that. We have to go inward – into our minds and hearts. Into the values we proclaim and the values we actually live out day-to-day. We have to go inward into those practices as people and parishes and communities and nations that are pulling us away from the life of Christ.
That’s much harder. That takes discernment. That takes listening. That takes courage to actually make a change. And when we’ve relied on that behavior for so long, it’s going to be hard to re-learn how to do things.
When we cut off a foot, we’re going to have to re-learn to walk.
When we cut off thoughts and attitudes that keep us stuck in cycles of anger or self-loathing or fear, we’re going to have to re-learn how to have joy.
When we cut off an attitude that keeps us from seeing other groups of human beings as fully human, just like us, we’re going to have to re-learn how to relate to them. We’re going to have to cut off our prejudice and re-learn how to listen. We’re going to have to cut off our callousness and re-learn empathy. When we cut off what is not bringing us to Christ’s life, we will re-learn how to walk, and we walk WITH fullness of life INTO the fullness of life. Amen.