September 26, 2021 – 18th Sunday after Pentecost

We need to remove the stumbling blocks we’ve placed in front of Indigenous Canadians, and ‘cut off’ the things in our society and ourselves that prevent us from entering the life of God’s Kingdom.

Let us bow our heads in prayer.  Holy and gracious God, we give you thanks for your presence in this time and place and within each one of us. Help us now to open our minds, our hearts, our whole lives, to receive the gift of your living Word for us this day; and may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.  Amen.

The first four verses of today’s Gospel Reading from the 9th chapter of Mark are not too bad.  They’re a kind of encouraging, inclusive statement on Jesus’ part.  He ways “Whoever is not against us is for us.”, though I have to also admit that in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, in a different context, albeit, Jesus reverses this statement and says, “Whoever is not with us is against us.”  However, the remaining 7 verses of this Gospel are a kind of enigma.  The notes at the bottom of the study bible that I used in theological college – I have to admit – 40 years ago – began a commentary on this section entitled ‘salty disciples.’  (I’ve never forgot it.)  It never really explained what ‘salty disciples’ were, but for the 5 verses before the salty disciples there are several references to cutting off parts of our bodies.  Jesus uses, or the Gospel writer on behalf of Jesus later, uses a style of speech that we don’t often use.  It’s called ‘hyperbole.’  It is an intentional exaggeration to make a point.

Now we do occasionally use hyperbole even when we’re maybe not aware of it in colloquial speech.  For instance, in the dead of winter, if you’ve been outside too long or you haven’t really been dressed warmly enough, you might rush inside and say “I was frozen solid out there.”  Well of course, literally, you were not frozen solid but everyone listening to you understands the point you’re trying to make.  At the same time, when you use hyperbole the seriousness of what you’re expressing comes through – “this is no joke.”  And it is this kind of seriousness that Jesus is trying to impress on his disciples in today’s Gospel reading.  Jesus starts off with this statement.  He says, “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.”  It’s pretty drastic.  Now the ‘little ones’ he refers to – they could be referring to children, but it is more likely that he’s referring to the child-like faith of Jesus’ disciples – both young and old - and the thinking of Jesus’ teaching about ‘receiving the Kingdom of God like a child’ – open – trusting – not being able to figure it all out and yet still believing and accepting it for what it is.

But Jesus’ dire warning is to those who put a stumbling block in front of those trusting believers.  Now the biblical Greek word that we translate as “a stumbling block” kind of means “to scandalize” or “to trip up.”  So again, Jesus uses this hyperbole about a millstones being thrown into the sea.  But, in a sense, what he’s saying is it would be better for you to be killed by drowning than to suffer the consequences of your actions putting a stumbling block in front of one of these believers.  Now I’m going to come back to that statement later, but right now I want to move on to the – what I’m going to call – the drastic ‘amputation’ statements that follow in Mark’s Gospel.  Jesus says, “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 then he repeats this twice more, “If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off … if your eye causes you to stumble tear it out.”  In each case he is saying it is better to enter real life – the life of God’s Kingdom maimed, than to be thrown into hell.  Now again, in the biblical languages the word they have translated as ‘hell’ is ‘Gehenna’, and it’s referring to the Valley of Hinnom, which was a kind of continually burning garbage dump just outside Jerusalem.  But over time, it became associated with the final punishment of the wicked.

So what is Jesus getting at with his hyperbolic language?  It is this: you need to take the path you walk in life seriously – that your behaviour matters, your actions matter – both for you but also for those people around you.  And in this passage Jesus is referring to those who act in his name.  If you back up a little bit into this Gospel reading, the first part of the reading talks about the person who’s casting out demons in Jesus’ name; and then the act of hospitality - the one who gives a cup of water to drink to the one who bears Jesus’ name.  So what you and I do, or don’t do, as Christians – those who bear Jesus’ name – matters – and not just for us personally!  Think (sadly) of people and situations that you’re aware of over the years – a person’s faith who was destroyed, or persons who were turned away and turned their back on the Church and maybe even turned their backs on God – because of the action, or lack of action, of a Christian disciple – because the stumbling block that was placed in front of them, or in some way that the Christian disciple or the Church itself, was scandalized.

At this time – this year especially, as we approach September 30th and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, residential schools could quite likely be the largest stumbling block or scandal for the Church of Jesus Christ (at least in North America) in the last 200 years.  Think about it.  Even if the Church didn’t forcefully round up children for residential schools, we were fully involved in the project!  Think of the stumbling blocks placed “in front of these little ones” – malnourishment, poor medical care, in some cases physical, mental, emotional and even sexual abuse – either actively perpetrated by disciples of Jesus Christ or, passively witnessed by the members of the Church who demonstrated a complete lack of activity to stop it.  We prayed these words in today’s Collect Prayer: “Grant O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered by your Holy Spirit into one, may show forth your power among all peoples.” – may show forth your power!  Where is that power?  What stumbling blocks stand in its way or, in Jesus’ language of hyperbole, what ‘hand’ or ‘foot’ or ‘eye’ needs to be removed to help us more fully enter and live the life of God’s Kingdom?

I was greatly relieved and encouraged to learn this week that the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) has unequivocally apologized on behalf of the catholic churches and communities in Canada for its role in the residential schools.  That offer – that gesture – was huge – knowing the challenges in the Roman Catholic hierarchy – to be able to make that kind of statement.

What other actions of ‘amputation’ do we need to make?  How about our indifference to boil-water advisories, to the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, to the living conditions on many reserves, to the child welfare and rates of incarceration of Indigenous Peoples in Canada?  How about the Indian Act, and the breaking of the covenants of the Treaties?  Our actions and our inaction as Christians matters!  We do not, and cannot, do this alone.  Our Collect Prayer invokes God’s Spirit to gather and to empower us. 

Very appropriately I think, as we prepare to leave this worship service today and engage once again in the world, our Closing Hymn prepares us for just that work.  And I invite you to turn to it.  It’s on page 16 in your service bulletin.  It’s entitled “How clear is our vocation, Lord.”  The first verse reminds us of God’s grace to help us live as we ought, to walk in the way of life.  We read, “How clear is our vocation, Lord, when once we heed your call: to live according to your word, and daily learn, refreshed, restored, that you are Lord of all, and will not let us fall.”  In verse 3 (on the other side) we see a description of much of our contemporary experience as believers in our society.  “We mark your saints, how they became in hindrances more sure, whose joyful virtues put to shame the casual way we wear your name, and by our faults obscure your power to cleanse and cure.”  And then verse 4 instructs us on the way forward: “In what you give us, Lord, to do, together or alone, in old routines or ventures new, may we not cease to look to you.”

The showing forth of God’s power is not only blocked for Indigenous peoples but for all of us who live in the shadow of the residential school legacy.  This Thursday offers us an opportunity to remove some stumbling blocks – in our society and in ourselves.  And our openness to hear and follow God’s call will bring healing to us – to us all, and will show forth God’s power among all peoples.

Amen.