Saturday, September 29, 2012

Stumbling Blocks


Mark 9:38-50

John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us." But Jesus said, "Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.

"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.

"For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."

It’s pretty much a daily experience in my house, and I’m sure all of you have experienced it as well. I’ll be walking through the living room not truly paying attention to what I am doing when I stumble over something. One of the girls left something on the floor, a toy. Maybe it’s a pair of shoes, maybe something else just put down rather than put away; maybe it was the dog. I stumble, and after regaining my balance I snap. Most often I usually snap out at what I stumbled over; yelling at an inanimate object that can’t understand and can’t do anything about it. Then, after I realize what I stumbled over I’ll yell out to whoever I think is at fault for just leaving something lying there in the middle of the room. The tough thing to admit is how often it’s actually my fault, or largely my fault that it was there. That doesn’t change me wanting to snap though, find fault in someone else for my stumbles.

None of us like to stumble or trip. The feeling of complete helplessness as your body pitches forward is unsettling; waiting for your body to hit the ground is not enjoyable no matter how you look at it. Most of the time when we worry about stumbling or tripping, we do so worrying about ourselves; seeking to protect ourselves from bumps and bruises. We walk through a dark room carefully, feeling forward with our hands or our toes, wary of any potential dangers lurking ahead of us. But for some people, their concerns about stumbling are not with their own steps but another’s.

In the last year, the beautiful golden lab that calls my in-laws mom and dad has gone progressively blind due to diabetes. It’s heart-breaking to watch a dog that used to trot around the yard happily seeking out a rabbit, chasing a squirrel, barking at another dog walking down the sidewalk become an animal that no longer does those things. Rudy has become almost completely blind, we think he might be able t still see light and dark; but that would be about it. Outside Rudy is cautious, he’s fallen down the steps too many times going from the porch to the yard, run into too many gardening tools left outside. He shuffles forward scared of what will jump into him out of the darkness. Inside he’s much more confident. My in-laws tend not to move their furniture around, so Rudy has a detailed map in his mind of where everything is. He can walk from room to room with little difficulty. But, as soon as something isn’t where it normally is, as soon as someone puts down a laundry basket in the middle of a normally empty path, he runs into it. And then, for the next day or so he very cautiously walks through that area of the room – maybe it’s still there. The humans in the house do all they can to make sure the furniture remains in their normal positions, that boxes, baskets and other obstacles are kept out of the way as much as possible. They work hard to make sure that Rudy doesn’t have any stumbling blocks.

The experience is similar to that of people who have a human member of their family who is blind. I visited the home once of a man who was completely blind. He walked from room to room in his apartment, he went into his kitchen and got things out of the cupboard. He was confident in his motions – he knew his house plan, he knew where everything was. He did everything in his power to keep from stumbling. Of course, if someone came into his house and moved things around, he was going to have some accidents.

This is a text about stumbling blocks. The disciples are the ones who seem to have a good idea where everything is, or at least where they think it should be. They come to Jesus with a complaint about someone who was casting out demons, bringing relief and comfort to individuals and families in Jesus’ name, who wasn’t part of their little group. That was wrong, that was something that didn’t fit in their carefully constructed world. They were the disciples, they were the chosen few; they were the ones who had the answers – not these people who they didn’t even know. What right did they have to do these things?

Jesus is having none of it. He responds rather harshly and doesn’t hold back. “Anyone who does a good deed in my name will not easily be able to say anything bad about me. Remember, whoever isn’t against us is for us.” We don’t really know what Jesus was getting at. Was he trying to tell his disciples to relax, not to worry so much about these others who were doing good – instead focus on the good that was being done? Was he telling them that one day they themselves might be dependent on the generosity of others outside of their “little click”? Was he telling them something specific about drawing lines between themselves and others? Perhaps.

What we do know is that we in the church are very prone to draw lines between those who are in and those who are out. Sometimes we do it by gender. Many Christian traditions still restrict ordained leadership to men. Sometimes we do it by ordination. In many traditions anyone can proclaim the Word of God in the sermon but only those who are ordained can read words off a page to celebrate Holy Communion? Sometimes we do it by age, smiling kindly at the words of a child but not truly hearing the spirit and wisdom of God active in their words. Nowadays it seems like the issue in the church that most people are drawing lines around is homosexuality. Regardless of the issue, the reality is that we in the church are really good at drawing lines.

I'm reminded of something that Duane Priebe, my favorite professor at Wartburg Seminary, said that has stayed with me ever since: "every time you draw a line between who's in and who's out, you'll find Jesus on the other side." Every time we make some sort of a distinction between one group of people and another, between who we think is “on the Lord’s side” we are creating a stumbling block that others, but primarily ourselves, can be tripped by; because, let’s face it, if Jesus is on the other side and we want to be with Jesus, we are the ones who are going to be tripped rather than those who are with Jesus.

The word we translate as stumbling block is skandalon, the root of the word scandal, and that’s actually closer to how the passage should be heard and understood. So much of the time when I hear about a scandal, it’s really just some little thing that has been blown way out of proportion. Oh my goodness, the princess was caught sunbathing without a top on, and someone took some pictures from a thousand feet away – the scandal! The starlet was caught buying coffee in sweatpants and in unstyled hair – the scandal! Did you hear, the presidential candidate only paid 14% taxes – the scandal! We run into “scandals” so often we’ve forgotten that a scandal is something that stops you cold, makes you turn around, puts you in a different direction.

Don’t put scandals in front of those who are doing my will, in my name – even if they aren’t “in.” Don’t say or do something that will make them stop and turn around. Whoever isn’t against us, is for us. Or perhaps, whoever isn’t against us is one of us.

In our gospel this morning the disciples were fully empowered by their closeness to Jesus, by what they saw as their calling. They felt they had the answers, they had the unique perspectives, they had the special connection with God. Anyone else doing the things they did were stepping on their toes. All of which makes me wonder: is our zeal for the gospel – or perhaps, more honestly, our fear of those who are different from us – placing a stumbling block before persons that makes it harder for them to see and feel the love of God in Christ? Jesus has some pretty hard words about when the very things we hold dear and believe lead to abundant life become instead obstacles to "the little ones,": it leads to a death of unquenchable fire.

If we really want to talk about scandal, then let’s talk about the scandal that Paul saw; the scandal of the cross. The scandal of the cross helps us understand how God works to accomplish his redemptive purposes in the world. As God declares through the prophet, Isaiah, “My thoughts are completely different from yours…And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine” (Isaiah 55:8).

The cross reveals that God’s upside down kingdom is often downright offensive to us. God uses that which the world considers despicable and weak to manifest his power. What does that say about our desiring strength as the world counts strength; or our attempts to downplay or soften the offense of the cross?

The scandal of the cross reveals who God takes sides with. By allowing himself to be “counted among those who were sinners” (Isaiah 53:12), crucified between two despicable criminals, God casts his lot with the poor, the powerless, the wretched, the oppressed, the shunned, the dispossessed of the earth. Liberation theologians speak of God’s “preferential option for the poor.” What is seen throughout scripture–God’s concern for the helpless, the outcast, the widow, the orphan, the fatherless and the oppressed–is impossible to miss when the Son of God hangs on a cross between two thieves.

What would happen if we today, following in the footsteps of Jesus, submitted to the implications of the scandal of the cross, regardless of what it means in our day and time? What would happen if, in following in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus, we would recover, both in our understanding and practice, the scandal of stumbling blocks? What are the stumbling blocks that we have had placed in our path? What are the stumbling blocks we have placed in the path of others? What are the lines you have drawn? Is it possible to erase those lines, to remove those stumbling blocks? Can we, as Jesus said, be at peace with one another?