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Proper 21, Year B
September 28, 2003
Christ Church, Covington
“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 go to hell…” (Mk
9:43).
Jesus is fond of hyperbole: an exaggerated statement, outrageous on the
face of it, which gets attention and which communicates truth. So, today
Jesus is not really telling us to cut off our hands or to pluck out our
eyes; but he is telling us that salvation is serious business, demanding
commitment and sacrifice. As disciples, we’ll be called to make choices
and to take action in order to save our lives; to avoid the great burning
refuse heap that is the hell to which Jesus refers. Jesus’ outrageous
statement still has an attention-getting quality, so don’t get caught up
by the theological pyrotechnics of the statement; questions of “Is there
really a hell” and “How quickly are the people I disagree with going
there?” Don’t get stuck there, with the flash and bang of Jesus’ teaching;
but rather keep in sight the main point, which is that the Gospel calls us
to radical change; change that goes to the root of who we are and
rearranges all the pieces.
This is the project: a new heaven and a new earth, and a new humanity. Now
that Jesus has your attention, substitute for “hand” or “eye” something
else: pride, for instance; or greed; or hypocrisy. Jesus is in the process
of remaking us, according to his own model. We are being refashioned by
the One who first made us.
The Christian doctrine of Creation in the Creed tells us that God is our
maker; that all things were made through Jesus Christ; that the Holy
Spirit is the giver of life. But Christianity is not so much about belief
in the making of the world but in its remaking. Between Creation and our
reality right now lies the fact of sin; for the existence of sin
(disorder, disobedience, wickedness) is the single great empirically
verifiable truth. It is overwhelmed, however, in the truth of faith, that
God has conquered sin and death through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In that action, God has begun to remake humanity and the world, according
to the original pattern.
This remaking is not easy work. It is work that Jesus does in us, often
while we are resisting every step of the way. It is difficult, after all,
to cut off the hand or to pluck out the eye of greed or envy or gossip.
Some cynics might wonder about themselves whether there would be anything
left with such amusing companions removed. Well, indeed. We resist this
change, this transformation. Yet it is the work of the Gospel, the work of
repentance, the work of turning around and heading in a new direction. We
do not need a little cleaning up, a little tweaking, to make us fit for
the kingdom. What we need is to become new men and new women, according to
the model of Jesus Christ himself.
So here are a couple of other metaphors from Christian tradition which I
hope will encourage you. God in making and remaking us is like a sculptor,
who is unearthing from the rock of humanity the true image that we are to
bear, the image of his Son. In the process we might feel a bit like the
Psalmist, who wrote, “I am worn down by the blows of your hand”. “Worn
down”: now there’s something we can identify with. This is painful work,
remember; “dying”, as Paul says, to an old way of life so that the new
life can emerge. Or again, God is like the artist who is taking an old and
battered canvas and restoring it to its original state. It is careful,
painstaking work; yet it is work the artist does so that the beauty that
lies covered by sin can shine forth again.
Now the challenge. We must draw close to Christ who has drawn close to us;
who has taken our humanity into himself so that we can be remade according
to his likeness. Our prayer, our communion, our confession of sin, are
ways we are being remade. The new humanity is coming to birth, right in
front of our eyes. Each of us will have to hear the Gospel and respond,
knowing that this is the way to life.
The Rev’d John Bauerschmidt is Rector of Christ Church, Covington.
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