Proper 21, Year B
October 1, 2006
Christ Church, Covington
“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.” (Mk 9:48).
The word translated as “hell” in our Gospel today is in the original “gehenna”,
a word which conjures up some interesting images. “Gehenna” means “Valley of
Hinnom”, the valley lying immediately to the south of Jerusalem and forming the
southern boundary of the city. Like any metropolitan area, ancient Jerusalem
needed a convenient repository for waste, and Gehenna became the place. It
became the city’s rubbish heap, its garbage dump; a place filled with trash
where fires burned continually to consume the waste and to reduce the stench
(not to mention the maggots and flies). More ominous still, it was the place
where the bodies of executed criminals were consigned; it was also a place where
in the past human sacrifice had been offered, later condemned by the prophets (Jer.
7: 30-34) and closed down by King Josiah (2 Kgs 23:10). So Gehenna became
associated with both judgment and destruction; a loathsome and unclean place
where no sane person would want to go.
And from here, of course, “gehenna” has become a powerful metaphor for final
judgment and destruction. In Jesus’ discourse today, it’s contrasted with the
kingdom of heaven; it’s the place where you don’t want to end up. It’s better to
cut off your hand or your foot or cast out your eye than to allow yourself to
end up in Gehenna. Better some painful changes than judgment and destruction.
My experience is that when preachers mention “hell”, people have a tendency to
begin worrying about who’s there, or whether hell really exists. Fascinating
questions, but should they really be our focus? The first is marked by an
eagerness (perhaps an over-eagerness) to make sure that some criminals get their
everlasting just desserts, while the second is marked by a kindhearted
unwillingness to believe that God could really consign anybody to judgment and
destruction. Christian tradition tells us two things in response: one, that only
God knows peoples’ ultimate fate; and two, that God is a God of justice as well
as a God of mercy. So if you’re fretting about these questions, forget about
them.
What Jesus doesn’t want you to forget is that change and transformation are
required for you, so that you won’t be destroyed in this miserable “gehenna”. He
wants you to do more than think about it: he wants you to act so that you will
not come to judgment. A change of heart and mind is required. What hand or foot
or eye needs to be removed so that you can enter the kingdom? Are there things
that are a “part” of you that need to be cast off so that you can become a new
person? A hint: this is a rhetorical question to which the right answer is
“yes!”. Is there pride, or anger, or greed? Is there spiritual laziness or
gluttony, envy or lust? I hope you recognize the seven deadly sins. These things
separate us from God (how could they not?), and create their own Gehenna. It is
these things that need to be consigned to destruction, that deserve a place on
the scrap heap. They’re not really a part of us; at least, not a part of us that
we need to carry around. Better to leave them in the garbage where they belong.
The good news for us is that the ability to do this goes beyond ourselves. God
does this work by giving us grace: God’s power and presence in our lives. It’s
grace that brings change and transformation, and God gives grace freely. We open
ourselves up to grace in prayer, in the sacraments, in works of love. Grace also
has a way of showing up in surprising places, at unexpected times. Remember,
grace is God’s gift. This moment in time is a moment of grace, in which God is
making himself available to snatch us off the scrap heap, out of the dump where
our own inclinations would leave us. What we leave behind are those things that
are doomed to destruction. What we take away is our true self, redeemed and
restored by God.
John Bauerschmidt is Rector of Christ Church, Covington.
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