18th Sunday after Pentecost

Mark 9:38-50

There’s a saying that, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

But in today’s gospel Jesus casts doubt on the old adage. Instead, he points out that the road to hell is filled with stumbling blocks: those things that we put in the way of others, and in our own way, that keep us from experiencing God’s presence, love, mercy, or the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

He tells the disciples, it’s better to drown than cause someone else to stumble, and that it’s better to cut off our own hands and legs and gouge out our eyes than allow ourselves to stumble.

The language is violent and graphic and it makes me uncomfortable. His words sound really harsh, and I prefer listening to Jesus talk about how much we are loved.

But his words are rooted in love. Jesus is speaking to his very own disciples, people who have been traveling with him and learning from him, and he is trying to get their attention, again, because they still seem more concerned about who gets the credit for the good works that are happening in Jesus’ name, than about whose lives are being transformed.

But the other reason I’m uncomfortable is all the talk about being thrown into hell.

In the gospel, Jesus is talking about a real place that you can find on a map: Gehenna. Its name comes from the Hebrew for the Valley of Hinnom and it was a place where atrocities including child sacrifice had taken place as far back as 7^th century BCE. In the first century CE it had become perpetually burning garbage dump outside Jerusalem’s city walls.

I believe in hell, less as a physical place or dimension, but I believe that hell is what we experience in our lives when we are separated from Divine Love. I believe that hell is what we create when we live apart from God’s will for us in our relationships with God, with our neighbors, and with the world. I also like what 19^th century Carmelite nun St. Therese of Lisieux once said; when she was asked, she answered that she believed in hell, but because of God's great mercy, she believed that it was empty.

Whatever you believe about hell, in Lutheranism, we recognize and name the destructive power of sin, death, and the devil in our lives and we appeal to God for strength and help to denounce the evil we encounter and confront the powers and principalities that contradict the Gospel.

And these are the things that Jesus wants us to pay attention to. Instead of worrying about what others are doing or saying, let’s examine ourselves and our own attitudes and behaviors, and let’s be attentive to the ways we influence others and affect their faith and lives.

In our lives we bear witness to the gospel – to the Good News of Jesus Christ, and the ways we show Jesus to the world matters. So what are the stumbling blocks we put in the way of others? And what are the ones we create to keep us from experiencing God’s presence, love, mercy, or the outpouring of the Holy Spirit?

Like the disciples, and as human beings, we tend toward exclusion. We silence people because they are different from us. Because they are women, or we don’t understand their accent, or they are old or young, or they didn’t grow up in the South and we don’t know who their daddy is. Or sometimes, because we do know who their daddy is, and we don’t like him. We watch whether people grew up on the right, or the wrong, side of the tracks and we think if we know one thing about someone, it tells us all we need to know.

It’s human nature. People are messy and it feels much safer to draw lines and stay in neat and tidy boxes, with people who are like us. But the problem is that every time we draw lines in the sand, we will find Jesus on the other side. Every time we create insiders and outsiders, guess where Jesus is? With the outsiders. With those who don’t have status. With those who don’t have power.

Jesus tells the disciples,

“Whoever is not against us is for us.” (9:40)

Even the person who thinks differently than I do about hell.

And the driver of the car whose bumper stickers I don’t like.

And the woman who on the court square holding her posterboard sign that says “Jesus loves you.”

So who is the person you want to dismiss or box out?

Jesus is here to say that God’s abundant love, mercy and power cannot be categorized or rationed. God is boundless. And when we start paying attention to how our lives reflect that Divine love and presence, we will be showing Jesus to the world.

Let us pray…

Good and gracious God,

Thank you for your Son Jesus who shows us again and again how much you love the whole world.

Help us pay attention to the ways we show your love and mercy to our families, neighbors and community.

Make us instruments of your peace where there is division, remembering that we are to bring Good News to the everyone we meet.

We pray in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen.