Proper 21-B

 

In his latest work called Eat This Book, Eugene Peterson, the author of the popular paraphrase of the Bible called The Message, has this to say about Biblical literalism. 

Preference for the literal has a long life. But I have come to believe that it is an unthinking preference. My experience as a parent supplemented by my experience as a pastor cautions me that the peril of the literal is that it ignores the inherent ambiguities in all language, takes the source language prisoner and force-marches it, shackled and chained, into an English that nobody living speaks. The language is lobotomized-the very quality that gives language its genius, its capacity to reveal what we otherwise would not know, is excised. Extreme literalism insists on forcing each word into a straightjacket. I began to see why Luther, the grandfather of Reformation translators, did not take kindly to the critics who bashed his vernacular translation. He called them “those lemmings the literalists.” 

 

During the time that I have been in ministry, study of the Bible has become increasingly popular. Lots and lots of people are in Bible study groups. This is certainly something to be celebrated! I have also become convinced that how we read and interpret the Bible is as important as the fact that we need to read it. For any of you who have ever struggled with reading the Bible either because you find it too difficult, too boring, or you get stumped by some of what it has to say, I recommend several things:  read Eugene Peterson’s Eat This Book, get into a Bible study group and/or read The Message which is a very accessible and accurate paraphrase. 

 

If we have no experience in reading the Bible or if we do not know how to read the Bible, we will not know what to do when we encounter passages such as this morning’s gospel reading: “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.” Jesus goes on to say the same thing about our feet and our eyes. If we took this passage literally we would have a congregation full of one-armed, one-legged and one-eyed parishioners!

 

Even the most ardent of Biblical literalists draw the line at these sayings of Jesus. There are a few notable exceptions in history but no one in today’s world, including strident Christian fundamentalists, promotes doing violence to their own bodies. 

 

Jesus certainly never intended this story to be taken literally. We know this because when measured against the two great commandments (love of God and love of neighbor and self), it fails to stand as a literal statement. Jesus frequently used such striking images to drive home what he was teaching. Jesus’ followers would never have taken this literally because they were accustomed to the use of such metaphors. Ancient people encountered such metaphorical stories on a regular basis, stories such as that of Oedipus, who gouged out his eyes rather than look upon the children he had produced with his own mother. What Jesus’ story does not compromise is the seriousness of sin and of turning away from God. 

 

The other piece of background that we must always keep in mind when reading this gospel is that the Markan community was under constant threat of persecution. Within that context, we can understand Jesus’ stern admonitions about not putting additional pressure on the community from internal behavior problems. Jesus is saying we have enough to deal with in terms of the outside world, we don’t need to have you guys messing up life within the church. These words were meant to challenge the Markan community on the quality of their discipleship. 

 

In Mark’s day the mention of certain body parts such as the hand, the foot and the eye brought to mind certain offenses that were connected to them. Sinning hands were associated with theft, fraud and forgery. Sinning feet were associated with robbery and fugitive slaves and sinning eyes with adultery and sexual misconduct. Even the early church fathers, those who lived in and around the time of the fourth century, did not believe passages such as this should be taken literally.  Here is what Salvian the Presbyter, one of those 5^th century church writers, undoubtedly a household name, had to say about eyes that cause us to sin: Knowing that the lights of the eyes are like windows to our hearts, and that all corrupt desires enter us through the eyes, as if through a natural crevice, our Lord asks us to veil them from wandering about, in order to resist the spreading of their toxic illusions.

 

Our denomination is one that wrestles with scripture as much as we submit to it. In other words we seek to fully understand what a passage meant during the time in which it was written, not because we are some sort of history nuts or Biblical scholars, though some of us are, but because understanding the historical context directly informs how we understand a passage in today’s world. The vast majority of people who voluntarily move to the Episcopal Church from other Christian denominations do so because they are seeking a life-giving view of scripture. Some having been raised on a fiery and punishing understanding of the Bible tragically don’t even want to read the Bible. Some people who have never read the Bible come across passages such as this and decide they don’t ever want to read the Bible again, not today, not tomorrow, not ever! Part of my call is to help you take that first step if you have never done Bible study. Part of my call is to break open the word to those who never taken the opportunity to chew on and devour these precious texts.

 

With that in mind, let us return to the part of this passage in which Jesus 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.” First of all the “little ones” refers to the disciples. Okay, so what about the personal responsibility of the disciples. Are not the disciples strong enough in their faith to say no to temptation? Ah-wait a minute I hear Jesus saying that the quality of the life of the community is very important in terms of keeping people on the right path. Maybe this phrase is about more than the individual righteousness of people. If, for example, we buy into the idea that it takes a whole village to raise a child, we might just understand that a whole village can drag one down as well. Most of us who live in this general area live here because we know that living in a strong community makes a difference. In terms of poverty stricken communities, there will always be rising stars, people, who against all odds, rise to the top and wow the world with their sense of right in the midst of so much wrong. We love these stories – the inspiring movie, Akeelah the Bee, is one such story. Out of the worst of ghetto living, emerges a young woman who is so smart that she eventually wins the National Spelling Bee.

 

We had a babysitter in WA State who was Hispanic, lived in a tiny home with a single mom who did not have much money. Our old neighborhood was very mixed, with some very affluent areas and other areas that were not. This young woman attended the same deficient school our son attended before moving here. She attended a drug-infested high school in Tacoma but you know this young woman ended up with offers from a large number of top colleges and universities in the country. She was and is unstoppable. She is one of the most focused and ambitious young women I have ever met and more importantly she is kind and has a deep understanding of humility. She will have the world at her fingertips. However, for most of the rest of the mere mortals who inhabit this planet, the quality of the community makes an enormous difference. The community for whom Mark was writing needed to be strong internally in order to survive against the powerful external threats and so it is for us. We need the support, the building up, the lifting up, the positive peer influence – all of the things that a church can provide.

 

When all is said and done, this story is about striving for a certain quality of discipleship. It is not about being perfect or even trying to be perfect. It is about trying to live consistently as Jesus would have us live. It is about acknowledging that we do fall but we also get back up and move on. It is about helping each other up and living love of neighbor as authentically as we are able. It is about wrapping each other in God’s love and mercy.