Scripture: Mark 9:41-50; Hebrews 4:12; Matthew 7:3-5; Matthew 6:19-21; Luke 19:1-10; Mark 10:17-22 Series: 2020
Part of a series on the ‘Sacred Story,’ this sermon on Mark 9:41-50 asks each hearer to examine the story they tell about themselves and whether their life matches it. Pruitt contrasts moralism (judging others, performing faith) with embodied, grace-given faith, reading Jesus’ hard sayings about millstones and cutting off offending limbs as a diagnosis of hypocrisy (‘hypocrite’ = actor playing a part). Using the MacGuffin/treasure-quest motif, he asks where our treasure is stored and presses the central image: the word of God cuts through the costumes we wear so we can live free, not be a stumbling block to others or ourselves.
Illustrations: rich-young-ruler-zacchaeus, speck-and-log, hypocrite-greek-actor, jason-golden-fleece, end-of-rainbow-treasure, pirate-treasure-map, oceans-eleven-heist, hitchcock-macguffin, two-edged-sword-word, costumes-we-wear
What is my sacred story?
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.” Mark 9:41-50
How do you measure a year of your life? Can you measure your life in love? Do you measure it in your friends, your job, your family? Do you measure it in your successes? Do you measure it in your mistakes?
What is the story I tell about myself? Not, as we spoke about last week, in how we talk to strangers and introduce ourselves. But who am I to myself?
We are continuing in our series on the Sacred Story, looking through the Scriptures and thinking together and individually: what is our sacred story? And does our sacred story match our actions? Does it go all the way? Last week, we spoke about the connection between the parable of the rich young ruler and the story of Zacchaeus and I want to bring us that back to that again. I think it is so important to remember that the sacred story of the rich young ruler had a limit and his limit was his generosity. He was a righteous man up to a point, and then he stopped.
Zacchaeus, the sinner, sought the love of God, was seen by Jesus, was convicted of his sin, he did not put a limit on God’s transformation of his life. And he pledged to give of himself not just his time but his resources. He became a man of generosity.
Today is going to have a lot of questions because the answers must come from you. I cannot give you the answer. I cannot describe your sacred story.
Who are you? Where are you from? What matters to you? What impact do you want to make on the world? Who do people say that you are? You see, the questions are for you because it is your sacred story. We cannot control the stories of others. Even our children, we cannot control their stories. My sacred story is not your sacred story.
So often, in the general public, Christianity is seen as judgmental and prudish. As fixated much more on the behavior and actions of others than on themselves. This is what I refer to as moralism. Morals are good. Moralism is bad because moralism distorts the faith into a tool for social control, into being more focused on keeping people in line than on offering the life-giving love of Jesus Christ. It makes faith much more about being in a prison rather than being set free from captivity. The discipline found in the scriptures is never like the discipline of a prison. It is actually the abolition of that, it is what happens after captivity. It is what happens after slavery.
Moralism is the trap of judging others, of looking at the speck in our neighbor’s eye rather than the log in our own. Moralism, in fact, is not based on the bible. It is distorting and proof-texting and avoiding the overwhelming evidence of what Jesus actually talks about. Moralism makes people stumble because it is about tearing others down.
And so we must ask ourselves, does our story make us into a stumbling block for others? Do any of our actions lead others to stumble? Then that is not sacred.
Jesus gets to a tough reading in the Gospel of Mark.
“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.
Then Jesus goes from the collective body to the internal person.
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.
All of these are marks of hypocrisy. If your hand is causing you to stumble, it is not really your hand. And if your foot is causing you to stumble, it is not really your foot. It is a performance. Hypocrite comes from the greek word meaning ‘to play a part’ or ‘to act in a play’. Hypocrites are actors. They perform a scene and then go back and are themselves again. They wear a costume, a persona, then they take it off and go back to be themselves. A hypocrite is someone who performs one story and then lives another. The hypocrite is someone whose hand is not performing the works of love even though their heart tells them to. The hypocrite is someone whose eyes do not perform the works of love, even though their heart tells them to. There is a disconnect going on. Moralism comes out of insecurity. We judge others because we don’t want to judge ourselves. You see the speck in your neighbors eye because you don’t notice the log in your own, because there are no personal consequences. If I can fix you, that means I don’t have to fix me. If I can change you, I don’t have to change me. The question for us is not about the people next to us. What is your story?
Jesus puts it another way. Where is your treasure? Stories are often guided by treasure. Stories of mythology usually have a treasure at the end: Jason and the Argonauts looking for the golden fleece. There is a treasure at the end of the Rainbow. Pirates have their treasure map. Heist films like Oceans 11 have a treasure as a goal.
Treasures are usually MacGuffins. A MacGuffin is a term coined by Alfred Hitchcock that is an arbitrary object that is used to get the plot going. Like the falcon in the Maltese Falcon, or the Death Star plans in Star Wars. We have to find this, that is why we have a story.
But the world gives us MacGuffins in our lives. The world gives us goals to get us moving but they are ultimately hollow. What motivates you in the morning? What is our goal? What is the treasure we are trying to build and where do we keep it? Is it something that is stored in our house where thieves can come? Is it something stored in a bank where financial downturns can happen? Is it something stored in heaven, where neither thieves nor recessions can take it. Where is your treasure? What is your story? Are you wearing a costume for a performance?
Sometimes the desire itself is a costume. The desire to get away. The desire to mope. But apart from community, we are stuck with the costumes we wear and the characters we perform. Apart from the word of God, we are left with the costumes we wear. But as the letter to the Hebrews says, the word of God is a two-edged sword that cuts, that cuts through the costumes that society tells us we need to wear. The costumes that tell us what it means to be a woman. The costumes that tell us what it means to be a man. The costumes of our ethnicities. The costume of our cultural performance. The costumes that comfort us and keep us from love. The costumes that tell us that we are not the kind of people to act with those people. The costumes that tell us that we are not the kind of people who need help. The costume that tell us we are always the victim. The costumes that tell us that our story is about fixing other people. But the word of God cuts through that. The costumes that tell us that preachers have no business talking about money. When we live our faith God cuts through the costumes we put on for the world.
Sometimes there can be costumes of faith. The rich young ruler had a costume of faith. Moralists have costumes of faith. Judgmental Christians wear costumes of faith. They perform. They don’t embody it.
Our faith is embodied in seeking God. Our faith is embodied in remembering the mercy of God. Our faith is embodied in being fed the word of God, by looking to the Scriptures, in reading the Bible together, by talking to other people about what we believe in. This can be in a Sunday School class. This can be in a small group. This can be at dinner. What do you believe? What do you think God is even saying here? Cut off your hand? Is God asking me to cut off my hand?
No, God is asking you to take off your costume, to cut off the lie.
What is your sacred story. How do you measure it? What is your treasure? Where do you store it? This is a question for me, too, it is a question for all of us. We are all given an opportunity.
I hope you take the time this week to ask yourself: where is your treasure? What is your goal? I hope you take the time to talk to someone you trust about, maybe someone you respect about it. What is your sacred story and does your life match your sacred story. Yours not mine, not your spouses, not your kids, how has God called you to live?
The word of God cuts through the costume. Don’t be a slave to your costume, live freely by the power of God. Do not be stumbling block to others. Do not be a stumbling block to yourself. Live free. You don’t have to put a limit on what God can do in your life. You don’t have to submit to the captivity of the world. We are given freedom by grace.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.