Cut It Out!

Monday, August 10, 2009 -- Week of Proper 14, Year One
Laurence, Deacon, and Martyr at Rome, 258

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 978)
Psalms 89:1-18 (morning) 89:19-52 (evening)
2 Samuel 13:23-39
Acts 20:17-38
Mark 9:42-50

"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;... And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off;... And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out..."

As I read these verses today, a familiar childhood anxiety returned. These were scary verses to me. I knew I did wrongful things with my hand, and I looked in ways I shouldn't. Should I then cut parts off? I finally shrugged it off because I figured there wouldn't be much left if I administered bodily amputation to everything that messed up. But it still left me feeling haunted.

As I was reading these words today, something different struck me. What if I read these as if Paul were writing them? Of what if I read these passages from the perspective of the teaching and theology of Paul? They would sound very different indeed.

For Paul, sin is a condition. Sin is the total life-project of trying to earn your own salvation. Disobedience is to attempt to establish your own justification, to follow God so well that you presume that you've earned something.

In Paul's earlier life, he had been successful at controlling his hand and foot and eye. He had followed the law zealously. And it only left him anxious -- performance anxiety. How am I doing? It also left him angry and resentful. Angry toward God, who seemed like a perfectionist parent. And unable to love others because they were merely impediments or aids to his self-improvement project. That's the prison of death that he was living as he walked down the road to Damascus.

For Paul, liberation came with the realization that his salvation, his justification before God, is a gift. Sheer gift from Christ. There's nothing to do; nothing to accomplish, except to accept the gift. Justification by faith through grace. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted.

Paul's theology turns this passage from Mark on its ear. "If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me" has a different meaning when read from Paul's perspective. If any of you throws a guilt trip on one of these, lays a burden of performance expectation on these little ones, it is like a great millstone, and it would be better around your neck than theirs. Leave them alone. (While you are at it, leave yourself alone.)

And if you start to think that it is by the good deeds of your hands that you will measure up and be counted worthy, cut it out! Give up the improvement project. We all appear before God with empty hands. There's nothing you can take to God to earn your status, because your status has already been given to you as a gift.

To stumble is to pick up the false-self project of trying to achieve something to earn your place. If your hand or foot or eye gets involved in that performance project again, cut it out! Stop performing. Relax. Trust God. Live in Christ. Your life is given to you, so you don't have to earn it.

If you are grasping on to anything, let it go. Otherwise you are grasping on to hell. Death is living in an anxiety producing, demanding life project of trying to earn your own place. That's hell -- holding on to whatever you think gives you worth or merit or standing. Give it up. Cut it off. We all come before God naked. So let go of everything. Accept the fact that you are accepted. Relax. And simply be.

Lowell

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About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

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The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

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Our Rule of Life

We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
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live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas