From the Daily Lectionary for Tuesday in the Fifth Week after the Epiphany
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; 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.”
To abandon the Cause is to bring hell on earth. In the Gospels both heaven and hell are present realities. They are not abstract fantasies of the future. Hell is separation from the love of God; it takes the form of oppression, shame, alienation, and injustice. Heaven is living in the presence of love, which takes the form of compassion, empathy, well-being, and justice.
The cosmic battle between heaven and hell is fought in the here and now between those who live for their neighbor, who serve the greater good without coercion or violence, versus the powerful who serve their own interests to the detriment of the least powerful, those outside the circle of dignity and well-being.
In Jesus’ world there is no tolerance for indifference, because indifference aligns with the status quo, and the status quo, which favors the powerful elite, stands against God’s egalitarian commonweal, against God’s vision of a world of equality and shared abundance for all.
We are to encourage and support our allies in this fight. To undermine anyone true to the cause, is also to be complicit with the evil powers of injustice in the world. When Jesus makes the audacious proclamation that he comes “not to bring peace, but a sword;” that he will “pit brother against brother, fathers against sons…,” he is asking us to choose sides. He’s not saying, “Can’t we just all get along?” He is saying that everything in our lives defers to the Truth. It is better to be maimed or to die than to abandon our call to the good and the true. It is the “narrow way.”
There is a lot of talk about unity these days; and perhaps one day unity will come; but for the time being, unhappy division notwithstanding, we choose the truth, whatever the cost. We talk about “the big tent” of the church, but there is no room in the church for falsehood. All are welcome, but all must choose the truth of the way of Jesus. If one is honest, that’s a hard choice that comes at a cost; but we make this noble choice with each other’s help, in communion with the courageous faithful who have come before us. Pray, good people, not for unity, though unity would be a fitting end. Pray that we may act on behalf of the Truth. Lives depend on such a choice.
A Prayer for Faithfulness (BCP p. 504)
O God, whose days are without end, and whose mercies cannot be numbered: Make us, we pray, deeply aware of the shortness and uncertainty of human life; and let your Holy Spirit lead us in holiness and justice all our days; that, when we shall have served you in our generation, we may be gathered to our ancestors, having the testimony of a good conscience, in communion with the Catholic Church, in confidence of a certain faith, in the comfort of a religious and holy hope, in favor with you, our God, and in perfect charity with the world. All this we ask through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
