James 5:13-20; Mark 9:38-50 Cut It Out!

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I have not preached on this gospel lesson for more than 25 years. It is a
personal stumbling block for me. The last time I preached a sermon about this
text, I brought along a visual aid – a pack of cigarettes. The message was simple, if
smoking (or any other bad habit or transgression) offends you or someone else,
cut it out! Make a choice to stop your unhealthy behavior. Even if you don’t want
to stop the behavior because it hurts you, take others into account, and stop for
their benefit.
This was part of Jesus’ message to the disciples who were bent out of shape
because someone who wasn’t part of their inner circle was casting out demons.
He checked them, reminding them to be careful that their words and actions
don’t trip anyone else up. If someone is trying to feed hungry people in the name
of God, but maybe they aren’t being efficient, or they’re serving the meal in a
different location, don’t thwart their efforts by sending the hungry people away,
or berating the ones giving food. If you get in their way, that is a sin.
Usually when Jesus wanted to put an exclamation point on his stories or
teachings, he would make an allegorical reference to the separation of sheep and
goats in the field, or the sorting of wheat and chaff on the threshing floor. Your
good behavior will be rewarded, and your bad behavior, not rewarded. In this
story, Jesus is bold and scary – if your hand or eye or foot causes you to sin, better

to cut them off than to burn in the unquenchable fire of hell. Cut it out, or you

will be thrown into hell.

This was the modus operandi in the church for a long time: Control
behavior by threatening eternal punishment. Unfortunately, around the 17th
century, this became equated with crime, and society began meting out

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punishment rather than penalty for wrongdoing. We melded together sin and
error and crime and mistake and omission and the absence of good as one thing.
We lost the distinction between a moral sin (not mortal sin) and criminal behavior
and illness. Sins for which we were once encouraged to repent were instead
analyzed and explained by illness, nurture or failure of leadership. Responsibility
and moral standards lost their place in the human community as a whole, and
some believed this loss was at the heart of the deterioration of social order.
Borrowing the words of psychiatrist Karl Menninger, we wondered out loud,
“Whatever became of sin?”
Ralph Slovenko summarizes Menninger: The restraints formerly exercised
by religion and the family are gone; mobility causes persons to lose attachments
to any one community and the community loses its ability to influence a person's
behavior by the factor of reputation. …maintaining social order is everybody's
task, collectively and individually, but the concept of sin, no longer backed by the
fear of eternal damnation, does not help much in this endeavor.1 Don’t worry, I
am not advocating for a resurgence of hellfire and brimstone from the pulpit to
keep everyone in line! But perhaps there is a place in the pulpit and in worship to
re-engage the reality of sin- wrongs against each other, against God, against
communities and against our own integrity.
The pack of cigarettes in the pulpit with me a few decades ago, was a
symbol of my sin. I was a pack-a-day smoker for a long time, and had quit. I knew
when I purchased the pack as a visual aid for the sermon, that I was going to open
it before long. My self-talk leading up to taking off the cellophane packaging

1
Slovenko, Ralph
https://via.library.depaul.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=2818
&context=law-review

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included excuses of stress at home and at work, the fact that many members of
my family were smokers so it was a genetic thing, and that it wasn’t really so bad
– I could just quit again later on, right?
We hear in the book of Mark that Jesus is concerned about the ones who
are at risk for making choices that have consequences beyond their
understanding - the little ones whoa re new to the faith. The ones who do not yet
have a well-developed moral compass and can be easily swayed. Jesus warns that
if sin is introduced into these developing minds, there will be eternal
consequences. Jesus tells his disciples in no uncertain terms not to be stumbling
blocks/ carriers of sin/ traps for others. He reminds them that they are
responsible for their actions, and their actions impact those around them.
This sense of responsibility may be a missing piece in our current time.
Sometimes we are astonished at the behavior of individuals and groups, but
equally as often we are not surprised by unethical acts and abject cruelty in our
midst. We explain away bad behavior, and attempt to relieve sinners of their
responsibility either by our apathy or by jumping too soon to forgiveness. In truth,
we are actually more struck by the power of sin when we witness someone
confess sin, and express honest repentance.
President Lincoln, at the midpoint of the Civil War, made this
pronouncement about the sin of pride: “We have been the recipients of the
choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace
and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation
has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand
which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us;
and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these

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blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the
necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that
made us! It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to
confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.2
Lincoln’s invitation to confession is much like our Morning prayer in
worship – we acknowledge as a community that we have failed, and leave most of
the details for our silent reflection. How much more powerful would it be to pray
in unison for forgiveness of specific sins.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni celebrated Uganda’s 50th anniversary
of independence from Britain by offering a prayer… “I stand here today to close
the evil past… I stand here on my own behalf and on behalf of my predecessors to
repent. We ask for your forgiveness. We confess these sins, which have greatly
hampered our national cohesion and delayed our political, social and economic
transformation. We confess sins of idolatry and witchcraft which are rampant in
our land. We confess sins of shedding innocent blood, sins of political hypocrisy,
dishonesty, intrigue and betrayal, Forgive us of sins of pride, tribalism and
sectarianism; sins of laziness, indifference and irresponsibility; sins of corruption
and bribery that have eroded our national resources; sins of sexual immorality,
drunkenness and debauchery; sins of unforgiveness, bitterness, hatred and
revenge; sins of injustice, oppression and exploitation; sins of rebellion,
insubordination, strife and conflict.”3

2
http://biblicalawakening.blogspot.com/2014/05/lincolns-call-for-national-repentance.html

3https://www.wnd.com/2012/11/ugandan-president-repents-of-personal-national-

sins/#AfQAHEJ4HoyG7RRX.99

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 What a powerful statement! This was a public declaration of the specific
ways that the government and the people had become sinful stumbling blocks for
the development and well-being of the nation as a whole. This is the kind of
confession that can lead to transformation. We recognize this admission of sin as
a gateway to receiving grace and becoming more grace-filled toward others.
We hear President Museveni’s prayer of confession is in contrast with a
statement Donald Trump made just a month after announcing his candidacy for
the presidency: Interviewer Frank Luntz asked Trump whether he has ever asked
God for forgiveness for his actions. He answered, "I am not sure I have. I just go
on and try to do a better job from there. I don't think so. I think if I do something
wrong, I think, I just try and make it right. I don't bring God into that picture. I
don't."4
Trump’s statement is such a contrast to the other presidential statements
because it more closely represents what we all do. We don’t bring God into the
picture; we try to cut out our sins on our own, and end up becoming our own
stumbling blocks and tripping up those around us.
I did start smoking again after I preached that sermon. Not only did I start, I
hid it from my husband. It was awful. Not only was I denying the fact that I was
harming the body that God gave me, I was lying to the person I loved – and to
many others. Eventually I did come clean about the smoking and the coverup, but
when I look back, I can’t honestly say that God was in the picture. My personhood
was diminished because of this deception, and my marriage and my relationship
with God were injured. Of course this is not comparable to the scale of our
collective sins of oppression and prejudice and judgement of others, but it is a

4
https://www.cnn.com/2015/07/18/politics/trump-has-never-sought-forgiveness/index.html

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significant step in that direction. When we do not cut out the lies we tell
ourselves and the coverups of our individual sinful behavior, we become part of
creating a social order that doesn’t take responsibility for its actions.
I invite you to entertain Karl Meninger’s conclusion of his book, Whatever
Became of Sin? He wrote that the remedy to regaining a sense of sin, repentance
and the grace of forgiveness is to care. Individually and collectively we can
overcome indifference through a practice of confession – not by pointing out
others’ behavior as the disciples did – but practicing self-examination. Sin is not
an occasion for judgement, blame, and eternal punishment, sin is an occasion for
humility, reflection, repentance and renewal.
May God hear our heartfelt prayers and restore us to wholeness.
Amen.