Slow reading
The gospel reading this week has some deeply challenging images from Jesus, and they are not easy to make sense of or incorporate into daily living. You can listen to the audio clip below, or you can find all the lectionary readings here.
As you journey with this text – and I recognise that the knee jerk reaction would be to reach for the too hard basket and move on to something easier – here are some things it might be helpful to know:
- Jesus is referring to the rubbish tip outside Jerusalem – Gehenna – not the ‘lake of fire and torment’ that are associated with the word ‘hell’ from descriptions in Revelation.
- The ‘little ones’ is a reference to the children from the story directly before this one, which we visited last week.
- Salt and fire were medicinal applications after amputation – the aim is healing once an infected area had been severed.
Some threads for reflection
Jesus invites us to identify those parts of our body which cause us to stumble or falter and to cut the connection. Obviously, this isn’t about parts of our body being responsible for our behaviour. I choose where my eyes look – consciously or unconsciously – I choose where my feet go and what I touch with my hands. So the issue isn’t about the looking or the going or touching, it’s about the motive and intention driving those.
Some commentators draw a connection here with going cold turkey as a way of getting clean from an addiction – moderation isn’t an option where we are compulsive and chronically engaging in behaviours that cause stumbling and faltering in our journey into healing, reconciliation and peace.
You may be in the clear for the classic addictive substances: alcohol, drugs, gambling, pornography etc. but check out this list of compulsive ‘numbing’ behaviours that Dr Brene Brown offers in her book The Gifts of Imperfection:
- food, work, money
- sex, relationships, affairs
- caretaking, chaos, staying busy
- planning, constant change, perfectionism
- shopping and The Internet
Does anything strike you?
I’m not sure that any of this is lending itself to our 140th anniversary celebrations, but perhaps you might give some thoughtful consideration to this: what might we be doing as a community that ‘numbs’ rather than enlivens, or that gets in the way of moving into healing, re-connecting with compassion and compassionate action?
