Thank you, Amy, for that wonderful reading of the Scripture. It is a shame it was wasted on this text. Oh, come one! Don’t tell me I’m the only one who thought that. Certainly I am not alone in wondering why Jesus said these words or why Mark included it in his gospel. The text is filled with violent language and seems to be focused on the external. Exorcists who are not full followers of Christ, appendages that cause us to stumble and condemn us to hell, and salt that loses its saltiness. I’m the supposed expert when it comes to biblical interpretation—second expert, maybe—and the harsh language and myriad of external images are almost enough to make me want to cut this section out of Mark’s gospel. Yet there is something about this text, isn’t there? Something that keeps us from turning the page. Something that reaches inside us, pulls at our insides and makes us want to understand what is said. Yes, this text is externally bemoaning, but it is also internally bewitching, and as such we shouldn’t turn the page just yet.

Prior to our gospel text, the disciples have failed to exorcise a demon from a boy and then spend time arguing about who is the greatest among them. It’s quite funny if you think about it. They were essentially arguing about who was the greatest at failing. Jesus, knowing their argument, takes a little child and teaches the disciples that whoever welcomes ones like this child welcomes Jesus himself.

It is in this context that our Scripture takes place. The disciples, fresh off failure and yet full of themselves, are trying to fix an external problem: a man who is not a full follower who has successfully exorcised a demon in the name of Jesus. Their solution: Cut him out. Draw a boundary to exclude this external annoyance. The disciples, who were probably afraid of their own security within the group, want to dictate who is in and who is out. They want to draw a boundary to keep out their problems.

What is it with humans and drawing boundaries? Why do we do it? Why are we so concerned with assigning blame, declaring right and wrong, in and out? Depending on which news station you watch, CNN or Fox News, you hear about which president is to blame for 9/11 and whose fault it is that Osama Bin Laden may still be alive. This boundary drawing, this labeling of the external problems, happens every day and all day.

The Rev. Jerry Falwell has recently begun drawing boundaries again. Speaking privately to church pastors and activists who were at the Values Voters Summit, Falwell commented on the potential presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. The LA Times reported Falwell saying, “I certainly hope that Hillary is the candidate. She has $300 million so far. But I hope she's the candidate. Because nothing will energize my [constituency] like Hillary Clinton. …If Lucifer ran, he wouldn’t.” Two people who attended the conference, one of whom was a Falwell staff member, confirmed that Falwell said that even Lucifer, the fallen angel synonymous with Satan in Christian theology, would not mobilize his followers as much as the New York senator and former first lady would. (Taken from LA Times article accessed on Sept 25, 2006; http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-falwell24sep24,1,2461940.story?track=crosspromo&coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true)

Wow. Regardless of what side of the line you stand on politically, or even if you straddle it, I hope it is evident the dangerous position a person assumes when drawing a boundary and assuming which side God is on.

Now, we are not Jerry Falwell, not all of us, but all of us are prone to wanting our way to be the way. Both in politics and PTA, in country clubs and church committees. Our way is the right way, and those who disagree are on the outside. We often go so far as to claim that our way is in fact God’s way. Mark’s gospel makes it clear that Jesus is the one who determines the way, and his way is love and service to others. His way is reaching out to those whom society often places outside the boundaries.

In seminary I lived in an interesting part of Waco. Two things made it interesting: first, intriguing people were always walking by our place; second, pizza places would not deliver to our house, probably because of the interesting people who were usually walking by. Among those beautiful wanderers was Bobby the Rose Man. Bobby, as his name indicates, sold roses, and his office was the Diamond Shamrock down the street. He was not the most attractive gentleman and was pretty pushy with his flowers. But if you lived in the neighborhood, you knew Bobby. One day Bobby was walking by our house just after we had finished a neighborhood cookout. We were eating dessert when he happened by our porch ready to sell some roses to the guys for their lady friends. There were no takers, but my roommate Jeremy offered Bobby a bowl of banana pudding instead. Bobby took the pudding and left grateful. About 30 minutes later he returned, this time with a used lawnmower in place of the banana pudding. Turns out Bobby could sell more than roses. He had swapped the bowl of pudding for a lawnmower and was now looking to sell the lawnmower. One woman was in the market and bought the lawnmower for $40. As he was leaving, Bobby asked for another bowl of pudding.

Many of us would not have given Bobby the first bowl of pudding, let alone the second. We know his type. The Bobbys of our world sit on our street corners and outside gas stations. Some hold roses. Some hold newspapers. Others simply hold signs, which range from the amusing to the heart-wrenching. But all of them are there for the purpose of grabbing our attention and ultimately our dollar.

And so we sit at the stoplights looking while trying not to make eye contact. Drawing boundaries. The excuses flip through our mind like a rolodex of why we should not help. “They will only use the money to buy drugs or alcohol. Don’t they know there are shelters and soup kitchens that will give them food and help them out? You know a lot of them choose to live that way.”

Sometimes our minds even wonder about what might have happened in their lives to lead them down this path to this point on this corner with that sign. Maybe a war veteran. Maybe mentally ill. Probably drugs at some point. Maybe all of the above. Then the light turns green and we drive off—not to volunteer at the institutions that help them or to buy them a meal to eat (there isn’t time). No, we drive to our offices. To our errands. To our homes, where at least one other car sits in the driveway. To pantries that are filled with food that often doesn’t sound good, so we just eat out. To closets filled with clothes both in season and waiting to be back in season. To roofs and walls and bathrooms and air conditioning—and if we are lucky, love. The people on the corner, the Bobbys of the world? They just stay in our rearview mirrors, outside of our boundaries.

The truth is that Bobby the Rose Man was invited to our barbeque and felt comfortable enough to stop by because there was a relationship in place. Not with me but with my roommate Jeremy. Jeremy is someone who understands the sweetness of the gospel, and he desires to share it with everyone, bowl by bowl, regardless of what they might do with it. “Whoever is not against us is for us.” It is not our job as Christians to judge who is to be welcomed and who is worthy of the gospel.

Bobby the Rose Man is a bit of an extreme example in that it is easy to see how we draw boundaries to exclude people like Bobby. His exterior is so different from ours that it is easy to see his other-ness. But it is not only Bobby who sits outside our boundaries. It is not only Bobby whom we try to cut out. Think about it. There are people at work and school. You fail to engage them in conversation—they are outside the boundary. What about your friends and neighbors? You engage them only in surface-level conversation about the weather and water conservation, failing to invest in their lives, let alone invite them to Sunday School or church—they are outside the boundary.

You don’t have to look long and hard to begin to see the many boundaries that exist between you and those around you. They may not be as obvious as the boundary between you and Bobby, but they are just as real and just as easy to stumble over. “If any of you put a stumbling block before these little ones …If your hand causes you to stumble …If your foot causes you to stumble …If your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out!”

Here it is. The text is pulling at our insides. Indeed, the Spirit grabs our insides and is trying to rip out the parts of us that do not belong. Rip out the stumbling blocks in our lives. The words are not literal, but they are harsh for a reason. They illustrate how serious Jesus is about having us examine our own lives with regard to boundaries and stumbling blocks. It is not about boundaries outside of our lives, but the boundaries that exist internally, inside our lives. These are the boundaries that inhibit the love of Christ and cause others to stumble.

This past week on the CallAnswerers e-mail group, a quote from Thomas Merton was circulating that illustrates this reality: “The big problem that confronts Christianity is not Christ's enemies. Persecution has never done much harm to the inner life of the Church as such. The real religious problem exists in the souls of those of us who in their hearts believe in God, and who recognize their obligation to love (God) and serve (God) — yet do not!” (The Ascent to Truth, p. 4, parentheses mine)

Jesus’ harsh examples shine light on the harsh reality of how our lives fall short of our commitment to God. It is time to stop looking outward to the external issues and drawing boundaries around those who aren’t and who can’t and who shouldn’t be. Instead, you should look inward and see what hurts your relationship with God and your ability to fully receive and give the love of Christ. As private as your faith often is, it is not simply personal. It does impact those around you. The internal affects the external.

Consider your giving. Some of you give only to specific needs. You say, “Show me a need and I will give to it.” These gifts are good and do help those specific needs, but the underlying issue with this manner of giving is control. You want to control your money, and so you only give to specific needs. Why not give generally? Why not give to the church’s general budget? Are those needs not important enough? Is it because you don’t know where the money is going? Do you not trust those who are using the money? If you have to have a specific need to give to, is the specific need that is the general ministry and life of the Wilshire Baptist Church not enough?

And what of those of you who give nothing? You sit in the pews. You drink the coffee. You benefit from the fellowship and family that is Wilshire Baptist, yet you give nothing to support the ministry that impacts your life. For some the excuse is debt. If this is you, please talk to our minister of business administration, Paul Johnson. He can get you on the road toward eliminating your debt and being able to give. For some the excuse is retirement planning, kids in college, mortgages, car payments. There are lots of excuses. These excuses are internal stumbling blocks, and it is time to get rid of them. It is time to cut them out. The failure to give to the ministry of God’s kingdom at all, or the unwillingness to give generally to support the ongoing ministry of the church, is a stumbling block and must be removed. Such stumbling blocks hurt this community. They hurt your family. They hurt you.

There are many other stumbling blocks in our lives. By now you are feeling the temperature of the room and the hardness of the pews, so there is little need to list them all. They have crossed your mind. You know what you trip over and what needs to be cut off. Whatever it is, please cut it off. If you don’t, you will stumble; we will stumble.

My family has been here at Wilshire for almost five years. Hard to believe it has been that long. In that time we have benefited from your hospitality, your generosity, your faithfulness as the Body of Christ. My hope and prayer for you Wilshire is that you allow others to experience those blessings. This will take some internal examination. It will take some cutting off of stumbling blocks. But we need it. You need it. Those on the outside need it, and we, Wilshire, we need them. Amen.