Mark 9:38-50

Life leaves scars. We cannot help but bear the signs and wounds that show we have lived through pain and sorrow, through hurt and suffering. Life leaves its scars on our bodies, on our psyches, on our relationships. And its not just life that leaves its scars on us, its that we leave scars on each other. We hurt people around us intentionally and unintentionally, we are wounded and we cause wounds, wounds that if deep enough, leave scars. That is just the way life is, you don’t get out of it with at least a few scars, if not your fair share of festering wounds.

Today, Jesus describes that reality. The disciples tattle on someone who is healing in Jesus’ name, and instead of congratulating them for bringing what they thought would be scandalous news, Jesus reams them out for again missing the point. The disciples are trying to determine who is allowed to use Jesus power but they have the missed the point that people have been healed instead the disciples want this to stop. But Jesus describes our reality, the reality that in life we cause others to stumble, to fall, to hurt themselves, and then we ourselves stumble, we fall and we are hurt.

Jesus isn’t talking about punishment when he talks about cutting off hands, feet and eyes. It is easy to see Christ’s words as a warning. Its easier to hear the tone of punishment. Yet, Jesus is describing what life is like. It would be good to keep our neighbour from stumbling, but we don’t, instead we roll out the stumbling blocks. And when our neighbour does stumble over one of our stumbling blocks WE are scarred. As much as it hurts to stumble and fall, it hurts too to be the cause.

(Pause)

In the hit TV show House, the main character Dr. Greg House, is a brilliant doctor. And he is also cranky, grumpy, sarcastic and cynical and often plays sick and twisted games with his co-workers and patients. House started out this season as a patient in a mental hospital. He ended up there because of psychotic episodes that he endured while addicted to painkillers.

When he was finally free of the physical addiction, House’s psychiatrist blackmails him into dealing with his emotional issues by refusing to endorse House’s return to practicing medicine. House is free to leave at any time, but he wants to go back to his job. So he endeavours to make things so awful for the doctors in charge of his treatment that they would endorse his return to practice just to get rid of him.

And so House tries destabilizing other patients by verbally poking at the symptoms of their illness, then he tries turning the patients against the doctors, and then finally he tries pretending to comply, by not taking his medication. He conspires with his bi-polar roommate to “cheek the pills” instead of swallowing. House’s roommate is more than inspired and takes to following House’s schemes with vigor.

(Pause)

Like House, we stumble and we cause others to stumble and at the root of it is being curved in on ourselves. We put ourselves before others, just as the disciples do today. They are thinking only of themselves and how THEY can hold on to Jesus’ power by staying close, by determining who is a real follower or not, and they miss the point that people have been healed, whether or not this healer is a follower of Jesus or not. House causes others to stumble by interfering with and hindering the treatment of his fellow patients.

We might not be as concerned with who is healing in Jesus name, and more than likely we are not interfering with the treatment of psychiatric patients but like the disciples, and like House, we have our own ways of making others stumble. Whether it be in the workplace, at home, at school, in the community, we try to keep power and control for ourselves. We try put barriers in the way of others being a part of what we have. And by putting ourselves first, we often ends up hurting those around us.

And yet for all the stumbling we do, for all the scars that we bear, God is there, and in God’s way, He is making us salty again. God is there returning us to what we were created to be. Jesus asks, “What good is salt if it has lost its saltiness?”. What good are we if by all our stumbling and stumble causing, we are too wounded and too scarred to be of any good? And still there is God making us salty again by picking us up when we stumble, and then redeeming our wounds and scars.

(Pause)

For all of House’s attempts to get out the hospital by making life worse for those around him, it ends up that his own life is made worse because he begins to care for his fellow patients and see what his interference has done to them.

House finally relents and gives his treatment an honest try. He co-operates with his doctors and he begins to take his medication. However, his roommate and co-conspirator in the “cheeking the meds” scheme is angered by House’s giving in.

He catches House in the hallway and asks him if he still has his medication in his cheek. House tells him that he has started swallowing his meds.

At this House’s roommate accuses him,

“Don’t tell me that they are breaking you, House!”

And House responds,

“I AM broken... that’s why I am here”.

(Pause)

We are broken, we have stumbled, we are scarred. We are missing hands, feet and eyes. And yet... And Yet! God is making us salty again. God working in us to turn us back to what we were created to be. God is working in us to heal over our wounds and to redeem our scars.

Christ bore the wounds and scars of his life. After the resurrection, he still had the holes in his hands and feet, he still had the wound in his side. Christ had stumbled and Christ was scarred, yet, Christ shows us that this is part of what it means to live a human life. Our wounds and our scars are part of who we are, they MAKE us who we are.

Salt is only good if its salty and God has created us to be creatures of relationship. We live in this world full of other wounded and scarred people, we live in this world with people whom we have hurt, and with people who have hurt us. And yet, even with our wounds and scars, God calls us to love one another, to care for one another, to live at peace with one another. God calls us to do these things despite our scars, because God does these things for us despite His scars. The scars were still there in the resurrection because they had become part of who Jesus is. God loves and cares for our scars, and God weeps with us when we cause others to stumble and when we ourselves stumble. God loves all of us, God loves every part of us, every bump, every bruise.

God loves our scars by washing us in Baptism, God loves our wounds by feeding us bread and wine. And in these things, God binds us together as a community, as one body. We are made to be one body in Christ, one body that bears all hurts and pains of life, but one body that can fill in where a hand is missing, one body that has an extra foot when one has been cut off, one body that still sees when an eye has been cut out. God makes us one Body and makes us salty again. And by our saltiness we are able to love one another, stumbles, wounds, scars and all.

(Pause)

In the end, House is released from the Hospital and free to go back to his practice. As he leaves the hospital building, his roommate watches from the window above. Inspired by House’s success, he watches for a moment and then walks over to the nursing station where is doctor is working. And there he asks her if he can start taking his meds now too. He wants his wounds to be healed.

And so too it is with us. No matter how much we have stumbled, no matter how much we cause others to stumble, God is with us, loving us and healing us into One Body in Christ. One Body, scars and all.

Amen.