A God Who Won't Let Go - Mark 9:38-50

Halloween decorations have started to appear the neighborhood, much to the delight of the younger residents. One by one, the azaleas are getting covered with fake cobwebs, inflatables are going up, and some skeletons have started to pose in front yards. The giant spiders with menacing red eyes climbing on houses can’t be far behind. We have not yet put our big spiders up. But I did find a black widow this week who had taken up residency on the trash can, and I think that counts. Be sure to check your trash cans.

Whenever I see real or fake spiders this time of year, I think of the famous sermon preached by Jonathan Edwards in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1741: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” You might have read it in high school English class, or in American history as the sermon that launched the First Great Awakening in this country. That’s when everyone suddenly got scared about whether or not God would save them from eternal punishment, sinners that we are. Edwards was ready for this moment, with a sermon powerful enough to launch a tidal wave of Puritan revivals. To do it, he turned to spiders.

The premise is that God is full of wrath, and ready to throw us into the fiery pit of hell for our sin and unbelief. In fact, God might do it at any moment. To make sure everyone understood the urgency of the situation, Edwards invited the congregation to picture God - who is very angry - holding us like small, insignificant spiders hanging by a thread over the flames. He brought the fire to life in great detail, from the crackling that would assault the ears to the feel of the heat on our skin. As we dangle over the flames, our own attempts to save ourselves are as flimsy as “a spider's web would be to stop a falling rock.” We are completely at God’s mercy, who could let go at any moment. The sermon is as scary as any good Halloween decoration.

People have tried to soften Edwards over the years, pointing out that he was something of a naturalist who actually loved spiders. It’s true that he had entire sketchbooks devoted to what he called the excellency of spider webs. Also, it’s hard to imagine that Edwards the pastor felt so severely toward his congregation, the people he loved. He was just as versed in the joyful side of Scripture, in things like abundant life and God’s good grace. So what was he doing, exactly, if not just scaring people?

I thought of that sermon as I read today’s Gospel. In the ninth chapter of Mark, Jesus reminds me of a Great Awakening preacher. “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; for it is better for you to be maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.” Same with cutting out an eye or a foot if one of those causes you to sin. Edwards and Jesus may have been separated by seventeen centuries, but apparently they had the same playbook, the hellfire and brimstone one.

What should we make of Jesus’ graphic examples and talk of hell? The first thing we have to do is peel back century after century of Christian interpretation about hell as a fiery, eternal destination. The word in Aramaic is Gehenna, which was the name of an actual place just outside of Jerusalem’s old city. In ancient times, it was a place of ritual sacrifice, which involved fire. There was even human sacrifice in older times. When that was over, people still considered the place creepy and cursed. Eventually Gehenna became a trash heap, the city dump. Not a place you’d want to go spend a lot of time.

The trash metaphor is an interesting one. Jesus says it’s better to let go of the sins weighing you down than to end up in the dump. The teaching here is that our lives are not to be trashed. They are God-given, not disposable. Also, we must not do anything that causes someone else to be thrown away. To use the language of Mark, we must not be stumbling blocks to anyone else. Like any good hellfire and brimstone preacher, Jesus is trying to wake us up to the reality and dangers of sin. We possess the power to hurt others, and ourselves. That is not how God intends for us to use the gift of our lives. No one should end up in the trash.

Throughout his healing ministry, Jesus met people in the worst places, the trash heaps of their lives. He certainly had a special affinity for anyone who had been cast aside or thrown away. An interesting side note is that from up on Mount Calvary, where Jesus was crucified, you can actually look over and see Gehenna. Jesus would have seen that from the cross. Over the years, Gehenna got mixed up with views of the afterlife. The Apostles’ Creed teaches us that after his crucifixion, Christ descended to the dead as part of his saving work. The Church teaches that no one, not even the dead, is beyond his redeeming reach (Will Willimon, 2000).

Years ago, there was a young Methodist pastor assigned to preach on today’s lesson. He climbed nervously into the pulpit as the gospel was read. When it was finished, all eyes were on him, and everyone wondered what he would do with this hellfire and brimstone version of Jesus. He said, “As one who has sinned, I stand before you today as a one-eyed, one-handed preacher.” (Willimon) He won everyone over in that moment. He went on to explain that Jesus calls us to let go of those hurtful parts of us that get in the way of following Jesus into kingdom living. None of us is without sin, but we can wake up to that reality and live in a more hopeful way for ourselves and one another. Sin ins’t the end of the story. It’s the plot twist that helps us know the grace of God.

This year, as the Halloween spiders start going up, or the live ones make a home on your trash can, maybe you, too, will think of Jonathan Edwards, and his unforgettable words that we are like spiders hanging by a thread over the flames, held by the hand of God who could let go at any moment. Or maybe you’ll think of Jesus who sometimes used a similar hellfire and brimstone approach, warning about fire and trash heaps. As preachers they shared powerful images to wake us up to the reality of sin in our lives. But that was never the end of their sermons, or the end of our story. They also woke us up to the grace of God who never actually lets go.