Sep 24 2019 Matthew 5:27-37

If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.
This is one of those passages that is, in its entirety, challenging. Don’t commit adultery, but not only that, don’t lust in your heart, or you’ve already committed adultery. Don’t get divorced, or that’s adultery. Pluck out your eye if it causes you to sin. I’d rather not read this passage, or think about it. But alas, that’s the beauty of prescribed readings for Morning Prayer; I don’t get to pick and choose. So this morning, I struggle. Happily.

If your hand causes you to sin. On a personal level, maybe this is acknowledging that there are parts of ourselves that get us in trouble. For me, I can get snippy when I’m right and that’s challenged. I don’t always need to be right, but once I land on that sense of right-ness, I hold fast. The problem is that I’m not 100% right, even in those instances. And even more to the point, who cares if I’m seen as right?

If I keep thinking about it, I could come up with other parts of me that cause me trouble. I get snippy and sarcastic in the evening when I’m tired. Of course it’s hard not to. But it’s only when I think about it, acknowledge it, and come up with strategies to address it. For example, my husband and I are going to try to not bring up or discuss anything hard after that bewitching hour; we’re both not to be trusted with the civility the morning brings.

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. Reading that sentence, and thinking about it, although I’d rather not, is a great prompt to muse about what parts of me get me in trouble. And how can I get rid of them, or at least mitigate them.. Without the uncomfortable prompt, I’d unlikely think about those sin causing hands, and wayward eyes.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen this Scripture used to defend ostracizing people in the community. It’s better to get rid of one member of the community than for everyone to go to Hell. This, however causes people to jump to judgment and blame. Because that person did something I find sinful, they need ot be ejected from the community, lest we all be painted with that sinful brush. That sounds to me like refusing to sit with sinners and tax collectors. Or walking on the other side of the street to pass by the injured man. Or refusing to help the ritually unclean woman. Jesus spent too much time with the sinners and outcasts for this section to be interpreted communally. To do so, we’d look the maligned Pharisees or the thick disciples. We’d put ourselves in the place where we think we can accurately judge and sentence others based on our assessment of their sin. I’m pretty sure we’d get it wrong. 

This morning, I’m thinking about what troubles me about some passages of Scripture. I think it’s one of two things. Either it’s troubling because people have misinterpreted the Scripture to be about judgment or exclusion or hate. None of those things are of God, so how can that be right? The other problem that arises is when the Scripture asks me to think about me, when I’d rather not. In either case, I’m begrudgingly grateful to have spent some time thinking about this passage.