James 5.13-20; Mark 9.38-50
+Michael G. Smith
It is good to be with you today to see some familiar faces and some new ones as well. If you don’t know me, I was the bishop of the Diocese of North Dakota for fifteen years, stepping down five years ago in 2019. Since that time, I have served part-time as an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Dallas where I visit a couple of weeks a month. Circumstances in my life have brought me back to the Fargo area where I now live in Horace near my youngest daughter and her family. Now that I am back in the area, Dean Strobel invited me, and Bishop Thom encouraged and has given permission for me to preach and celebrate with you occasionally. I hope I can be of help.
Let’s jump into this morning’s scriptures by addressing the elephant in the living room around Jesus’s tough words in the gospel reading:
“If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched” (Mark 9:43-48).
Now I know a lot of Episcopalians and I can tell you we are not comfortable with that kind of talk. We like heaven, but hell not so much. We are much more at home with the accepting, affirming God who says yes to us than the God of judgment who has a habit of saying no, even when it’s for our own good. And yet…
Let me ask you to turn to the Catechism of the Book of Common Prayer (page 862, second question from the top.) I’ll ask the question; you answer it:
“Q. What do we mean by heaven and hell?
A. By heaven, we mean eternal life in our enjoyment of God; by hell, we mean eternal death in our rejection of God” (BCP 862)”
This is part of the Great Tradition of the Church. The difference between heaven and hell is either “eternal life in our enjoyment of God or eternal death in our rejection of God.” Enjoyment or rejection. I think God leaves that choice up to us.
I have come to believe God’s voice spoken through the prophet Ezekiel where it is written:
“As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked,
but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from
your evil ways; for why will you die?” (Ezekiel 33:11).
God does not want anyone to choose eternal death over eternal life but God doesn’t seem to be willing to force himself or impose a relationship with him on us. He seems to have given us free will and honors our choices. I think it can be fairly stated that God does not choose to send anyone to hell, but that hell is a possibility for any who might choose it, in this life or in the age to come.
We have some examples. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, got to choose whether they would be in relationship with the Creator, which was God’s desire but not forced, and they made some bad choices. They chose to go their own ways rather than God’s way. That same Creator honors our decisions as well. He will not force us to do anything, but desires that we choose a relationship with him.
Today is the traditional feast day of St. Michael and All Angels. In a similar fashion, we are more comfortable with the idea of angels, beneficent spirits, than we are with their malevolent counterparts, demons. But again, angels and demons are also part of the Great Tradition of the Church.
We see it all over the place if we look for it. For example, in the Baptismal Covenant (BCP 302) we begin by making some choices. We reject evil in all its forms: spiritual evil, including “Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God”; we reject the “evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God”; we reject the evil that emanates from our own hearts, the “sinful desires that draw us from the love of God.”
We turn from those ways and choose to walk in a new direction, trusting Christ with all our hearts, receiving him as Savior and following him as Lord. These are all choices we are given the freedom to make.
We encounter warnings in the service of Compline (BCP 132) where 1 Peter is quoted:
“Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Peter 5:8-9a).
Again, in Compline we hear the collect: “Visit this place, O Lord, and drive far from it all snares of the enemy; let your holy angels dwell with us to preserve us in peace …” (BCP 133).
Finally, every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we ask the Father to “deliver us from evil,” or as some biblical translations render it, “deliver us from the evil one.”
Choices, choices, choices. Choices between good or evil, eternal life or eternal death, angels or demons, heaven or hell.
We are also faced with some choices in today’s epistle from James where he basically asks when we should turn to God in prayer. The answer is all the time: when we are suffering; when we are joyful; when we are sick. In short, the good, the bad and the ugly of life.
God is ready to meet us in every need: “Are any among you suffering?” James writes. “They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up” (James 5:13-15).
The last couple of years I’ve been able to participate in some of the training offered by Christian Healing Ministries in Jacksonville FL. Christian Healing Ministries is an ecumenical ministry with strong Episcopal roots and grounding. It attempts to combine the very best of the medical arts and modern science with prayer for healing. They teach that there are four basic types healing needed:
1. Physical healing.
2. Spiritual healing, which is basically about forgiveness in seeking reconciliation with God and others. How many of us know people trapped in the hell of “unforgiveness”?
3. Emotional healing, recognizing that many of us, perhaps all of us, are wounded deeply from hurts in our past and prevented from being the whole persons God calls us to be.
4. Finally, some people even require deliverance from evil spirits.
Many of us are in need of one or more of these kinds of healing. And God wants us to be healed, so that we might be healthy and strong enough to make the choices that honor him and result in eternal life in our enjoyment of God.
I have a high school friend who has worked as a coach and high school teacher for many years. He loves his work and his students. Every Friday before the students head out for what could be a wild and craze weekend, he closes his classes with these words:
“Be safe. Be smart. Make good decisions, because I love you and want to see you back here next week.”
Would that all the Lord’s people would be prophets. I think my friend’s words to his students sound a lot like God’s word to us:
“Be safe. Be smart. Make good decisions, because I love you and want to see you back here next week.”
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