Based on the Gospel lesson Mark 9: 38-50                 

In the name of Jesus, Amen.   Cut it off! The words of Jesus are harsh and direct. If there is something in your life that is distracting you from the way of salvation, "Cut it off!" If your hand is causing you to sin, cut it off. Cut it off if your feet or your eye are tripping you up along the way and distracting you Cut it off! The word here is "Hyperbole" it's an exaggeration for the sake of effect. But it comes home to us that there are things in our lives that can detract us, trip us up, that can scandalize us. You know what scandal is- something that turns your heart over and makes you feel sick. There are things in our lives that scandalize us about Jesus Christ. If there is anything like that CUT IT OFF!                 

In the next chapter he is going to have a way of applying that principle to a young man that comes to him. And in that it applies to us today as well. The young man comes to Him and says, "Good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life?" and Jesus gives him an answer "You know the commandments; you shall not murder, commit adultery, steal, defraud, honor your father and mother." Why did he modify the order? The man speaks up and said "Lord, I have done those since my youth." Jesus looked at him and said to him "One thing you lack, go and sell all that you own and give it to the poor, and then you will have treasure in heaven, then come and follow me." One of the saddest lines in scripture says that man walked away grieving because he had many passions. His possessions were tripping him up. He should have cut them off! He should have been done with those things and followed Jesus.                 

So, there is a great principle in front of us. On the one hand our possessions can trip us up, can threaten our relationship with God and we should be very cautious about them. There is a counter point in that lesson and our lesson today. Did you hear what it said!! Had the man given up his possessions what would he have had? TREASURE in heaven. His possessions became a way, a handle, in which he could bolster HIS relationship with God.                 

In our lesson Jesus says something about salt is good. Have salt in yourselves. Think about salt. Salt was a major commodity in ancient times. It was absolutely necessary to preserve things. They didn't have refrigerators and ice boxes and dry ice. They used salt to preserve things. They used salt to flavor and season bland foods. It was so valuable Roman soldiers actually received an allowance of salt. It was called the Salarium. Doesn't that sound like a word we know? Salary! Salt is good! Salary is good! Have salt in yourselves. Use your salary for the sake of your service to God.                 

You see now it is laid all out in front of us. On the one hand our possessions, what we have, our salaries, could detract us from God's service. They could trip us up. On the way to salvation, on the other hand, our possessions, our gifts, what we have received from God properly acknowledged can enhance our relationship with God. (They) can draw our hearts closer to God. We can actually do the one and thereby avoid the other. How are we going to do that? Well, it is all done by knowing who this Jesus is.                 

Mark is such a unique gospel in the way on how he lays that out. Like a marvelous novel writer, he (Mark) begins the novel by telling you exactly who Jesus is. He opens it with these words. "The beginning of the good news of Jesus the messiah, the Christ, the Son of God." He tells you in his opening words who Jesus is but like a good novel he wants you to follow the story now and see when do the characters figure out who this Jesus is. It is obvious in the very first chapter that God knows who he is. In baptism Jesus comes out of the water. What does he hear and see? A voice from heaven, "you are my son, my beloved." A spirit descending on him like a dove. Later in his transfiguration when he goes up that mountain high apart with his executive committee of his disciples with Peter, James and John they see Jesus transformed before them. (One was the voice from heaven.) God knows this is His son. God knows who this is. And another part of the invisible world, the demons, they know who he is.                 

The first miracle of Jesus (in the first chapter) Jesus is in the synagogue and a man comes up to him and begins shouting to him (from out of the crowd in the synagogue) "What do you have to do with us O Holy One of God?" Later in Chapter 5 when he goes across the Sea of Galilee into the gatherings here he meets a man who runs around in the tombs, bothering people and upsetting people, and he runs up to Jesus and falls down at his feet and says "Oh, Son of the Most High God!" The demons, that invisible world, they knew who this Jesus was. The question still is when are human beings going to get that right!? Only one human in Mark's entire gospel ever says who he is. I will ask this rhetorically. "Do you know which one?" Think about whom it might be. You might say "Well, Peter surely said that!" When you look at the transfiguration when Jesus came down, when he began asking people "Who do they say that I am?" and they all chime in all these other answers and Jesus asks again "Who do YOU say that I am?" Peter said "You are the Christ!" It looks like WOW he got it right.                   

Peter has PART of it right. Jesus talks about what he is going to do. He is going to Jerusalem, he is going to be beaten, he is going to suffer, his life is going to be taken from him by the religious leaders. HE IS GOING TO DIE (he had lost them by this time) and on the third day RISE again. Peter says "didn't you hear me Lord, that is not what is going to happen, you're the Christ, were going to finally get rid of the Romans. We are going to ride into Jerusalem and you're going to be wonderful and we are going to sit in your cabinet, didn't you hear what I said? You're the Christ!" and what did Jesus say then? "Get behind me Satan!" Peter didn't understand yet. He didn't know. (Folks) He is not the only one who gets it right in Mark's entire gospel. The Roman Centurion at the foot of the cross as he sees Jesus die says "Truly this man was the Son of God."             

I am convinced that the only way you and I fully understand who this Jesus truly is, is when we go to the foot of that cross and look into his eyes, and listen to him say to us "for you I am here, I am on this cross, I draw all your sins to me here, I am in your place -- under the judgment of God at this moment -- and I do it for you!" And when God raises Him from the dead, it is God's way of saying HE WAS WHO HE SAID HE WAS THIS JESUS and the power of His life, the power of His gospel, the power of the good news that He came and did that for you and me, that is what will free us from our possessions possessing us and set us free to use them in the service of God.           

In this Jesus is an example for us and again in a very strange way in Mark's gospel. If I ask you "What was Jesus' occupation before he became and itinerant preacher?" You would probably come up with he was a carpenter and you would be saying that the scriptures say that he was a carpenter. (In Greek) A "technon". In another gospel it says that he was the son of a carpenter (the son of Joseph). The only problem is when we jump from the translation carpenter to technon. "Technon" can be used in a lot of different ways. It can be used for a person who is a sculpture. It can be used for a physician. It can be used for a ship builder. It doesn't (necessarily) mean he was a lowly carpenter. What if Jesus was from a middle class family? There is every chance of that because in nearby Nazareth there was a Jewish city, a cultural center and government center called Sepphoris and Sepphoris was being built in a major way. Some of the best mosaics we have in Israel have been discovered in Sepphoris. What if Joseph was a contractor? A general contractor who took Jesus along with him throughout Galilee and that is how Jesus knew his way? He followed in the footsteps of his dad. What if they were a middle class family? What would that mean? Sure, we have the picture of poverty in Bethlehem (at his birth) but we are 30 years later now. Could not Joseph been a man of means and Jesus (gave) all that up to follow His father in heaven? What he asked the young man to do, Christ himself, did for you and for me! And so that becomes an example for all of us.             

So today you ask me "How much should I give?" If you ask the question from the law I have to answer out of the law. I have to answer with Jesus and I will say to you 100%! Better give it all away if you got to ask how much and you want direction from me. Well then your tie to your possessions is pretty strong! Better give it all up! Go sell it and give it to the poor then come follow Jesus and trust in Him completely! That would really be cutting it off wouldn't it? But there is another way -- that is to recognize that all is coming from God. That it's a tremendous GIFT from God and you and I receive those gifts from God with open hands. Not with closed hands and clenched fists to capture it all and say "MINE, MINE" but rather to say "Lord I know it comes from you, and I am going to capture some of it in my palms but I am going to leave a bunch of it flow through because I know YOU gave it to me in order to bless and be a blessing to others.                 

Your leaders in these past few weeks have given you an opportunity to meet a need you have because that same Jesus who gave it all away for you lives in you so you have a need to give. You can't deny it! You are connected to Jesus and knowing Him as your Lord, identified by the father as son and daughter in your own baptism. You can't deny that there is a part of you that (Jesus part of you) HAS to give. Today you are invited to meet that need to give away some of what you have and the goal here is not your money. Folks, I am not after your money! I am after your faith and your life! That you would have treasure in heaven and I am asking you to use your money, to use your possessions as a way of growing in your faith in God and say "Lord I could come up with all kinds of reasons I need this, but I got this need to give it away. Bless it and make it a blessing to others." That is what we are inviting you to do today. I hope you will hear that clearly. I hope it is not the warning that gets to you. Cut it OFF if it is tripping you up! I hope rather it's the great good news that this Jesus lives in you and He is moving you to give out of His grace. May that be the way we ALL give this day and always! IN JESUS NAME, AMEN

NOTE: At the end of the service Rev. Rueter then explained the "Estimate of Giving Cards", encouraging all members present to consider stepping up for Christ and his church and their own spiritual lives. The voluntary nature of the experience was stressed. Visitors were told they need not participate, but could attend the lunch afterwards. Everyone then came forward via the outer aisles and dropped their cards into offering plates in the front of the sanctuary before proceeding to the lunch. This was all part of the Consecration Sunday plan for Immanuel Lutheran Church in Junction City, KS on October 19, 2003.