Stumbling

There is a lot packed into tonight's gospel from Mark, and I hardly knew which theme to use as a focus for my homily. Jesus is on a journey from Galliee to Jerusalem where he will be killed, and it is as though Mark is trying to get in as many instructions and teachings about the kingdom of God as he can before the journey ends with Jesus' death.

Tonight's gospel begins with a lesson on the the inclusiveness of the kingdom. We hear John complaining to Jesus that a stranger was driving out demons in Jesus' name, and wasn't Jesus going to do something about that? By now many of you will have noticed that the issue of insiders and outsiders and inclusiveness is a favorite theme of mine, and here Jesus once again rejects the insider-outsider distinction.

And then in the remaining two thirds of tonight's gospel we have various sayings of Jesus on the subject of scandal, especially concerning the little ones, the innocent ones. The Greek here is the word micron meaning small ones or the least. We usually think of Jesus referring to children because in the previous gospel from last week he had children on his lap. But "small ones" could easily mean those who are weak in their faith or new to the faith. The point might be that the scandalous behavior of veteran believers could be a harmful obstacle to those whose faith is just developing.

If someone who is a seeker or new to the Christian community and who is not fully committed observes a long-time member of the church behaving in an unkind manner or in an unloving manner, this might cause the newcomer to question the integrity of the whole Christian enterprise. Such a disillusioned newcomer might go away never to return.

But I would like to return to the traditional interpretation of "small ones" – micron – and relate the possibility that Jesus really is talking about children to something that happened this past week.

You may be aware that Senator John McCain has been holding hearings on violence in the media. These hearings have revealed practices of the motion picture industry that, while not surprising, are nonetheless shocking. It seems that eight different motion picture companies had used focus groups of children ranging in age from 10 to 16 to test concepts for extremely violent movies such as the sequel to "I Know What You Did Last Summer". Some of these studios had also run advertisements for R-rated violent movies on children's television programs and in other media directed to young children.

Mel Harris, president and chief operating officer of Sony Pictures Entertainment, defended his company in another instance when children aged 9 to 11 were interviewed as part of the test marketing of a violent R-rated movie. The NY Times article did not say exactly how Mr. Harris defended this practice, and that is too bad, because that would have been very interesting to read. He did say that it was a "judgment lapse" for his movie company to try to advertise a film with violent scenes on a children's television network. He makes this sound so innocent – a judgment lapse. You can almost hear him saying, "Whoops! We sure didn't mean to do that!"

Well, as one who has sat in on the evaluation of focus groups and participated in decisions about media advertising, I can assure you that the decisions were well thought out and deliberate.

The scandal here is clear, it is not ambiguous, and it is very wrong.

What does this have to do with us? Do the practices of the entertainment industry – and, for that matter, the tire industry or the pharmaceutical industry – place a duty upon Christians? Do they demand a response from Christians?

It seems to me that we participate in this scandal unless we speak out with a prophetic voice against violence and the glorification of immoral themes in movies and television programs. It seems to me that members of congress need to hear from moral people about our sense of what is scandalous. The word scandal comes from the Greek word that means "cause to stumble." I believe we have an obligation to make known our views about what might cause an innocent one to stumble.

I recognize that this is dangerous territory, especially for us liberal-minded folks. In our wish to be tolerant and accepting of others, we are reluctant to do anything that would impose our views on others. But I wonder whether this caution sometimes causes us to be passive when innocents are harmed.

In the final analysis, these sayings of Jesus regarding scandal cause us to examine the quality of our discipleship. Is following Christ the essence of our lives and something about which we are passionate and willing to be prophetic? Or is our Christianity something we will set aside in certain circumstances when it would be easier to remain silent?

It seems clear from even a casual reading of the gospels that belief – and practices that are consonant with that belief – that can easily be set aside cannot be the faith Jesus calls for among his disciples. In Mark's gospel, Jesus stresses the importantce of suffering and death as a prerequisite for entering the kingdom of God.

Perhaps one way we are called upon to suffer is in the discomfort we will feel in going against the tide of popular culture in order to speak out prophetically for what is good and right in our society. Perhaps our suffering will be in enduring the disdain of our friends who see no harm in watching a movie whose sole purpose seems to be the glorification of violence.

These may seem like trivial things and our inclination in this secular world is to let them slide. But we must examine ourselves and ask what it is we are called to do in this world as Christian people. How will we share in the kingdom of God? How will we prevent the little ones, the innocent ones, from stumbling?