Last Sunday we began a section of Saint Mark’s Gospel which is called “Mark’s Little Catechism”.  It starts at Chapter 9, verse 30, . . . and goes through to the end of Chapter 10.  And Mark’s Little Catechism commences with the question we  heard last Sunday.  Jesus says to us, “Okay, if you believe that I am the Messiah . . . the Christ and your Saviour . . . then who are you, who desire to be blessed in following me; . . . who are you that want God to bless your life, protect your children, sanctify your marriage, and receive you at the hour of your death?  . . . And Jesus says that if you desire these things, you must, above all else, by grace and by habit, . . . you must acquire a character that is Humble:  that in order to have everything . . . you must want nothing.  . . . And to illustrate what he means, last Sunday Jesus placed in our midst one of those diseased and filthy urchins that desperate mothers were continually bringing to Him to heal, . . . and He said that the Humility of Heaven is to receive every kind of human carelessness and unruliness and ingratitude in the Name of Jesus . . . so that you might communicate to human society what it does not ordinarily hear or see; . . . so that you might communicate to human society the glory you have received from Christ.
 
    And now, today, Mark’s Little Catechism begins to talk about the disciplines necessary to attain to the Humility of Heaven by which is communicated, to all of careless, unruly and ungrateful humanity, all the wonderful assurances of God.  . . . By the time we get to the end of Mark’s Little Catechism, he will counsel you that there are three disciplines to keep:  Detachment (also called Chastity by Church Tradition); . . . Detachment, Obedience, and Simplicity (also referred to as Poverty).  . . . But today’s Gospel Lesson begins with Detachment.

    Mark starts off by telling of an occasion when John and some other disciples (probably Peter and James, since they hung out a lot); . . . John and Peter and James saw some unruly fellow casting out demons in the Name of Jesus, . . . and they chased him out of town with sticks.  . . . And Jesus asks them why on earth would they do such a hurtful thing, to which John replies that the fellow was not a disciple of Jesus; he was simply using the power of the Master’s Name.  . . . And Jesus says, “No one can do a mighty work in my Name and not be a disciple!  This fellow you chased off came to Faith by a way different from yours, but you share the same Faith with him!  For he that is not against us is for us; . . . and he will receive the same reward as you.”

    Jesus then counsels His disciples on the discipline of moral and spiritual Chastity; . . . on the discipline of Detachment.  . . . Moral and spiritual superiority can lead to sin, Jesus says.  Holy Scripture is simply full of examples of this.  For instance, in today’s Old Testament Lesson we have the children of Israel, who, by the might and power and mercy and love of God, have been freed from slavery to the Egyptians who hated and despised them.  They are free and alive and loved by God, abundantly fed in a safe place by the merciful gift of manna which reliably and miraculously appears by God’s provision.  . . . But someone says, “Is this the best that God can do?  This is it?  Manna?  If I were God, I’d do better by my people than this bland, flakey stuff.  Look at what the Egyptians provided for us to eat(!):  free fish(!) and meat and cucumbers and melons and leeks and onions and garlic.”  . . . The children of Israel, full of moral and spiritual superiority over God’s lack of imagination, become attached to a lifestyle that would make them slaves again to men who despise them, . . . and their attachment causes them to whine and complain . . . and, consequently, most of the things they say and do are sinful; . . . they miss the mark they are aiming at; . . . they miss making something of their freedom . . . because they are insensible to God’s Presence and God’s Grace and attached to things which, to possess, . . . would make them slaves.

    So, Jesus counsels us to acquire the discipline of Detachment.  With flamboyant rabbinical imagery Jesus tells us that “If you should use your hand as an instrument of sin; as an instrument of moral or spiritual superiority, get rid of it; . . . if you should use your foot to defeat God’s love, cut it off; . . . or if your eye should be the door by which disordered affections clutter your life, then pluck it out!  . . . For it is better to enter Heaven maimed . . . than to become a person of hell.”  . . . Now, Jesus doesn’t actually use the word “hell” to describe the outcome of sin.  “Hell” is the English translation of the actual word Saint Mark says that Jesus uses.  Saint Mark writes that Jesus said, “it is better to enter life maimed than to go to gehenna.”  . . . Now, Gehenna is an actual place.  You can visit it if you ever go to Israel.  . . . It is a valley south of Jerusalem, and a long, long time ago Gehenna was a sacred place for the sacrifice of infants to a god named Molech.  Well, Chapter 23 of the Second Book of the Kings tells us that King Josiah put an end to that nonsense.  And in order to defile the place so that it would never again be considered holy, Josiah turned the valley of Gehenna into one of Jerusalem’s garbage dumps.  . . . And, you see, rotting garbage creates heat.  And in such a place flies abound and lay their eggs . . . which become maggots, the worm that does not die, being perpetually sustained by all that nice warmth.  . . . Get the picture?  . . . Jesus says that unless you can perfect the discipline of Detachment -- of moral and spiritual Chastity -- you will become a moral and spiritual rubbish heap, afire with passions and constantly writhing with the restless motion of the maggots of cupidity.

    But there is a cure for spiritual maggots!  There is a cure for cupidity!  The cure for cupidity is Jesus, Who has suffered the Cross and has Risen from death for the cleansing of your soul!  Christ has ascended to God’s right hand so that His rightful place might be yours as well.  . . . And so, from that place of Glory -- from the very throne of God -- the Holy Spirit was sent to you at your baptism.  The Holy Spirit was sent to you to abide with you -- to live with you -- forever . . . so that the divine life might not be the prize you win when you die, but so that you might enter into everlasting life today(!).  The Holy Spirit of God abides with you so that at this very moment you might stand at the very doorway to Heaven and smell its sweetness; . . . the Holy Spirit of God abides with you so that the Living and Ascended Jesus might touch you with His Flesh; . . . so that you might take upon your lips the very sacred Life of God!  The Holy Spirit of God abides with you to make your life holy and to make of your soul a sacred place from which God’s glory might illumine and sanctify everyone dear to you and all the labors of your life.  . . . All you need to do to have these things, Jesus says, . . . all you need to do to enter into life is to allow God’s Spirit to train you in Humility.  . . . And the first discipline of a humble life is Detachment; . . . detachment from the merest whiff of moral or spiritual superiority; . . . detachment from any hint of being more clever or more skilled than God or any lesser being; . . . detachment from every temptation to ignore Holy Scripture -- to ignore the Holy Word of God; . . . detachment from all the affections that make us slaves, . . . placing your entire trust and love, instead; . . . placing your entire trust and love in the Word Incarnate -- in Christ Jesus -- in Whom we have freedom . . . and we have Life.