Stick close to the center

A rich man’s limo driver retired. This was no small problem for the man as his house was at the end of a precarious narrow drive which wound steeply up a mountain. The man did not trust just anyone to drive the limo up that dangerous stretch of road. His staff culled out the top three prospects, ensuring that the candidates were well-experienced limo drivers. The man then interviewed the candidates after they had a chance to drive his car up the tricky driveway.

He asked the first driver, “How do you feel about the driveway? The edge is so close, could you drive my limo up it safely?”

“No problem,” the driver assured him. “I could come within a foot of the edge the whole way up and you would never be in danger. I have complete control of any car I drive.”

The second driver boasted, “I could drive so close to the edge that you would only see the drop to the forest below out your window and yet there wouldn’t be the slightest danger. I would have everything under control.”

When asked the same questions, the third driver said, “I could hug very tightly to the cliff wall without any danger that we would sideswipe the mountainside. We wouldn’t need to get too close to the edge.” He was hired on the spot. The man was not interested in the drivers who wanted to hug the outside edge of the driveway. He wanted the driver who stayed closer to the mountain.

You can stray a bit toward the edge and live. But Jesus warns that you really don’t know how far you can go without getting burned. So don’t test the boundaries like the stereotypical two-year-old, stay close to the center, where you’ll find the God who loves you has had a place for you all along.

God loves you just as you are. That is free, and unearned. We call it “grace” in church-speak. Yet Jesus knew we would be tempted to stray from the center, trying to find out how much we can get away with. Jesus challenged his followers to consider the costs of their discipleship. They needed to consider how to draw closer to him rather than checking out how far they could stray without going too far. Jesus said that we might have to make some changes that cost us dearly, as dearly as losing a limb.

In Matthew 5, 29-30, Jesus says, “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.”

And further, the cost will not be the same for everyone, for each of us has different things that cause us to stumble. One person can have a beer here and a glass of wine there, but another person finds that one drink soon leads to another and another and having any always leads to having too much. The second person needs to own up to being an alcoholic and he or she would have to cut that part of their life away. For an alcoholic, giving up drinking could be more traumatic than merely cutting off a hand or a foot.

Jesus warns that whatever it is that causes you to stumble, whatever it is that leads you further from God rather than closer to God, is something you need to cut yourself off from or you may find your whole self lost body and soul.

The challenge is just as great for each of us. It is no less a challenge in elementary school than it is in work or retirement. Each of us makes choices about who we spend time with, what we do. Any choice we make that causes ourselves or someone else to stumble in their faith is a problem to address.

If you are in middle school and your friends are talking about using drugs and alcohol, then you need to cut off that conversation or cut yourself off from those friends if they can’t drop the subject.

If you are in high school and hanging around the wrong crowd, it doesn’t matter whether you are into the bad stuff they are doing or not, keep hanging out with that group and eventually you will be doing what they are doing.

What about adults? If you have a pattern of life you find acceptable when out of town on business that you would never find acceptable at home, then you need to cut yourself off from that activity.

You get the idea. The thing is, I have no idea where those challenges come in your life. But, if you are doing things you know are wrong, then you don’t need me telling you what they are anyway. For a gray area, where you are not so sure whether something is good or bad, pray about it for a while and see where God is leading your heart.

It might not be easy to make a change. Jesus knew that. That’s why he compared changing your way of living to lopping off parts of your body. But where would you want to err? Many would answer, “By doing as much as I can get away with.”

Jesus calls you closer to the center out of love for you. Out their on the edge looks fun, but there are people getting hurt, finding themselves lost and alone and dying. Pull closer to God and away from the oh-so-tempting abyss.

(The Rev. Frank Logue is pastor of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland.)

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