This passage is linked in the lectionary with Paul talking to Ephesians. Stumbling blocks are not merely sensuous or sexual. It is anything that takes people away from Christ. We have to be as careful with our financial situation as we do with our diet, or our fidelity, or chastity.
Acts 20:33 I coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothing. 34 You know for yourselves that I worked with my own hands to support myself and my companions. 35 In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
Now, I have dealt all to often at work with people who cut, with people who mutilate: and most of the time it is a kind of undoing, a seeking of relief, a way of managing disgust and guilt.
But very rarely people, when psychotic, quote this as justification for self-mutilation, forgetting that Jesus taught in parables. The context is that he has been talking about the least being the greatest.
42“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. 43If 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. 45And 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. 47And 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, 48where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.
49“For everyone will be salted with fire. 50Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
;Now, here lies the difficult. Salt has to be different from that it preserves. If we identify too much with the culture we are in, we pick up the stumbling blocks of that culture and think this is OK. And in our culture, the stumbling blocks are many. People take offense at any criticism. They feel they should be allowed to say and do what they want. And this means that everyone will not say the truth, as my least favourite Atheist found out.
Dawkins has gained worldwide attention for his outspoken criticism of organised religion, and argued that the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States showed that a harder line must be taken with believers.
In 2010, he sparked controversy after labelling the Pope “a leering old villain in a frock” in an article for the Washington Post. He has also called the Catholic church “evil”. Previous Twitter comments have also caused a stir, including: “Don’t ask God to cure cancer & world poverty. He’s too busy finding you a parking space & fixing the weather for your barbecue.”
This year, he called those who burned down a library in Timbuktu, Mali, “Islamic Barbarians”.
His comments were interpreted as being derogatory to Islam and insulting to followers of the religion by some on Twitter.
Trinity College, Cambridge, has 32 Nobel laureates, as against 10 Muslims listed in Wikipedia.
I disagree with Dawkins. He’s an atheist, and quite derogatory about Christianity. His books are a stumbling block. But when the plain facts are correct — there have been less Islamic Nobel laureates than among the dos of what I presume is his College — then saying that he is insulting Islam and should shut up is a greater wrong. For I could argue against Dawkins — in fact, many Christian apologists have debated him. That is a conversation. The truth can be proclaimed.
But the stumbling block of this age is to gag any dissent, to stop any discussion, to pander to the most violent, the most corrupt, and the most perverse, calling them good. Compared to that, the High Church of British Atheism just feel, like the Mormons, as another bunch of misguided fellow travelers.
In our age, the stumbling block we need to deal with is the institutionalized speaking of untruth. IF the world does this, we should not, but speak plain. For we are in this world to do good and preach the Gospel.
We have our prime directive. Permits are to be ignored.
