I'm not a big fan of scary movies. I have no interest in seeing Scream 3 or I Know What You Did Last Summer. I don't even like to see the trailers advertising these films. The only horror movie I liked was Carrie, and that's because it had Sissy Spacek in it.

Scary things scare me. It gives me no pleasure to see people attacked, fleeing and frightened. I don't like to see people get hurt. I don't like to see people's limbs cut off, even though I know it's just a movie.

So I thought at first that I'd skip over today's gospel and preach about one of the other texts. These last few words of Mark's that we just heard seem at first glance to be pretty gruesome. Cutting off hands and feet and plucking out eyes just don't seem to fit into what Mark tells us is the “good news of Jesus Christ.”

But I've found, and maybe you have too, that when something bothers you in the Bible, then that's a good sign that you should not pass on by, but stop for a closer look. It's a little like exercise. When you feel least like getting up and doing something, that's the time you need it most.

When you feel a thorn in the scripture, you should stop and see what pricked you. So let's look at these sharp words.

We should start by realizing that these words by Jesus are not a recommendation. As is so much of Jesus' teachings, what he has to say here is not a command but an observation. There is no magic offered here. No advice. No sense that it is a good or beneficial thing to cut off your hand. Jesus is making a comparison: better to go hand-less than to be thrown into hell. These are two bad things, and even the best of them is horrible.

Jesus introduces each of these grisly proverbs with the same words. There is a condition he is talking about. These are “if” statements. If your hand-or foot, or eye-causes you to stumble, then perform this surgery.

What does that mean, to stumble? The word doesn't do much for me. To stumble seems so simple and innocent. If I stumble, I'm for sure not going to blame my foot for it.

The King James translation says “if thy foot offend thee …” That's even worse. It makes the whole thing seem to depend on my own tastes and preferences. If you don't like your foot…well, you know what to do; this cure for ugly feet is too radical.

The New International Version of the Bible says “if you foot causes you to sin…” Maybe that's closer. Sin is bad. In the olden days we could see the direct connection between sin and hell. But that translation is not quite on target, either.

The word that Jesus uses here comes from the word meaning trap, or snare. It is something that trips you up. Something that impedes your forward progress along the right path. Something that derails a hoped-for smooth journey. It is the same word that Jesus used when he yelled to Peter, as we heard a few weeks ago. “Get behind me, Satan, for you are tripping me up. You are tempting me to go where I don't want to go.”

Peter had been distracting Jesus, and that's the way this word is used in today's Gospel verses. Distracted. If you get distracted, Jesus tells us, you might end up at a different destination than you hoped for.

Our lives are full of distractions. We get on the wrong track. It is like the old Buster Keaton movie, The General. Keaton is a railroad engineer. Off he goes in a race against time. Down the track roars the train. But just before he arrives in victory, he comes to a switch in the track. In an instant, instead of arriving in glory, his train is sidelined. Moved off the right track. Distracted.

In our lives, though, it is we who throw the switches. I am a fan of computers, as you know. But all too often I let myself get sucked into doing something that takes too long, that uses up too much physical and psychic energy, and that distracts me from the real job at hand. And I find myself sitting in an office in front of a monitor instead of out in the park talking to the young parents, which is what I'd hoped to do with my day.

What is it that you hope for? Love of friends and family, good relationships, a sense of peace and contentment, providing help to others, laughing, enjoying our bodies in dance or sport. How does it feel when you know that God is near you?

And what is it that keeps you from these things? Property is a famous distraction. So is the need to feel powerful. To be admired. Obsessions and addictions are good ones. Trying to make things perfect is my favorite. Holding grudges, nursing regrets are fine distractions. So is scheming. What is it in your life that helps you forget about God?

Institutions, like the church, suffer just as much as individuals do. We hope to bring about God's kingdom, to heal suffering, to bring peace and justice. But we get distracted by defending denominational borders, and by preserving tradition and protocol. Even the value we place on the way we worship can be a distraction. The disciples came to Jesus outraged that someone else--someone else besides them--was casting out demons. Jesus reminded them that casting out demons was the goal. That making sure that it was done only by authorized disciples was a distraction.

We are easily distracted, I think, because we like to be. It is not only that the goals we set are hard to achieve and that the distractions are easy. Though that is often true. I think we are fond of our distractions because we think they have made us who we are. They define us. I am a rich man, I am a beauty, I am a scholar, I am an invalid, I am a trouble-maker.

But how important are our hopes? Things we long for, people we yearn to be, people we know we can be. When our hopes are unfulfilled we walk around with a scary emptiness inside us.

If we hold on tight to our distractions, Jesus tells us, we will not get those things we most hope for. And those things that God hopes for us. We will have traded away--to use some old terms--our inheritance as children of God in exchange for junk. We will have been snared, trapped, and tripped up.

When the disciples were distracted by their rivals, Jesus put them back on track. He brought them back to their mission. The mission was freedom. Casting out demons. Freeing people from the forces that snare hearts and cripple lives.