Seventeenth Pentecost
Mark 10:2-16, Job 1:1, 2:1-10, Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-11
When I was in sixth grade I had a teacher who prided himself on helping his
students learn to think and be creative—He eventually became a high school
art teacher. Mr. Schroader used to give us creative writing assignments that
years later I came to recognize as a common improvisational theatre stunt. The
assignment would be to write a short story that used the objects he would produce
from a box on his desk. Sometimes it would be something like a rock, a saw and
a flower or another time it would be a shoe, a paper airplane and a key. Our
stories were required to use the items in the plot, not just mention them like
objects in your pocket or items seen in a box. That meant that the stories we
told had to some how embrace the objects and make them real—a task that
was not always easy.
There are times when I look at the lessons for a given Sunday and I find myself thinking I am back facing that sixth grade writing assignment. You open the bulletin and find an Old Testament lesson about a perfectly happy man who suddenly has his life destroyed by the devil while God sits by watching; a second lesson from a sermon delivered to the Hebrews about the great power Jesus has over all things; and a Gospel reading that declares that divorce is not an option in our world but child like faith is the only option. I gave serious thought to writing a story about the rock, the saw and the flower. But this is Sunday morning so we lift the texts from the bulletin and consider where to start—It is impossible to ignore the Gospel lesson—Even if not addressed from the pulpit I know there will be questions about Jesus’ teachings and divorce. The reality, of course, is that we live in a world where divorce has become common place. Even if you have been married 28 years like Chris and I have been or 53 years like my parents or 58 years like her parents—divorce still touches our lives. Statistical analysts note that in most any American family of three or more children it is unlikely or very unusual that at least one of the siblings does not suffer a divorce. One of my 5 siblings has. And it is an absolute 100% certainty that some close friend will experience the pain and heartache of a broken marriage. Statistics vary widely—but somewhere between one third and one half of all marriages today end in divorce—although we also know that divorce is significantly less among couples who worship together regularly—at least once a month.
Our church—as a denomination—has long recognized and respected the fact that some marriages are so broken—so destructive—and sometimes even so violent—that divorce is the only humane response to the brokenness. We live in a community that regularly recognizes October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month intending that we support and help rebuild lives damaged by the extremes of dysfunctional relationships. Our Lutheran church has long recognized that people who have been divorced have a full place in the life of the church and if they choose—the right to be remarried in the church with the full blessing of the church—a teaching that not all Christian communities agree with or affirm. To be honest, this is one of those passages of scripture that we would probably prefer not to have to look too closely at—scripture we would prefer to overlook—but that kind of selective reading is dangerous—It leads us to take none of scripture seriously or it lets us create God in our image and have God say only the things we want to hear. And that is not God—Which is why I am glad that the Lutheran church is a liturgical church with assigned lessons revolving over a three year cycle forcing us at times to look at portions of the Bible that we—and the preacher—would prefer to ignore. These are not lessons intended to make us feel good—but they do challenge us to think about God—our faith—and the word. To look closely at what is really being said. People came to Jesus who wanted to challenge him and they say to him, "Is it permitted…?" "Is it permitted for a man to divorce his wife?"
Jesus responds—as he often did—with a question. He asks those questioning him, "What did Moses say about it?" And they responded accurately that Moses said that a man could divorce his wife by writing her out a certificate of dismissal, giving her the certificate, and sending her on her way. Then Jesus said, "But, in the beginning, God's intention was…" and he tells the story of the first couple in the garden and God's intention that marriage be permanent and just and joyous. Later his disciples questioned him further and Jesus basically says that the divine union created by God precludes divorce—divorce is not an option. There is a difference to be found here between an ideal—which almost every modern marriage believes it is striving to be—and a legalism which is the marriage license. There is absolutely no question about Jesus’ teaching and the church’s teaching that it is God’s will and intention that all marriages be whole and healthy and permanent and life-giving and just. We also need to remember that in the ancient world marriages were about living together—Love was a late addition to the equation—A marriage was a covenant or contracted relationship that might also eventually find an emotional center—But it was intended to be first and foremost a union of commitment not feelings—Feelings change but the covenant endures. God’s presence at the marriage was not to make each party of the marriage perfect and God like but to make it clear that the covenant was established, witnessed and only good as long as God remained at the center.
We live in a world that has been forced to legalize the covenant—replacing God’s blessing and presence with legal requirements. We have had to take what once was the organic and honest trust between two people and narrowed it—made it rigid and punitive—with loop holes and precedence. We have elevated feelings and emotions into objects to be possessed—we seek happiness—we find joy—we hold on to love—But as God created happiness and joy and love they were not personal possessions but intended to be found in relationships—the stuff of which covenants are made—relationships intended to define the person—support the family—build community. We have elevated emotions to the status of defining the success or failure of all relationships. When something becomes dull or boring we are justified in moving on without any thought of commitment or relationship. If the job is dull—move on—If the class is boring—drop it—if church fails to excite us—find a new one—and if the marriage feels dull—there is divorce. We need to help our young people understand that relationships are based on the covenant model God reveals in the relationship between the first man and woman—a commitment to trust and honesty and faithfulness that is found not in the perfect marriage or perfect job or perfect life—but in the faithfulness of God. Divorce is not an option—not in the covenant relationship we have with God. If we can’t understand that we need to get better at reading the signs God gives us through scripture. Otherwise we end up following the wrong signals on the road of life.
The confusion people feel and has been created by this text reminds me of the story about Two elderly women who were driving together down the road. All of a sudden the one behind the wheel looked in the rearview mirror and noticed that a police car was behind her with its lights flashing. She pulled over to the side of the road, and when the policeman approached her—she asked, “What’s wrong officer? I couldn’t have been speeding. I was only going 18 mph.” “That’s the problem ma’am,” the officer said. “The speed limit on this road is 55. You’re going too slow.” “That’s not possible,” the little gray haired lady said. “I just passed a sign back there and the sign said it was 18.” The officer replied, “Ma’m that was the highway route number. This is Route 18.” At that moment the officer happened to notice the other gray haired lady sitting in the passenger seat with a horrified look frozen on her face, white as a ghost with her hands clutching the dashboard. “What’s wrong with her?” he asked. The little driver answered, “I’m not sure. She’s been like that ever since we turned off from Route 137.”
Reading the wrong signs not only confuses us but endangers relationships with others. It is so easy to be distracted by the wrong signals—to focus on the wrong points. Divorce in Jesus vocabulary has nothing to do with marriage and everything to do with the relationship between people. Trust—civility—honesty—priorities that value the interests, needs and pains of each member of the community equally. Divorce is not an option—Likewise hunger is not an option—war and violence are not options— homelessness is not an option. The ideals are set forth to challenge and stretch our relationships to all who are around us. God’s commitment to us is not just to make us feel good or happy. The story of Job presented in our first lesson is a reminder that God is with us not just in the good times but even in the midst of the times we cannot understand or explain. The relationship Job had with God was not based on success or blessings—God knew that and so did Job—It was Satan who could not understand this—The goal that Satan sets forth is to break the relationship between God and Job—But God knows the gift of faith that Job has received—and even when he is tempted to doubt and things are going totally against him—Job knows that the one certainty he can hold on to is his faith.
In Mark’s gospel the seemingly strict and very rigid teaching about divorce is followed immediately with the story about Jesus inviting all the children to come. And Jesus said to everyone, "Unless you come to God as a child, you don't get there." None of us has a perfect marriage. All of us, married, divorced, single, always single, all of us have failed to fulfill the totality of what God wants us to be and do in relationship to others—in relationship to God. We come to this discussion of marriage and divorce not as good people and bad people, not as good people who are married and always have been and bad people who are in another category. We come as one people all of whom in some way have failed to live up to all that God intended—especially when Jesus reframes those expectations into the ideal extremes that we all admire but know we fail to achieve. Jesus knew that the only relationship we could have with God is like that of a child—not based on any merit—not grounded in credit for any of the great things we have done. God loves and welcomes us in Jesus Christ not because we have been so perfect, but because it is God's nature to love and receive us.
The child can ultimately only trust—believe
in the love and faithfulness of the parent. In human families such trust is
not always justified—but the one constant we know from holy history is
that God does not divorce us—Job held fast to his faith with child like
hope. Sometimes we cannot understand the meaning—sometimes the emotions
run dry—sometimes we look and puzzle at what is before us—a rock,
a saw and a flower—all we can know for sure is that God made all things—and
the God “for whom and through whom all things exist” ultimately loved
that creation so much that he sent his own son to make it clear once and for
all that when it comes to God—divorce is not an option—only grace
and life everlasting and faith like that of a child.
Amen.