Original Intent

This is my sermon text for October 7, 2018. The text for my message was from the Gospel of St. Mark, Mark 10:2-16, and the lesson from Genesis, 2:18-24. + pBRC

May God’s Grace through the Good News of Jesus Christ be at the center of your lives forever.  AMEN.

I absolutely believe that the lessons and stories that come from the Bible should not be painful or be used to hurt people. They may cause pangs of guilt because of what we may have done or left undone. But if they cause pain, I think we need to go back and really examine the texts because I do not believe that God the creator; Jesus Christ, our Savior; or our advocate, the Holy Spirit intended them to hurt us. I do believe our predecessors in the history of the Church may have twisted God’s word, whether accidentally or deliberately, to cause pain to people who hear it.

To really examine a text means to look at every word and every choice used to translate it. It is detailed work, but rewarding because you can see a text in a whole new way.

In today’s Gospel lesson from Mark, the Pharisees come to test Jesus, to see if he would say something they could use against him. The topic they use is divorce.

When they ask Jesus what the law allows, he turns the question back to them, asking what have they been told. The Pharisees say a man can divorce a woman by detailing his reasons and then dismissing her. Jesus responds saying this was established because you have hardened your heart.

Jesus references part of our first lesson from Genesis where man and woman were created, and God’s original intent for their relationship was established.

Now Jesus speaks of marriage being between a man and a woman because at that time and that place that was the only form of marriage. His omission of marriage being between two people of the same gender isn’t a prohibition of it, but not clouding one issue by bringing another issue to bear.

In our lesson from Genesis, God has created a human out of mud and breathed life into it. God sees it is lonely because it has no partner. So God takes the human mud creature and makes two creatures from it. By taking the side, not a rib, but the side from the genderless, asexual human, God creates two entities, a man and a woman. If you think I am indulging in 21^st century liberal revisionism, this description comes from both rabbinical scholars and early Church leaders dating back into the 3^rd century.

To these two newly created creatures God says they will be partners and help one another. The Hebrew actually says the woman will be in front of the man. The dismissiveness of woman being a helping shows ignorance to what that term is to mean. A helper, an ezer, is not a sidekick. The term helper is most often used in the Hebrew Bible to refer to God.

God split the original human into two so they would seek out their completing half to be in relationship. The man was to leave his family and cling to his wife. The verb translated as cling is better understood as joins with or re-bonds.

The original intent of God was for humanity to find a completing half to be their lifelong partner. This relationship would not only be a union of two people, but of two families, an arrangement to be entered into with much forethought and negotiation.

But because humanity will fall short of any divine goal, the union of matrimony will fail in many relationships. Hearts are hardened, and it is for the best that the bond be broken.

But in the midst of the damage of divorce, there must be a discussion of protection for the powerless who are left behind.  Jewish law allowed a husband to dismiss and divorce his wife for whatever cause he felt to be just. While adultery, a betrayal of trust, was supposed to be the only reason for a marriage to be dissolved, the husband had all of the power.

In an instant, a woman could be on her own. In this culture, women were second class members. They were to be taken care of by their fathers until they were married, then by their husbands, and finally by their oldest son if widowed. But upon being divorced, women were on their own in a world that did not care for them. Divorce takes a union of two halves that were brought together, and leaves a have and a have not.

After this, Jesus heads into a home, and people wanted Jesus to bless their children. His disciples stopped these families, even though Jesus said no one should hinder children coming to him, or to faith in him, in the lesson we heard last week.

There is no one more powerless in all of society, at any time and any place than is a child. They are totally dependent upon parents, families, communities and cultures to provide for them and protect them. They are the most vulnerable. Because of their vulnerability, they are the most trusting. Jesus shows his care and blessing for the least of these.

Another lack in precision in understanding the original intentions colors our understanding of Jesus’ words. Jesus does not say that we have to receive the kingdom of God as a child to partake in it, but rather that we have to receive the kingdom in the way that a child receives it, or any gift.

Think of the joy children have when they receive a gift, especially gifts given at special times such as birthdays and Christmas. The joy of receiving what you haven’t earned, and to which you can’t respond to in kind, is how God wants us to act when we realize the gift of grace God has given us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a gift given to the powerless out of love. It invites a response of love to be share with others who are weak and marginalized.

God’s original intent was for incomplete, broken people to come together, to work together, to love each other, to take care of each other, not to get anything out of it other than the satisfaction of helping someone. We are invited to seek out, to help out people out of a sense of justice, mercy, inclusion and compassion  - out of love.

God’s original intent was for us to cling and connect to each other, to live lives of love. When that would fail or fall short, God’s will is for us to reach out to those pushed or thrown away, and to welcome them into our lives and into our homes.

God’s original intent was for humanity to reunite in a replication of the relationship that exists within the Triune God. Knowing we would not be able to do that all of the times, God sent the Son to show us what a life lived in sacrificial, self-giving love looks like, and calls us to do as Christ did, to love as he lived and to live in his love.

Failure of any sort is painful. A failure that fractures families is infinitely more painful. But we are called to surround all of those in love and to protect the vulnerable, showing them the value they have as children of God, and to bless and love them as Christ does. AMEN.