Sermon 10/5/03
Breaking Up is Hard to Do- Mark 10:2-16
(view lectionary notes for this text)
Today's passage from Mark is another one of those passages we'd rather not hear about, especially in our present societal context. Jesus, it seems, is always forcing us to address the issues we'd rather leave untouched. Today, the topic of conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees is divorce, and collectively, we hold our breath, waiting to see what Jesus will say, what I will say, what you can say about such a topic that affects many more of us than were affected in Jesus' day.
Are you ready to plunge in? If I polled the congregation this morning, and asked how many of us had been personally affected by divorce, I bet that the majority of us would raise our hands. And if I asked further how we felt about the divorces in our lives, be it your own divorce, the divorce of parents or children or other loved ones, I am sure that we would find a variety of emotions and reactions. All divorces are in some way painful, some are unwanted, others bring safety and freedom where abusive situations existed. Some involved children who are affected, others happen after many years of marriage, some after just months. Sometimes we look at divorces as a blessing for those involved, and sometimes as a curse.
With the myriad of feelings, emotions, and situations we have experienced relating to divorce, it is then no wonder that we find it so difficult to relate such a cut-and-dry conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees. For once, it seems, instead of feeling liberated by Jesus' words, his teachings on divorce seem more confining and condemning than even that of the Pharisees. Unfortunately, a text like this, without reading further, can be and has been used to advise people to stay in dangerous, destructive relationships. Surely, that can't be the answer, that response cannot be what Christ seeks for us to learn. So, is there any hope for us in this text? Any way out?
As always, it seems there is more than Jesus' response than meets the eye. Let's look again at the text. "Some Pharisees came," we read, "and to test Jesus they asked, 'is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?' Jesus answered them, 'what did Moses command you?' They said, 'Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.' But Jesus said to them, 'because of the hardness of heart Moses wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.'" He continues, "what God has joined together, let no one separate."
Reading this passage, it seems that Jesus just gives a cut and dry blanket answer. But if we listen carefully to his words, we can see how Jesus answers in a way that is actually quite different than what the Pharisees are expecting. The right answer about divorce, in the minds of the Pharisees, is the one that they give to Jesus when he turns the question back to them. A man could write a certificate of dismissal and with that, the marriage would be ended. But though Jesus prompts that answer from them, it is not the answer he gives when he extrapolates for them. Instead, Jesus refers to the Genesis story of the creation of human beings. They expect his answer to come from Mosaic law, and this is the kind of law that is important to them - the details, the nitty-gritty of what specific actions and behaviors are allowed by religious custom.
It's not the kind of law Jesus is interested in, however. Jesus takes us back to the Garden of Eden, back to the creation of men and women, back to the creation of a covenanted relationship between two people meant to be together. From this setting of paradise, Jesus answers that divorce is not what was intended, that instead God intended the joining together of two lives in the relationship of marriage. "What God has joined together, let no one separate," Jesus concludes. Yes, Jesus discourages divorce, but more importantly, more essentially, Jesus discourages our human tendency to separate what God has purposefully brought together. And people, human relationships, are definitely God's purposeful creation of bring together. More than that, in Jesus' reference to the time of humans dwelling with God in paradise, in Jesus' quoting from Genesis, he brings to mind the even greater separation than that between spouses - Jesus turns our attention to a time before we were separated from God. Our human separateness, our brokenness that comes from divorce and other relationship break-ups are small in comparison with the greater separation we've created: we've separated ourselves from our very Creator.
As if to add another example of how deeply our sense of brokenness and separation penetrates our lives, our passage closes with what seems like an entirely different scenario: the familiar image of Jesus blessing the little children. Actually though, we find again that others are trying to separate: the disciples try to separate the children from Jesus, to keep the traditional space between children and adults in that society. But Jesus, always modeling a way of life for us, will not be part of continuing broken relationships. "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them," he says, and taking the children in his arms, he blesses them, an act of restoration and reconciliation, where there has been pain and division. Jesus' ministry was always about bringing wholeness where there had been brokenness, and even in the midst of speaking about divorce, Jesus sought to remind us of the wholeness that we can find in God and God's love.
Jesus reminds us that God's vision for humanity is one of relationship, one where we are brought together, connected to one another and to our Creator. After all, how many times do we hear in the scriptures that our most important tasks are to love God and to love our neighbors. Yes, in Jesus' day and in our day, sometimes marriages fail, sometimes children do not find a safe place, sometimes we cannot fix our brokenness with one another. But Jesus reminds us that the living Christ comes as an agent of reconciliation. Jesus will bless the little children when no one else wants them around. Jesus will remind us of the bliss humans once enjoyed in God's very garden when the Pharisees try to talk about what our faith makes 'legal' for us to do. And Jesus will remind us that it is from God that we must not let ourselves be separated, no matter what trials we face in our lives.
Today we celebrate World Communion Sunday together, another kind of bring together, another way that we in the church can be reminded of the way God wants us to live together in the world. As we gather at this table to remember the outpouring of love we find in the life of Jesus Christ, we are also called to love - to love our maker, and to love one another. This is our task, as hard and as simple as it may be, this is our task, the true law we are asked to follow. What God has brought together - let us not separate. Come to the table, and be reconciled in love. Amen.
Benediction: we have experience the presence and the power of our God in the bread and the cup. Now, go to serve people everywhere with steadfast love, remembering our work in the Lord will not be in vain. God in peace, and may the Prince of Peace be with your always. Amen.