Proper 22 2015

The Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost EDIT

Today would be a great day to have planned for a guest preacher. Given the Gospel reading, and the other two readings (which connect very well), I would rather we all just nod pleasantly and go have a cup of coffee instead.

And while the last portion of the reading about Jesus blessing the children would give me an out, I think that it’s unfair to ignore elephants in the room.

That said, I admit that I really don’t like this passage, and it’s my inclination to either spend my time apologizing for it—or, doing some interesting theological gymnastics around it. But this only makes things more awkward, because in the end we only isolate this reading even more, and church—the place where we should be able to deal with difficult and painful things—becomes one more place where tough things are avoided. So often we never have a conversation about divorce, and it makes it that much more difficult for us to respond in love to those who are hurting when they experience it.

Now, we all know that this is one of those passages which has been used to beat people up. It’s been used to force people to remain in unhealthy situations, and while it hasn’t justified abuse, it has disallowed abused people from leaving abusive relationships. With these things in mind, all of us understand that divorce happens. In fact, there are times when divorce is the best response. Even the Roman Catholic church understands this, they just have creative names for it and ways of reframing it to avoid trouble.

The troubling thing , however, is that even when it’s the best response, divorce is still not good. What I mean by this is that when people divorce, relationships can be damaged and broken. I’m not only talking about the marriage relationship, but also the other relationships connected to the marriage relationship (which might have actually been healthy relationships) all of them still suffer. These relationships suffer because, even if the marriage relationship was bad, there is still suffering and emotional fallout to deal with afterward.

We all know that divorce is never the ideal, which is one more reason why it’s so painful. No one ever seeks to be married with the end being divorce—not unless they have some other motivation other than being in relationship with someone. But for any number of reasons, marriages end—or need to be ended. Whatever the reason then, there is inevitably a fracturing that occurs even beyond the marriage relationship. And perhaps more than in other times in one’s life, our human frailty and fallenness become very real.

However, fallenness and frailty are the condition of all of us. This is all the more reason that we need to know that we’re promised that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ. We’re called new creations through the blood of Christ, and by baptism and forgiveness of sins—whatever marked us or bound us, or cut us off from relationship with God and one another has been wiped away. As he has said, “Behold, I make all things new.” This is, of course, coming from a God who went through divorce proceedings any number of times with the beloved people Israel, whom God took as a wife.

 If we believe that who we were prior to being forgiven is not who we are afterward, then we have to trust that being divorced does not leave an indelible mark. And being in a different relationship after divorce is not moral failure, rather it may be truly finding a relationship which reflects Christ’s love for the Church—and sometimes something must die before something new can grow.

In the end, I don’t know what to do with this reading. I know when it comes up in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus doesn’t come across quite so heavy handed. I know, N.T. Wright points out that this conversation in Mark is happening in exactly the same region that was a favorite preaching spot of John the Baptist. We also know that because John spoke out against King Herod and his marriage to his brother’s wife that John ended up in prison, and later beheaded. Perhaps Jesus is being delicate about the subject without compromising. In any case, he blames the provision for divorce on hard-heartedness, but is still clear to say it’s never been the ideal.

Of course, it’s the conversation with his disciples afterward  that is probably most vexing, and why I find it to be such an abysmal reading. I won’t say that I know better than Jesus, certainly—but I will admit that I have a hard time accepting this teaching. Which really doesn’t mean a whole lot since he’s Jesus and I’m not, thankfully.

 But as we know God’s response to humanity breaking relationship with him, and being truly unfaithful, was to send Jesus to call us into a new, loving relationship. In other words, almost in contradiction to this Gospel reading, by virtue of Jesus giving himself to the world; we know that he has no trouble whatsoever marrying a divorced people.

 Because of his sacrifice to make that relationship real, we have to believe that we enter that relationship and every relationship afterward as wholly new people. And while we will always continue to fracture that relationship from time to time, we can trust that we always enter this relationship new. Because beyond our brokenness, and even more than our shortcomings it is the fruit of a faithful heart that is most pleasing to God. And that is what really matters most.