Manufactured Arguments

Sermon from October 8, 2006, First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas

Job 1:1, 2:1-10
Psalm 26
Hebrews 1:1-1, 2:5-12
Mark 10:2-16

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

When faced with pieces of scripture like today’s gospel reading, a friend of mine from seminary used to check out a book called Preaching the Hard Sayings of Jesus.[1] In our day and time and setting, this reading from Mark 10 qualifies as a hard saying. I would have loved to have gone somewhere else today, but I fear I cannot. Please, come with me, but come carefully.

We are a congregation of people the people of God. Some of us are divorced, and remarried. Some of us are the children of divorce. For us, this Gospel passage is a difficult word. We are a congregation of people who are both straight and gay. For the straight, the message is sharp. For those who are gay, omission bears its own stigma. Because of the difficulty of these words, I am tempted to want to tell you what Jesus really meant.

Preaching against the word is always a gutsy move, usually it is more foolish than gutsy. I am a liberal theologian who has faith that God revels in all relationships that are entered in the name of God. Being a big fan of “God is love,”[2] this makes sense to me. So, I want to say that Jesus really didn’t mean what he said here—and have it fit what I desperately hope is true. I want to say this in the worst way. But I can’t. I won’t. When you called me, you called me to care for you as a pastor, and share the word of God as a preacher. This is one of those times when it is difficult to work in the tension of these two roles. Is it any wonder this piece belongs in Preaching the Hard Sayings of Jesus.

Let’s look at this from the beginning. Jesus is asked by the Pharisees, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” Now, Rabbis taught in a question and answer format. So this is presented to Jesus like a perfectly valid question. But as we know from reading scripture, the Pharisees never asked Jesus a perfectly valid question. Every test of the Pharisees was designed to divide the people and enrage the leaders of the temple and the state. Every test of the Pharisees was an attempt to draw Jesus into controversy and discredit his word. This test is no exception.

The controversy the Pharisees attempted to draw Jesus into was between rabbinical schools of thought and their views on divorce. Evidently, controversy over divorce is as old as marriage itself. Regarding divorce, the position taken by the Shammai School was very strict, while a more lenient stance taken by the Hillel School. Somewhere between the two fell the teachings of the Aqiba School. If Jesus takes one position over the others, then the uproar begins. The Pharisees have manufactured yet another argument hoping Jesus would fall into the controversy dividing the gospel.

Jesus, once again, refuses to take the bait of the Pharisees and asks them a different question, “What did Moses command you?” As Pharisees, they are certainly able to answer Jesus’ question. “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.”

So far so good for the Pharisees, the answer is right, but Jesus is not satisfied with it. Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses wrote this commandment for you.” Just to add a little extra sting to this reprimand, the phrase Jesus uses for “hardness of heart” means “uncircumcised heart” in the Old Testament. The Pharisees have been schooled with the same words Moses uses to scold the nation of Israel in Deuteronomy.

Now, here’s the difference between what the Pharisees ask and how Jesus responds. The Pharisees ask Jesus what is legal, what is permissible. They want a reference, chapter and verse, about what the law says so that they can get on with discrediting Jesus and the Good News. But Jesus will not be had so easily. So Jesus asks what Moses says is legal, what is permissible—and the Pharisees answer. Then Jesus turns the tables. Jesus’ words have nothing to do with the law. His response returns us to the primordial elements of creation—the most basic building blocks of relationships. The Pharisees talk about the Law of Moses. Jesus talks about the commands of God.

Jesus—who has been intimately familiar with the commands of God since before the beginning—knows that divorce is not God’s intention for us. “From the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Marriage is a gift of God’s good creation. This is the way it was intended to be from the beginning. Jesus tells us that our body becomes one with our partner, never to be torn asunder. Jesus says this. There is no wiggle room.

Looking out upon you, I am not sure I know what to do with this. What is missing from Jesus’ reply is even a modicum of pastoral care. It’s a very strict interpretation of the Word of God. Where is “God is love”? This seems callous.

Because of this callousness, this piece of scripture has been used by people to hurt others for ages. These words have been abused to whip women into submission as surely as a fist or a belt. These words have been used by abused persons hoping “God will enter my partner’s heart so we can live as God intended.” This piece has been abused by clergy to withhold support for people in abusive relationships. It has been used to shame divorced people, showing them that they don’t live in God’s will. It has been used to shame gay and lesbian people—saying that the bible says “man and wife”—“male and female”—no other combination.

But Jesus is no fan of hate, or shame, or abuse. God is Love. And in God’s love, we have been given the gift of grace, a grace we cannot earn. We can do nothing to merit this wonderful, saving gift of grace through faith.

There is one consolation. NOT ONE OF US HAS EVER LIVED UP TO GOD’S EXPECTATIONS. None of us has ever lived into the expectations God had for creation in the beginning.

I don’t have to tell you about the school shooting in Nickel Mines last week. I would love to tell you that this is an outrageous act, unknown of before Monday. But it wasn’t. It was the third school shooting of the week and the second hostage style shooting in a week. There is little that epitomizes monstrous sin than the taking of a young life. I’d like to think God has a special place for people who commit such horrendous sin.

But something outrageous happened after the incident. The Amish, the people who were so horribly injured by this event offered forgiveness to the shooter, offered grace and peace to the man who took their young. Such grace is beyond my imagination. There is a confidence, a strength of faith that allows them to say—and truly mean—that their daughters—though taken—have been taken to a better place.[3] Yes, there is mourning, and grief, and sorrow in Nickel Mines. And there is a dedication to forgiveness in the name of the Lord that is deep, and wonderful, and glorious.

Yesterday, the funeral was held for Charles Carl Roberts IV, the gunman of Nickel Mines. He was buried in his wife’s family plot behind a small Methodist Church next to the nine month old daughter he lost twenty years ago, not far from the site of his rampage on Monday. His funeral was attended by about 75 mourners—nearly half of them Amish.

Bruce Porter, a fire department chaplain from Morrison, Colorado, came to Pennsylvania to offer what help he could. He attended the burial. He said Marie Roberts, Charles Carl Roberts’s widow, was also touched. “She was absolutely deeply moved, by just the love shown,” Porter said. “It's the love, the forgiveness, the heartfelt forgiveness they have toward the family. I broke down and cried seeing it displayed.”[4]

How can anyone, how can anyone be so graceful in such a time of sorrow and grief? In the modern day it is impossible to imagine. Then again the Amish really don’t live in the modern day. Perhaps that has something to do with their ability to forgive. Without so much stuff in the way, they don’t manufacture the arguments that the Pharisees of Jesus’ age—and our age for that matter—are so fond of getting into.

Jesus does not enter into the manufactured arguments of the Pharisees, and neither should we. Jesus backs away from the trap laid by the leaders of the temple and the teachers of the law and returns to the building blocks of creation—and so too must we. He knows we do not live into the truth and the light of God’s intention for creation. God knows we are not the creatures intended in the beginning. This is why he offers us his grace. This is why God gave us his son. This is why the Holy Spirit is present to guide us today.

Jesus offers commentary on the difference between creation as God intended and life as we live it. There is no special condemnation for any particular group of sinner, no implication that one sinner is worse than any other sinner. God has a plan for creation. A plan we have not followed since that fateful day in the garden. Jesus comments that none of our relationships, whether single or married, divorced or remarried, straight or gay, live into God’s intent for creation.

God’s expectations are as different from us as God is different from us. God is infinite in glory, and blessedness and perfection. God is all-sufficient, eternal, unchangeable, incomprehensible, everywhere present, and almighty. God knows all things. God is most wise, holy, just, merciful and gracious. God is long suffering in our disobedience. God is abundant in goodness and truth. And God offers us peace that surpasses all understanding in Jesus Christ.

We must take the grace God gives us so freely—and extend it to one and all just as freely—if we are to begin to recapture the spark of God in creation. The Amish are tremendous role models for this grace. They grieve; they are filled with sorrow and anguish over the loss of their daughters. And they offer the healing touch of the hand of God to those who need it the most. They offer God’s abundant grace and forgiveness because ours is insufficient. Their actions show the power of the healing God offers us, one and all. They refuse to get into cycles of anger and rage that consume others. They refuse to enter into arguments that split the witness of Christ. Instead they focus on the grace and peace and love of Christ. They demonstrate the power of the healing work of the Holy Spirit. They work to reclaim the promise of relationship as God intended.

One of the names of the church is “the bride of Christ.” As the church we are wedded; we are called to be one flesh with Jesus. We must never enter into the arguments that divide the body and witness of the Lord. We must never tear others from the groom or allow ourselves to be torn from him. This would be the most horrid sin of all—divorce of the body of Christ. What God has joined together, let no one separate.

[1] Carroll, John T. and James R., Preaching the Hard Sayings of Jesus.
[2] 1John 4:8
[3] Ann Curry reporting from Nickel Mines for The Today Show, October 4, 2006.
[4] http://kevxml.windstream.net/_1_2LVTO104LZE2CF__wind.main/apnws/story.htm?kcfg=apart&sin= D8KK28T00 &qcat=usnews&ran=26509&feed=ap, accessed October 7, 2006