Divorce and Adultery! Oh MY!

A sermon based mainly on Mark 10:2-16 with a reference or two to Genesis 2:18-24 and Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12

What a set of lessons to have! Divorce and adultery in the gospel text, biblical literalism, sexism, heterosexism and a need to be married in order to be a complete person in the Genesis text and in the reading from Hebrews we have a very theologically heavy statement about the Christology of Jesus. No wonder why many preachers today are ignoring these lessons and focusing on something entirely different to preach about. These texts have been used to hurt and condemn many people throughout history, including today. Therefore many preachers who are sensitive to these issues and not wanting to cause any scrimmages are focusing solely on the one ray of sunshine, the one obvious bit of gospel truth in these texts: Jesus calling the little children, the rejected, the lowliest of society, into his arms and blessing them.

But I believe there is more gospel in these texts. That there is more good news for us to take away from today’s lessons. Yes Jesus did invite the little children to come to him, took them in his arms and blessed them (and by the way, these were not the pristine, cute beautiful children we often see in those charcoal drawings with a blonde hair, blue eyed Jesus. No these children were the sick, the ill, the ones extremely malnourished, with runny noses, dirt and other gross stuff on their faces, goop coming out of their eyes, and probably crying due to the pain.) So yes Jesus took these children into his arms and blessed them but what about their divorced parents, or their adulterous parents, the ones who became their parents outside of wedlock or their aunts and uncles who choose not to get married, the ones who did not feel the need for that type of relationship in order to be whole in their lives? What about them? Did Jesus bless them?

And what about today? We pray for those who are ill, children and adults alike. We celebrate and publicly pray for those people who choose to get married, but yet prayers for those who are going through divorce and adultery are often silent individual prayers. And the few public prayers that are said often have more to do with asking God to keep the relationship whole instead of praying for the individuals and family involved in the relationship and asking that whatever is best for all those involved may be done. And when do we pray for, give thanks and celebrate single people in or society, people who have not gotten married or remained unmarried after a divorce or death of a spouse?

My thought, my belief, is that Jesus did indeed bless these people. Jesus did not dismiss those people who the rest of society looked down upon because they did not conform to some perfect little box that in reality very few people were able to fit into. No Jesus blessed everyone. He blessed the blind, the lame, the crippled, the deaf, the mute, the lepers, the hemorrhaging woman, the Samaritan woman at the well who had had five husbands, the adulterous woman who was about to be stoned to death (you without sin cast the first stone). These people were rejected, wounded, broken in both spirit and relationship but yet Jesus blessed them.

And we too are rejected, wounded and broken. We have been given each other, people in our lives to live with in community and in relationships. Friends, spouses, co-workers, church members, and pastors. We are meant to live in community with fellow humans. We are not meant to live alone to become that crazy cat lady with 30 cats and no human contact. Animals were not enough for man, he needed other people, someone to converse with, someone who was both a helper and a partner.

We are meant to live with other people. For some that means having a spouse, for others it means living with roommates, and others it is to live as an immediate or extended family, and even others it means to have their own living space but to have a group of friends who are their support network that they are in contact with almost daily. We, all humans, are social beings, meant to have others to care for and support us as well as.

However we are also rejected, wounded and broken. Relationships do not always work out. Friendships die out, sometimes slowly and naturally over the course of year as people move away or gain new interest and the phone calls, emails, letters, and talks happen less and less frequently. Sometimes friendships die violently, as fights develop over love interest, lifelong goals or priorities tear friends apart. And other relationships too become broken. Parents-child relationships or sibling relationships become estranged and relatives feel alienated from one another. And divorce happens. People who at one point were madly in love start living different lives and feel they can no longer connect and live with one another. They have grown apart and their relationship and they, themselves, becomes wounded and broken.

When this happens, we can be like the Pharisees, who are so focused on the law of the world, on their broken sinful natures, that they are unable to see the grace and love that is given to them in these relationships. We can be afraid to love, afraid to grow close to one another, afraid to live in relationships, in community with one another as we ought, as we have been commanded by God to do.

Or we can be like Jesus, who blessed the rejected, the wounded and the broken. Who realizes that while there are laws in this world because we are sinful creatures, also realized that there is also love and grace. We are blessed to be in relationships, to be in community with on another, to love and support one another, to give thanks for one another, (hence why we are giving thanks to these wonderful pastors here today). We are blessed to have these relationships as much as they hurt at time as much they make us feel wounded and broken at times. Because we also live in relationships, plural. Not just one relationship, with one person, but many relationships with friends, family, neighbors, fellow worshipers, community members and possibly spouses.

We are blessed to have this network of support to help us when we feel broken, when we feel wounded, when we feel rejected. We have this network to remind us that we are loved, we are blessed and we are children of God. That Jesus has blessed us even if we are a dirty sick child, that Jesus has blesses us even if we are adulterous individuals, that Jesus has blessed us regardless of our marital status and that Jesus has blessed us even when we feel wounded, broken and rejected. For Christ has blessed us, each and every one of us, by giving us community to live in, by washing us in the waters of baptism, by feeding us at the Lord’s table and Christ has blessed us by dying for us. And that is truly the good news in the midst of all this law.