There is a certain irony being played out this coming Sunday when we recognize and celebrate the diverse ministries of the men of our congregation. A few weeks ago, we asked for God’s blessing on teachers [September 15]. Most of the appointed readings that day had to do with the art and craft of teaching and learning – of the Spirit, we might well conclude. However, this Sunday’s gospel raises the painful topic of divorce, a thorny issue in the best of times and a horrendous nightmare for many people most of the time. I can find no direct connection between the work of Lutheran Men in Mission and the rupture of divorce, nor should there be. Neither is the convergence of LMM and Mark 10 necessarily “…of the Spirit.” However, before we simply try to ignore what is read this coming Sunday or reduce Jesus’ concerns to a blanket condemnation of divorce, it is wise to look carefully at the passage to see if issues are lurking which need some clarification in order to banish the brooding gloom that Mark 10 and similar passages cast [not to mention the tricky task of preaching on such a text]. There appear to be three distinct issues perking in the Gospel reading: 1) the position of Mosaic Law (i.e., that which is attributed to Moses and the Commandments), 2) God’s desire for humankind in contrast to the hardhearted mess we usually make of things, and 3) and the concluding verses [Mark 10:13-16], yet another reminder of the obvious, “of the Spirit” connection between the simple, fierce trust of small children and the way any child of God is to enter the Kingdom of love.
The conniving Pharisees once again try to trap Jesus [don’t they have anything better or more constructive to be doing???]. This time, they dangle the question of the legality of divorce based on Moses’ extending the “right” for a devout man to have a bill of divorce prepared so that he could be shed of a problematic spouse. It must be noted at this point that there was no clear parallel for a devout woman to have a similar bill of divorce prepared so that she could be rid of the bum. However, Biblical scholars argue that in extreme cases a woman could be granted her freedom. Otherwise, she was considered property like children, having no personal integrity, worth, or “rights” other than being “useful.” That being said, basing your case and appeal on “rights” will find you on very shaky ground in God’s kingdom, since everything in creation is God’s mind-boggling gift, God’s gracious, lavish favor on the creation God so dearly loves. It is logically inconsistent to claim a gift as ones right. Do that and it ceases to be “gift.” On the other hand, neither does God wish us to be doormats for the rude, crude, abusive, or vengeful beings who apparently can do nothing but maim others.
Happily, there is some major-league cognitive dissonance bubbling in Sunday’s readings which preclude the legitimacy either of a rigid, patriarchal social structure based on some hairbrained “divine right of males” or the default position that the man is simply by nature of his genetic makeup and birth ipso facto head of the household or Roger Miller’s and Johnny Cash’s memorable “King of the Road” insofar as God’s kingdom is concerned. First of all, Jesus is not pleased either with the Pharisees’ question or the “hardness of heart” people so readily exhibit. Our lack of charity and consideration, gracious hospitality and respect, and our disregard of God’s creating us first and foremost as companions and stewards of God’s everlasting kingdom of love is the only reason that Moses extended the “right” in order to resolve corrosive animosity, Jesus insists. What God has created and sustained out of holy love in no way allows the comparison to trading in a used car for a new model. God fashioned us for abiding companionship and love. Nevertheless, many people get hooked by skewed cultural values, the beauty-and-success-at-all-costs myth, discarding the baggage and people who weigh us down or stand in our way, and becoming serial shoppers for trophy spouses and bank account cushiness. God’s idea about living in the kingdom is not the same as Keeping up with the Kardashians. Not even the Joneses manage to do that.
The reality is this: God can rightly expect “far, far better things” from us [a slight bow to Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities] in the way of holy living and loving than we often display by our actions, decisions, glib speech, and even the questionable “stuff” we’re addicted to on television and social media, “alternative facts news,” not to mention our behavior at home and in public when we think “mom” is neither watching nor listening (“mom” being anyone or anything who keeps us mindful of our “P’s & Q’s”). Remember, even Santa Claus knows most everything, including when “…we’ve been bad or good.” Yet, given our tendencies, one really must ask just why God SHOULD expect such exemplary behavior from us? We are so shaped and formed by Lutheran theology which rightly and blessedly encourages heartfelt contrition and repentance, but too often has tipped our fears over into the abject terror that God might squish us if we are stupid enough to “fess up.” No less a philosopher and anthropologist than Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872) even suggested that Luther’s theology was a hymn of praise to God but an utter lampoon of humankind. Such a pessimistic approach to faith and living as God’s children was not Luther’s intent though somewhat consistent with Medieval piety, I sense, but the proof is in the pudding. After all, we were happy as clams for a very long time, content with a Brief Order of Confession and Forgiveness weekly while begrudgingly accepting God’s invitation to table [once a month? quarterly?] because we might not be “worthy enough” more often. Despite Luther’s own pleading, it took us nearly five hundred years to return to a weekly communion with our loving God at the altar where we join our brothers and sisters, Christian “souls decked in gladness” eagerly partaking of this blessed meal [take a peek at ELW 488 and 462, Joel W. Lundeen’s twentieth century recasting of the original text].
“With gladness” we hit paydirt in the other readings for this coming Sunday. They unfold for us why God can indeed expect much from us “earthen vessels.” Psalm 8 is a stunning summary of our job description as God’s beloved children crafted in the midst of creation: _3_When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you have set in their courses, _4_what are mere mortals that you should be mindful of them, human beings that you should care for them? _5_Yet you have made them little less than divine; with glory and honor you crown them. _6_You have made them rule over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet: _7_all flocks and cattle, even the wild beasts of the field, _8_the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and whatever passes along the paths of the sea. Had not the Almighty really big things in mind for us to accomplish as his beloved children, what a pathetic waste of time Creation would have been! We have been created in the image and likeness of the living God. It has nothing to do with male and female “differences,” physical, mental, and/or spiritual. We have been created creative, gifted individuals: So God created humans in his image, in the image of God he created them;male and female he created them. We have been fashioned “little less than divine…” in order to be caretakers, stewards, and God’s ambassadors in the midst of a troubled world. This is also the wellspring where we discover exactly what “our own personal crosses” are, based on the gifts of God’s granting and the need and suffering we encounter in our neck of the woods. The cross is never bothersome ailments or wearisome interruptions we simply endure – such things, brothers and sisters, are the thorns in the flesh St. Paul ponders [II Corinthians 12:7-10]. Rather, it is the gracious, holy work we have been gifted to undertake [which means we’re able to do it!] on behalf of others which the Church knows as a “calling.” Callings are not schemes for conniving to get what we want, particularly just to feel good about ourselves because we have managed to be “oh, so nice” for a bit.
The passage from Hebrews is also a tidy summary of what God in Christ has done “…for us and for our salvation” (second article of the Nicene Creed if you want to check) simply because God has had so very much in store for us from the beginning. The passage reiterates Psalm 8’s reminder of our noble creation: “for a little while lower than the angels” while crowning us with glory and honor. Nothing suggests that God has devised a nefarious scheme to squish us flat. This poor, suffering world can’t afford such a wasteful derailing of God’s stewards; we have work to do!!!
Really, what this coming Sunday holds before us scripturally is the importance of the abiding relationships God fashions for us in order to support us in the crucial work of ministry, something, I dare say, Lutheran Men in Mission, the Women of the ELCA, and anyone else on the church roster or baptismal rolls all hold dear. In the same way that Jesus was sent to us by God’s unfathomable love “for the whole cosmos” [John 3:16 – that IS what the Greek says!], so we, too, are sent to the sick, suffering, the needy, lonely, the forgotten, and the dying, not to mention to the joyous and secure in their faith, and the wider issue of creation’s care. Faith, which is this holy relationship lived out and reflected upon, is ultimately learning to live by holding on to a fierce trust in the Lord of life who creates good, beneficial, generous communities of faithful service, not beguiling pits of self-indulgence heralding a sure and certain destruction.
Jesus’ continuing stress on childlike trust presents God’s goal as the Peaceable Kingdom which the venerable prophet describes on the Second Sunday of Advent, Year A in Isaiah 11:1-10: the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them… Any other questions, children of God?