Sermon at All Saints’ Church, Farley - Trinity 19 – Sunday 6 October 2024
Genesis
2:18-24; Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12; Mark 10:2-16
May I speak in the name
of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and may these words be yours Lord, and may you
bless all who hear them. Amen.
Today’s readings are quite a
personal challenge for me, so thank you, Simon, for allocating this Sunday in
the Lectionary for me to lead and preach a service to you!
In today’s modern age, our Old
Testament Reading and our Gospel Reading may seem outdated and of little
relevance to many. During my lifetime,
our cultural world has changed almost beyond recognition. When I was born, homosexuality was a criminal
offence punishable by imprisonment and divorce was frowned upon and in many
situations, people were shunned if they left their spouse, even in
circumstances where there had been violence, mental abuse or control. Today we see legal same-sex marriages and
no-fault divorces. The question which we
as Christians have to consider is where we stand in relationship to the Word of
God and the teachings of Christ.
In fact, statistics show that
within the Church at large, the divorce rate is pretty much exactly the same as
it is in the wider secular community. I
don’t have any figures for same-sex relationships but guess it might not be
much different except for being more clandestine.
Taking our first reading, from
Genesis 2, not many people realise that this is the second account of Creation
– the first being found in Genesis 1 and when it comes to the creation of
humankind the two are quite different – don’t take my word for it, read it for
yourselves at the front of your bible at home. Today’s reading, the second
account, has Man being created first and then Woman being created out of
Man. This second account was placed in
the bible to underline the thinking at the time of Man’s superiority over
Woman. The first account, in Genesis 1, however reads:
“So God created
Humankind in his image; in the image of god he created them; male and female he
created them”. (Genesis 1:27 – NRSV).
No mention here of Man being
created first and then Woman as an afterthought so that she could be his
“helper” – no, God created them equally in his image.
The purpose of this illustration
is to remind us that whilst we can accept scripture as being inspired by God,
and I have no trouble with that, we still need to be aware of context and
history relating to when and why it was written – especially Paul’s letters –
otherwise we can find ourselves being judgmental and unkind to others in
circumstances where it is not right to be so. Scripture can so readily be used
as a weapon against others when it should inspire us through the lens of the
Cross – indeed, in all our studies of the Old Testament we have the benefit of
looking back through the lens of Jesus’s life, death and resurrection.
The writer of Hebrews, who
incidentally we do not think was Paul, reminds his readers of this when he
talks about God now speaking to the Jews, whom he is addressing, through Jesus
and no longer through the prophets. We have passed from old creation to new
creation, from Old Covenant to New Covenant, and our importance to God is
emphasised by the suffering of his own Son, Jesus, on the Cross. We are,
thereby, slightly lower than the angels – we are in the Premier Division of
God’s Creation. The writer of Hebrews goes on to say that with Christ having
come amongst us and suffered alongside us God has effectively made Humankind
the brothers and sisters of his own dear Son, Jesus Christ. Wow, isn’t that
just amazing? Isn’t that just wonderful?
Now we turn to the Gospel Reading
which for many can be very daunting and difficult – for me it certainly is. The
reading seems so clear and unequivocal that for any preacher it seems to be a
clear message – divorce and remarriage are unacceptable and amount to a sin –
adultery – a breaking of the Seventh Commandment. Today’s reading is from Mark’s Gospel and in
Luke’s Gospel, also, (18:18) the same absolute unconditional prohibition is
read –
“Anyone who divorces
his wife and marries another woman commits adultery and the man who marries a
divorced woman commits adultery”.
For some out and out Evangelicals
the passage stops there. Both Mark and Luke record a clear unconditional
statement.
At this point I should stop; leave
the pulpit and go outside so you can stone me!
In researching this sermon, I was
relieved to find that the situation is far from having the clarity which that
short passage has alone. Fortunately, our fuller reading gives more of the
context.
Jesus we read is being tested by
the Pharisees who worked on the black and white words of scripture – just as
today so do some evangelicals. Jesus replies to the Pharisees question in his
usual manner of asking them a question back – “what did Moses command you?” –
referring back to the Ten Commandments. In fact, when you read the fullness of
his answer to the Pharisees, he emphasises that a man will leave his parents
and be joined to another woman in matrimony and that they should consider
themselves as one. He ends with the famous words which are part of the Anglican
marriage ceremony “Let those who God has joined
together let no one separate”.
Later on we read that the
disciples asked him again about the matter and we get the famous passage.
Why would the Pharisees have asked
Jesus the question in the first place? Well, at the time there was a great
debate going on between the conservative school called the Shammai and a
liberal school of thought called the Hittel about the correct interpretation of
the Jewish law. Sounds familiar? In
fact, the piece of scripture which was being debated was not the Seventh
Commandment but Deuteronomy 24:1-4 which actually reads:
Suppose
a man enters into marriage with a woman, but she does not please him because he
finds something objectionable about her, and so he writes her a certificate of
divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; she then leaves
his house and goes off to become another man’s wife. Then suppose the
second man dislikes her, writes her a bill of divorce, puts it in her hand, and
sends her out of his house (or the second man who married her dies); her
first husband, who sent her away, is not permitted to take her again to be his
wife after she has been defiled; for that would be abhorrent to the Lord, and you
shall not bring guilt on the land that the Lord your God is giving you
as a possession.
Quite different from the simple question which is put to
Jesus. Indeed, this law is quite complex and what Jesus is saying irrespective
of all these conditions a man and a wife are expected to remain together where
the marriage is blessed by God. A man should not divorce a woman merely because
she displeases him – whatever that it meant to mean!
The two schools or thought differed in that “displeases”
could either mean sexual immorality or some other lesser attribute which the
man did not like.
In Matthew 19:3-6 we find a much better version of this
discussion between the Pharisees and Jesus. In that version the Pharisees ask:
“Is
it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?’ He answered, ‘Have
you not read that the one who made them at the beginning “made them male and
female”, and said, “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.’ They said to him, ‘Why then did Moses command us to
give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?’ He said to them, ‘It
was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your
wives, but at the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever
divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits
adultery.’
For
unchastity! There we have it, a condition. In fact, nowhere do we find it
unacceptable in the bible to divorce in circumstances of adultery and I think
we can go one further – I cannot envision a situation where God would want
somebody to continue in a marriage which was ungodly or abusive or for that
matter simply dangerous. It is not simply a matter of displeasure but something
much more serious and fundamental. You
can put down your stones now!
Here
the Christian teaching is at variance with modern day thinking. Same sex
marriage is not found in any of the teachings – it simply did not exist, even
in the first decades of my life - and no-fault divorce seems to be a thing of
the present.
The
essence of Jesus’s teaching is that we have responsibilities to each other – to
love one another, to work things out and not flit in and out of relationships
as the wind blows. God is there for us
through good times and bad and as we were created to be relational beings, so
too must we be there for each other, supporting each other and loving each
other as well as God.
Let us pray:
Father God, we
pray for our relationships and friendships with others and thank you for your
grace that at times when life becomes difficult and we blame others, especially
those nearest and dearest to us, we will remember that we were all created in
your image and remember that we are all the children of a loving father and are
brothers and sisters in Christ who suffered and died for our salvation.
Amen MFB/205/02102024
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