MY NEXT SERMON

I shall next be preaching on Sunday 13 October 2024 at the 9.15 a.m. Harvest Festival Service at St. John's Parish Church,  West Grimstead, Wiltshire 

SERMON 205 - SUNDAY 6 OCTOBER 205 - TRINITY 19

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In today’s modern age, our Old Testament Reading and our Gospel Reading may seem outdated and of little relevance to many.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