October 7, 2018
Pentecost 19 - 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mark 10:2-16, Genesis 2:18-24
Three years ago, I was oh so lucky to be scheduled to preach on this liturgical day…
This the 19th Sunday after Pentecost in Year B;)
And I remember going through the litany of ways
A multitude of listeners might be offended by our chosen texts
Both The Gospel Mark and the Genesis reading
It is the real and painful truth
that these words can burn and sting and open up never-quite-healed wounds.
that these words can burn and sting and open up never-quite-healed wounds.
_______
It is also true that
Both of these texts suffer from
long and oppressive histories of interpretation
long and oppressive histories of interpretation
But I am happy to report that over the past 30+ years
There has been some really good corrective scholarship
I found myself eager to preach the Genesis story
But I have been taught that if Mark 10: 2-16 is read
It must be addressed!
We have Jesus,
the Pharisees,
the disciples,
the disciples,
and the children
Those children…for three weeks now…they won’t go away!
The Children are the thread
The Children frame this section of Mark’s unfolding story
The Children are the constant… the cue, the prop
They remind us that this part of Mark’s Gospel
Is about the HOW of discipleship
The Children are, the example
The example of how to allow oneself to be vulnerable…
…that is how a disciple learns about being the greatest[1]
The Pharisees…trying to test Jesus…ask a question
The word translated ‘asked’ doesn’t quite catch it though
This ‘asking’ is weightier and hotter
Mark uses this word when the mood
Mark uses this word when the mood
…is interrogating and confrontational
In first century Judaism there was no question about the legality of Divorce
Jewish law allowed for it
But there were different schools of thought about the reasons
Burning the morning toast at one end
On the other...weightier matters---infidelity for instance
On the other...weightier matters---infidelity for instance
Women…Isrealite women…were never allowed to initiate divorce
So any safeguards…any interpretation of the law that added restrictions
That would add protection for women and children from more acute suffering
The Pharisees are ‘testing’ Jesus
They are trying to get some ammunition to use against him
They ask a question at the level of LAW
But Jesus doesn’t answer questions at the level of their asking
He goes deeper
He answers at the level of the heart
Like the Pharisees… too often we want this text to be about the legality of divorce
We want to know forensics…
What can be justified?
What can be justified?
What can be allowed?
What can be tolerated?
And so along with the Pharisees we stay at the level of the law[2]
And miss what is meant to change our hearts
Inviting us to go along with Him
Jesus reminds us that laws aren’t arbitrary
There are principles behind them...a vision
Can you see Jesus…this man who has been going around healing everyone
Can you see him freeing a suffering woman her from an abusive relationship…
I can
But the thing is, Jesus wouldn’t stop there!
Jesus is concerned with all HUMAN FLOURISHING!
And so
He would seek out that partner…the one doing the abusing
He would seek him out like he seeks out the lost sheep
Can you see Jesus
Having caught up with the abuser?
He’d sit him down,
and make him SEE
Make him see how he is destroying himself,
and make him SEE
Make him see how he is destroying himself,
and then...
he’d infect him with a new way of being
He'd heal him too
he’d infect him with a new way of being
He'd heal him too
What God joined together, let no one separate
The emphasis is on God
But because I don’t think any of us are perfect
at inviting God into our relationship building efforts
What we end up with now and again are relationships that
We humans have wrongly joined together!!!
When relationships rupture with all the pain that entails
…isn’t that just the place for the healing presence of Christ and the Church?
Legalities aren’t interested in the actual persons
In actual relationships
But God is!
God is interested
And that takes us to GENESIS 2
-----
I used to hate this Genesis text
It always smacked of continuing a story of male dominance
and female subordination
and female subordination
And indeed over the years it has done just that
I found this example from a 15thCentury manual…if it weren’t’ true it would be funny
“… she is more carnal that a man,
as is clear from her many carnal abominations.
And it should be noted
that there was a defect in the formation of the first woman,
Since she was formed from a bent rib, that is,
a rib of the breast, which is bent as it were
in a contrary direction to a man.
And since through this defect she is an imperfect animal,
she always deceives.”[3]
Stealing some words from our 15thCentury interpreter…
I’d like to address the
abominable, defective, bent, contrary, imperfect, and deceptive
abominable, defective, bent, contrary, imperfect, and deceptive
interpretation of what has become one of my favorite passages.
Genesis 2:18-24
The Lord God said,
“It is not good
(In Genesis 1, remember, God creates and ‘it is good,
“It is not good
(In Genesis 1, remember, God creates and ‘it is good,
and it is good, and it is very good’
this is first time anything is NOT good)
that the man (ha-adam…which I like to suggest means an earthling
that the man (ha-adam…which I like to suggest means an earthling
or maybe a proto-human
there is no sexual differentiation yet
there is no sexual differentiation yet
so we are short of totally human at this point)
should be alone; I will make him a helper (helper sounds diminutive…
should be alone; I will make him a helper (helper sounds diminutive…
but the word translated ‘helper’ most often in the Hebrew Scriptures
refers to God…so NO sense of subservience here)
as his partner.” So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner.
(There is humor here…a cockroach? Nah…can’t see that.
as his partner.” So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner.
(There is humor here…a cockroach? Nah…can’t see that.
A horned Owl? Nah…let’s stay away from horns.
The tempo suggests a slowly increasing longing)
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs (God has given up beginning with the ground or the soil. Let’s use flesh and bone. The word translated rib could also be translated ‘side’…SURGERY TIME)
and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man (man is no longer 'ha’adam' but ‘ish’ which is gendered)
he made into a woman (‘Ishshah’…gender aka the fullness of humanity now exists!)
and brought her to the man.
Then the man said,
and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man (man is no longer 'ha’adam' but ‘ish’ which is gendered)
he made into a woman (‘Ishshah’…gender aka the fullness of humanity now exists!)
and brought her to the man.
Then the man said,
“This at last (this is so powerful preceded by all that building longing!)
is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called Woman,
for out of Man this one was taken.”
for out of Man this one was taken.”
This is a story about what it means to be a human person
There is no such thing as a SOLO human
There is no such thing as a SOLO human
There is no humanity until there is a relationship of equals
I can’t help but think of the Holy Trinity
That God’s very nature is a community of persons
Father, Son and Holy Spirit
A trio of persons engaged in a loving dynamic relationship of giving and receiving
AND THIS MATTERS!
Because the world…the culture-at-large…at least a good portion of it
Asserts something quite different!
Don’t WE…I’ll say ‘we’ because we are all a part of this culture
Don’t WE prize instead
Independence…individuality…autonomy…
Aren’t they the pinnacle of human fulfillment?
If I am honest
I will admit that while
I can stand here and confess that I believe
I can stand here and confess that I believe
These truths hiding in Genesis 2
About God’s intention for
Interdividuality
Mutuality
Healthy co-dependence
Communion
All the while
Secretly hoping and praying that it is
Just not true for ME!
Just not true for ME!
I don’t want to be a child
Or like a child
Being a child
Means there is a parent close by
It means I am dependent
But that is precisely our stance before God
That is in fact what it means to have a Lord
One Lord
The Lord
My I
My deep and personal I
Only stands grounded…only makes sense
Insofar as I admit to a THOU…
that Ultimate Other who loved me into being
Who continues to love me into being
Who Invites me into communion
And who continually asks me to do the same
In relationship to those around me
That is the invitation to all of us
To become childlike disciples
Childlike in the sense of being dependent on God
We humble ourselves in our communion
We humble ourselves
when we participate in both sides of giving and receiving relationships
Making of ourselves an island
Maintaining all those defenses
Expending all that work and energy
To PROVE that we can go SOLO
That we don’t need anybody…
THAT is the opposite of Christian freedom
The heart of the matter
The vision…God’s vision…that grounds all the law
Is of a human family that lives in communion
We, in fact, participate in the throbbing heart of God
When we live into that vision
And we can, always…be better at it
...with a little help from our friends…
We can be better at opening ourselves to that vision
In truth…
we are most certainly in this thing together
we are most certainly in this thing together
And for that I say
Thanks be to God!
Thanks be to God!
[1]Thank you Andrew Prior:
https://www.onemansweb.org/theology/the-year-of-mark-2015/the-children-and-divorce-mark-10-2-16.html
https://www.onemansweb.org/theology/the-year-of-mark-2015/the-children-and-divorce-mark-10-2-16.html
[2]Thank you David Lose:
http://www.davidlose.net/2015/09/pentecost-19-b-communities-of-the-broken-and-blessed/
http://www.davidlose.net/2015/09/pentecost-19-b-communities-of-the-broken-and-blessed/
[3]Thank you Juliana Claassens for your whole wonderful commentary on Genesis 2:18-24 but especially this little quote;) https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3792
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