27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
Genesis 2:18-24, Mark 10:2-16
What happened in you as soon as you heard the word
DIVORCE?
If you’ve been through a divorce
Or someone you love has been through a divorce
(which is most, if not all of us)
You probably cringed a little
Maybe even felt some bit of returning pain
Id like to try an move DIVORCE off to the side
Out of the way
So that we can hear a good word
CONTEXT:
We are still in the section of Mark
Where Jesus is leading his disciples toward Jerusalem
(Chapters 1-7 healings and wonders!!!)
And he is teaching, he is trying to help the disciples find their way into the heart of God
To see what God desires
But they have their heads…ummmm…stubbornly elsewhere
…if you remember the last couple weeks
We had the argument about “who is the greatest”
and we had the scene where the disciples were all bent out of shape
“we saw someone else doing good works in your name…should we go and stop them”
Their struggling…pride and ego re causing trouble!
He isn’t calling them to some Spiritual greatness
They would have liked that
Rather simply
Jesus is asking the disciples
To live well in this, our common home
In our place
Our Family, work, community
And all these past few Sundays the gospel/Jesus’ teaching
Has highlighted care for the vulnerable:
Children, the poor, those without status
This has been at the Center
A couple weeks ago,
Jesus placed a child on his lap to emphasize this care of the vulnerable
We are still in that same scene
Matter of fact
That child is still on Jesus’ lap
So it is into this scene
That the pharisees come with their trick question
(which is a hint that, at the deepest level, it might not be about divorce in particular)
Divorce in 1st Century Judaism had basically winners and losers
Many biblical scholars have pointed out
That women and children had no power, no rights
When it comes to divorce
And that Jesus’ suggestion that a woman could ask for divorce
Was a way of offering her power and agency
But when Jesus takes the question/discussion
All the way back
Back “to the beginning”
He is making a statement about priority
He is stating that the particulars of the LAW
Are always subordinate/in service to the Grand Vision of God
God’s intent for human flourishing
And, my friends,
Here lies a word for us today
Reaching back to Genesis
When Jesus says the words “In the beginning”
Just hearing those words:
“in the beginning”
His audience/The hearers would have conjured that vivid Genesis scene:
Garden
Paradise
Adam
Eve
One flesh
THIS AT LAST
Jesus is reminding the Pharisees to go back to the original vision
To look first at God's design an hope for creation
And that is what our Genesis text gives us.
This is a story…a vision
Maybe a recipe
About flourishing relationships/human flourishing
And I think, at least today, that the key line is
“THIS AT LAST”
Can you remember...call to mind...
When do I find myself…you find yourself
Taking a deep breath and sighing…or feeling
“THIS…AT LAST”?
1) When I reconnect with an old friend…who really knows me, gets me, loves me…THIS…AT LAST
2) Last week-end was our daughter’s wedding inDenver…at the end of the night…so tired…I fell into bed with Rob…so FULL…THIS…AT LAST
3) Maybe…think of reaching the quietest place you know…you are there…THIS…AT LAST
4) After too much travelling (me these days)…being here…at St Stephens…THIS…AT LAST
The painful truth about Divorce...broken relationships
is real
we know of it intimately
But the hope in the midst of the pain/brokenness
is that God desires our flourishing
God gives us this vision...this paradise This at Last Vision
That beckons us to deeper relationship
Ones that lead us, more often, to that safe and comfortable deep sigh
And dare we imagine
When we gather in Jesus’ name
That here...this...is the place of origin
Where all persons bound up together in the love of God
Sigh together: THIS…AT LAST
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