[unfinished sermon notes]
What
is permitted (easier ways out) vs. what is expected (faithful perseverance and
integrity in our relationships, even when they’re difficult or we suffer)
Good
morning good people of St. Timothy’s, Iola.
[personal introduction and invitation to talk at coffee hour about
campus ministry for Allen Community College]
In
today’s assigned lectionary readings, particularly from Job and the Gospel
according to Mark, we can hear the Holy Spirit challenging our the freedom of
will of our ancestors and ours today around matters of endurance,
long-suffering, sacrifice, and maintaining trust, faith, and integrity
(wholeness) amid unfairness and unpleasantness.
We’re also hearing about legal rights versus Godly intentions and
responsibility; how our salvation has come through God’s own subjugation and
surrender to human suffering; and how we are to humble ourselves, acknowledging
our dependence upon God’s mercy and grace, like the dependence of a child on a
parent.
That’s
a lot to take on in a short homily this morning. We’re not going to get to it all. But I do want to follow a few threads through
the readings that reveal wisdom about how we are to be in relationship with God
and each other.
Job
1:1, 2:1-10
This is
the first of four Sundays (all Sundays this month) that you’ll be hearing from
this book in the semicontinuous track of the Revised Common Lectionary. On one
level, Job is grappling with ‘why bad things happen to good people’ or the
mystery of why evil and suffering are permitted to exist if God is all-loving
and all-powerful. A preacher could spend
the next four Sundays focusing just on this perennial dilemma and still not
have resolved this matter. What I hear
the Spirit offering us out of this morning’s readings from Job, that connects
with the other appointed lessons this morning, is a challenging wisdom about
enduring and persevering in our faith in God’s providence even when it seems to
make no sense (E.g., Job knows he is innocent, yet is being caused to suffer
horribly. Satan has been allowed to strip him of everything, children,
servants, possessions, and health – and yet Job does not falter in commitment
to God)… even when trusted others try to convince us that our faith is silly
and/or unwarranted. Stay tuned in the
coming weeks for how Job’s story evolves and if there is any hope in the story.
Who here can relate to the questions that Job’s story raises?
Psalm
26
This
morning’s Psalm goes right along with the set-up in Job. We can imagine that the Psalmist is suffering
injustice. We’re hearing the prayer of
one who is asking for God’s pity, merciful judgment, and redemption. The psalmist is pleading, making the case
using proclamations of innocence, about having lived with integrity, and about
having avoided evil doers and evil works.
The verse that resonates most with me this morning is verse 2, the bold invitation for God to “test me… and
try me; examine my heart and mind.” Who
among us believes that our inner house is so clean, so spotless, that we dare
invite God to come in for an inspection, believing that we’ll be found without
any blame or guilt – sinless? And, yet,
that’s what the Psalmist seems to be doing.
If we acknowledge that we are unable to fully clean all the dirt from
our own hands, how are we ever to have hope of being cleansed and purified
enough to stand before God? As we recite
in our Eucharistic prayers, we’ve been reconciled and made worthy to stand
before God through the death and resurrection of Christ.
Hebrews
1:1-4, 2:5-12
Indeed,
that’s what we’re hearing through the letter to the Hebrews (which you’ll be
hearing from for the next two months, up until the Feast of Christ the King,
which is the Sunday before Advent). Likely
written to Christians who might have been wondering if it was worth continuing
to hold on to their faith amid growing persecution and temptations of seemingly
easier philosophies, Hebrews proclaims that Jesus, the “exact imprint of God’s
very being” (1:3), came down from the heights of heaven, became one of us
mortals, suffered as one of us, and sacrificed himself ultimately to death
itself in order to fully purify us once and for all and proclaim anew that we
are his “brothers and sisters” – a part of his beloved family that he will not
forsake. This notion that an
all-powerful god, creator of all things, would surrender or subjugate itself to
human suffering was, and still is, considered a scandalous and even silly
notion. And, yet, therein is good news
about how much God cares for us and instruction about how we should care for each
other. Amid our own sin and suffering,
we can look to Jesus to see the victory that is promised also to us through
baptism with Christ. As God’s beloved,
we’ve been purified, crowned with glory
and honor… now how to we live up to that standard, seeing that divine standing
in ourselves and each other, even when it’s really difficult or unpopular.
Mark
10:2-16
And
this notion of living up to, into God’s expectations of us as beloved family
members brings us to this morning’s provocative lessons from Mark regarding
marriage, divorce, and receiving the kingdom of God as a little child. Given statistics these days, we can assume
that most of us in here have had some personal experience with the reality of
divorce in our families. Dissolution of
marriages is not a new phenomenon – clearly the Romans and the Jews were
grappling with it as well. This morning,
I won’t go down a rabbit hole of talking about the pain and trauma of
divorce. I won’t grapple with all the
potential perspectives on the sin of ‘adultery.’ And, I won’t expound on the cultural and
historical contexts of our evolving understandings of marriage as a civic
contract. I believe the Holy Spirit is calling us beyond accusations, guilt,
and shame through what our Lord has said in this morning’s lesson about the
divine blessing and intentions of covenant relationships.
Let’s
be clear that Jesus’s teaching in what we’ve heard this morning is tough
love. But, let’s not be misled into
understanding His words as legalistic proclamations about rules. That’s how the Pharisees, who were wise to
legal loopholes and rationale for justifying various actions, were trying to
trap him. Jesus acknowledges that Mosaic
law permits divorce and offers instructions about remarriage for those who have
been married before.
What
Jesus wants his disciples and us to understand, however, is that God’s
intention, since the creation of a companion for the first human, is that we be
in perpetual loving relationship with each other and not to presume that by own
will, we can dissolve what God has joined together. As I remember one
commentator saying, “Divorce is grounded in law, but marriage is grounded in
creation.” His lesson is not about our rights and what is legally permissible,
but about God’s ultimate will for our relationships and our responsibilities
therein.
Jesus’s
lesson is tough love. Love tough enough
to endure hardships and suffering in the trust and hope of longer-term,
everlasting relationships. This is not
to say that we’re called to accept abuse or remain in harmful relationships at
all costs. This is to say that were it
not for hardness in our own hearts, we would not find ourselves in unhealthy
relationships. And, were it not for the
hardness in our own hearts, we would be able to reconcile differences that
often lead to separation.
We have
been created and designed for heavenly unity, constancy, and peace. We’ve been gifted, through God’s grace,
unreasonable freedom of choice in how we live and love. However, we so often choose poorly and too
frequently fail to acknowledge and confess our responsibility; repent
(turn-around / change our direction); seek, grant, and accept forgiveness for
the sake of the peace that our Lord offers and the love that Christ commands.
By way
of two quick anecdotes, I’d like to further highlight this matter of our
freedom and our responsibility in our marital relationships...
[ANECODTES:
The Rev. Hartshorn Murphy’s sermon at the marriage of his own son… the type of
love that is required for marriage to endure – agape/caritas (self-sacrificial,
charitable love). Advice I was given by a married couple about
what is necessary for the marriage to endure – both feeling as if they’re
giving a little more than they’re receiving]
Taking
a bigger look at what we’re hearing from the Spirit this morning, this is about
more than the relationship between two individuals in marriage. Matrimonial language becomes a metaphor, a
symbol, of God’s relationship to us and a design for faithful relationships of
all forms – between married couples, between family and friends, and between
communities and God, Christ and his church… (E.g., lover, bride, bridegroom,
etc.).
Our
relationships, our marriages, our church – they’re all experiences of the depths
of God’s unreasonable love and the mystery of enduring relationships despite hardships
and traumas that would otherwise separate us.
DISCUSSION:
What do you hear the Spirit saying to God’s people about the nature of
faithfulness in God’s relationship to us, our relationship to God, and our
relationships with each other? How might
we approach and discern our commitments to each other if divorce were not an
option?
[if
there’s time] Regarding receiving the kingdom of God as a little child… he’s
not saying that the kingdom is about the pure and innocent, rather the kingdom
is to be welcomed with vulnerability and dependence of God, like a child is
dependent on a parent. The kingdom
belongs to those who have nothing to contribute, no other standing, other than
faith in God’s mercy and redemptive love.
“God of the living law, whose will is to protect the weak and
educate our desires: may we learn from you not to dominate or put aside but to
give each other dignity and find in you our unity; through Jesus Christ, who
makes us one household. Amen.”
(Shakespeare, Steven. Prayers for An Inclusive Church (NY:
Church Publishing, 2009) p.72)
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