Pentecost 22A

18 Pentecost, Proper 22

October 4, 2009

Rev. Ken Wratten at St. Stephen’s, San Jose

Job 1:1; 2:1-10 &n= bsp; = ; = God created Eve

Psalm 26 &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p;

Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12<= span style=3D'mso-tab-count:1'> &= nbsp; Jesus is the reflection of God’s glory

Mark 10:2-16 &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Argument with Pharisees over divorce

The Pharisee= s were up to their old ways again, trying to trap Jesus. They were self-proclaimed= experts in Jewish law, and they kept trying to either show that Jesus didn’t = know the law (which always proved to be a big mistake), or to get him to take a = side in some controversial issue, so that his followers would be polarized, star= t bickering among themselves, and fall away from Jesus. Again in the Gospel reading tod= ay, it didn’t work.

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The Pharisees brought up the controversy around divorce. But Jesus, as he always could, c= hanged the conversation to something even more important. For Jesus, the issue was= not the detail of human law, but rather God’s intention.

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In JesusR= 17; time divorce was a widely disputed issue. Followers of Rabbi Hillel taught and practiced a very lenient interpretation of Deut 24:1; “Suppose a man marries a woman = but later discovers something about her that is shameful. [So] he writes her a letter of divorce, gives it to her, and sends her away.” The Hillel J= ews took the position that a man could divorce for whatever reason he wanted to= . By the way, the woman could never initiate a divorce. Remember, this was a very patristic culture.

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Followers of= Rabbi Shammai were much stricter in their interpretation of Deuteronomy. They wou= ld allow divorce only on the grounds of infidelity by the woman (NOT infidelit= y of the man).

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The Pharisee= s’ purpose in bringing this up to Jesus was to get him to side with either the Hillel or the Shammai interpretation of the law. Either side would put a we= dge of dissention into his group of followers.

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Jesus passed= over the Pharisees’ issue, saying; “Because of your hardness of hear= t (Moses) wrote this commandment for you.” In other words, God knows that there= are times that within a marriage relationship, people can be deeply hurt, and t= he relationship must be dissolved. But the core message is; that is not what G= od WANTS for us.

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We have disc= ussed before that Christianity is all ab= out relationship. Being a solitary Christian is an oxymoron: it doesn’= ;t make sense: it is self contradictory. Christians need to be in living, growing, healthy relationship with = God, and with each other. THAT is God’s intention.

But I am sur= e you can relate to times when it seems too hard to work to resolve a disagreement with someone. There are times you want to ‘win’ an argument; ev= en though that means someone you care about has to ‘lose’. Sometimes you refuse to forgive so= meone who has hurt you. There are faces and incidents that flash through my mind = from years ago, that I have not been able to forgive. Who pays the bigger price = for the years of my holding back forgiveness? ME. There are times you make being independent more important than being ‘one flesh’. There are family members who disow= n each other. There are family feuds. There are wars between nations, where everyo= ne loses.

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These exampl= es of hardness of heart cover much more than the marriage relationship. I think J= esus was including every meaningful relationship in his comment to the Pharisees; family members, close friends, husband and wife, the family of all the fait= hful baptized, and every church that commits to operate as a faith family. =

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As we look a= t every relationship in our life, we need to work to model each of them after God’s intention. Jesus = holds up the example of little children; not as naïve followers, and not as immature believers; but as those who come to Jesus filled with trust. ̶= 0;It is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.”

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It is “= ;caring relationship” that we show in our Prayers of the People, and when we take Holy Eucharist together from a common cup, and at the vows of support that we make as a community at baptisms, as we w= ill shortly for the baptism of Sophia and Emma Williams. We are a faith community, but more= than that, we are a faith family. Our connections with each other are deeply rooted in God’s intention for all creation.

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We are a fam= ily, a people, and a world that suffers from separation, divorce if you will, of a= ll kinds. But it is precisely that world that God in Christ enters - and not j= ust with a hope to ultimately end that separation, but with a mission to heal a= ll of us who suffer from it; to heal our hardness of heart, and to help us recognize, maybe for the first time, that we belong to each other, and we belong to the God who has, for all eternity, refused to separate from us.

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Amen.