Loading...I’m pretty sure we have all been part of a conversation that makes us uncomfortable.
We would rather avoid it, or skip over that uncomfy part.
We want to talk about something else. Anything else!
You know the Miss Manners ruling: Don’t talk about religion or politics in polite company!
The problem is, if we always avoid the hard stuff, we never figure out how to think about it in new ways or in different ways.
We stop learning from one another.
We forget how to honor and respect the wide variety of perspectives and experiences.
Jesus, however, jumps right into those difficult topics!
This Gospel text of Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees about divorce is one of the most difficult and even controversial out there.
It has been used to shame people who have divorced or who are considering divorce.
It has been used to shun divorced people who have re-married.
It seems to portray Jesus as rule-bound and strict; and for those of us part of a society which values “freedom” over almost everything, it feels like a hairshirt.
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Whenever I read a text, especially something from the Gospels, I am always looking for God’s Word that comes from the text (rather than reading my own agenda into the words). I also keep at the forefront of my mind these questions:
•What is challenging what I think and my sense of comfort?
•What is the good news? What is telling me – even in a round about way – about God’s love?
In Lutheran lingo, these two questions are about Law and Gospel.
(“Law” doesn’t mean civil law or even “10 commandments” law; rather, it means the realization that we can’t do it ourselves, or that we are not as angelic as we’d like everyone to think that we are.)
When we read these difficult texts, then, we have to be careful to not just take the obvious, “easy” answer to try to wrap our minds around them.
In other words, this is not a good explanation of this saying from Jesus:
“don’t divorce no matter how awful a marriage is and for darn sure, don’t get married again afterwards!”, or
“Just love all the little children!”
If we do that, we would be breaking the 1st guideline – to look for what God is saying.
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What IS God saying?
It is helpful to step back for the big picture:
In the beginning – at creation – God made all of the earth, creatures, geological features, plants, seas, and people, especially people, to live together in relationship.
God made us to live together in wonder, curiosity, respect, honor, and love.
Yet, we are a broken people.
Instead of wonder – there is blindness
Instead of curiosity – close-mindedness
Instead of respect – hard-heartedness
Instead of honor – disregard and rudeness
Instead of love – apathy, and even hate
Look around us now.
We are not caring for the earth and its creatures, land and sea:
There is the gigantic plastic garbage patch in the middle of the Pacific Ocean
Climate Change, what my sister calls “global weirding” is real.
Some animals are going extinct because of poaching or habitat destruction.
We are not caring for nations, languages, tribes, and people:
wars, violence, racisms (which is insidious), greed, and corruption.
We are not caring about strangers or even friends:
domestic violence, sexual violence and trauma – which has so strikingly played out in the public arena over the past several weeks and months.
And you are correct,
we are not all indicted in this list.
Many of us show compassion, and act with advocacy and justice.
But these words from Jesus should make us uncomfortable and squirm a little
because each and every one of us fall short of God’s intention for how we live as creatures in creation.
Our sense of comfort is upended.
God provokes us to be honest with ourselves about the ways we have not been
full of wonder, curiosity, respect, honor, and love.
Whenever I start to get indignant with this question and sputter something like,
“Well, I am not the mean one in the story!”
I remember that Jesus calls me (us) to love our enemies
to reach out to, to learn from, and, if possible, to reconcile with those oh-so-different.
How is God’s Word challenging you and turning your sense of comfort on its head?
But we are not left there. There is Law and Gospel; Challenge and Comfort.
What is the good news?
One place I hear the Good news:
We are the “little ones”. Granted, we are not all children; but we are all learners.
And, we little ones are gathered up into the boundless mercy and eternal love of Jesus for blessing and new life.
The Good News is that we get to keep learning, keep getting better at this
living, loving, and caring
for world, creatures, and brothers and sisters
who are here with us as God’s own beloved people.
Amen
