TGBC Tuesday, 26 Jan 2021. Mark 10:1-12. Divorce

Mark 10:1-12 New Revised Standard Version

Teaching about Divorce

10 He left that place and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him; and, as was his custom, he again taught them.

2 Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3 He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” 4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” 5 But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

10 Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

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I'll not try to rationalize this text by suggesting that Jesus never taught this (after all, it's attested in three independent sources, Mark, Q, and Paul),

or that Jesus lived in a day and age when only husbands could divorce but wives could not and that was unfair (that was true for Israelite law but not in Roman law, which permitted either husband or wife to divorce),

or that cultures evolve over Time and this is obsolete,

or that Jesus clearly said it because hardhearted men divorced abusively,

or that Mark has arranged his sequence (with verses 13-16 that follow immediately, scroll down and look) to show that Jesus' actual concern was for the children in a broken marriage,

or that Jesus frequently took narrow human laws and redefined to broaden them morally so you realized that you were as sin-guilty as the person you were judging and trying to stone;

though any and all that may be true.

Regardless of what sin (adultery?) Jesus may have meant to broaden and condemn (as for example he said that a man who even looks with lust on another woman commits adultery with her), over the centuries - - societies' cruelty and the church's arrogantly manipulative, self-righteous exercise of authoritative power to keep people under its control - - in requiring by canon and law that abusive couples stay together and cannot escape unhappy homes and abusive marriages, has been by far the greater evil.

Not to be cute, but this gospel will pop up again in early October, the lectionary for Proper 22B. My suggestion: don't be a slave to ecclesiastical rules, don't even read it. Or read just verses 10:13-16. Or unapologetically read something else. And preach on it? On a scale of idiot-imbecile-moron, some idiots will preach on this text. It's as loaded as preaching on politics, and can be as thoughtless, unkind, and hurtful. As with politics where half the congregation is red and half is blue, half the congregation is divorced and they reasonably won't stand for being washed and hung out to dry.

Except for leaving it in the Lectionary, the Episcopal Church has accommodated the subject. Unlike early in my lifetime, a remarried divorcee who presumes to come to church is no longer a pariah to be avoided and whispered about because they don't come up for Communion. Divorced and remarried people are no longer excluded from the Altar rail, receiving Communion. Priests now may officiate the wedding of previously divorced people. Parishioners reeling from the pain of divorce are welcome to the church's loving pastoral care and fellowship of saints. Divorced and remarried clergy can find their way back into the church if they wish. Even if it's not always the case, Grace is meant to prevail.

Below (scroll down) is the complete set of Lectionary readings for that Sunday in October 2021. For parishes that follow Track One, passing over Mark 10:2-12, the preacher or Sunday school teacher might instead read Job and ponder Carl Jung's notion that the Crucifixion was not to atone for human sin at all, but God's newly awoken (Jung suggests that it never occurs to God, working alone, that something he does might be evil instead of good) self-awareness, realization (*mightn't even God have an epiphany and repent?*) and God's self-imposed penance for God's reprehensible sin against Job, who is Everyman.

T+

* in Job, the Lord has no spiritual director and only Satan as his confidant and co-conspirator; but with Moses as his spiritual director at Exodus 32:14, "the Lord repented of the evil that he thought to do to his people". (KJV)

Afterthought. Might it be theologically, that on earth God can only sin through his condoned/blessed actions of another: Satan in Job, Joshua in the massacre of the original native occupants of Canaan? If that seems to be so, how to atone for the conquest of the Holy Land? Or the theodicy of The German Holocaust. And, oh, what about hurricanes, deadly wildfires ignited by lightning, tsunamis brought on by undersea shifts, pandemics, stillbirth, the question of theodicy in general? In a larger and more challenging or disputatious Sunday School gathering, this could be interesting to contemplate.

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Sunday, 3 October 2021: Proper 22 Year B

The Collect

Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Track One. Old Testament Job 1:1; 2:1-10

There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.

One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason.” Then Satan answered the Lord, “Skin for skin! All that people have they will give to save their lives. But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, he is in your power; only spare his life.”

So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes.

Then his wife said to him, “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die.” But he said to her, “You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Track One Psalm 26

Judica me, Domine

1 Give judgment for me, O Lord, for I have lived with integrity; * I have trusted in the Lord and have not faltered.

2 Test me, O Lord, and try me; * examine my heart and my mind.

3 For your love is before my eyes; * I have walked faithfully with you.

4 I have not sat with the worthless, * nor do I consort with the deceitful.

5 I have hated the company of evildoers; * I will not sit down with the wicked.

6 I will wash my hands in innocence, O Lord, * that I may go in procession round your altar,

7 Singing aloud a song of thanksgiving * and recounting all your wonderful deeds.

8 Lord, I love the house in which you dwell * and the place where your glory abides.

9 Do not sweep me away with sinners, * nor my life with those who thirst for blood,

10 Whose hands are full of evil plots, * and their right hand full of bribes.

11 As for me, I will live with integrity; * redeem me, O Lord, and have pity on me.

12 My foot stands on level ground; * in the full assembly I will bless the Lord.

or Track Two

Track Two Old Testament Genesis 2:18-24

The Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper 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. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.”

Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Track Two Psalm 8

Domine, Dominus noster

1 O Lord our Governor, *how exalted is your Name in all the world!

2 Out of the mouths of infants and children * your majesty is praised above the heavens.

3 You have set up a stronghold against your adversaries, * to quell the enemy and the avenger.

4 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, * the moon and the stars you have set in their courses,

5 What is man that you should be mindful of him? * the son of man that you should seek him out?

6 You have made him but little lower than the angels; * you adorn him with glory and honor;

7 You give him mastery over the works of your hands; * you put all things under his feet:

8 All sheep and oxen, * even the wild beasts of the field,

9 The birds of the air, the fish of the sea, * and whatsoever walks in the paths of the sea.

10 O Lord our Governor, * how exalted is your Name in all the world!

The Epistle

Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. But someone has testified somewhere,

“What are human beings that you are mindful of them, or mortals, that you care for them?

You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor, subjecting all things under their feet.”

Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying,

“I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.”

The Gospel Mark 10:2-16

2 Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3 He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” 4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” 5 But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,[b] 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Jesus Blesses Little Children

13 People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. 14 But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 15 Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” 16 And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.