October 06, 10:30am (Kevin Westling)
Jesus’ teaching on divorce is a truth about all of us: we are all connected to one another and we are all connected to the Creation and we cannot be untangled…ever. We are… interdependent…all of us…everyone…Period. When we recognize and stand in the powerlessness of our solitariness, Jesus tells us and the Pharisees… when we recognize that we have no dowry or status or achievements to offer – only then will we finally be open to God.
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SERMONS AT TRINITY
Sunday, October 4, 2009
“Ready to be surprised”
The Rev. R. Cameron Miller
Good morning.
Today we conclude our theme on
the spirituality of creation.
But of course our spirituality, like our lives,
is completely and utterly intertwined
with the Creation, and that never ends.
In fact,
one of the least spiritual
ways of imagining ourselves
is to talk about “human beings” and “Nature,”
as if Human Beings
and human society
and human creations such as cities,
are somehow apart from
or distinct from Nature.
There is only Nature,
and it impossible for human beings to be
“unnatural”
because we ARE nature,
and we lack the ability to be anything else.
Any behavior we exhibit
is exhibited by some other creatures
on some scale
either greater or lesser than our own.
In the midst of this week’s announced discovery
of another species of pre-hominid predecessors,
a million years older than the previous oldest one,
we ought to take to heart Mary Oliver’s poem
and recall that before we originated from primates
we were water creatures.
Now, let me ask a question.
Does anyone here besides me
have difficulty coming up with a
meaningful and pithy answer
when someone asks about difference between
The Episcopal & Roman Catholic Church’s…
Or between Trinity and another Church?
You see, I can think of lots of differences
but they all take more of an explanation
than the person really wants to hear.
I hate to oversimplify and even trivialize the differences
by saying something like,
“We’re more liberal” or “We don’t have a pope.”
Saying something like,
“We embrace and welcome Gay and Lesbians”
strikes me as using the GLBT community
to pat ourselves on the back –
using their legitimate civil rights issues
for institutional marketing.
I have never found an adequate,
authentic and economical way to describe
the difference between what we are about as a
Christian community
and a more conservative theological tradition,
or a more conservative Biblical tradition.
If I had ten minutes and an interested person
whose eyes didn’t glaze over,
I would talk to them about divorce.
Yeah, you probably didn’t expect that one.
Today’s reading from Mark
offers a spectacular view of our tradition
via the portal of divorce.
Now, I am not stupid, or completely insensitive:
I know that every single person here
has encountered the consequences of divorce
on a very personal level,
in one way or another.
Which of course, ironically, makes it a perfect example.
Anyway, now that it has been read out loud
in polite company –
you know, that reading from Mark we just heard –
it is staring up at us like a cockroach in our soup
and it begs for explanation.
As always, when we hear the words of Jesus
we have to ask if we know the context
of his century and his generation,
and how that context may have influenced the meaning
of his words.
The whole conversation is framed this way:
“Some Pharisees came to test Jesus.”
That means is was a hostile encounter –
a prosecutorial question.
“They asked,
‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’”
If I were to ask you that question
the answer would be,
“Yes, in New York, divorce is a legal option.”
But there would also be some nuances
to that answer because New York
doesn’t have no-fault divorce.
The reasons that New York has divorce laws
that are different from almost every other state in the nation is part of our context,
and it might lead us to think about the vested interests
of those people, professions and institutions
who keep it the way it is.
We can wonder about the same things
when we consider the context in Jesus’ day,
because we know that the question of divorce
did not take place in a vacuum for him either.
There is a question being asked of Jesus
that you and I do not hear
because we are Christians living in the 21st century,
rather than Jews living in the first century.
That hidden question is this:
“Jesus,
do you agree with Rabbi Hillel
or do you take the side of Rabbi Shammai?”
Who is Hillel and Shammai,
we might ask,
and why should we care?
The answer is,
we cannot understand Jesus without knowing
Hillel and Shammai.
They were two of the leading historic Teachers of Israel
that engaged in debate about how to interpret Torah,
and even whether or not, in interpreting Torah,
you could also consider the tradition of previous
interpretations and teachings.
Shammai was what we would call the more conservative theologian, and given a choice,
he almost always argued for a more narrow interpretation of the 613 commandments.
Hillel was the more liberal thinker,
and he believed that interpretation of Torah evolved,
and subsequent interpretation could incorporate
the history of interpretation
as well as the 613 commandments themselves.
Shammai taught that Chapter 24, verse 1
in the Book of Deuteronomy
allowed a man to divorce his wife.
Hillel also taught that Chapter 24:1
allowed a man to divorce his wife.
But they disagreed upon
the grounds and requirements of divorce.
Deuteronomy 24:1 stipulates
that a man can’t just kick his wife out of the house
as they did in more ancient times,
but instead, he had to describe the reasons for the divorce and give her some warning.
Shammai taught that adultery
was the only acceptable grounds for divorce
while Hillel said that any reason,
even being a bad cook or poor housekeeper,
was a legitimate reason for divorce.
But then they both agreed
that the man had to execute the divorce
in the proper and humane way –
at least humane by the standards of the ancient world.
That was the context
in which Jesus is asked the question about divorce.
The Roman Church as well as conservative
Evangelical Protestant traditions,
have taken his answer and used it
to defend their prohibitions against divorce.
Strange…very strange since he doesn’t prohibit it.
You see, the legality of divorce is never in question,
only the grounds for it.
No one is asking Jesus whether or not Jesus thinks
divorce is legal – of course it was.
In fact, polygamy was still legally practiced
in Jesus’ day among Judeans.
So you see, context is everything.
If we don’t know the context,
or if we do not take it into account,
then we totally misunderstand the question
AND the answer.
So Jesus’ answer is interesting.
Jesus says,
Deuteronomy 24 was written…why?
Because God understood our hardness of heart.
In other words, God knows us.
God understood that we are human,
and that there is no perfection among human beings.
Let that just ring our ears for a moment.
There is no perfection among human beings…
There is no perfection among human beings, ever…
Now we see the differences are building?
There is no such thing as an absolute
when it comes to human beings.
Human beings may begin a venture
with the greatest of intentions
but there is no guarantee that is how we will finish it.
Jesus points out,
by inference,
that in Deuteronomy 24
God is letting us off the hook –
giving us an out
and a backdoor.
I think the implication,
if we can hear the sarcasm in Jesus’ voice,
is not that God wants us to be that way
but because God knows us –
God knows our nature.
(God should know our nature after all).
We are human,
the very definition speaks of our imperfections.
Any oath we take,
no matter how earnest we are in our intent,
is never a sure bet.
It’s not just that we are liars,
but we may not be able to keep our promise or oath
for reasons beyond our control
that we could never foresee.
We are human.
We are human and we have frailties
and sometimes, even the best of us,
don’t keep the promises we make.
We are human.
On a personal note, if I may,
to those of you who have been divorced,
or who love someone who has been divorced,
please let go of the idea that divorce
is a broken promise to God.
In marriage we make no promise
and take no oath to God.
Rather,
we make the matrimonial promise to one another
in the presence of God,
and ask God to assist, nurture and challenge us
to live into our marriage covenant.
And by the way,
for those of you who are Gay or Lesbian,
and friends and family of Gays and Lesbians,
while I cannot do anything about NY State law,
I can tell you that for the Church
it is asking God to bless the covenant that matters –
the legality aspect is a contractual, legal matter.
What the Church is about
is evoking,
witnessing
and sharing the blessing of the covenant,
and there is nothing that prohibits us at Trinity
from doing that with Gay and Lesbian couples
in exactly the same way
as we do it with heterosexual couples. Exactly the same.
So back to Jesus, the Pharisees and Deuteronomy 24.
God understood you, he says,
and gave you Deuteronomy 24.
But…
and with Jesus there is often a counterpoint,
remember Genesis? he asks,
God also created us human, one flesh.
Jesus seems to be insisting
that any conversation about divorce
should include a reminder of the purpose of marriage:
to enjoin us in a union,
to form a covenant,
that makes us interdependent.
In other words,
Jesus is saying that marriage makes us one flesh
and even though we may get divorced
it will rip us apart…because
by covenant,
have become one.
This is as true for Gay and Lesbians in a covenant
as it is for heterosexuals who have a legal contract.
Of course there is divorce,
Jesus is saying,
but because it is legal to get a divorce,
do not pretend that it is not a devastating
undoing
of a powerful union.
Whether we have been divorced
or had a deep and intimate bond broken
outside of marriage,
we know that divorce is not a separation, rather,
it is an amputation.
Divorce that follows the union of two people
in body, mind and spirit,
is an amputation not a mere separation.
It is painful and grievous
even when done for all the right reason;
and even when the best possible healing takes place, there will always be that missing limb
that travels with us into the next relationship
like an amputee’s phantom arm.
That is just the nature of things, Jesus reminds them.
So you see,
Jesus does not question the legality of divorce –
it is presumed throughout the whole conversation
with the Pharisees.
But neither does he deny
the deep and pervasive truth
of physical and emotional union –
that it makes us one flesh
and stays with us
wherever we go
and with whomever we are with.
That brings us back finally,
to Creation and Nature and Spirituality –
remember, I promised a connection?
In this story people bring little children to Jesus
in order that he might touch them;
but the disciples spoke sternly and told them to take
the little blighters away.
That makes Jesus goes ballistic:
“Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God
like a little child will never enter it.”
Now, on the surface of it,
a debate about divorce and little kids and the kingdom
would seem totally disconnected.
They are not.
In the ancient world children,
like women,
had no rights.
They were on the bottom rungs
of a rigid hierarchy of social caste.
Children were bottom-feeders
and had little worth.
They were vulnerable and needy
and a necessary hassle
only because of their eventual economic value.
Children,
like women,
could be dismissed and replaced.
Not so, says Jesus.
He tells the men,
both the powerful ones and the less powerful ones,
that it is only when they stand on the margin
with women and children,
and all others who are marginalized,
that they will become open
to the Kingdom of God.
Only then.
That’s different.
We can add the Earth to that list of the marginalized.
We have so marginalized the planet,
in favor of our consumeristic wants and desires,
that we will soon become endangered ourselves.
Jesus’ teaching on divorce is a truth about all of us:
we are all connected to one another
and we are all connected to the Creation
and we cannot be untangled…ever.
We are…
interdependent…all of us…everyone…Period.
When we recognize and stand in the powerlessness
of our solitariness,
Jesus tells us and the Pharisees…
when we recognize that we have no dowry
or status
or achievements to offer –
only then will we finally be open to God.
Stand with those on the margins
and finally recognize how we are all connected,
how we are all interdependent…
hells bells,
how we are all dependent.
That is when we will become open to an encounter
with the Kingdom of God in our midst.
I know, it’s hard to believe that Jesus on Divorce
was about all of that stuff…
but there is the difference between our tradition,
this place,
and a lot of other places.
Nothing is simplistic,
everything points to more than it is,
and we are constantly ready to be surprised.
