Mark 10:2-16

PENTECOST XIX, SEPTEMBER 26, 2021 | A Sermon based on Mark 10:2-16 (RCL) | by David Zersen |

Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. 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. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

CHERISHING COMMUNITY

Listening to the two incidents in this text may give the impression that Jesus is theologically bi-polar, treating people in different ways depending on his mood or the set of circumstances. On the one hand, he comes down hard on marriage partners seeking a divorce. On the other hand he is gentle and kind to disruptive parents who are disturbing his teaching by bringing little children to him. The decision to include both incidents in a single text may provide unnecessary complications for us, but perhaps there’s a greater truth here than a text about judgement and another about mercy. At a fairly profound level, it seems to me, these two incidents focus us on something at the heart of our Christian understanding, the matter of Christian community.

When you consider various religious systems, the Judaeo-/Christian heritage is all about community, bringing people together to learn from one another, to serve one another and to depend on one another. Many religious systems are very individualistic in sending people to a temple to turn a prayer wheel, light a candle, make a commitment or seek a favor. There are dimensions of this individualism in Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholic traditions when a worshipper reverences an icon or lights a candle. At the basis of Christian understanding, however, there is this matter of community. We are baptized into the community of God’s people. We are helped through worship and education to love and serve not only those in this community, but even enemies outside of it. And we are insured that just as we have lived together in love and service here in this life, we will continue to do so for all eternity in ways that eye has not seen and ear has not heard.

Very often circumstances separate us from this loving community into which we have been baptized. In our technical, industrial, and economically driven work ethic we tend to focus on individual achievement or personal success. We become separated from one another and even from God. Agnosticism and atheism are ultimately individual breaks from a communal heritage in which mutual service and support are central. A story of a friend who came to understand this is helpful. This friend grew up in a Presbyterian church, received an education, got a job as a teacher, got married, and had children. He became fascinated with social and political action issues and travelled the country giving speeches about how one could challenge societal directions. He was enthralled with the reception he got and increasingly he focused only on his personal status and success. He got divorced, drifted away from the church and broke his ties with Christian heritage and God. He told those who asked that he was an atheist. One day, however, he told me that he discovered that he was missing something. He decided that he missed community, the settings in which people shared a life together. He missed studying together, discussing, supporting and even gathering with family and friends around the communion rail. He re-joined a congregation and for the time being called himself a “Christian atheist”. Some were incensed that he coined that inexplicable phrase and others humoured him. But some of us understood then—and understand now—that community can lead the way back into the heart of the Christian faith. When others are as important to us as we are to ourselves, then we may be knocking at the door of the Christian church. When being alone is not just painful and boring, but also problematic for us, then we may want to step across the threshold to meet with friends of Jesus. When we discover that we are not meant just to be served but also to serve others, then we can begin to understand what Jesus is taking us in today’s text.

This text is not just a hard-line lecture for people who are contemplating divorce or have already been divorced. We surely know that in our own parish or family there are in these times way more divorces that there were in Jesus’ day.  Roughly 50% of first marriages in the U.S. end in divorce and 75% of subsequent marriages. Marrying young, having less education, earning a lower income, living together before marriage, having children before marriage, and not being affiliated with a religious tradition are associated with higher divorce rates, according to Psychology Today.  Common reasons for divorce include lack of commitment, incompatibility, infidelity, unrealistic expectations, financial problems, and abuse. So many marriages end in divorce that the reading of today’s text seems to be out of touch with contemporary reality. Do you think that a command from Jesus will turn this around?

However, the problem is not that people are simply disobeying Jesus’ command about respecting commitments in marriage. The problem is that we have developed a different attitude toward community, toward one another, that we have allowed individualism, my rights, and my freedom to take precedence over the way we operate as committed couples. There is no such thing as the perfect partner with whom you have no disputes, arguments or differing expectations. In an individualistic society we focus on what “I’ve got coming to ME” and we forget St. Paul’s words that “love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things”. In other words, in marriage, in order to achieve fulfilment, my role as a disciple calls me to focus on my partner’s needs. In so doing I participate in a loving Christiaqn community of two within a larger Christian community of many. There are no laws that speak to this. We are compelled by the love of Christ that is alive within us.

The second portion of our text has Jesus challenging his disciples who have an exclusive view of community. They have given up home and family to follow Jesus. They’ve sat with him night after night struggling with new ideas, parables and challenges to their own narrow views of acceptance. Suddenly a bunch of mothers disrupts their focus on bigger issues to have Jesus embrace their kids. “C’mon, ladies, we’re into serious business here! We have a better sense than you of who should be excluded from communities like ours.” But Jesus challenges their view and seems to be more generous in his perspective than he was earlier in his views about divorced people. However, it’s really all about community. We should focus on one another, not just on our personal needs.

That view was brought home to me in a story about mentally-challenged people in a community called Bethel near the city of Bielefeld, Germany. During WWII, the Nazi regime sent transport trucks to this village that cared for retarded people to remove youth and adults and take them to the gas chambers. Bethel was a large community run by the Lutheran Church to care for the retarded (and to train pastors and teachers). The theory on the part of the Nazis was that these people made no contribution to the life of the new society that the National Socialists were building and they should be exterminated. The military leaders met with the director of the community, Pastor Bodelschwing, and told him that they were to pick up the inmates. The director told them that he would show them around to all the buildings. They followed as he went from room to room where they saw even the seriously retarded involved in some kind of service projects assembling beads or tearing cloth and packing boxes. All we’re given the feeling that they were valued and that even they were God’s children. He took the leaders back to office and said, “Here are the keys to all the rooms. You can go and take the residents, but you will have to shoot me first!” The leaders were so overwhelmed by the dedication and compassion of Pastor Bodelschwing and sense of community demonstrated by everyone that they left without fulfilling their assignment. They learned that day, something we all need to learn, that “even the least of these” has a place in the larger community. They learned with us that children and spouses and everyone are to be the focus of our concern. In the baptized community in which all know themselves to belong to God, no one is worthless.

At the heart of Jesus‘ concern for married couples and little children is a desire to help us appreciate community, the experience in which individuals are drawn to love and respect one another. Community is any gathering beyond ourselves that needs the support that we are empowered to give. We have all failed to follow our role as caregivers in this respect and on a bad day we have every right to hear a word of judgement over our actions. However, in the community of Jesus‘ disciples, spouses or children, we are privileged to accept forgiveness for our failures and we are empowered to embrace those given to us in marriages, in families and in communities of all kinds. Among all the teachings we value as Christians, cherishing community is one of the important.

David Zersen, D.Min., Ed.D., FRHistS

djzersen@gmail.com