October 4, 2009 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
Genesis 2: 18-24 + Psalm 128 + Hebrews 2: 9-11 + Mark: 10: 2-16
The Gospel, every Gospel is about the kingdom of God. It is always an announcement that the Kingdom of God is at hand. Every story, every saying, every parable is about the kingdom of God; and one of the most frequently used descriptions of the Kingdom of God is a wedding feast. So, when this incident occurs and this discussion follow, we must think about the Kingdom of God. This is not about divorce.
“What God has joined together, no one may divide.” This is gospel talk – so, it’s about the Kingdom of God, and the signal to remind us of that is the context in which it is placed: a discussion about marriage. A favorite image of the Kingdom. If you do not go further and deeper into these words and what they reveal about God’s plan, you will be stuck where some Pharisees are stuck. Jesus has come to restore the original condition of life between us and God. He has come to restore, reestablish that life we first had by God’s plan. It was a life of unity – oneness between man and woman, and oneness with God. The effect of sin has been to destroy that unity. As Genesis tells it, the first consequence of sin was for Adam and Eve to recognize that they were different, and then they hid. The oneness, the wholeness, the unity of creation has been ruined.
When Jesus says: “What God has joined together, no one may divide”, why do we think he is only talking about marriage? Is the unity of husband and wife the only thing God has joined together? What about the unity between and mother and her child? What about the unity between a brother and a sister? …. between families ….within the human family? What about the unity, the harmony and oneness between human life and this earth itself? I was listening to a commentator on the TV the other night talking about red states and blue states – sensing as we all do the terrible division and hostility between those political ideologies, and I wondered, what ever happened to the “United States” Now they are only blue or red?
The work and mission of Jesus Christ was one continuous ministry of healing what was divided, reuniting what was separated, healing what was broken. Think of the miracles – they are always about some reunion or restoration. He raises a little girl and gives her back to her father. He raises a centurion’s son and restores that family unity. He tells about a broken family and a runaway son, describing a father waiting to have all his sons come in the house together. He heals lepers so that they can be restored to their place in the community. On and on it goes, one continuous effort, one manifestation of God’s will —- that all would be one and nothing be divided. So, what has God joined together?
Much more than a man and a woman. We can’t stop there with this expression of God’s wish and will for us all. Friendships broken cannot remain so. Children who will not speak to brothers and sisters or to their parents cannot remain so apart and hostile.
Nations and races cannot be at odds. Racism has no place in God’s plan. Why? Because God joined us together at the beginning, and that paradise, that plan, that love of God will be restored, or the work of Jesus will be in vain.
When Jesus calls those children to himself, those apostles are still doing what they did last week when they wanted to exclude someone who had cast out a demon they had failed to cast out. They thought it was all about them, that they were somehow privileged and therefore could exclude someone who was different. Jesus objects. Today he rebukes even more strongly their effort to exclude; this time it is children. It is of course, not because they are tiny, vulnerable, or weak. It is, according to that culture, that they produce nothing, and like children, they are totally dependent upon God making no pretense that they are special, unique, or self-sufficient.
The very inclusive nature of the Kingdom of God and the very inclusive behavior of Jesus Christ confronts attitudes of division, privilege, brokenness, and disunity. There will be no Kingdom of God, while there is disunity of any kind. That Kingdom will come no closer as long as we insist on being separate, different, or special expecting privilege or power or positions of influence over others. In the final day of his life with us, Jesus expressed in his prayer the Father’s will: “That they may all be one as we, Father, are one.”
What God has joined together must not be divided. At some point we have to open our minds and hearts and begin to wonder at all God has joined together and wonder how we can put it back together again. When we do, the Kingdom of God will be at hand.