Finding Faith ... in including everyone in the full spectrum of God’s creation

EDITOR'S NOTE: On Oct. 23, 2021, I was ordained as a minister of word and sacrament in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and installed as pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. I also served the same church for four years from October 2017 to October 2021 a synodical authorized minister. The journey together these past seven years has been an amazing one, full of learning, growing and a deepening of my theological mind. This sermon took place on Oct. 6, 2024.

This week's gospel: Mark 10:2-16

2 Some, testing him, 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.”

Jesus Blesses Little Children

13 People were bringing 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 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.

The message:

Ok, good … so, we need to take care of a little business here, before we continue. … Before we dive deep into the gospel text for the week.

So, I’m going to need all of our congregation’s women and children to just go ahead and move on out of the sanctuary. … I don’t know, maybe you want to watch from the balcony, or just head on down to the basement for fellowship.

Thank you. I appreciate it … because the men and I have some important faith work to do. Some studying to do about the gospel text.

Just an orderly exit now. Thank you! 

Wait, you mean that sounds ridiculous?

So you think that in the context of today’s world that maybe the theme of today’s gospel might be just a tad foreign to us?

Well, I don’t think that you’d be alone. … I’m sure that all of us sitting here today hear today’s text and think, “Well, this scripture is from another age. … What possible context could it contain for us today?”

That’s the trouble with difficult texts in our scripture, isn’t it?

It can be our first reaction to just take the texts that feel outdated and toss them out the window. After all, if we don’t believe they possess any cultural significance to us, then what’s the use? … Why keep them in the lectionary at all, right?

I mean, why keep them in the Bible at all. … If they’re potentially damaging, then let’s just remove them altogether.

But that’s the challenge we have as faithful people when it comes to studying our Bible. Right? … Who gets to be the judge about which texts are appropriate nowadays? … And which ones aren’t? … And when is nowadays anyway?

Is a text still as applicable today as it was five years ago? Ten years ago? … 50?

And today’s text may be one of the most challenging of all. … After all, the divorce rate in America is about 42 percent.

And so that means that about four in 10 of us may experience some kind of reaction to today’s text which focuses on the practice of divorce in the first century.

I know I am one. … After all, I have been divorced.

Additionally, maybe you can even remember at some point in your life that this very text was influential in your views on marriage and divorce because the passage was important to someone who had influence over you. … And you wouldn’t be alone.

Because just in our very lifetimes views on marriage and divorce have shifted considerably. 

Making today’s gospel even more challenging to wrap our minds around is the last paragraph in which Jesus addresses what role children should play in society.

Just as Jesus tries to level the playing field for women in response to the Pharisees, he also tries to level the playing field for children in response to his disciples. 

But just how is it that as readers we are to come to terms with the scripture’s 180-degree shift … from a conversation about divorce … to a conversation about the place of children in society. 

Whoa! … Talk about your ideological whiplash! … Pharisees talking about divorced women … as a veiled attempt to trick Jesus into talking about right relationships look like … and then the disciples’ attempts to restrict the children’s access to Jesus. 

It may seem as if the gospel writer skipped a few leaps of logic here! 

But I assure you, Faith Family … that there is a logical linear line between both of these themes. … And our bulletin today gives us a hint: “These two stories demonstrate this new reality: Women and children are accepted and valued, not dismissed as inferior to adult men.”

While earlier in the sermon I was joking -- well, at least I hope you know that I was joking! -- when I tried to convince everyone that our women and children present needed to leave while we conducted the important business of worship … 

… in the first century in the Holy Land … this was the actual reality for not only women and children … but also for slaves, people of foreign ethnicities, people with any kind of physical or mental malady … and even men without any wealth.

The biblical code the Jewish people lived by in the first century was formed to the advantage of men of wealth … and to the disadvantage of … everyone else. 

That was life. That was the power structure that had developed here in this earthly kingdom. … Maybe you could describe it as might makes right. … And it existed for thousands of years.

But in our text today … along comes Jesus, this upstart Jewish rabbi, a religious teacher, in other words … to tell the Pharisees … and sadly, also the disciples … that women and children -- and so many more groups of people -- aren’t to be shoved to the margins of society.

Let’s begin with the first “story” … a trap that the Pharisees tried to set for Jesus to get him caught up in a transgression over Old Testament biblical law.

I think it’s important to state that right off the bat … we have to question the spiritual veracity of the Pharisees’ intentions in this exchange with Jesus.

Because, Faith Family, they’re not actually seeking Jesus’ input to help them sort out the details of first century marital law … but rather, they’re using the intricacies of Old Testament law to trap Jesus. … To get Jesus to say something heretical so that the Pharisees could be rid of this upstart, rabble-rouser. 

You can about imagine the conspiratorial conversation those religious leaders had before approaching Jesus. Thinking themselves very clever, you can almost hear them whispering: “You know, if we get Jesus to say something that violates the Hebrew texts, well then, we got him! We’ll be rid of him! … Let’s trip him up by asking what the laws about divorce actually state. That’ll get him tied in knots with his equal justice for all nonsense.”

But as we know, Faith Family … Jesus isn’t one to fall for the religious leaders’ traps, and  he ultimately turns the table on the Pharisees by holding up their hypocrisy to them.

He points out that no matter what the scriptures say, when a man leaves a woman in the first century for no good reason, he is committing adultery as well … the very same supposed biblical crime that the Pharisees so easily accused women of.

In just a few words, Jesus redirects the Pharisees’ scriptural inquiries to the matter of relationships in general … and in the process he frees women from potential scriptural infractions listed in old biblical law …  and indicts the religious leaders for trying to push any of God’s beloved children to the margins.

But Jesus wasn’t done yet.

In the very next paragraph, Jesus turns his attention to his own very disciples … who once again were trying to keep a certain group of voiceless people on the margins.

Remember from the text, Jesus’ followers were bringing their children to him in adoration … because, after all, he was the Son of Man … and the disciples rebuked the people for doing so! 

So, here we learn that … while the Pharisees were trying to keep women on the margins … Jesus’ own disciples were doing the same to children.

And because of their own hard-heartedness, Jesus holds his own disciples to account to, saying: “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.”

Women and children … Faith Family. … It is they to whom the Kingdom of God belongs. Jesus tells us so in our gospel text today.

… Women, children … and in today’s world an entire host of other people left on the margins. … That is to whom the Kingdom of God belongs.

“Truly, I tell you,” Jesus said, “whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” … And then he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

Jesus’ entire ministry was about turning over this earthly world’s principles. The same principles the Pharisees were trying to enforce. … And sadly, the same principles Jesus’ own disciples tried to enforce as well.

Faith Family … I think there is a danger for us today to think that outdated scriptures such as this one have no bearing on life today. … Because it’s easy to be distracted by the changing societal views about marriage and of the role of children in today’s society.

But that’s not actually what this particular gospel text is about at all.

What this passage is about is that tragically … both the Pharisees and Jesus’ own disciples wanted to use the scriptures as a justification for keeping people on the margins.

Faith Family … today and in the first century Middle East … there are and were no shortage of people who fall into the same marginalized communities as women and children. … Take your pick. 

Whereas it might have been women who the Pharisees wanted to marginalize … and it might have been the children the disciples wanted to marginalize … nowadays, there is still a very long list of folks whom we marginalize.

Today, even to a degree we marginalize women and children … and now we can the poor, queer folk, immigrants, people of color, people with mental health issues, those with physical disabilities … in some cases people who have committed sins we find abhorrent.

Faith Family, there is no shortage of people this earthly kingdom wants to marginalize. … Such a very long list of God’s beloved children whom we want to marginalize.

Just as the many people that first century scriptural law wanted to marginalize.

While we may want to believe that somehow we’ve made progress 2,000 years later … I think it’s imperative to understand that we still marginalize people.

The Pharisees … and, yes, Jesus’ disciples … all of them were human. … And so are we.

So, yes, we need to check our biases … because if we are honest with ourselves, we too marginalize folks just as they did 2,000 years ago. 

And it’s our charge as faithful people, following in Jesus’ footsteps … that we recognize this truth. And we do all the work necessary to bring everyone into the full spectrum of God’s full life.

And that is the Good News for this Oct. 6, the 20th Sunday after Pentecost. … Amen.