Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost Study

19TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST   10-3-2021

FIRST READING:   Genesis 2:18-24

The Bible has two creation stories. In the first, Genesis 1:1 – 2:3, man and woman ae created on Day #6 – last and at the same time. In the second, Genesis 2:4 -25, man is created first… then beasts and birds… and then woman last of all. In both creation stories, human beings appear to highly loved, valued, and blessed by God their Creator. In both creation stories both man and woman are created to be in relationship with their Creator and with one another. In both creation stories, humanity has a God-given task or two.

Today’s reading brings to an end the creation account in Genesis 2. How verse 18 is printed in your Bible and how you understand what it is saying is important. In the New Revised Standard Version we read: The Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” My personal belief is that authority of the man over the woman is not in any way part of this creation story or an expression of God’s will. Some people would interpret the Bible and God’s will differently. And I read somewhere the thought that woman was created out of a rib taken from the man so that they could coexist as equals in relationship, side by side… she was not taken out of the foot so that he could stand over her, nor was she taken from the head so that she could rule over him. Sometimes men like to think that woman was an afterthought… that they are the first humanity created and therefore primary… that “helper” connotes inferiority, the “weaker” sex, an add-on, an accessory, created to serve the man and to please the man and to obey the man. On the other hand, I have heard women say that man was just a prototype, a “first try”… then God said, “You know, I think I can do a lot better than this.” And I once heard a woman during a sermon joke that, when God, was perfecting his creation of humanity, only about one little rib seemed worth recycling into the improvement.

The man’s sheer joy is apparent in verse 23. In the Hebrew, “Woman” is ishshah and “Man” is “ish”, which adds some literary flavor to the verse.

Verse 24, especially “one flesh”, speaks both of intimacy and of a covenant relationship, marriage.

What do you believe? If God created humanity in the very beginning, did God also personally create you with all your individual qualities and flaws and adventures through life? Do you think that God “micro-manages” your life’s journey? Who do you think is higher according to God and the Bible, men or women (Be careful, they might not be the same answer!)? Is marriage – and reproduction – God’s blessing… God’s intent… God’s command… all three? 

Both creation stories suggest that we are not meant to live in isolation but in relationship. Do you believe that either of the creation stories condemns same gender covenantal relationships?  

PSALM READING:   Psalm 8

Perhaps you have personally experienced Psalm 8. Some clear starry night you gazed up into the sky, said “WOW!”… and you felt so small before the vastness of it all… but you also felt both humbled and uplifted to sense that you are created and treasured by God. “Mere mortals… made them little less than divine, with glory and honor you crown them.”

By the way, in verse 6 some translations speak of “dominion”. This does not mean the same as “dominate” or “destroy”.  We are called to take care of what has been entrusted to us. How are we doing with this earth?
“WOW!” indeed. “O Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

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

Hebrews seems to be a written sermon addressed to Jewish-Christians who have known and shared the faith together for some time in deeds of love and through times of hardship and great persecution [See 10:32-34]… but now they are tired, discouraged, perhaps challenged once more, and wondering whether it is worth holding on to Christ any longer. The author of Hebrews wants to encourage these struggling Christians – and US! – to keep on holding on, to persevere, to “trust the process” (borrowing a recent phrase attached to the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team).

Today’s reading, which quotes from Psalm 8, speaks of God’s revelation through God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

From an exalted position, Jesus stepped down to a position lower than the angels. He did this to bring “many children to glory”.  Jesus is the “pioneer” or “champion” of salvation who shares his own destiny with us. So we share not only Christ’s humanity, but also his glory. Christ, by assuming human likeness and through his life, death, and resurrection, enables us to experience what God has created us for. And Jesus will be our voice and our advocate, letting others know that we belong to God.

GOSPEL READING:  Mark 10:2-16

In order to test him and trap him – this unrighteous breaker of the Law of Moses and the traditions of the faith – the Pharisees asked Jesus, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”

Jesus answered the question with his own question. The Pharisees understood that the Law of Moses allowed a man to divorce his wife. That’s true. The written Law said that if the wife “does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her”, then he can write her a certificate of divorce. Now, in the days of Jesus there were also oral interpretations of the written Law. Some rabbis and interpreters of the Law said it was enough if she simply burned his dinner… other rabbis taught that it had to be something more serious and substantial than that. What was God’s will in all of this? What if your wife got fat? What if she got ill? What if she couldn’t have any children? What if you met or wanted a younger woman? What if you just got tired of the relationship, were bored, and felt like a change?

In the days of Jesus, the man could go to the priest, fill in a certificate of divorce, hand it to his wife, and say, to her, “Get out – NOW!” No process, no right to appeal, no time to get ready, no severance pay. “GO!”

The tricky Pharisees were asking, “When is divorce OK?” That was a question on peoples’ minds then as it is today.  Jesus’ response is that it is the wrong question. The question we should be asking is “What is marriage supposed to be?” Jesus gives us three answers to this question:

Jesus’ first answer is that marriage is supposed to be a reflection of the image of God that is within each of us.(verse 6). I am created by God hands, I am given life by God’s breath, I am gifted with God’s spirit, I am loved by God, I am God’s child, I am somebody that God wants to bless – if I will allow it. YOU are created by God’s hands, given life by God’s breath, gifted with God’s spirit, loved by God, God’s child, and somebody that God wants to bless – if you will allow it. To know that we are created in the image of God is to have a personal sense of humility, a sense of gratitude, and a sense of affirmation – I am, by God’s grace, SOMEBODY! To also know that about the other person is to look at the other person with respect, to give honor and care. It’s not about power… it’s not about control. It’s about God’s image, God’s intent.

Jesus’ second answer is that marriage is supposed to be an experience of profound intimacy (verses 7-8). God created them male and female, two beings, to be in mutual relationship. God had said, as recorded in Genesis, “It’s not good to be alone.” One flesh… and not just physically, but also relationally, emotionally, spiritually… the the joy of knowing and being known, of being mutually vulnerable and mutually submissive to each another, of giving and receiving and sharing our whole self – the beauty and the warts, the good and bad, the better and the worse. Now that’s what intimacy is truly all about.

Jesus’ third answer is that marriage is supposed to be a permanent bond. (verse 9). “Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.” The right way to begin and to continue a marriage is to allow it to truly be a HOLY relationship, with God’s presence, God’s peace, God’s power, and God’s promises guiding and sustaining it along the entire journey.

But stuff happens. Some marriages implode from within. Some marriages are sabotaged by external forces. Marriages require community support to flourish. Sometimes the pressures on a marriage are great. Divorces occur.

Some marriages continue, at least legally, but the relationship is either mostly non-existent or highly toxic. Do you think Jesus would be legalistic, insistent, and without compassion in a situation where a spouse is facing and trying to survive physical, emotional, or sexual violence?

When the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus… when they cited that stuff about how a man could write out a certificate of divorce and throw it at his wife… Jesus told them that they were hard-hearted. Later – in the house with his disciples… knowing how the men of his day had a “dominance disorder” and treated women as inferior and reduced them to the rank of a “disposable” that you could get rid of at your convenience – Jesus said that a woman should also not divorce her husband. This wasn’t even allowed by the written Law of Moses or by any oral interpretation or extension of Law. Jesus said it to shock them, to make them think.

Children in Jesus’ day held no rights at all. Today’s Gospel reading concludes with another of those accounts about children (We’ve had several in recent weeks.) Here the disciples don’t understand, yet again, about the worth and dignity and love and concern that God has for EVERY PERSON, including undervalued little children. We are ALL God’s children… every one of us. “Let the children come to me; do not stop them,” Jesus says. More than just not stopping them, make the effort to welcome them!

And humble yourself down by God’s grace to “receive the kingdom of God as a little child.” (verse 15).