Trinity
Lutheran Church

https://player.vimeo.com/video/1016215724?h=8f108267a6

The First Reading: Genesis 2:18-24

Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.’ So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,
‘This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called Woman,
for out of Man this one was taken.’
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.

The  Gospel: Mark 10:2-16

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 another 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.

The Sermon

“This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” At last, Adam was not alone any longer. Our reading from Genesis describes the second creation story. If we remember, the first creation story was this very systematic build-up. Every day something was created, and at the end of the day God would deem it good.

The second creation story is not so straight forward. Adam was created from the earth and mud and then God figured that this man should not be alone. So, he created all kinds of other creatures but none of them was able to fill the void. Finally, the woman was created and Adam recognized her as the one he longed for. At last, he found a companion with whom he had a deep connection. Bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh.

Gensis is a complicated text with several possible pitfalls. For one, there are some interpretations that the woman, described as a helper, is a byproduct of the man and therefore, seen as inferior. However, a helper in the biblical context is not understood as inferior. In fact, they are on equal level with those whom they help or even superior. God is frequently described in the psalms, for example, as helper.

Another problem for us today could be that it’s very easy to focus only on the individuality of Adam and Eve – the union of a single man and a single woman that the ancient story seems to represent.

However, Genesis is more so about the deep bond that connects all of humanity. In the second creation story it is all about “bone of my bones and flesh from my flesh.” In the first creation story, the common thread is that we are all created in the image of God. There it says, “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

Given that all these bonds were cemented not only into the relationship between the first humans but also into the relationship between humans and nature, and humans and God, one would think that all was set for success and harmony. But we know that this was not the case.

Not long after creation was finished, the bonds were broken. Adam and Eve messed up in the Garden of Eden. They divorced themselves from God by not following the one rule they were given. As a consequence, they were divorced from the benefits of the Garden of Eden and had to fend much harder for themselves from there on.

In the gospel Jesus talked about divorce. And it’s easy for us to just see an individualistic notion of marriage in his words. However, when Jesus talked about the dissolution of marriage in today’s Gospel, our cultural and legal perspective tempts us to hear him talking only about a man and a woman: two individuals who entered into covenant with each other – and we are tempted to hear that divorce involves only them.

But in Jesus’ time, marriage and divorce were not just about the man and the woman. They were about two families representing many generations, property, honor, and status. Divorce was not just an individual event; it was a risky break of confidence that could lead to family feuds, shame, and hardship for numerous people. Therefore, the hardness of heart Jesus spoke of pointed to two things: for one it was about the potential suffering of the woman. Only a man could initiate a divorce. He could send his wife away because there was something “objectionable” about her. What exactly “objectionable” meant was open to interpretation. Once divorced, a woman had to return in shame to her family of origin or find another husband who would take care of her. Secondly, the hardness of hearts also pointed to the impact a broken relationship had on all the families and the greater community.

Jesus’ hard teaching about marriage and divorce, then, isn’t just about a man and a woman, just as the recognition of Adam when he sees Eve is ultimately not just about Adam and Eve. Being “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” and being created in the image of God are profoundly about how interconnected the whole human family really is, and again, not just the connection among peoples but also the connection to creation and God.

Dissolving a marriage is not the only way to divorce ourselves from bonds God so intentionally put in place.

It’s about all those places where humanity has become hard of heart and has failed to recognize each other as “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;” places where the bonds which God had made at the foundation of creation are broken.

This hardness of hearts and broken bonds are found in the painful reality of violent conflicts, most prominently in the Middle East right now. The hardness of hearts and broken bonds are found in hunger and disease in so many parts of the world as wealthy and poor become further divided. The hardness of hearts and broken bonds are found in the abuse that we often heap on the natural world, divorcing ourselves from our deep ties with the environment and the obligation to leave a healthy planet for our children.

Through hardness of hearts and broken bonds we are divorced from God, creation and others. Against this pain, Jesus holds up God’s intention to be connected to all of humanity and to all of creation.

We are a family, a people, and a world that suffers from divorce of all kinds. But it is precisely that world that God in Christ entered – and not just with a hope to ultimately end all sorts of divorce, but with a mission to heal all of us who suffer from it; to heal our hardness of heart, and to help us recognize once again that we truly belong to each other, we belong to the world we call home, and we belong ultimately to a God who has, for all eternity, refused to divorce us.

And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.