It seems like we’ve been covering most of my least favourite Bible passages of late, so perhaps I ought to have expected that one in the future along - 'Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her”. Another winner!
And such a good passage to possess at the time of the baptism! Certainly it works as a subtle method of informing any divorced parents who may be visiting us today, and who might be thinking about getting their kids baptised, don’t bother coming here!
'Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her”. That’s our stance, and that we don‘t want any no good adulterers or adulteresses around here, nor your kids of questionable origin!
Now, before someone actually does wake up and then try to punch me, I ought to point out that if there's a finger here being pointed at persons who've failed in their marriages and have been divorced and remarried, that finger is pointing squarely at me!
I'm a divorcee, and that i have remarried, and the church (not this church but the greater Diocese) never lets me forget that!
I received my synod badge the other day. This provides me the privilege of getting access to the 2006 sessions from the synod of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney. It’s a privilege I’m afraid I rarely take advantage of. Nevertheless, I was fascinated this season to see that they’ve inserted some letters under my name - ‘ACIC’.
In reality, I’m not entirely sure what these letters are a symbol of, but I’m guessing that they stand for ‘Acting Curate in Charge’, which, if correct, means I have to happen to be demoted again!
I had been ‘Acting Rector’. I’ve never been permitted to become full rector of this parish, despite having now been here for 15 years. I’m technically still a casual in this position, whose tenure is entirely susceptible to the whim of the Bishop, and I think now I have to have descended still one step further on the ecclesiastical ladder!
In reality, I truly don’t care what label they apply to me here, so long as I’m free to continue doing the job Personally i think called to complete. Nevertheless, I understand full well that there is only one reason why I get this label, and that is because I am one that continues to be divorced and has remarried, and so within the eyes from the establishment I'll always remain a second class cleric, and really should consider myself lucky to possess been allowed to continue in this ministry at all.
Of course, it’s possible that I’ve misinterpreted this badge, and that the letters actually are a symbol of, “Arch-Chancellor in Constantinople!”, but I don’t think so.
In truth, when i say, I truly don’t care what label people affect myself, except in so far as it's a testimony that they will not allow me to forget my failings. But it was Jesus Himself who said, .'Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her”. That seems pretty final, and who're we to question god Jesus?
No wonder the historic church has always viewed divorced persons in this dim light, and refused to baptise their offspring.
By maintaining a higher standard, and excluding divorced and/or adulterous persons from the fellowship, we keep up with the purity of the faith community as a whole. Obviously, for the person on the other end, the knowledge is something like having someone place the boot in when you’re already doubled up on the floor!
A lady by the name of Doris Mae Golberg wrote some lines which summed up for me my experience of divorce:
I have lost my hubby, but I am not designed to mourn.I've lost my children; they don't know to whom they belong.I've lost my relatives; they don't approve.I have lost his relatives; they blame me.I have lost my buddies; they don't know how you can act.Personally i think I have lost my church; will they think I have sinned too much?I am scared of the near future,I am embarrassed with the past,I'm unclear about the present.I am so alone,Personally i think so lost.God, please stay by me, You are all I've left.
At this time, in my experience, the church regularly responds by putting the boot in. That’s what went down to my parents once they were divorced. I copped my share when my turn came, and I’ve since experienced it because of so many friends. Is this truly the attitude we think the Lord Jesus would have us take?
Personally, I believe that even a minimal quantity of Bible study indicate to us that judgement isn't the final word from the Lord Jesus in this matter, also it may not be also the very first word. For one thing, in the very passage we look at this morning, where Jesus appears to speak so aggressively towards divorcees, that dialogue is immediately then him welcoming the kids indiscriminately!
As I’ve suggested already, those who make distinctions between people based on their marital status, generally pass judgement not only about the remarried couple, but equally upon their children, who're judged as the unholy offspring of an adulterous and sinful relationship!
If Jesus Himself had taken this attitude, we may have expected him to express, “Allow the children come to me. Don't hinder them, except for those of dubious parentage, who I’d prefer you kept well away from me!”
Jesus doesn't make any distinction between the children. He embraces all of them, regardless of their race, their colour, their gender, or their parental pedigree! And just as He does not withhold his love from any of his children, Jesus is on record as refusing to evaluate somebody that was caught being openly adulterous!
If you are a student from the Bible, you will remember the passage from John 8, in which the religious leaders drag the poor girl before Jesus and get him whether or not they should stone her as an adulteress, based on their law. Jesus says, “Let the one that has never made any mistakes cast the first stone”, so when all of them disappear, Jesus says to the woman things i believe are some of the most beautiful words in most of Scripture, “I don’t condemn you can either!”
The church has too often been quick to condemn. Jesus though rarely condemned anybody. Indeed, to become quite blunt about it, the only people we see Jesus condemn within the New Testament aren't weak and sinful people who have failed, but pompous, self-righteous religious individuals who think the sun's rays shines out of them.
Consistent with that, allow me to suggest for you this verse about, 'Whoever divorces his wife and marries another”, is probably not about judging divorced or remarried people. It might be solely targeted at those who make use of the law to warrant their selfish activity.
The context, you'll remember, is that Jesus is dialoguing using the religious leaders about the law.
The religious leaders of the day had an issue with Jesus - namely, that he seemed to be flouting what the law states by being overly merciful, as with the case with the adulterous woman. Conversely, Jesus had an issue with these religious leaders - namely, they used what the law states to excuse themselves using their moral responsibilities.
The classic example of this really is seen a few chapters earlier, in Mark chapter seven, where Jesus lays in to the Pharisees for allowing the practice of ‘Korban’, whereby an associate from the faith community could dedicate some of his belongings to God and so make them tax-exempt, so that he'd not be required share his dedicated goods despite his parents, or anybody else who were built with a legitimate claim upon him!
If there’s something Jesus couldn’t stand, it had been people using religion to try and legitimise their sinfulness. If you’re likely to be greedy, and not allow your parents to live in your home with you, don’t pretend it’s because you’ve dedicated those extra rooms to God, to enable them to simply be employed for worship. And likewise, if you’re going to trade in your wife for any younger model, don’t attempt to make out that you’re doing something morally legitimate by offering her a certificate of divorce first!
Let me give a very concrete illustration of exactly what we’re taking a look at here. Captured I went down to Melbourne to do a TV segment with John Saffran and Father Bob on a show called, “Speaking in Tongues”. Among the other guests that I met track of there was an amazing woman who had worked like a professional wife for many years in Tehran.
She was not a sex-worker. She would be a professional wife. And her clients weren't sleeping around. These were having half-hour marriages.
In Tehran it is legal to possess several wife, but it is not permitted for men to rest with a woman who's not his wife. So these men will come to this woman’s flat and marry her. Half an hour later they'd issue her a piece of paper of divorce and go back home (back to their original wife, I suppose). Now I don’t think they had a cleric available to perform the wedding, however i remember her telling me how there is a way of getting round the formal wedding ceremony too.
The bottom line is that these guys figured that their consciences were clean. They hadn’t done anything wrong. They hadn’t slept around. They hadn’t committed adultery. They hadn’t dishonoured their original wife or this woman. They'd simply had that which was within the eyes of God a completely legitimate half-hour marriage. As well as in that context, Jesus says, “such a load of crap!”
The problems, as I view it, is not particularly to possess a go at people who stuff up a lot as to deride individuals who think they are able to legitimise their selfish behaviour through issuing legal certificates of marriage and divorce. In reality, it doesn’t make a difference. Sleeping around is sleeping around, selfishness is selfishness, adultery is adultery, sin is sin. Be considered a man and own what you are doing!
Jesus was a straight talker, and that he urged us to become exactly the same. He urged us to talk plainly, letting our ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and our ‘no’ be ‘no’. It’s about integrity! It’s all about being honest about what you are and what you’re on about. There’s you don't need to pretend that you’re not really a sinner. We’re all sinners. We're the company of sinners who live and eat the grace of God in the cross of Christ. We’re a community of people that live upon those words of Jesus, “I don’t condemn you either”.
If you’ve failed, well .. so have I, and that’s OK. If truth be known, my failures as a husband are only the start of my many failures, but that’s OK. Christ still loves me and I’m focusing on it, and thankfully in the church (well, in this church at least) we’ve learnt not to place the boot in, but to support each other in our struggles.
‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery!” True? Absolutely! So if you’re planning on trading in your partner for any younger prettier model, well … you do what you gotta do, but please don’t come and tell me that it’s OK in the eyes of God because:
You had an aspiration and God said to get along with this new woman or
You realize the brand new woman may be the one God intends because she’s a Christian or
Because you don’t think the first marriage was ever properly consummated or
Because you’ve given your first wife a certificate of divorce Because I’ve heard them all before (yes, I have), and since Jesus has heard them all before, and because no quantity of appealing to the by-laws of the Word of God is going to legitimate what is simply an act of human selfishness.
So if you’re going to sin, as Martin Luther said, “sin boldly”, but be a man about this and admit your work, for be confident that while Christ always has room for an additional sinner, but He seems to have very little space for self-righteous hypocrites.
Now ... I’m certain someone will challenge me following the service today and let me know that I’ve been overly lax on sinners this morning, most especially adulterers, and perhaps that‘s right.
Certainly I don’t wish to give you the impression that Jesus asserted adultery is OK. Of course it’s not. Nothing that damages others and destroys families is OK. But frankly, I don’t think that the church - this church or any church - is actually in a danger of going soft on issues of marital infidelity. I think the much better danger is the fact that we obtain caught up in the same self-righteous hypocrisy that the Pharisees were known for, and look down upon those who do stuff up.
Sin happens. Adultery happens. If it’s happened to you, it’s not a lot of fun. If you’ve been the one that initiated the problem, it likely didn’t end up being much fun for you personally either!
Ultimately, the term of Jesus that people all live by is the one he gave the adulterous woman, “I don’t condemn you either”, nor should we condemn each other.
