Healing Not Condemnation

Mark 10:1-16

Sometimes scripture says things wedon't want to hear. Sometimes scripture has a tough word that gets alittle too personal. This passage deals with divorce. I am nottelling you anything new when I say that 50% of all marriages end indivorce. That means that over 50% of you have been affected bydivorce I have never been divorced but my life has certainly beenaffected by it. I have seen the pain of failed relationships. Ihave watched people struggle with the process of ending a badmarriage. I have felt some of the consequences of divorce The actof ending a marriage is not really the problem. The act, the divorceitself, is merely a symptom of the brokenness that is the realsource of the hurt. It is the brokenness that causes all the damage.

The word love written in many languages.  These were Embroidered on a stoll which became a wedding gift at a wedding I officiated recently. 

We are broken people. We have brokenrelationships. What God intends for us us not always what we do. Wefail! We trip! We get stuck down there in the ditch in the muck andthe mud, and Jesus comes along and reaches out his hand and pulls usup out of it.

Now would you rather that our Lordwould come along and say, “Well, you're down there in yourbrokenness. You are stuck in the muck and the mud, and I want you tobe okay with it. I want you to lay there and think that the mud isokay, that you can live with it and that tripping and falling wasokay.” or does Jesus say, “You know, you tripped because youweren't paying attention. You fell because you were not holing myhand. But that's okay. I'm here now. Take my hand. Come up out of themud. Let me clean you off.”

Hear me. I am not saying that thelegal procedure of divorce is the point that fall. The divorce isthe symptom and a consequence of human brokenness.

I officiated a wedding a few yearsago. A very young couple. The man was an idealistic dreamer. Thewoman was a recovering heroine addict. There was a lot of brokennessto start with. I didn't help as the officiating pastor. I didn'tcouncil were I could see real problems down the road. I didn't findfor them the support they would need. I, as their pastor failed inmany ways. My brokenness, the communities brokenness played a partin the eventual divorce of this young couple.

We can't change what happened in thepast. We can't fix that. But from here on we can refocus and recommitour lives to Jesus. We can do better. We continue to let Jesus livein us and we continue to find life in Him.

The Pharisees were not interested inhelping anyone who was broken to come up out of the mud. They wereinterested in making sure that everyone followed the law as preciselyand as thoroughly as possible because that was their job. That wastheir understanding of their relationship to God. When everybodyfollows the law correctly then God is pleased. According to their wayof thinking. Now that wasn't God's way of thinking. God came, in theform of Jesus, to let us know that its not about following the ruleslaid down its about loving God first in your life. Its about lettingGod live in us and finding life in God.

During this teaching there were somewho were bringing their little children to be blessed by Jesus. Jesuswas right in the middle of a teaching! He was right in the middle ofhis discourse. He was expressing the will of God. He was settingpeople on the right course. So his disciples, thinking they werehelping the Lord out, said no to the people bringing their children.We are doing important things. We are learning form the Lord. ButJesus said, “Don't stop them!” “Don't prevent them coming tome. It is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs to.”

We are supposed to have a child likefaith. We are supposed to Trust God completely as our Holy Parent.We are supposed to draw sustenance from our life in God. We are torest peacefully in the strength of Gods presence. We are to seekguidance by the wisdom of God through the written word and therevealed word. This is the ideal way to be a human. To be a childto our Holy God.

Did Jesus intend that day to give adiscourse on divorce? I don't think so. Should we be talking abouta doctrine of divorce in the church? No. I don't think so. Remember Jesus' purpose and promise in the Gospel of John. In thethird chapter it says “for God so loved the world that he gave hisone and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish buthave eternal life.” That is the most memorized verse in all ofChristian scripture. It all about having that childlike relationshipwith God through Jesus Christ. But remember the 17^thverse as well. For God did not send the Son into the world tocondemn the world, but to save the world through him.

These words of Jesus on divorce arenot words of condemnation. He was asked, challenged and tested. Jesus merely stated the reality of the situation. Jesus offered somepretty straightforward words on the subject. The thing that thePharisees know and that Jesus knows and that we all know. It thatdivorce, the end of a marriage, the end of a relationship is not ahappy thing. It may be a necessary thing. It may be the only choice.It may be the way things are, but no one ever is happy about thecircumstances that lead to divorce

Jesus is lifting up the ideal. Jesusis lifting up the way things 'ought to be'. I cant think of anyonethat would disagree that when two people come together before God topublicly profess their love and devotion to each other that that loveshould last forever. That's the ideal. Jesus is just stating theobvious. No one should impede that. No one should deny that. Butthere is human Brokenness. There is human weakness that comes intothe equation.

The good news is that Jesus is God. That Jesus is the God of new life and new beginnings. No matter howwe have failed, no matter how human brokenness has shaped our lives,Jesus continually invites us to find life in him.

50% of all marriages fail. That's notthe shocking news to me. The shocking part is that with thatknowledge, 100% of brides and grooms believe it wont happen to them.

In the last month I officiated twoweddings. Statistically speaking, one will make it. If I thoughtabout that long enough I might be discouraged in officiating any moremarriages. But when I think about it a little more, I think what anamazing thing it is to make that kind of commitment to another humanbeing. God gives us the ideal. God gives us the target for our lifetogether. In marriage we get to practice showing patience, lovingkindness, generosity. In love we protect, trust, hope and persevere. What a gift that is, to love another as God loves us! It is betterto take aim at this target, to try our best at the risk of missingthe mark than to never try at all.

Of course we need not be married topractice loving each other unconditionally. This is our calling asGod's children. It's just that that special relationship of marriageis a very special proving ground.

This is Wold Communion Sunday. Allaround the world today Christians of every sort are participating inthis Holy Sacrament. We enter into the Mystery of God. This breadand this juice, somehow, by the power of the Holy Spirit becomes forus the body and the blood of Jesus. We eat this meal and the HolySpirit dwells within us. We sit at God's Table and we share a HolyMeal together. What ever divisions we have made and what everdivisions we have inherited are dissolved in this meal. All areinvited and all are welcome here. No matter how any of us havefailed in the past it is forgiven. This is a day of new beginnings.

So, How is it with you today? Nomatter what came before this moment, no matter how many successes orfailures God has an unrestrained love for you. God is waiting foryou to love him back in the same way. God is inviting you to be hisChild. God is inviting you to trust in him, to lean on God'sstrength and wisdom in your life. God is inviting you to follow himin His way.   

Fix it, don't pitch it.

Matthew 18:21-35 “Don't throw that away. Fix it!”

We live in an increasingly disposable culture. The time from purchase to landfill is getting shorter and shorter. Products are designed to fail or become obsolete so that we buy new new and better products. So that we can throw those away as well. And on it goes.

This morning I want to consider our role as Christians in today's world. How are we as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ supposed to behave and how are we supposed to influence the world around us.

Well, I like to look to my dad as an example.

My dad, whom some of you have met grew up on a Dairy farm, was an iron worker for many years and is now retired. He can fix just about anything. From reinforcing the neighbors barn to keep it from collapsing to helping me build a model rocket when I was a kid he always know how to go about doing things. I on the other hand did not receive that particular gift from god. Often when I try to do repair work the problems gets bigger and I have to get help.

Because of my inability to be a proper handy man I tend to be a person who tends toward throwing things away and buying new. Yes, I am part of the problem. One time I was at camp with my high school FFA and it came time to go home and I couldn't figure out how to let the air out of my air mattress I was sleeping on. It was one of those things that people take to the beach or pool to float on. I think it cost me 3 bucks. I couldn't get the air out and everyone was packing up. I didn't want to hold them up, so I cut a hole in it to deflate it quickly. I threw it in the trash and was ready to go. When I got home My dad asked where the air mattress was. I told him what I did. He was disgusted with me. With the unnecessary waste.

Now I could stand up here and start talking about recycling and environmentalism, but I wont. I could talk about the necessity for an active economy to provide jobs for folk, but I wont. I wont because those issues have been taken over by political parties and distract us and divide us when we are trying to discern Gods will for us. We are Christians. Our first priority is God.

We live in a world that is full of brokenness. Throwing away a 3 dollar plastic air mattress when I was 15 is just the smallest symptom of that brokenness. I have a lot of respect for the work that my predecessor, Pastor Bob, does. He goes into the prisons. A place where the brokenness of this world is most evident and tries, with God's help to mend some of the brokenness. And that is what we are called to do in this world as Christians. To fix this world rather than throw it away.

I lacked the ability to take air out of a mattress so I threw it away. We lack the ability, as a society to rehabilitate criminal offenders so we throw them away. Prison is not a pace that is designed to make people better. It is a place where we put people to keep us safer. End of story.

There is brokenness in all of us and it needs to be fixed. Our brokenness gets passed on to our kids and they pass it on to theirs. Some people are so broken they do and say things that hurt others and create brokenness in their lives as well. There was certainly brokenness in the lives of those who perpetrated the attack on America 10 years ago. Whatever grievance they had, what ever war they thought they were fighting, they gave in to their own brokenness has humans. It is like there is an unseen enemy who is doing all he can to make our lives unhappy and unfulfilled. It is as if there is an adversary who is constantly working against us and if we do nothing he advances and causes more and more brokenness. The perpetrators of 9/11 created even more brokenness in the world. But we don't have to accept that into our lives. We can be sad, we can remember, we can take precautions. But we don't have to be broken. We don't have to give in to evil as they did.

Doing nothing is not an option. As Christians we are called to fix the brokenness.

Jesus tells a story about a king who wished to settle accounts. One of his slaves who was to be sold to cover his debt to the king pleaded for forgiveness. The king forgave all his debt. When that same slave refused to forgive a fellow slave a minor debt the king was enraged and punished the slave severely. Jesus makes the point at the end of his story. “So my heavenly Father will also do to eery one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

God want us to forgive each other. More to the point God wants us to overcome each others brokenness. You may do me harm but that harm should go no further than that. I shouldn't let your sin cause me to sin. I shouldn't let the broken relationship of in this part of my life cause more broken relationships in other parts of my life.

Our mission is to know Christ and to make him known. We know Jesus by loving him and by obeying him. Jesus gives us this parable as an example of how we are to live. The king forgave a great debt. Someone described the debt as the amount of money 60 men could carry in backpacks. Conversely the slave refused to forgive a debt the equivalent to what one person could carry in his pocket. The king was enraged because he set the standard. He forgave and so he expected his slave to do the same. Likewise Jesus sets the standard and is the example for us. We measure our behavior against Jesus behavior.

So when Peter asked Jesus how many times should we forgive another member of the church who sins against us. Jesus came up with this story about the king and the slave. Jesus is saying that we are forgiven SO much. We are loved so much. That we have to do the same. Any offense what we can come up with to hurt each other is minor in comparison to all that God has forgiven.

We have been called to make Jesus known, that it, we are called by god to proclaim the kingdom of God. Living into the kingdom of god means doing as God does, doing as Jesus does. That is loving extravagantly, forgiving each other. Do we need further instruction? We have it in holy scripture. Look at the 10 commandments. Instead of reading them as punishable offenses read them as ways of living that seek to prevent further brokenness.

Today is indeed September 11. it has been 10 years since the brokenness of some affect us all. Today I ask you to think about the people around you. The people sitting next to you right now and the people that you love and know in your day to day life. If you hold anything against them, if their brokenness has hurt you, I ask you to release them from the hold that you have over them. Forgive them. We learned from the events of 10 years ago that we may not have tomorrow. I ask you if your brokenness has caused harm to another, ask them for forgiveness and forgive them if they refuse to give give it.

So how is it with you today? God has given us this beautiful life. He has surrounded us with people that he loves enough to die for. These are gifts that are priceless. Don't throw them away even if thy are broken, fix them.