I’ve really been struggling with these texts since I learned I’d be preaching today

The scripture selections this week have been used in harmful ways

They’ve been used to promote women’s subservience to men

They’ve been used to shame our beloved LGBTQ community members

They’ve been used to restrict and regulate the institution of marriage

They’ve been used by the church to deny people’s access to God

So, I’ve really been struggling

Trying to find meaning within these texts

Wondering why these messages are Holy

Seeking the good news not only for myself

But for my friends…

My friends who are divorced, gay, transgender or in abusive marriages

As I floundered in this place of uncertainty

I looked for something solid to hold on to

I followed my roots to not only these selected scripture readings

But also out and around them

I grabbed onto the root of the larger biblical narrative

I remembered the root of Lutheranism

I heard wisdom from the root of our ancestors

My friends have been hurt by these readings

I love my friends

So I began with love

Augustine, one of the earliest Christian theologians, offered this root:

“Whoever thinks that he understands the divine Scriptures or any part of them so that it does not build the double love of God and of our neighbor does not understand it at all.”

Augustine offers the wisdom of building double love

I held onto double love as the foundation of our understanding

Martin Luther began growing the root of paradox back in 1520 with “The Freedom of a Christian”

Paradox is evident in the main themes of his work as he declares:

“The Christian individual is a completely free lord of all, subject to none”

And

“The Christian individual is a completely dutiful servant of all, subject to all.”

Paradox is a strong root that runs through the ground of our Lutheran beliefs

It is the insistence upon a both/and understanding of life and faith

It is the resistance to simple, single right answers

The root of paradox requires persistence to wrestle with these messages

I also zoomed out to the roots of the larger biblical narrative

The story of God’s unconditional love

The story of emancipation from forces of evil

The story of God’s presence and creative power within all things

Making things new

The larger biblical narrative insists upon grace

And denounces condemnation of people who are other

I relaxed into the roots that God is for humankind

So, nourished by these various roots

How do we understand what we hear within these scriptures today?

Looking for the double love

Struggling within the paradox

Held by God being for us

The gospel of Mark is paired with the second creation story from Genesis

In this creation story we hear about how God creates man and woman

Jesus references this story when he’s challenged by the Pharisees about the issue of divorce

Looking at Genesis we read:

“Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.’” (Gen 2:18)

This human, who was made from the ground, is one with the earth

This human has God’s very breath breathed into his lungs

This human is not intended to be alone

This human is designed by God to exist in community, to belong

This human requires a complimentary companion

This human, by design,

Is united with the earth,

with all living creatures,

and with the LORD God

BUT – that is not enough!

God says “It is not good”

So God demonstrates being for humankind and gets back to work

When we read that man needed a “helper as his partner”

These words are also interpreted as an “indispensable companion”

Someone who can supply what the other is lacking

This is not a subordination of women to men

This is not a pronouncement of heterosexuality as normative

This is a collaboration, a creation of partnership, that is necessary for life

“It is not good that humankind should be alone”

The final verse of this scripture, “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.”

Is also not a declaration or statement of what should happen

“Therefore” is an editorial comment

It’s like saying “this is why we do the things we do”

“Therefore” links the ancient narrative of this creation story

to contemporary understanding of male/female relations

contemporary being… 2000 years ago

Uncovering these roots we catch a glimpse of double love

Amidst God’s creation of humankind

Returning to the gospel,

We hear yet another story of Jesus

As he attempts to find some peace

Away from the crowds of people

But he is returned to the hot seat by the Pharisees.

He retreats and the crowds find him

The Pharisees come to test him

They’re trying to trap him once again

But this time he turns them back toward themselves,

He holds up a mirror with his words to reflect their law

The law of Moses and the story of Genesis

I wonder about the mood in this story

I wonder if Jesus was irritated,

With this never-ending dance with the crowd

I wonder if the Pharisees felt indignant

Or maybe even amenable to his response

Jesus has gone about the community disrupting the status quo

And now he tells them what they expect to hear

Did he placate them for the moment?

I wonder if Jesus was tired, impatient or weary

I wonder if he was distracted and planning his next move

I wonder, as he traveled around with society’s castaways…

Women and men who were sinners and prostitutes …

what did Jesus really believe about the institution of marriage?

I wonder what he learned from his mother,

Mary, about what marriage means

As she found herself pregnant, unwed, and displaced

I wonder what he learned from his father,

Joseph, about how a husband treats his wife

As he humbled himself to honor his betrothed.

I wonder and wonder because I find that this

and so many stories of the bible

don’t have enough details to satisfy my curiosity

With my hands dirty and worn from digging around in these roots

I have no clear answers to show for it

I’m left wrestling with the paradox that

Relationships bring the deepest, greatest joy of one’s life

And

Relationships bring the deepest, greatest pain of one’s life

I’m left seeing double love in God’s design of humankind to not be alone

I’m left in awe of the fullness of the arc of the biblical narrative

Perhaps that’s why these texts are Holy

Perhaps sacredness lies within the wrestling and wondering

Perhaps the good news is found when there are no clear answers.

Because then space is created

And God enters this space of our lives

God meets us there and we become God’s new creation

As we discern what God asks from us

Amen.