A Fire Swamp of Lessons

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 every 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.

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.

When Wesley and Buttercup entered the Fire Swamp, they knew that they faced three well known dangers… Fire spurts, lightning sand, and R.O.U.Ss… Rodents of Unusual Size.  They were certain, however, that True Love would see them through. Today’s lessons are a Fire Swamp of dangers for those in pulpit or pew.  BUT, just like Wesley and Buttercup, I do believe that TRUE LOVE will see us through these lessons!  So into the Fire Swamp we go!  

The first danger is the Fire Spurt of Genesis.  Right off we run into the word “man”.  Except in Hebrew it’s not “man” as in a gender.  It’s A-dam.  As in the Hebrew word for Earth Person.  The A-dam did not have a gender, but what the A-dam did have, was loneliness!  That means God made a mistake!  “It is not good that the A-dam should be alone,” God admitted doing something "not good" and in doing that, modeled for us what to do when we get something wrong.  God doesn’t clutch the Divine pearls or point fingers… God just fixes the mistake and God fixed THIS mistake with Relationship!  Completely equal in “flesh and bone” relationship.  In Hebrew, both Earth People are the exact same.  The English has settled on “rib” for a translation but a better one is “side”… implying that the A-dam was basically split in two!  The baggage of ribs, genders, sexuality and all the rest was read into the story later.  God’s intention though, was to create humanity as an equal, relational, whole.  THAT is still what God intends for all of humanity.  

The next danger of this fire swamp is the lightning sand of the Pharisees.  The Pharisees didn’t care what Jesus thought about Divorce.  They knew that if he answered one way he’d be attacked by one group and if he answered the other way he’d be attacked by a different group.  Either way, someone would do the Pharisee’s dirty work and get rid of this pesky Jesus guy, sinking him forever in the lightning sand of hot-button political issues.  Jesus knew what they were doing and chose NOT to play.  “It is your hardness of heart” that has you asking this question!  He says.  It is you trying to take RELATIONSHIP… God’s fix for humanity… and twist it into a way to divide, conquer, and subjugate the other that has hardened your hearts!   

Then the disciples pulled Jesus aside and we encounter the last hazard of this Fire Swamp.  The G.O.U.Ss… the Gospel of Unusual Severity.  This part really sounds bad.  But we need to understand that in Jesus’ day women had no legal status.  Without a man connected to them as a father, brother, son, or husband they would be literally homeless and destitute.  For a man to FORCE that fate on a woman was what Jesus was forbidding.  He was NOT saying people should stay in abusive marriages of any sort.  He was NOT saying that people should stay in a relationship when, for whatever reason, it no longer brings healing and wholeness to one another as God created relationships to do in the beginning.

What Jesus WAS saying is that, in your current, very broken culture, it’s just NOT okay to throw a human being out to their death on a whim!  We know that’s what Jesus meant, because the divorce part is linked to the kid part of this lesson.  In Jesus’ time, the only ones with less legal status than women were children.  These two bits of scripture together are Jesus, calling the Pharisees, the Disciples, and all the people throughout the ages who have twisted God's intention for relationship, to cut it the heck out!   

RELATIONSHIP is a Divine gift meant to move us toward wholeness and abundant life.  To be what God intended it to be, it must be as God first created it... without any asterisks for gender, age, or sexuality.  It must be relationship equally  shared by ALL… neither Greek nor Jew, slave nor free, male or female are less or more than the other, for ALL in Christ and, like I said at the beginning, the way we return to God's intention for relationship is with TRUE LOVE.  It’s the sort of love that does what is in the other’s best interest.  It is a love that lifts up the other.  It is a love that gives the other what they need to be who God is calling them to be.  It is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  It is the kind of love that God calls us to put into action BOTH as relationships grow AND equally so when they come apart.  

May all of us lean into our good, healthy, equal and loving relationships knowing they are God’s Divine remedy for us.  May we grow the good relationships and part from the harmful or broken ones, BOTH with True Love… always giving the other what we can so they might have abundant life.  True love… in every case... it really is the Way.  Amen.