First Lesson: Jeremiah 31: 31-34
Responsive Reading: Psalm 46
Second Lesson: Romans 3: 19-28
​Gospel Lesson: John 8: 31-36

Grace and Peace from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
​
The date was January 14th, 2018.  The place was U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.  The Minnesota Vikings were playing the New Orleans Saints in the NFL Playoffs.  The Vikings were in their 57th year of existence with zero World Championships to their name in twenty-eight previous playoff appearances[1] (including four Super Bowl losses). You could describe the Vikings losses as either 0-4, 0-28, or 0-56 as their marks of futility.  Now the Vikings were playing with their best team in some years heading into the game at 13-3, only three wins from a Championship.  66,000 plus seemingly all purple faithful were in attendance. 

Nearly three of the four quarters were played, and the Vikings were seemingly in control leading 17-0.  The Saints though rallied: touchdown, Vikings interception, another Saints touchdown, and with 25 seconds left the Saints had seemingly taken the lead for good at 24-23.  The Vikings season seemed destined to be over. 

I started looking around our section.  Shoulders were slumped! People were saying here we go again.  I probably heard a cuss word or two.  Viking fans are often by nature cynics on account of what might seem like decades of losing.   People like my fellow Viking fans aren’t unique in our life[2]. 

*You might know a man or woman that has been disappointed so many times in love that they believe they’re just not destined for happy relationships.

*You might have a friend who gives you all sorts of reasons as to why you can never trust people.

*You might know people that shoot down every new idea they hear as unpractical or infeasible and doomed to failure[3]. 

*You might hear all the reasons why the church’s only future is an inevitable decline into death.

Now here’s the thing about cynics.  They’re generally not wrong.  They are continually able to cite all sorts of good examples from the past about why things seem destined to remain the way they are. 

Now I want to tell you the story of one of history’s greatest cynics.  Martin Luther was born in Eiselben, Germany in 1483.  He was the son of Hans and Margarethe Luther. Hans Luther had a dream of young Martin becoming a lawyer. Martin eventually enrolls in law school at the age of 22, after working for years to achieve this goal.  Martin couldn’t help be influenced by years of study in its pursuit.  Luther’s big problem with studying the law was the uncertainty over the true meaning of human nature.

To illustrate what I mean, let me tell another story. Carey Nieuwhof was a young law student working in Canada’s largest city of Toronto[4].  He dreamed of practicing constitutional law before Canada’s Supreme Court. He was newly married and had recently become a Dad. Nieuwhof had a good work ethic, a good intellect, and seemed destined to smash through barriers within the legal profession quickly.  He quickly noticed something about his fellow lawyers, none of them were happy.

 One day a colleague who was in his mid-30’s wildly successful both financially and professionally came in waving a lottery ticket, proclaiming if he won that no one would ever see him again.  Nieuwhof soon proclaimed to his colleagues: “If you can find a happy lawyer in this city, I’ll pay you a million dollars.” They would all go silent. 

Nieuwhof would soon leave the legal profession to enter the ministry; he realized what Luther had that the law represents despair because the judgments it makes confront all sorts of here and now realities.  I say this as someone whose sister is an attorney, who describes sitting in her parking lot during her lunch hour in similar despair because of the hardships within her client’s lives.  The law showcases how tough a place the world can be seemingly without escape.

So cynicism about the future sets in. Luther came to believe that no matter how much learning he could do, he could not understand God’s plan for his life

This struggle would forever change his life on the night of July 2nd, 1505[5].  Luther was traveling from the family home back to the University.  A great thunderstorm came out of the sky.  Luther was able to see lightening nearly strike him.  Luther proceeded to make a desperate plea to God: “Help! Saint Anna, I will become a monk.”

So Luther became a monk and he became as good a monk as one could be.  He would spend hours in prayer, he would fast to build discipline, he would take religious pilgrimages to holy shrines, and he would try to confess every sin both big and small that he committed.  The better that Luther became as a Monk-like Carey Nieuwhof became as a lawyer, the more that they could only see cynicism and despair.  God for Luther couldn’t be a God of love if Luther kept feeling terrible about himself day after day despite his best efforts.

Luther’s mentor seeking a solution suggested that he become a Bible professor.  Luther went all out studying the Psalms, Hebrews, Galatians and the Book of Romans.  Luther kept continually trying to make sense of the world around him through his study, to remove his negative nature from his life once and for all. 

Martin Luther one night when studying in his tower comes across Romans 1:17: “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Luther’s study of this verse was the start of the Lutheran Reformation.  Luther came to realize that he was indeed truly a sinner. The following was not his ten-second life-changing revelation though as he already believed this.   More importantly, Luther came to believe that the only thing that he needed to bring to his salvation was his sin in need of saving.  The Cross became his source of hope as he was nearly overwhelmed by his cynicism.

Luther, when he came across these words, had every intention of remaining within the Universal Catholic Church.  Eventually, though the Church politics of the day would cast Luther out for what he believes, the Lutheran Church would soon be born which we celebrate[6].

A similar story takes place within our Gospel lesson from John 8.  Jesus is speaking to a group of Jewish believers who had been cast out of the synagogue for disagreeing with the religious authorities of their day over whom exactly should they follow[7].   They were looking for new life! They like Luther were looking to turn from cynicism to hope!

Jesus spoke of their present condition as one of slavery: “whoever commits sin is a slave to sin[8].”

Freedom was soon to come to their lives so that they will become free indeed.  For a short time after this encounter, Good Friday would take place. 

The Good Friday story in the words of writer Michael Gerson serves as an invitation to cynicism[9].  The government comes off as irresponsible debating who has the authority to put Jesus to death until Pontius Pilate finally throws his hands up.  Religion doesn’t come off in the best light as; the religious authorities are quick to turn to judgment.  The crowd in Jerusalem comes off no different than a mob cheering as thorns are jammed into Jesus’ forehead.  Even Jesus’ closest of friends in the Disciples fall asleep when he asks them to keep watch.  Even God seemed to fail just as he had in Luther’s life when Jesus declared: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me[10].” Jesus is seemingly forced to go to his grave alone[11].

As Good Friday comes to a close, it seemed every possible comfort from friendship to faith had been declared nonsense in the face of death.  The cynics had seemingly been proven right.  Human hope seemed to be extinguished with nothing that could be done in response.

Everything and I mean everything would soon change.   Two days later, word had come that the tomb was now empty! The first ten seconds, people had with their Risen Savior had indeed changed everything. Life had come out of death.  The outcome was unbelievable: The power of Resurrection has outlasted the world’s greatest empire which sentenced Jesus to death[12].  The previous cowardly friends would soon become bold missionaries even unto the point of their death[13].  The same man who had been mocked by a mob was now giving a word of forgiveness to every corner of the globe.  Martin Luther would come to believe that God was on his side, even in the darkest nights of his life.   Hope would eventually win out over cynicism.   

Ten seconds were left between the Saints and Vikings.  Mathematical models gave the Saints a 96% percent chance to win the game[14].  As I’m sitting in the stands on that evening, for some strange reason I wasn’t all that nervous, I couldn’t explain why.  I had seen the Vikings lose all sorts of big games throughout my life, often in the most creative of ways.

I knew that one play could change everything (even if the odds were seemingly small). 

Ten seconds were left when Vikings Quarterback Case Keenum drops back throwing the ball to the sideline on the same end but opposite side of the field from where Dad and I were sitting.  The pass was high; Vikings receiver Stefon Diggs leaps as high in the air as he can to try to bring it down, one Saints defender tries to tackle low missing Diggs and hitting his own guy instead.  Diggs hauls the pass in with no defenders in position to tackle him.  He runs to the end zone, scoring a touchdown untouched as the clock strikes zero. Pandemonium ensues!  People whose shoulders were slumped moments earlier were now complete hugging strangers.

 Vikings win! The play will forever be known as the “Minneapolis Miracle.”  Even though the Vikings would lose the next week to Philadelphia, the narrative had changed, the Vikings were not cursed.  The ten-second play had declared cynicism to be dead in the presence of all sorts of Vikings fan.  The past does not necessarily predict the future.  The great truth about cynicism is that it is ultimately a failure of patience. 

A few weeks ago, I was at a Vikings game when I saw a t-shirt which declared: “Live each day like it’s 23-24 with ten seconds left.”

While the shirt was about a football game, it spoke to the great truth of Martin Luther’s Reformation: no matter the past experiences and present circumstances of your life, things will not remain the way that they currently are.  Good Friday reminds us of this.  Martin Luther believed with every fiber of his being throughout his ministry in the words that Jesus declares within our Gospel lesson “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free[15].”   Amen
 
                 
[1] “Minnesota Vikings.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 20. Oct.2018. Web. Oct.21.2018. 
[2] Nieuwhof, Carey. Didn’t See It Coming. 2018. Waterbrook Mulnomah Publishing. Colorado Springs. Page 11. 
[3] Nieuwhof, Carey. Didn’t See It Coming.Page 11.
[4] Nieuwhof, Carey. Didn’t See It Coming. Pages 9-10.
[5] “Martin Luther.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 16.Oct.2018. Web. Oct.21.2018. 
[6] Luther was formally excommunicated from the Catholic Church on January 3, 1521 when Pope Leo X issued the Exsurge Domine (Papal Bull.)
[7] Hogan, Lucy Lind. “Commentary on John 8:31-36.” Working Preacher. Luther Seminary. 28.Oct.2018. Web. Oct.21.2018. 
[8] John 8:34. 
[9] Gerson, Michael. “What Good Friday teaches us about cynicism.” Washingston Post. 13. Apr.2017. Web. Oct.21.2018. 
[10] Matthew 27:46. 
[11] Gerson, Michael. “What Good Friday teaches us about cynicism.” Washingston Post.
[12] Gerson, Michael. “What Good Friday teaches us about cynicism.” Washingston Post.
[13] Gerson, Michael. “What Good Friday teaches us about cynicism.” Washingston Post.
[14] “Minneapolis Miracle.” .” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 21.Oct.2018. Web. Oct.21.2018. 
[15] Gerson, Michael. “What Good Friday teaches us about cynicism.” Washingston Post.

First Lesson: Job 38: 1-7, (34-41)
Responsive Reading: Psalm 91: 9-16
Second Lesson: Hebrews 5: 1-10
​Gospel Lesson: Mark 10: 35-45

Grace and Peace from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
“Be still, and know that I am God.
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth!”-Psalm 46:10
When I was in college, I had a roommate named Gabe.  Gabe came from Oregon to Concordia.  Gabe had an interesting approach to time management.  I remember coming back to our apartment when I was confused by Gabe’s presence as I thought he had class at that time.  Gabe said he was on his way already fifteen minutes late, as he was casually scrolling his laptop.  To which Gabe proclaimed “He would leave, upon changing his Fantasy Baseball roster.” 
Here’s what made Gabe such a fascinating student, even if his time management wasn’t the best.  Gabe was really smart.  Gabe’s currently a college professor.  Now, most people who would show up an hour late to a three-hour class would try to sneak into the back of the room unnoticed.  Gabe would proceed to raise a hand and proceed to lecture the class on everything that Gabe had missed.  Here’s the thing Gabe is not unique. 
Students like Gabe thinking they’re possibly smarter than their teacher goes all the way back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  We often see the world through our own experiences and think we know better than God how exactly it should all work.
Teresa was born in Macedonia in 1910[1].  She considered her true birthday to be the day of her baptism rather than the day of her birth.  By the age of 12, she was fascinated by missionaries who served in the faraway nation of India.  She would spend her high school years praying at religious shrines and traveling on religious pilgrimages.  Teresa became a nun at age 21 and spent many years teaching at a religious school[2].  At the age of 37, she received a call within the call where she desired to leave her convent and work among India’s destitute and dying[3].  Teresa was a model Christian till to this point in her life. 
Teresa’s new calling though nearly broke her faith.  Within a few years of her new calling, she wrote letters to her religious superiors describing her feelings of “doubt, loneliness, and abandonmen[4]t.”  She described God as “absent, heaven empty, and bitterest of all, her own suffering seemed to count for nothing[5].”  She would spend every day for the next fifty years of her life struggling with God’s existence.  How should we make sense of Teresa’s struggles with her faith, we’ll get back to her story in just a little bit.
Let me tell you the story of a man whose story mirrors Teresa’s in many ways.  His name was Job.  The scriptures describe Job as one of the most devout men around who prayed diligently. Job was also a recipient of God’s tremendous blessing.  He had seven sons and three daughters, all sorts of sheep, cattle, and oxen[6].
Well one day, God and Satan were having a debate.  Satan was looking for someone to test.  Satan was looking for a model of faith.  God suggested Job.  God gives Satan permission to do what he must to try to break Job’s faith[7].
Pretty soon, Job’s world begins to fall apart.  Job loses everything in his home, his possessions, and even his children.  Job kept his faith in spite of all this.  
“And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”-Job 1:21
It was when Job gets stricken with a horrible skin disease that brought him painful boils that he fell into a deep depression and began to question God’s plan for his life[8]. 
The majority of the book of Job consists of a long discussion between Job and his friends trying to make sense of God’s ways[9][10].  His friends tried all sorts of tactics in both defending God and trying to calm Job down in his anger towards God. 
Finally, in Chapter 38, God breaks his silence.  Job probably wasn’t going to be satisfied with God’s answers. 
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
    Tell me, if you understand.”-Job 38:4
God’s answer to Job is that God and Job’s knowledge base on how the world works are not comparable.  Job didn’t decide upon the size of the universe, nor which direction water would flow.  Job did not create the sky or the life that wanders the earth[11], God’s answer to Job is our knowledge bases are so different; you are in no position to question my methods.  
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.”-Isaiah 55:8.
Job’s response to God’s answer was remarkable.  Job didn’t lose faith.  Job didn’t lose hope.  Job’s eventual conclusion was that he would be still in God’s presence:[12] “
Within Today’s lesson, Job declares: “Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know[13].” As Job previously declared: “I lay my hand on my mouth[14].”
Joni Eareckson was born in Baltimore in 1949[15].  Joni was a typical child.  She enjoyed riding horses, hiking, tennis, and swimming.  A few months before her eighteenth birthday, her life would forever change.  Joni dove into the nearby Chesapeake Bay.  She misjudged the shallowness of the water.  She struck her head, fractured her vertebrae, and would become a quadriplegic unable to move her body from the neck down.
Joni’s accident was such that she needed to spend two years of her life in extensive physical therapy.  She experienced the full range of expected emotions during these two years: anger, depression, suicidal thoughts, and religious doubts[16].  She had to learn to write with her teeth. 
Joni like Job nearly had her faith destroyed.  One night though she was visiting with a friend of hers who pointed out to her the following: “Joni, Jesus knows how you feel. He was paralyzed. He couldn’t move or change position on the cross. He was paralyzed by the nails[17].”
The realization was profoundly comforting. Joni came to realize that God’s purposes could be at work within her life, in ways that she can’t even imagine. 
Joni now known as Joni Eareckson Tada has since become one of the most well-known and widely admired Christian authors in the country.  Joni still prays for her own healing.  Joni realizes that her healing will take place on God’s timeline rather than her own, yet God has been with her every day since her accident[18]. 
We will have people in our lives like Teresa, Job, or Joni.  We might even be someone who wonders “Why does God allow such suffering around me?”  I don’t want to begin to try to answer this question.  I can’t always make sense of all of God’s ways in my own life.  I know first-hand how frustrating this can be.  What I will say is that I believe in hope beyond what I can see Today[19].  Whenever we despair, we need to look in the direction of the Cross of Christ to remember this. 
Peter earlier in the Gospels was struggling with the question of whether to remain one Jesus’ followers after all sorts of other disciples abandoned him in droves[20].  Peter realized something that was recognized by Job before him[21]: “Where else should we go? You have the words of eternal life[22].”
Earlier, I told you the story of Teresa who spent the last half-century of her life in the deep struggle of her faith because of the poverty and pain she witnessed within India.  Teresa is better known as Mother Teresa of Calcutta. 
Mother Teresa was like Job; she wasn’t some pie in the sky, perfect Christian who never struggled or doubted[23].  Mother Teresa was in many ways, no different than many of us.  She lived with the poorest of the poor, ate a meager diet, and wiped the types of sores on people’s bodies not dissimilar to the sores that caused Job to curse God’s name[24].  She spent most of her life surrounded by death and suffering without any break[25].  She didn’t do this because she was crazy; rather she did this because she managed to see God’s presence where others could merely see Satan’s curses.
Mother Teresa came to believe that even as she felt abandoned by God, God did not abandon her.  On the cross, when God seemed to be most absent, he was most-present.  Mother Teresa came to believe that it was her suffering that would indeed point the way to her eventual salvation.  She looked every way around her and saw nothing but trials for her faith.  Whenever Mother Teresa would encounter visitors and community members, she encouraged them to “keep smiling[26].”
Like Job, she believed that no matter how much she struggled with her faith, God-like in the story of Job or Joni Eareckson would eventually restore great “joy” to her life.  “Be still, and know that I am God[27].”  Cling to the Cross of Christ no matters the current storms of your life. We remember as we look toward the cross on this day that God’s sense of timing for how the universe all works together is better than our own. The teacher is indeed most often wiser than the student.    Amen


[1] “Mother Teresa.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 7.Sept.2018. Web. Sept.18.2018. 

[2] Mother Teresa.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation
[3] Hoezee, Scott. “Job 23.” Center for Excellence in Preaching. Calvin Seminary. Grand Rapids, MI. 5.Oct.2015. Web. Sept.18.2018 taken from May 2003 edition of First Things “The Dark Night of Mother Teresa.” Written by Carol Zaleski.
[4] Hoezee, Scott. “Job 23.” Center for Excellence in Preaching.
[5] Hoezee, Scott. “Job 23.” Center for Excellence in Preaching.
[6] Job 1:1-3
[7] Job 1:6-12
[8] Job 2:7-3:1.
[9] Job 3-37
[10] Stier, Leon. “Be Still (B).” Email Mediatations. 6.Sept.2017. Web. Sept.18.2018. 
[11] Molin, Steve. “Intelligent Design, Indeed.” Sermon Writer. 2006. Web. Sept.18.2018. 
[12] Stier, Leon. “Be Still (B).” Email Meditations.
[13] Job 42:3. 
[14] Job 40:4.
[15] “Joni Eareckson Tada.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 16.Sept.2018. Web. Sept.18.2018. 
[16] “Joni Eareckson Tada.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation
[17] “Joni Erikson Tada.” Stories for Preaching taken from Joni and friends’ website, Joni’s books. Web. Sept.18.2018
[18] Joni Erikson Tada.” Stories for Preaching.
[19] Stier, Leon. “Be Still ©. Email Meditations. 7.Sept.2017. Web. Sept.18.2018. 
[20] John 6:66.
[21] Stier, Leon. “Be Still ©. Email Meditations.
[22] John 6:68.
[23] Hoezee, Scott. “Job 23.” Center for Excellence in Preaching.
[24] Hoezee, Scott. “Job 23.” Center for Excellence in Preaching.
[25] Hoezee, Scott. “Job 23.” Center for Excellence in Preaching.
[26] Hoezee, Scott. “Job 23.” Center for Excellence in Preaching.
[27] Psalm 46:10. 

First Lesson: Job 1:1, 2:1-10
Responsive Reading: Psalm 26
Second Lesson: Hebrews 1: 1-4, 2: 5-12
​Gospel Lesson: Mark 10: 2-16

Grace and Peace from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
​
“Love is patient; love is kind.  It does not envy; it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others; it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”-1st Corinthians 13:4-7. 

Let me begin this morning with an old tale[1].  Nasruddin and his friend were having tea one afternoon where the conversation turned to Nasruddin’s love life.

“How come you never got married, Nasruddin?” said his friend.

Nasruddin pondered the question for a moment before sighing. Nasruddin describes spending his youth in pursuit of finding the perfect woman.  He describes journeying all over in this pursuit, he began in Cairo where he met a woman who was beautiful and intelligent, with dark olive eyes, yet deep down her soul was unkind. 

Finally, Nasruddin journeyed to Baghdad where he met a woman whose possessed a kind and generous spirit, yet they did not possess any common interests together.

One woman after another, Nasruddin described meeting.  In the end, there would always be something missing.  Then one day, Nasruddin’s finally believed that he found love, he had finally found a woman that met all his criteria: beautiful, intelligent, kind, and all sorts of common interests[2]. 

“Well, “What happened?  Why didn’t you marry her?”-said the friend[3].

Nasruddin started shaking his head.  “Well, It’s a sad thing.  It seems she was looking for the perfect man[4].”

This story leads us to our Gospel lesson for Today from Mark 10[5]. 

Our lesson has the Pharisees coming up to Jesus asking: “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?

Now here’s a little background into our passage, so you can best understand Jesus and the Pharisees’ discussion.  Divorce was a hot-button issue within Jesus’ day among the rabbis.  It was debated in multiple camps[6].  One group taught that divorce could only be permissible if a man caught his wife in adultery, whereas another group made the argument that divorce could take place for pretty much any reason including not liking their spouse’s cooking[7].  All the arguments about divorce within Jesus’ day were about what degree a man could use divorce to exert control over a woman.

So to better understand Jesus’ position on divorce consider where it is within Mark’s Gospel.  It comes after Jesus’ instructions are for the care of the church regarding young children[8].  Jesus’ comments have to do with divorce’s ramifications in his day being that a woman (who didn’t work outside the home) would be abandoned and destitute if their husbands casually deserted them. 

Jesus’ response to the Pharisees  is “Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.[9]”  Jesus then later doubles down by declaring: Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery[10].”

Now, these words jump out in the New Testament because at first glance without any background they seem to absent of any grace or understanding of the situation.

Here’s the thing, we’re dealing with the same Jesus here who defended a woman getting stoned to death for committing adultery, the same Jesus who gave grace to the woman he met at Sychar who had been divorced a seemingly unbelievable five times and was now living with another guy, and the same Jesus who welcomes prostitutes, tax collectors, and other assorted sinners into his presence[11].

Now Jesus’ point in this passage is not to draw the line at a woman living in an abusive relationship who dares thinking of leaving her husband[12]. 

Instead, to best understand this passage, you need to understand the nature of Jesus’ conversation.  Jesus is not being asked about “divorce” by a woman who is clearly hurting because of physical or emotional betrayal[13].  Jesus is not being asked about divorce by a person in need of a word of grace. Jesus is being asked about divorce by the Pharisees. 

Jesus was being asked by people trying to expose him as a hypocrite and fraud to anyone who would listen, by asking about divorce.   Jesus instead flips the question back by referring to the created order of the Genesis story[14]. 

“But at the beginning of creation, God ‘made them male and female. ‘For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh[15].”

Jesus’ statement has to do with the importance of marriage. We live in a society where individual satisfaction can often be the greatest of pursuits, until the very moment when people find it no longer convenient[16].

Britney Spears is a pop music singer born in Louisiana in 1981.  Spears has sold over 100 million records worldwide[17].  In 2004, she was visiting Las Vegas with a hometown friend, when on a whim they decided to get married[18].  They got married at 5:30 A.M. in a Vegas wedding chapel, only for Spears to awaken regretting what she had done.

By Monday morning a petition for annulment was filed declaring: “Before entering into the marriage the plaintiff and defendant did not know each other’s likes and dislikes, each other’s desires to have or not have children, and each other’s desires as to state of residency. Upon learning of each other’s desires, they are so incompatible that there was a want of understanding of each other’s actions in entering into this marriage[19].”

Britney Spears’ marriage to Jason Allen Alexander ended up lasting officially 55 hours.   This story highlights a world that is often too casual about the extent of marriage, how its brokenness can easily be shrugged off. 

Jesus is letting the Pharisees know that he didn’t take such a casual attitude to marriage as they implied.  Jesus is instead making the point whenever marriage ends is tragic for whatever reason. 

Pete Rose. Sr. was possibly the worst husband a woman could have.  Pete Sr. repeatedly chased other women while married and said all sorts of nasty put downs to his wife besides.  Pete’s son Pete Jr. became a decent Baseball player in his own right.  He had a shot at the big leagues.  His parents had been divorced for years when he said: “I would trade whatever future I have in big league baseball to see my parents get back together.”

These were the wishes of an adult child long moved out of the family home.  It speaks to divorce’s brokenness of many levels[20].

Jesus’ words on divorce are tough because they speak to pain caused by broken human relationships both those directly involved and the innocent bystanders.  So Jesus within this passage is seeking to address the attitude with which people in his day would approach divorce, especially as it negatively affected both woman and their children.  We must understand these words within the larger context of scripture which continually deals with God’s forgiveness and the new beginnings that such forgiveness brings[21]. 

God does not bless or celebrate divorce.  God weeps along those who experience it!

For despite the best intentions that people have when they make wedding vows; life happens.  People mess up; our loved ones disappoint us, people can’t control their temper, they develop addictions, they drift apart.  We sin with our minds, our tongues, and other parts of our body[22]. 

Jesus’ great point on Divorce takes place when he encounters the woman caught in adultery in John 8. “I do not condemn you…Go and sin no more.[23]”  Jesus is saying no matter how broken your past relationships have been; I can forgive you, so that you may have new life both personally and spiritually going forward. 

The scriptures continually grant forgiveness to those from the most broken of relationships.  David committed adultery with Bathsheba.  David heard a word of harsh judgment from Nathan then suffered his sin’s consequences.  David though was granted a new beginning.  David and Bathsheba got married and their son Solomon became King over Israel[24].  The story reminds us that while they are inevitable breaking points within a marriage, there are no breaking points to the Love of God.  God will not give up on us even when we are at our most broken.  What our Gospel message reminds us of is the following.  No matter how broken your past relationships have been, do not feel shame, do not feel guilt, leave your burdens behind.  In Christ, a message of hope and resurrection has been given unto you many times over. 

Let me close with one final story for Today to illustrate exactly what these means.  This illustration might work within a marriage, but it is more representative of the Love of God.  How in the words that I began with from 1st Corinthians that our love may be imperfect, but God’s love is perfect.  

Once upon a time, there was a couple that had been married sixty years[25].  They talked about everything.  They kept no secrets from each other.  The wife only had one request for her husband, never look into the shoe box on top of the bedroom closest.  The husband followed this advice for every year of the marriage.  Finally, the wife grew very ill.  It became clear that her days were numbered.  In needing to settle their affairs, she instructed her husband to bring down the shoe box.  He opened the box saw two things: two croqueted dollies and a huge stack of money it must have been thousands of dollars.

The wife began to explain. “When we were to be married," she said, "my grandmother told me the secret of marriage was never to argue.  She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doily[26].”

The husband is so moved that tears come to his eyes hearing that the wife had only been mad at him twice in sixty years of marriage.  He’s beaming with happiness as he says “Honey that explains the doilies, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from[27]?"

"Oh," she said, "That’s the money I made from selling the doilies[28]." 

Relationships are hard and might inevitability break with this lifetime, yet the love of God for us will ultimately never break
. 
Amen
 


[1] Stier, Leon. “She’s Perfect, But…” Email Meditations. 29.May.2017. Web. Aug.28.2018.  Taken from  Rick Fields in Chop Wood, Carry Water, page 35.
[2] Stier, Leon. “She’s Perfect, But…” Email Meditations.
[3] Stier, Leon. “She’s Perfect, But…” Email Meditations.
[4] Stier, Leon. “She’s Perfect, But…” Email Meditations.
[5] Mark 10:2-16
[6] Juel, Donald.H. “Divorce and Forgiveness: The Way of the Cross- Markan Texts for Late Pentecost.” Word and World. Volume XIV. Number 3. Summer 1994. Web. Aug.27.2018
[7] Juel, Donald.H. “Divorce and Forgiveness: The Way of the Cross- Markan Texts for Late Pentecost.” Word and World.
[8] Mark 9:38-50.
[9] Mark 10:9
[10] Mark 10:11-12
[11] Hoezee, Scott. “Mark 10:2-16.” Center for Excellence in Preaching. 28.Sept.2015. Web. Aug.26.2018
[12] Hoezee, Scott. “Mark 10:2-16.” Center for Excellence in Preaching.
[13] Hoezee, Scott. “Mark 10:2-16.” Center for Excellence in Preaching.
[14] Hoezee, Scott. “Mark 10:2-16.” Center for Excellence in Preaching.
[15] Mark 10:6-8.
[16] Hoezee, Scott. “Mark 10:2-16.” Center for Excellence in Preaching.
[17] Spears, Britney. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 24.Aug.2018. Web. Aug.26.2018. 
[18] Today Show. “Judge dissolves Britney's 'joke' wedding.”NBC 4.Jan.2004. Web. Aug.26.2018.
[19] Today Show. “Judge dissolves Britney's 'joke' wedding.”NBC
[20] Sermon Illustrartions. “Divorce” Web. Aug.26.2018. Taken from Jerry Jenkins, Hedges, Wolgemuth & Hyatt, 1989, p. 128.
[21] Stier, Leon. “Divorce and Remarriage (part two of two).” Email Mediations. 27.Mar.2014. Web. Aug.26.2018. 
[22] Stier, Leon. “Divorce and Remarriage (part two of two).” Email Mediations.
[23] John 8:11.
[24] Stier, Leon. “Divorce and Remarriage (part two of two).” Email Mediations.
[25] Zingale, Tim. “Marriage.” Sermon Central. 2.Oct.2006. Web. Aug.26.2018. 
[26] Zingale, Tim. “Marriage.” Sermon Central.
[27] Zingale, Tim. “Marriage.” Sermon Central.
[28] Zingale, Tim. “Marriage.” Sermon Central.