Through The Heart Of God: Recycling Our Thinking, Our Habits,

Our Very Souls!      
““Peace-making…Awe over Law!”
Psalm 26; Mark 10: 2-16
October 4, 2009 
World Communion/Peacemaking Sunday

The preacher thumped his fist on the pulpit and cried, “Ya ought not to be out there cursing!”  “Amen!”  chorused the congregation.  “Ya ought not to be out there gambling!”  “Amen!”  “Ya ought not be out there bad mouthing others!”  “Amen!”  “And ya ought not be out there over indulging in food and drink, smoking, so obsessed with Packer games you’re not coming to church, even leaving the kids behind!”  Silence….then one member turned to the other and said, “Now he’s just meddling.” 
     Isn’t it amazing how if the sin isn’t yours, it’s much easier to condemn it. 
Isn’t it amazing what we hold as sin and what escapes our attention and falls off our radar screen. 
     Isn’t it amazing how we use “sin” as a way to keep people out….out of our lives and responsibilities and even out of our churches…use “sin” as a way to keep people out rather than bring them in…resisting seeing how our own “sin” makes us all much more alike than we are different. 
     If any of us is to walk in integrity with our God we must see our own sin….realizing God’s emphasis is not on our sinfulness but on our awareness.  A God who calls us to turn our lives around…and truly live free and able….calls us not because we are sinless, but because we are not hopeless/lost causes, because God is gracious, loves each of us so much, and wants good things for all of us!
     Today’s lesson is not a teaching on divorce.  This teaching uses divorce as a springboard to remind us God intends for all of us to live in just relationship with each other.  That means looking within, holding everyone to the same expectations and invitations, opening our hearts through grace.  And the law does not define what is right and life-giving…we are to rise above a law which sets forth a minimum not a maximum of integrity and justice for us!
     How does it feel to know God, who loves you unconditionally and is at work in your life, loves everyone unconditionally and is at work in their lives—even those whom you wouldn’t give the time of day, those you stick your nose up at, or gossip about?  Alive in your enemy’s life, the life of the one you label as a sinner….and loves them as much as God loves you!
God calls us to live our lives beyond what laws expect of us.  Laws don’t bring justice, people do!  It’s awe…not law…we are to aspire to and acribe to in our lives! We are peacemakers and it begins within us….as we return to our senses through the heart of God!
     Job looks beyond circumstances to find meaning in his life…a meaning based in right relationship with God.
The psalmist finds himself on “level ground” in his life….a time when he is able to look within and walk with integrity and resist evil-doers and hypocrites…the bloodthirsty, those that bribe.  He seeks to be redeemed during his moments of self-awareness and inner strength.
     And the Pharisees seek to trick Jesus with a question whose answer would either get him in trouble with Caesar’s law or the temple’s law.  Tricking him either way.  They bring to him the subject of divorce.  But Jesus goes further…beyond the subject to the real issue at hand….right relationship, human dignity, mutuality, the value of all people….woman and children included!  The perfect lesson for World Communion/Peacemaking Sunday!
     It was a man’s world.  It was against a backdrop of extreme patriarchy Moses gave a new instruction.  Just as an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth was a huge step forward in the justice world of the Old Testament, Moses’ decree requiring a man to have a certificate of divorce was a huge step forward in its time.  Previously, men could divorce their wives…of whom they had many…divorce for any reason, at any moment, and she had no recourse…and often no where to go…and the children?  Women could be charged with adultery.  Men were not charged.  Women and children were as property.  There was no just relationship, no mutual value, no rights.  Moses said there must be a process and a reason….and a woman declared free.
     This is a teaching not against men, it is actually for men!  For wherever one is being artificially held down, another is being artificially held up and both pay the price.  Men have lost much in the tradeoffs too….realizing always that the one oppressed and held down, male or female, adult or child, black or white…pays harder, quicker, longer!  But both suffer!!
     And so, Jesus’ called this a good step because our hearts were hardened, but only a first step.  Jesus recalls at creation God’s intention of mutuality, respect, relationship…making male and female, all people, equals in God’s sight.  This is God’s deepest desire for us…just relationships of mutual respect and dignity.  To tear apart a relationship is indeed painful to God and to us.  There are few good reasons do so….but there are reasons…as Jesus pointed out in last week’s lesson no relationship, no habit or choice should ever be allowed to rot our lives and kill us off and bring us to a hellish existence.  This is outside of God’s intention for our well being.  Jesus says there are no excuses for not responding to such situations.  Nothing can keep us from God and the fullness of life except our own denial of the way things are and then continuing to choose poorly!
     The story goes on, and with the disciples, Jesus surpasses Moses’ understanding and calls forth yet another huge step forward in justice….do unto others as you would have them do unto you.   A proactive stance.  Saying both men and women can divorce but neither one can do so on their own, or else it is nothing more than adultery.  Just as it takes two to be in relationship, it takes two to go out of relationship.  Such a decision is no small thing and cannot be made by one party outside of conversation with the other…without mutual agreement.  Jesus elevates women’s value and their God given right to be on an equal plane, level ground with men as the psalmist would say!
     And for the second time in just a few chapters, Jesus follows teachings on right relationships between adults with an invitation to treat children with the same dignity and respect with which we treat adults.  Our heavenly lives depend upon it.  Jesus says so.
So what is it that comes to you this morning as you are prompted to think on these things.  Is some thought, some aspect of relationship, some sense of who you are returning to you anew…through the heart of God?  What thinking, what habits are being called to be recycled into new ways of being?  How is your soul being restored?
     How are you going to Celebrate Worldwide Communion this week at work?  And how are you going to be a Presbyterian Peacemaker active in community politics, such as school funding?  How are you g going respond with your life this week to the issues of human dignity and worth crying out for justice all over our world?  Let there be some quiet.