Calvary Presbyterian Church
The Rev. Debra May Cerra
October 4, 2009

Psalms 26:1-12 (NRSV)
Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. 2 Prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my heart and mind. 3 For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in faithfulness to you. 4 I do not sit with the worthless, nor do I consort with hypocrites; 5 I hate the company of evildoers, and will not sit with the wicked. 6 I wash my hands in innocence, and go around your altar, O Lord, 7 singing aloud a song of thanksgiving, and telling all your wondrous deeds. 8 O Lord, I love the house in which you dwell, and the place where your glory abides. 9 Do not sweep me away with sinners, nor my life with the bloodthirsty, 10 those in whose hands are evil devices, and whose right hands are full of bribes. 11 But as for me, I walk in my integrity; redeem me, and be gracious to me. 12 My foot stands on level ground; in the great congregation I will bless the Lord.

Mark 10:2-16 (NRSV)
Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" 3 He answered them, "What did Moses command you?" 4 They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her." 5 But Jesus said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 6 But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 7 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate." 10 Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery." 13 People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. 14 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. 15 Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." 16 And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

“As a Little Child”

A pastor tells this story: “She did not look like a Pharisee. She appeared harmless: a flowered-print dress, short in stature, glasses too large for her rounded face. I thought she was going to welcome me to the church. It was the reception at my very first pastorate. I extended my hand as she approached, opened my mouth – but before I could say anything she said, “Preacher, do divorced people go to hell?”
Almost dropping my glass of punch, I thought, “I just passed my ordination exams. What is this? Another test of some sort?” I raced through my mind’s data bank for something I had learned in pastoral care, or even New Testament courses, that I might offer her (and get myself off the spot.) Finally I spoke, “Better people than me get divorced.”
It was later, during a longer conversation in her home, that she told me about her son who had recently divorced. Behind her question at the reception was a deep concern for her son, who had chosen to end a troubled marriage and was about to remarry. As a serious student of the Bible, she knew Jesus’ words to the Pharisees (who put him to the ‘test’ with the question about divorce) and his words to the disciples (“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her”). The parishioner was a distressed mother who held rigid beliefs about sin and punishment. She believed that her son was endangering his very soul.”
When I looked over the assigned scripture passages for today, my heart pounded as I read our Gospel passage for this morning. My thoughts were something like: “I can’t possibly preach on divorce. I mean, I have skipped over this passage every time it has presented itself as a possibility for the sermon. Why would I even want to consider it now?” But the more tried to I talked myself out of preaching on Mark 10, the more the Lord said, “This is what I want you to preach on…”
It’s not easy to say “no” to the Lord but I also realized that, if I was going to tackle this emotionally charged subject, I had better be prepared. So I prayed and read, prayed some more and read some more and, you guessed it, prayed again. It wasn’t fair to treat this passage as not important. And it wasn’t right to coat the sermon with a large dollop of my personal experience.
Here’s what I found out: the purpose of this passage in its context is not to arouse guilt but is clear in its focus. Mark 10 provides a strong reminder that divorce is tragic and cuts against the grain of creation. Jesus redirects the question of the Pharisees, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” to a discussion primarily about marriage, rather than divorce. To do this, Jesus goes directly to the scriptures: “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." (6-9) Though divorce happens, it is not what God intends.
Another important aspect of this passage is the pastoral concern that Jesus has for women. In Jesus’ day, when a woman received a ‘certificate of divorce,” she lost most of her rights (like the right to own property). She could easily find herself begging for food on the streets or prostituting herself for income. Jesus gives women a voice in the matter of divorce. He demonstrates that, in the kingdom of God, there is to be mutual respect and concern for both the woman and the man.
In America, 50% percent of first marriages, 67% of second and 74% of third marriages end in divorce, according to Jennifer Baker of the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, Missouri.” These are alarming statistics. Then and now, Jesus understands the impact of divorce; he know its tragedy and pain. Sometimes divorce is the easy answer; sometimes it is the only answer. Yet the key to this passage is that Jesus wants us to repent - not just of the sins that attach to divorce; we are called to repent of the sins in all areas of our lives. Jesus extends words of grace, restoration, new hope and new beginnings. Remember, the grace of God never diminishes – even when a marriage doesn’t work; couples split up; divorce happens. God’s grace shines even brighter when we see it against the backdrop of our pain and our struggles.
 Then, just when we have heard enough about divorce, Jesus changes gears. He adds one more thing to the mix. Jesus sees the disciples chastising the children that had gathered and he said to HIs disciples: "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. (14-16) Jesus was not disengaging with the issue of divorce. He was making a point that emphasized what God’s grace is all about, grace that also encompassed divorce.
You see, in Jesus day, children were the least valued and most vulnerable members of society. But here, in front of the disciples, Jesus did not send the children away. He welcomed them, blessed them, and offered them as models for receiving God’s kingdom. Jesus’ actions say something about the importance of children and about the nature of God’s reign, but it also says something about marriages, both those that succeed and those that fail.
When Jesus says about the children: “For it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs,” he is saying that the rule of God belongs to persons that are powerless, vulnerable, weak, and sometimes insignificant. But he doesn’t stop there. Jesus goes on to say, “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” Not only do the children serve as touching examples of those for whom the rule of God is intended; their manner of receiving it becomes the model for adults. The rule of God comes as pure and sincere grace. Like children, we must be willing to be taken into Jesus’ arms and be blessed.
I am sure most of you have seen Waterford Crystal.  It is beautiful to look at but when you drop it, it shatters into a thousand pieces. No matter how hard you try to glue the broken pieces back together, it never looks as beautiful as before it was dropped.
Sometimes we get the idea that as human beings we are like leaded crystal.  We are lovely until we make a mistake - and we all make them.  Then life shatters into a thousand pieces and can never be put back together just right - never put back the way God meant it to be.
But if we are to compare human life to any object around us, we are better compared to children's Play Doh than to leaded crystal. Play Doh can be pulled apart, rolled into little balls, flung against the wall, or smashed flat.  Play Doh can also be scraped back together again, reworked, remolded, and reshaped into something that is even more beautiful than before. Friends, that’s what Jesus does for us. Jesus extends forgiveness and then invites us into His grace-filled arms where He reworks, remolds, and reshapes us into someone even more beautiful than before.
Whether we are successful our unsuccessful in our marriages, whether we have managed to achieve the profound union God intends or have wound up in a divorce court, God still receives us as one of his children. We don’t have to pay a price, and our failures do not disqualify us. Jesus paints the incredible picture of little children being welcomed and given a blessing. The good news is that Jesus extend this same blessing to each of us, a blessing that heals us and sustains us – whether we are single, widowed, happily married or painfully divorce.
Amen and amen.