LAKE JAMES

NORTH CAROLINA

Proper 22B + Oct.8, 2006 + St. Paul’s Church, Lake James

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Some time ago, I was reading a newsletter from a parish in England and in that newsletter found a fascinating account of an event which happened some 1600 years ago. I’d like to share it by reading it to you now.

“In the year 410, St. Augustine of Hippo was preaching in his cathedral when suddenly a messenger appeared and, ignoring the Mass going on, rushed up to the bishop, interrupted his sermon, and handed him a written message. Everyone present wondered what the message might be that would be so important. St. Augustine looked at the message and then announced “My dear brothers and sisters, I have just received a message saying that Rome has fallen to the invaders. Now, let us return to the subject at hand: the question of women wearing hats in church.”

Through today’s readings in the Hebrew Scriptures and the Gospel, the Church bids us consider the nature and meaning of marriage and more specifically, Christian marriage. To some people, giving much attention to that subject may seem like taking time and energy to debate whether women should have to wear hats in church instead of focusing on truly important matters such as homelessness, violent crime, or the fact that in many places in the world, men, women, and children are starving to death. After all, these days it seems as if some people don’t think marriage is very important one way or another, while others, especially movie stars and other celebrities appear to go through marriages so often that you’d think they belong to a “Spouse of the Month Club!” With all the big questions of his day, (which weren’t all that different from the big questions of our day,) why would St. Augustine bother to preach about women wearing hats in church? And even more, why is Father Zadig talking about it now?

First, it needs to be said, and repeated from time to time, that a major function of the Church is to remind men and women that there is such a thing as the Will of God, that everything doesn’t depend on our desires, and that is particularly true when the subject is a Christian understanding of marriage. In one form or another, marriage has existed as long as there have been human beings. From the beginning of time, men and women have been social creatures, and it has been understood that for most, although not all, it is not God’s will that people should be alone.

The early Church inherited a number of practices concerning marriage from the Jewish culture. For example, at the time of Our Lord’s earthly ministry, the rights of women were quite limited. If he wished, a man could simply issue a statement of divorce and his wife would have no say, nor could she do anything to contest or stop it. However, the reverse was not true. A wife couldn’t divorce her husband if she wanted to. That simply was the way it was in those days. By way of contrast, Christ’s teachings raised marriage to a higher level than it had ever had before, insisting that marriage was to be a total union, something both spiritual and physical, between the partners, a union meant to last as long as they might live, a union designed by God to bring joy, strength and growth. Both then, and now, that was and is the ideal faithfully taught by the Church.

But what if a marriage doesn’t bring joy, or strength, or growth? Throughout history, some marriages have been anything but joyful, anything but relationships bringing strength or growth to the husband and wife, instead, bringing sadness, rejection, or even hatred?

This morning, lets consider what Jesus taught about marriage and divorce, what the Church teaches today, what the Church practices about both marriage and divorce, and whether that current practice is consistent with what Our Lord taught. There is often a dangerous tendency on the part of those who want everything in life to be clear-cut and simple, to take a text from the Bible and, interpreting it for themselves, sit in judgment on others, deciding that any understanding of the text which differs from theirs is not only wrong, but contrary to the will of God. That’s especially true with regard to marriage. Now there is no doubt that the Bible teaches that marriage is intended to be life-long, but the Bible also provides certain exceptions. First Corinthians Seven, probably the oldest New Testament text on the subject, forbids either a husband or a wife to divorce a spouse, but also limits that rule to cases where both are Christians. If only one is a Christian, divorce is allowed and that permission applies equally to men and women. St. Mark’s Gospel, which we heard this morning, records Jesus as saying “What God has joined together must not be separated!” However, St. Matthew’s Gospel, which is based on that of St. Mark, adds that Jesus also said that a marriage may be dissolved, divorce is permitted, if a wife is guilty of adultery.

Through the centuries, the temptation to construct a clear and rigid set of rules has proved to be too attractive for some Christians to resist. It’s comforting to be able to make judgments which apply to all people in all situations, never mind the particular circumstances. “A is right, B is wrong, and that’s that!” The noted Anglican Bible scholar, Father Reginald Fuller, points out that it is not the particular concessions regarding marriage which are stated in Holy Scripture, and only those concessions which are valid for all time, but that the Bible itself shows that the Church has the authority to make pastorally appropriate concessions while, at the very same time, vigorously upholding the Lord’s teachings as being the ideal to which all should strive, and that any falling short of doing so puts us in the need for forgiveness. That “falling short” may be found in the ending of a marriage through separation or divorce. It may also be where a marital relationship has stopped being one of love and mutual self-giving even though the formal, legal bonds of marriage remain intact. The problem is that any set of rules never seems to be quite adequate to fit “this particular situation” or “that unusual case,” Human beings are difficult to regulate neatly, especially when it comes to love and marriage. Which is not to say that there are not, or should not be moral laws or rules of behavior. On the contrary, there must be, and are such rules, rules which, as Christians, we believe to be given by God for our well being. The question is what to do not if but when such rules are not followed perfectly. Quite a few years ago, the Episcopal Church changed from a juridical or legal stance to a pastoral approach to people whose marriages had failed. That change was not an arrogant step taken by a lax ecclesiastical institution ignoring the teachings of Jesus and the Bible, but rather a continuation of the ministry of the same Lord who both clearly taught what people should do and yet loved and forgave them when they fell short. As Christ loved and forgave then, through His Church he loves and forgives now.

So, with regard to marriage as with so many other realities of life, the Church follows Jesus by teaching and upholding the Biblical understanding of the life-long nature of the sacrament of marriage while also reaching out to people who have not lived up to that ideal. The point is that the Church deals with marital failures the same way she deals with failures in all other aspects of life, vigorously teaching ideals, but also mercifully and lovingly reaching out to people when they fail to achieve them. That’s why the Sacrament of the Reconciliation of Penitents exists. That’s why the Eucharist in Anglican Churches includes a General Confession. That’s why, each evening before going to sleep, a Christian should make an examination of the events of the day, thanking God for all blessings, but also praying for forgiveness for whatever one may have done which was sinful, as well as for failures to do what was right. (If anyone here wants to stand up and tell the rest of us that you are totally sinless, you certainly have my permission, but you’d also have my doubts as to whether you were totally in touch with reality! On the contrary, I think I’m on safe ground in saying that all of us – every single person here in St. Paul’s Church this morning – is in need of God’s forgiveness because every one of us has fallen short of the teachings of Jesus.) The way you have fallen short may be different from the sins of the person next to you, or the priest in the pulpit. But they are still sins, aren’t they? Now, here’s the goods news: We don’t have to wait breathlessly to see what happens after our confessions if our repentance is honest and sincere - not because any of us are so perfect that we always live up to the ideals He taught, but because the God we worship, the God we know through Jesus the Christ loves and forgives. If you think about it, isn’t that love and forgiveness a reason for anyone, male or female, old or young, married or single, for anyone to be thankful? It’s even worth preaching about!

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The Reverend Alfred T. K. Zadig, Sr.

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