Flesh of My Flesh

This sermon is shaped in a somewhat different format than usual, although you may not notice so much in hearing it. It is a conversation of sorts. My conversation with a Scripture commentary. My conversation with someone else’s commentary. This is a rich commentary, one that I find both thought provoking and comforting… one that I like and want to quote extensively. It does occur to me that there are undoubtedly many commentaries out there on this morning’s Scripture passages that I would not like at all. There’s quite a bit that I find difficult and not likeable about this morning’s Scriptures. Those are the Sundays when I tend to cast the widest net in my background reading and study… seeking understanding and insight from others. This particular commentary… reflection… on especially the Genesis and Mark readings was written by the Rev. John B. Rogers, Jr., and published in 1985 as part of the Proclamation series: Aids for Interpreting the Lessons of the Church Year. About the Rev. Rogers, I only know that he is a Presbyterian, a graduate of Davidson College and Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, and at least in 1985 was minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Shreveport, Louisiana.

About this morning’s Gospel he writes: When Jesus’ opponents tried to engage him in a discussion about "rights" within marriage, he bade them consider God’s purpose and will for their whole existence. The Pharisees had asked him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" but it probably was not a serious question. No Pharisee would have had to ask. They knew as well as Jesus did what the law said about divorce.

The law, the Torah, Deuteronomy 24. The Pharisees knew it. And even today, if a person really wants to find a very specific, very detailed literal prescription for living in Holy Scripture, much of it is right there in Deuteronomy.

[The Pharisees’] bogus question grew out of an attitude that sought the greatest advantage within the limits of what was permissible—the kind of calculating that destroys a marriage before it begins.

The Pharisees displayed an attitude that sought to achieve the greatest personal advantage within the limits of what was technically permissible under the Torah. A common human attitude, still today, in settings well beyond marriage. In a wide array of settings—family, civic, and sacred—and in lots of relationships—personal, professional, and divine—in all of these settings and relationships we often seek to find loopholes in the letter of the law that can be exploited to our advantage, rather than conform to the law’s spirit.

That would be an attractive formula, wouldn’t it? Not just for the Pharisees, but for us. A formula for living that, if mastered, would free us from guilt, fear and inconvenience. A formula for living that, if mastered, would free us from guilt, fear and inconvenience. Such a formula is as much an illusion as the fountain of youth, and equally fruitless to pursue.

The Pharisees wanted to talk permission. Jesus talked commandment: "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one." It is God’s commandment that two shall become one. With that commandment Jesus pointed to a gracious will and to an intentional love beyond their wildest imaginings—a grace and love that had held [the Pharisees] from the foundation of the world, that had never let them go, and apart from whom they could not hope to get life and relationships right.

Issues of God and humanity, origin and destiny, are what Jesus attends to. He is not concerned with the definition of marriage or the casuistry of divorce law.

The story tells of the common origin of man and woman in the will, intention, and creative act of God. It is not about any differences between men and women. The point is not authority, status, rank: the point is [creating] relationship, intended and structured into human existence by a gracious and loving Creator.

Creation was not complete until it contained the possibility for human relationship… Until the first human being had a helper, sometimes translated from the Hebrew in Genesis as helpmeet or fit helper. The Hebrew word means "co-responder". Another being that corresponds, is like to the first, and that can, mutually with the first, co-respond to God’s love. Human relating, the breadth of human relationship is essential to the fullness of God’s creation.

The first human being is no longer alone. There are two, in relationship—co-responding—and that, at last, is very good.

At last. Creation is complete. The potential has been created for relationship between two who are bone of the same bone, flesh of the same flesh. At last, Adam seems to say, I have fulfillment. The last piece has been placed in the puzzle. At last.

Except it is not really "at last." The creating of the potential for human relationships is a crucial, important part of the story. But it is not the end of the story. After all, this is just Genesis 2. As wondrous and profound as that act of God’s creating is, the act of creating human relating…

Still more wondrous and profound is that in being made for relationships, in being given the capacity to co-respond to and with another, humanity is made ready for God. Whatever the story tells us about [human relationships], it is even more profoundly a story about human beings made ready for grace, prepared from the foundation of the world for the grace of God, given in relationship. That is, when God graciously elects to come to humanity, [God] will engage us in relationship; he will come personally, indeed, in person. In the capacity for relationship that is part of our human nature and being, we catch sight of God’s claim upon us and his intention to be with us in relationship and for us in flesh and bone as Emmanuel.

Emmanuel. The incarnation. God made flesh. To be with us. With us. With us. Through thick and thin. In our moments of doubt and uncertainty. In our moments of wonder and joy. In our struggles with human relationships. In the mystery of love. In our efforts to discern God’s will. To bring forgiveness for our failures. To bring spirit to our creativity. God in relationship with us. As this morning’s collect says, "forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask." God made flesh. With us. In relationship with us.

Jesus says that to us… to us sinful, selfish, broken human beings. In that relationship we will find the grace and hope and fulfillment for all the rest of life. In that relationship we will find God’s purpose and will for our existence. In that relationship we will find an intentional love for us beyond our wildest imaginings. God’s love for us. We are God’s beloved. Here at last, Jesus celebrates, speaking to each of us… Here at last in you I have found bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.