The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Sunday, October 4th: Genesis 2:18-24; Hebrews 2:9-11; Mark 10:2-16)

MORE HARD TEACHINGS, AND MORE HARD FEELINGS

The subject of same-sex marriage has produced a lot of hard feelings in American churches in recent years. Regardless of which stance a particular church takes on this subject, some people are sure to be offended. Some churches take the hard-line view: “No way, no how, end of discussion!” On the other side of the spectrum, some churches take the soft and mushy view: “Sure, if it makes you feel good, it must be good. Let’s do it!” Still other churches, stuck in the middle, take the head-in-the-sand ostrich view: “Same-sex marriage? What’s that? Oops, no time to discuss it now, we’re late for the Christmas pageant committee meeting!”

An interesting argument is promoted by the supporters of same-sex marriage. They claim: “Jesus never condemned homosexuality and same-sex marriage in the Gospels, so there must be nothing wrong with it.”

This is a rather weak argument for a couple of reasons. First, there are a lot of things Jesus never condemned in the Bible. For example: shooting someone in the back of the head with a high-powered rifle; flying hijacked airliners into high-rise office buildings; driving drunk; stealing someone’s credit cards; embezzling corporate funds and wiring the money via the Internet to an off-shore bank account in the Bahamas; or “The Jerry Springer Show.”

So does that mean all these things are perfectly OK because Jesus never specifically condemned them in the Gospels? I don’t think so.

The other reason the “Jesus never condemned…” argument is weak is the simple fact Jesus did address the issue in Scripture. In Mark’s gospel, from the reading we hear this week in church, Jesus quoted Genesis when He said to the Pharisees, “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’….Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”

Jesus confirmed the divinely-inspired first book of the Bible, Genesis, with a divinely-inspired proclamation of His own: marriage is between one man and one woman.

OK, He never specifically used the word “marriage.” And He never specifically used the phrase “one man and one woman.” And He did not conclude His statement by adding, “So folks, this means same-sex marriage is verboten, understand?” (Being Jewish, I don’t think Jesus would ever use the word verboten anyway.)

Proponents of same-sex marriage quickly explain that Jesus was merely citing the most common marriage arrangement during His day. He probably didn’t want to complicate His message by mentioning all the other surely acceptable permutations of marriage. But since He did not specifically condemn same-sex marriage, it obviously must be OK.

Sometimes I wonder why people even bother to argue the point if this is the kind of logic that gets employed. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that certain church groups interpret Scripture to mean Jesus approves of same-sex marriage just because He didn’t specifically condemn it. After all, most church groups approve of another thing, a thing that Jesus DID specifically condemn.

In this week’s Gospel reading, after describing what a valid marriage is, Jesus went on to say, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.” This confirms what is written in the book of the prophet Malachi: “For the Lord God of Israel says that He hates divorce” (Mal 2:16).

If you think there is some gray area in the Bible, some wiggle room, when it comes to same-sex marriage, then there is no such ambivalence when it comes to the subject of divorce. It’s a black-and-white issue. God hates divorce. He said so Himself.

Now, just relax. I can see you cringing and shaking your fist at your computer screen. And I can hear you exclaim, “Two controversial topics in one essay?! Same-sex marriage AND divorce?! C’mon, Dunn!!”

OK OK, calm down. I’m not trying to do any gay-bashing here. And I’m not trying to say everyone who has ever gotten a divorce is going to Hell. God’s love for us is unfathomable. Scripture says God hates divorce; it doesn’t say He hates divorced people.

Have you ever wondered why God says He hates divorce? Those are pretty strong words. Why would He be so forceful about this topic? Well, when a man and woman are joined in marriage, they become a single entity. (“The two shall become one flesh.”) To split that single entity in half is like trying to split your dog in half. You don’t get two separate dogs, you get a bloody mess. And that’s what widespread divorce has made of the sacred institution of the family, a bloody mess.

Yes, it’s true that some marriages are a nightmare. Sometimes there is severe abuse, both emotional and physical. Don’t misunderstand: no one is advocating that spouses should suffer in silence while their hate-filled partners use them as punching bags. Surely Jesus would be the first one to tell a battered wife to flee that dangerous situation to protect herself and the children.

But is spousal abuse the major reason people get divorced today? Nope, the most common cause of divorce these days in plain old selfishness. Someone is bored or unhappy, they fall in lust with a co-worker, and then one day, bada-bing, they just walk out on their spouse and kids like it’s no big deal. Any idea what that does to the fragile souls of those poor children? Do you still wonder why God says He hates divorce?

A few weeks ago we discussed the “hard sayings” of Jesus. The people who listened to Jesus preach afterward said to one another, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?”

Many people nowadays do the exact same thing—and oftentimes they’re ordained Christian clergy who should know better. They especially do it when the topic is divorce. Divorce is one of the great scandals in the modern church. Did you know Christians these days get divorced just as frequently as atheists? We shrug our shoulders and view divorce as no different than someone giving their notice and going to work for a new company.

The Church’s job is not to condemn people and impose a lot unnecessary rules and regulations. The Church is not in business to make people feel guilty and make their lives miserable. The Church’s main job is to teach the truth. And the truth is, the Lord offered some very hard teachings about a couple of topics: the definition of marriage and divorce.

We can ignore these hard teachings or we can tell ourselves that we know better than Jesus does. (Some groups actually do this now. Talk about chutzpah!) Or we can whine and pout and accuse the Church—along with certain opinionated Internet essayists—of hurting our feelings by bringing up such distasteful subjects.

But in the end, none of that matters. What matters is following Jesus. When we follow His teachings for how to live our lives, we maximize our peace and joy in this world. And when we follow Him by putting our faith in Him as Savior and Lord, we receive the ultimate gift: eternal life in Heaven.

©2009