Adulterated and Confused

October 5, 2015
Adulterated and Confused

For too many, the purposes of revelation are, in order, these: diversion; gratification; and moralizing. – Uncle Albert

 
I told Roz about the narrow preacher (See here.), and she decided she wanted to hear him. So this Sunday we went to his church. She liked him “all right,” she said. He was earnest, “but he has a sense of humor.” She’s right on both counts. “Preaching the word of God” is clearly a big, serious deal for this guy, but at least he knows he’s just “this guy.”

     He’s not a prophet or an oracle, but he has – it’s inevitable – his point of view, and that’s what he’s preaching. Preaching is explaining what he thinks this or that must mean. So, as I said then, he can’t just tell the story and sit down. No preacher can do that.

Here’s the story (from Mark 10):

     Jesus is teaching in Capernaum; then, all of a sudden, he’s in Judea, also teaching. And “the Pharisees” turn up with one of their “tests” about the law: Does Jesus know it? “Does THE LAW allow a man to divorce his wife?” they ask. Jesus answers the question with a question – he likes doing that, particularly with the Pharisees: “What does Moses say?”

     “Moses said a man could write out divorce papers and serve them, and his wife has to go.”

     Jesus: “Moses wrote that into the law because you couldn’t do what God wanted for you: that a man and woman marry and become one. One. This is what God wants for you all – to be one; but you can’t do it, so Moses gives you a way to pull away, back into two.”

     Later, in private, the disciples press the point, as if they’ve become the Pharisees; and Jesus says something no one – no one I know anyway – has ever liked much. “A man divorces his wife. If he marries another, he is committing adultery. Same thing: if a woman divorces her husband and she marries someone else, she’s committing adultery.”

But how?

     The narrow man had an explanation for this, how plausible I don’t know. Something like this: Divorce pulls apart (“puts asunder”) what God wants to be together. Jesus is talking about what happens then; there are consequences! No break can never be clean, nor complete. Neither, in this case – neither ex-husband nor ex-wife can start from scratch. “Adultery” describes this ragged situation, where someone has left behind something he knows he shouldn’t have left behind and can’t have left completely behind. Where someone has pulled out of something she knows she shouldn’t have pulled out and can’t pull out of completely. The narrow man’s idea was that “adultery” describes this ragged situation and any ragged situation where relationships are broken.

The story in the gospel goes on. After this conversation with the disciples, Jesus goes back out to the people. And they are bringing their children to him to bless them. And the disciples try to stop it. The preacher didn’t try to explain why they would do that; but we know it upsets Jesus, who says, Get out of the damn way. Let them come on. For they, meaning the children, show us what God wants and how we’ll need to be if we want to be part of it.”

That’s where the story ends, whatever it means. I don’t know. I don’t think Mark knows. The preacher didn’t either, but he told a story of his own childhood. It involved a tree and a rock (but no clouds). I lost track. When I asked, Roz, she said she did, too, but the tree was an oak.

   Oh, well. Probably better not to know. With stories about Jesus, better to go home confused. That’s the point: there isn’t one you can nail down, however big your hammer.