So out of the
ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air
and brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and whatever the
man called every living creature, that was its name. (Genesis
2:19)
Divorce is a nasty
subject. I know. I’ve been divorced. It’s not really the kind of thing you want
to think about on a pleasant Sunday morning even if it happens to be the
subject of the gospel reading in the Revised Common Lectionary for Pentecost
20, Year B (Mark 10:2-16). Since my congregation is now comprised more of
widows than divorcees, I think I’m going to dispense with this subject as
quickly as I can. So here goes:
In Mark’s gospel Jesus
lets the Pharisees and the disciples know that divorce, however legal it might
be, is only legal because of humankind’s “hardness of heart.” He’s shooting
pretty straight when he tells this crowd that breaking your promise to someone
so you can hook up with someone else is still breaking a promise (You’ll
remember the flack John the Baptist gave Herod about shacking up with his
brother’s ex.[i]
).
In the world of this
text, women didn’t have a whole lot of rights. If you were a woman and your old
man decided he didn’t want you anymore, he could write you a letter of divorce
and you’d be on the street. You’ll notice in the passage the Pharisees say a man
has a right to divorce his wife, but nothing is mentioned about her
having a right to get rid of him if he’s abusive to her. Jesus is actually
standing up to protect the women from poverty when he speaks these words
about divorce and adultery.
Our Roman Catholic brothers
have been getting their shorts in a knot over the subject of divorce for a long
time. I think they’re rather missing the point of this gospel lesson. They may
be stuck like obsessed barnacles to the letter of the scripture, but they’re
missing the intent. Jesus cares for the weak and the vulnerable. He also cares
that we honor one another. It’s very true that two perfectly lovely and amiable
human beings might discover they just can’t be lovely and amiable living under
the same roof. There can be many good and legitimate reasons why couples split
up. Nevertheless, a necessary separation should not negate the mutual
responsibility to forgive and care for the wellbeing of the other.
Everything in the
universe exists in relationship to everything else. There’s a divine
interconnectedness all things share. Our gospel writer juxtaposes Jesus’
teaching about broken relationships between adults with his welcome for
children—the weakest and, in the society of his day, the least important. Jesus
welcomes the children as being an essential part of the whole.
I love that this gospel
text is paired with the reading from Genesis 2:18-24. In this well-known and
fanciful story, the first man recognizes the first woman as being a part of
himself. She is “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” He recognizes, as God
says in verse 18, “It is not good that the man should be alone.” We are created
for community and relationship.
The lesson from Genesis
also stresses the human being’s relationship with the natural world. Before
Adam meets his intended bride, God (showing a great sense of humor if you ask
me!) has him encounter a bunch of unsuitable “partners.” In doing this, God creates
a relationship between the man and all the other living creatures. How? The man
gives them names. It is so important that we know each other by name,
don’t you think? And don’t we even nickname or rename people who are closest to
us? Sometimes nicknames are meant to be insulting and oppressive,[ii] but even this labeling
defines a relationship. Lovers often have secret pet names for each other which
only they know. To know by name creates a bond.
So bottom line? It’s not
too deep a thought: we’re all in this together. We all have responsibility for
each other. We are all called to see God in one another—even in the little children
and the beasts of the field.
Saying this allows me to segue
into a few words about the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi which is celebrated on
October 4. If ever there was a fellow who understood the interconnectedness of
all living creatures, it was Francis. He lived in the late 12th and
early 13th centuries, the son of a wealthy Italian cloth merchant.
As a young man he joined the army of his duchy which was waging war on its
neighbor—something which was not at all uncommon in 13th century
Italy. He was taken prisoner and held for ransom for about a year. Following
his release, he started to have a change of heart about many things.
Although Francis was wealthy,
he slowly began to lose interest in his father’s enterprise and began to devote
himself to a life of the spirit. Sometime around 1205 it is said that Francis
had a divine vision which ultimately led him to renounce his father’s business
and wealth. He began to spend more time alone and in prayer. After encountering
beggars while on a pilgrimage to Rome, Francis determined to enter into a
relationship with them by becoming a mendicant himself.
Francis is said to have
had a vision of Jesus who told him to rebuild his church. He spent a few years
around the vicinity of Assisi repairing dilapidated chapels and nursing lepers.
By 1208 he had developed a following of eleven disciples who were moved by his
embrace of poverty and love for the poor. The following year he approached Pope
Innocence III and requested and was granted permission to form a new religious
order.
Francis is remembered and
beloved for his relationship with all living things. This included his love for
the poor and marginalized and his love for the natural world and the creatures
which inhabit it. He is considered the patron saint of animals, and it’s not
uncommon for churches to hold a blessing of the animals on the Sunday nearest
his feast day. It’s said that Francis referred to all creatures as his brothers
and sisters. Legend has it that he’d preach to the birds and ventured into the
wild to encounter a vicious wolf which had been devouring the livestock of a
local village. Francis, so the story goes, was able to convince the predator to
give up attacking sheep and accept food scraps from the villagers instead. The
animal lived with the people of the town for two years as something of a
collective pet. In the late 19th century, the skeletal remains of a
large wolf were discovered buried near the wall of the village church.[iii]
Francis is also credited
for being the inventor of the Christmas creche in 1220. He celebrated Christmas
mass by bringing a straw-filled manager into the worship space of the church along
with some live donkeys and bovines so the worshipers could have an experience
of the birth of Christ.
In an attempt to restore broken
human relationships, Francis and some of his disciples traveled to Egypt in 1219,
hoping to bring an end to the 5th Crusade. During a temporary ceasefire,
he crossed the lines to the Muslim camp and met with the Sultan of Egypt. His
attempt was to bring peace or die as a martyr. He achieved neither goal, but the
severe African sunlight damaged his eyes and claimed a portion of his sight.
We remember Francis today
because he really seemed to understand that a goal of our human existence is to
see Christ in each other and God in all things, to put away our selfish
exclusivity, and love the world as a child might—with wonder and affection and
joy.
[i]
See Mark 6:17ff
[ii]
Especially if Donald Trump is doing the naming.
[iii]
Who knows if this story is true or not, but, if it isn’t, it ought to be. You
can read the whole tale by clicking Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio.
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