[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage #524, Pentecost 18, Oct. 8, :2006

[rmcgregoralbq at aol.com]

Pentecost 18, October 8, 2006

Psalm 26 or 25
Job 1:1; 2:1-10
Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12
Mark 10:2-16

God’s Wondrous Love

The Psalmist clings to his integrity in a world under God's judgment.  
Job maintains his integrity while that of God is called into question 
by the sporting event with Satan.  The suffering of Jesus, like that of 
the Psalmist and Job, is the price of his integrity as the Savior.  Can 
the integrity of the marriage vow then be broken and excused as a path 
around suffering?

There are enough theological issues in these passages to fill a month 
of Sundays.  What is the role of human righteousness in salvation?  
What does a contest between God and Satan have to do with salvation?  
Why do bad things happen to good people?  If the author of Hebrews is 
writing by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, why doesn't he know 
Psalm 8 when he quotes it?  Or, more substantively, what Christology is 
implied by Jesus' being above the angels on the one hand and the 
pioneer of a human race living up to the vision of Psalm 8 on the 
other?  If all people who have divorced and remarried commit adultery, 
what is the state of their salvation?  What are they supposed to do 
about it?

Presented with this list of questions, a congregation would probably 
want to hear the answer to the last two first.  What do you say to 
people who are marrying?  Divorcing?  Remarrying? Jesus stops short of 
saying marriage is a sacrament but grounds it in the very creation.  He 
strikes a blow on behalf of women who were so vulnerable to divorce in 
his society by bringing the force of the seventh commandment to bear, 
but that doesn't change the categorical nature of his pronouncement.  
No one escapes accountability to God for divorce, neither husband nor 
wife.  This accountability to God should be strenuously taught in the 
church for the benefit of those who are entering into marriage for the 
first time, but how can it be heard as anything other than damnation by 
those who remarry after divorce?

Suffering is no grounds for divorce.  Integrity always involves 
suffering, certainly the integrity of the marriage vow.  But, casting 
out demons is always appropriate to the followers of Jesus.  When a 
marriage has developed a destructive power of its own, threatening to 
destroy either or both marriage partners, it becomes a different 
creature than the one created and deserves to be treated differently.

Does a subsequent marriage then become a first marriage?  That would be 
a legalism like annulment.  No, I believe the will of God stands as 
Jesus spoke it, but it is not the only will of God.  It is God’s will 
to reward the righteous, but it is also God’s will to save sinners.  
Confessing to God one’s sin in breaking the marriage vow is an act of 
accountability.  As a remarried, divorced person I cannot claim the 
reward of the righteous with the marriage vow unbroken, but I can claim 
the grace of God for the sinner.  I don’t think that claiming that 
grace every day makes a mockery of righteousness, not for those who 
love and trust God.  It is a part of God’s wondrous love for me that my 
second marriage has become a part of my salvation in this life.  It is 
not based on Scripture but on experience that I say this marriage is 
holy also.

May these thoughts strengthen you.

An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor
 (an e-mail service)

[See Web Page address below for a Children’s Message coordinated with 
these lections.]

http://www.webspawner.com/users/ChildPage/

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      --Copyright 2006, Roland McGregor, all rights reserved—
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