As much as I have been involved with this organization throughout the years (my current congregation is affiliated with the Covenant Network) this is the first conference I have attended.
I am looking forward to hearing some great preaching, attending some workshops, and hanging out with my sister and brother Presbyterian peeps who are working toward a more inclusive church.
Ted Smith is a cool guy. I met him at the More Light Conference a couple years ago in Nashville. Here he is with few words about the upcoming conference:
Riding the bus to Cleveland just sounds adventurous, doesn't it?
It is a 16 hour bus trip. I do have to be back to lead worship on November 8th especially as it is Stewardship Sunday.
I could leave at 4:30 am Saturday and miss the Saturday programming (which would be sad) and make it home around 9:30 pm.
Or I could stay in Cleveland until the 6:30 pm bus leaves Saturday and make it home at 8:40 Sunday morning, just in time to catch a shower and stumble bleary-eyed into the pulpit. "I can almost see you all from here!"
What do you think, folks? Car or bus to Cleveland?
I am proud as punch that a couple of my peeps went to Washington D.C. over the weekend for the National Equality March. I hopefully will get some pics.
More Light Presbyterians was there and offered this report:
Today was an extraordinary experience to be part of this national call for justice and equality for LGBT people and our families along with thousands of rainbow-flag waving hope-filled Americans. It was a sacred privilege to represent More Light Presbyterians at the March, the HIV/AIDS Rally and Vigil, and the national interfaith worship service. I carried all of you in my heart today as I marched, sang, and prayed." said Michael J. Adee, Executive Director & Field Organizer.
Wish I could have been there but I am even more excited that folks in my church were there marching for justice!!
So the rich guy comes up to Jesus and asks him what it takes to make it to heaven. That is kind of an otherworldly way of saying, “What is the meaning of life?” Or “What is the key to happiness?”
Jesus looks at him and says,
“This stuff is written in books. What does your book say? Doesn’t your book say don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t commit adultery, don’t defraud, don’t lie, be nice to your parents. You know, the usual.”
The rich guy says,
“Yeah, I have done all that. I am a good guy. I am an ethical person. I work hard hard. I am nice to everyone. In fact, life has been good. I have realized the dream of a good life. But something is missing. I still haven’t found what I am looking for.”
Jesus believes him. And he says,
“Well there is one more thing. Sell what you have, give it to the poor, and follow me. Join me and my merry band and we’ll travel the countryside with nothing but a song in our hearts. We will sleep in the open, greet the morning sun, howl at the moon, take no care for what we will eat or wear or where we will sleep. Nature herself will be our Mama. It will be the great adventure of life. C’mon! What do you say?”
The rich guy shakes his head and said, “Hmmm. I don’t think so.” He goes on his way, bummed out, because he has. too. much. stuff.
Remember George Carlin and his wonderful bit on “Stuff?”
“That's all I want, that's all you need in life, is a little place for your stuff, ya know? I can see it on your table, everybody's got a little place for their stuff. This is my stuff, that's your stuff, that'll be his stuff over there. That's all you need in life, a little place for your stuff. That's all your house is: a place to keep your stuff. If you didn't have so much stuff, you wouldn't need a house. You could just walk around all the time.
A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it. You can see that when you're taking off in an airplane. You look down, you see everybody's got a little pile of stuff. All the little piles of stuff. And when you leave your house, you gotta lock it up. Wouldn't want somebody to come by and take some of your stuff. They always take the good stuff. They never bother with that crap you're saving. They don’t want your fourth grade math homework. All they want is the shiny stuff. That's what your house is, a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get...more stuff!
After the rich guy leaves, Jesus notices that he has before him a “teaching moment.” And he says to his disciples,
“It is tough for people with stuff to be happy.”
And they are perplexed. That didn’t make any sense.
Jesus keeps going. He says,
“It is easier for a camel to squeeze through an eye of a sewing needle than it is for a person who has too much stuff to be at peace with herself."
The disciples say to themselves, “No way” (because that is the opposite of what they learned in capitalism school). They say to Jesus,
“Who then can possibly be whole, happy, content, and at peace?”
Jesus says,
“Anything is possible in this universe. There are many paths to peace, but collecting too much stuff isn’t one of them.”
Peter says,
“We have left all of our stuff and followed you! Why are we still so ornery, miserable, and confused?”
Jesus says,
“It isn’t enough just to let go of stuff. That is only the beginning. It doesn’t help to be miserable while doing it or thinking that doing it is some great sacrifice. When we let go of clinging to our stuff we actually receive much more, 100 times more! When we give up clinging to our stuff we realize that all is ours. We all have enough. Earth has enough for everyone. Enough to share and to spare. When we let go of our hoarding we will see that. That is the good life I am talking about. A new age is dawning. It is a complete reversal of what we think is normal.”
The disciples weren’t quite sure about all of that, but they decide to keep following him anyway.
Jesus had more to say about money and stuff than any other topic, except perhaps the kingdom or queendom of God. But even this kingdom/queendom/realm of God about which he spoke was primarily about how human beings are to relate to one another and share the blessings of Earth. In short, how we manage stuff.
Michael Moore in his film, Capitalism: A Love Story inserts a scene in which he takes clips from the film Jesus of Nazareth. He dubs capitalist phrases onto Jesus’ lips:
“Blessed are those who increase their market share.”
It is funny because we know that Jesus was nothing like that. The stories about Jesus show a disdain for profit-making and for the accumulation of wealth.
“Sell what you have. Give it to the poor and follow me.”
“Blessed are you poor” and “Woe to you who are rich!”
Even his mother said, “God has sent the rich away empty and has filled the poor with good things.”
Yet much of what passes for Christianity today ignores Jesus’ powerful, profound, and insistent critique of economic injustice. I suppose that illustrates the power that stuff and the fear of not having enough stuff has over us.
The richest 2 percent of adults still owns more than half of the world's household wealth, perpetuating a yawning global gap between rich and poor....
The report from the Helsinki-based World Institute for Development Economics Research shows that in 2000 the richest 1 percent of adults -- most of whom live in Europe or the United States -- owned 40 percent of global assets.
The richest 10 percent of adults accounted for 85 percent of assets, the report said. By contrast, the bottom 50 percent of the world's adult population owned barely 1 percent of the world's wealth.
It is also true that if every person on Earth possessed as much stuff as the average American, we would need five planets worth of stuff to keep up with the demand. In essence Earth does not have enough stuff to keep everyone at the level at which most of us are accustomed.
We realize that at some point something has to give. It is obvious that we need to change. We know that. We don’t know how. We become anxious, suspicious, competitive, or depressed.
I have been reading some speculative fiction. These are novels about our future. They are forecasts of what life will be like if we keep going as we are going. Margaret Atwood has just published, The Year of the Flood. This is the second of her trilogy. The first was entitled, Oryx and Crake. It is genetic engineering run amok among other things.
In one scene, after the waterless flood in which a plague finally diminishes humanity, one of the characters, Toby, who happens to survive reflects:
Surely I was an optimistic person back then, she thinks. Back there. I woke up whistling. I knew there were things wrong in the world, they were referred to, I’d seen them in the onscreen news. But the wrong things were wrong somewhere else.
By the time she’d reached college, the wrongness had moved closer. She remembers the oppressive sensation, like waiting all the time for a heavy stone footfall, then the knock at the door. Everybody knew. Nobody admitted to knowing. If other people began to discuss it, you tuned them out, because what they were saying was both so obvious and so unthinkable.
We’re using up the Earth. It’s almost gone. You can’t live with such fears and keep on whistling. The waiting builds up in you like a tide. You start wanting it to be done with. You find yourself saying to the sky, Just do it. Do your worst. Get it over with. She could feel the coming tremor of it running through her spine, asleep or awake. It never went away… p. 239
The gospels were composed at a time when the known world had collapsed. The temple was destroyed and Jerusalem burned. Jesus appeared just before that. All of what Jesus is recorded to have said and done is in this context of change. His advice to prepare for this change is quite simple:
Let go. As opposed to attempting to secure your future by hoarding and worrying, do the opposite. Give and trust.
Practice giving. If someone wants your coat, give him your shirt too. If someone wants you to carry a pack for a mile, carry it for two. Give it away. Give yourself away.
This is the spiritual path of cleaning house, of letting go and letting be that is so necessary right now. The world is changing. Of course it is. The universe has been changing for 13.7 billion years. That is what it does. What Jesus was telling the guy with the stuff who was anxious about doing it right, you know, living life correctly, was to lighten up. Lighten up. Loosen up. Give it up.
Like you I watch the news and listen to the pundits. The intensity is overwhelming. There is a frantic desire to continue the status quo, as in the words of the first President George Bush: The American way of life is non-negotiable. Well, silly, of course it is. In a changing world you negotiate or you don’t survive.
How much suffering is brought upon ourselves and others when we prop up a status quo that is not sustainable?
What do we do? We breathe. We recognize that life is short and wild. It is amazing that we are alive at all. It is amazing that we are alive at this time. There will come a time when we are not on this Earth. Regardless of what we might believe about what happens to our consciousness after we breathe our last, nevertheless, at some point each of us will breathe her or his last here.
That is liberating. That means we are on borrowed time. It is all free. All we have to do is to live it. Since nothing is permanent there is no need to desire permanence. That desire does nothing but cause anxiety and suffering. We can let it go. We can let it be.
Jesus’ advice to the rich guy could be his advice to each of us if we will hear it. Give it away. Let whatever has come to us flow through us to others. Let it go. Let it be. Be a blessing.
We could say whoever dies with the most stuff wins. We could say that. We could live like that.
Or we can say whoever dies after giving the most away wins.
I think when we look through history, we will find that the people
we have most admired,
that we think have brought the most blessing to a hurting world,
who have been the most at peace with themselves and with others
W–4.9001 Marriage is a gift God has given to all humankind for the well-being of the entire human family. Marriage is a civil contractcovenant between awoman and a mantwo peopleand according to the laws of the state also constitutes a civil contract. For Christians marriage is a covenant through which a man and a womantwo people are called to live out together before God their lives of discipleship. In a service of Christian marriage a lifelong commitment is made by a woman and a manto each otherbetween two people, publicly witnessed and acknowledged by the community of faith.
Witherspoon reports that eleven sessions in Baltimore Presbytery have introduced a marriage overture. It will be voted upon at its November meeting and if passed will go to the General Assembly.
Hopefully, other progressive presbyteries will get in on this by presenting similar overtures or by concurring with Baltimore's. The more presbyteries that do this will allow for more overture advocates at GA.
This letter is so good and so right I want to post it here so you all can see it. Share it widely and then make sure to send your own. Find it at Alan's place.
“In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, love” -- Augustine
“God alone is Lord of the conscience” -- Westminster Confession of Faith, 6.109
October, 2009
To the Committee:
Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for your continued service to our denomination.
We have read your preliminary report and while we find much to disagree with, we will ignore those disagreements and submit our recommendation regarding Christian marriage in the faith community. We have only one recommendation:
1) Be Presbyterian
You note in your report that the denomination does not agree on issues relating to same-sex marriage and civil union. You also acknowledge the need for mutual forbearance. We agree on both points. Thus your recommendation to the denomination should, in the spirit of mutual forbearance, not force anyone to violate his or her God-given conscience on an issue that is not now, nor has ever been an essential of the faith. To wit, no pastor, or layperson, or session should be forced in any way to participate in any marriage ceremony with which they do not agree. Traditionally, pastors in the PC(USA) have always had the discretion to decide for whom they will and will not conduct a marriage ceremony and this should not change. In the same way, no pastor should be forced to refrain from officiating at a marriage ceremony for a couple simply due to the gender of the two individuals involved. In other words: freedom of conscience. Quite simply, we should continue to be Presbyterian.
There is nothing Presbyterian about instituting from the top down a clerical class that dictates how laypersons in the church must live their day-to-day lives. There is nothing Presbyterian about forcing people to act against their consciences on non-essential matters. We Presbyterians warmly welcome any who proclaim Christ is Lord to come to His table. We Presbyterians warmly welcome any who proclaim Christ is Lord to be baptized. That is all very Presbyterian. Why then, if we allow such freedom of conscience regarding our two sacraments, would we not allow such freedom of conscience for a marriage ceremony that is not a sacrament and is not essential?
By following our recommendation to “Be Presbyterian” both sides of these debates would, for the first time, be able to exercise their freedom of conscience. To those who disagree with us, we say, “If you don’t like gay marriage, don’t get gay married.” We do not seek, require, nor expect their approval any more than they sought or required our permission when they got married. No one is asking those who disagree to violate their consciences; they are free to disapprove as much as they want, as often as they want, as loudly as they want. They are free to invent specious rationalizations and fictitious harms that will supposedly arise from a wedding they were not invited to, of two people they will never meet. However they should not force the whole church to countenance their fabrications. So, to those who agree with the person who recently wrote to the Presbyterian Layman, “Irrespective of what the policy wonks force down the Church’s throat next, where I serve, marriage will be between one man and one woman. Nothing else,” we respond, "Fine. No one is asking anything else. We only expect the same forbearance from you." That’s very Presbyterian.
To our allies, we say, “If you want to get married, you cannot force anyone to officiate at the service or host the ceremony.” The answer to this impasse really is that simple. The solution merely requires everyone to kindly mind his or her own business, a habit that is unfortunately rapidly disappearing from both civil and religious society, including in our own denomination.
If that very Presbyterian (and not coincidentally very American) notion of live and let live is what you mean by mutual forbearance, then both of us are all for it.
However, if by mutual forbearance you mean one side of the church gets to continue to enforce the anti-gay status quo through continued cynical threats of schism and through intimidation by drive-by nonsense litigation, while LGBT Presbyterians and allies are forced to violate both their own God-given consciences and Scripture, then we believe that to recommend that they cheerfully agree to their own continued oppression is un-Presbyterian and is nothing like real forbearance, nor is it remotely realistic or workable.
So, we hope that you will look to traditional Reformed, Presbyterian understandings of church life in making your recommendations to the denomination, and be guided by both Augustine, and the Westminster Confession: On matters involving non-essentials, God alone is Lord of the conscience. That is our recommendation.
May God continue to bless you all as you finish your work.
The committee is not looking for letters written in iambic pentameter. They aren't going to grade you. Simply tell your story.
Celebrate the Fall Harvest at Historic Orchard at Altapass! The peacemaking committee is sponsoring an annual trip to the Altapass Orchard on the Blue Ridge Parkway on Sunday, October 11. We will leave from church as a group at 12:30, and will eat lunch at the Orchard. It takes slightly over an hour to reach the Orchard from church, so you might want to pack a light snack to tide you over. There are several happenings going on that day, including a book signing, “Spruce Pine” by local authors David Biddix and Chris Hollifield, bluegrass music, and hayrides through the orchard. The Orchard is free, but lunch is not, and there is a $5.00 charge for the hayride. You can visit their websitefor more information. If you are interested in attending, please email Mike Elder at melder at embarqmail dot com, or call him at 329-0303. We are trying to get a ballpark head count so we can organize the lunch and hayride. This should be a beautiful trip near the peak of leaf changing season, so we urge you to make plans to attend.
To get you in the mood...
After Apple-Picking by Robert Frost
My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree Toward heaven still, And there's a barrel that I didn't fill Beside it, and there may be two or three Apples I didn't pick upon some bough. But I am done with apple-picking now. Essence of winter sleep is on the night, The scent of apples: I am drowsing off. I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight I got from looking through a pane of glass I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough And held against the world of hoary grass. It melted, and I let it fall and break. But I was well Upon my way to sleep before it fell, And I could tell What form my dreaming was about to take. Magnified apples appear and disappear, Stem end and blossom end, And every fleck of russet showing clear. My instep arch not only keeps the ache, It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round. I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend. And I keep hearing from the cellar bin The rumbling sound Of load on load of apples coming in. For I have had too much Of apple-picking: I am overtired Of the great harvest I myself desired. There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch, Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall. For all That struck the earth, No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble, Went surely to the cider-apple heap As of no worth. One can see what will trouble This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is. Were he not gone, The woodchuck could say whether it's like his Long sleep, as I describe its coming on, Or just some human sleep.
The Presbyterian Busybody and Fusspot Coalition (PBFC) e-mailed my church secretary the other day. They continue in their quest to convince her that Jesus does not want gay people to have their relationships recognized by the church or by society.
Talk about busybodies. If they bother our church secretary you can bet they are bothering every church secretary in the PCUSA with their fusspottiness.
They even try to turn Jesus into a busybody fusspot. They suggest that when Jesus was talking to the Pharisees about divorce he was not really talking about divorce. Jesus was really talking about gay people. Really! Here is their spew of bullshit:
The biblical and historical witness of the Church throughout history and around the world is clear and unequivocal. It is expressed in the Creation mandate of Genesis 1:27 and 2:24, which was used as the foundation for Jesus' instruction on marital monogamy and permanence in Matthew 19:4-6 (= Mark 10:6-9): In response he said, "Haven't you read that the Creator from the beginning made them male and female [Gen 1:27]? And he said, "Because of this a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh [Gen 2:24]. So they are no longer two but one flesh. What then God yoked together, let no person separate."
Jesus did not merely affirm Genesis 1:27 and 2:24. Rather, he based his limitation of two persons to a valid sexual relationship on the twoness of the sexes. In Romans 1:23-27, Paul intentionally echoed Gen 1:26-27 in rejecting homosexual practice because it was a violation of the male-female prerequisite for sexual relations ordained by the Creator at creation, not because of how well or how badly it was done in his cultural milieu.
Scripture and our confessions alike condemn same-sex sexual relationships and indeed any sexual relationship outside the bond of marriage -- sinful relationships and behaviors that God seeks to redeem and transform, not accommodate.
The PBFC really knows how to twist scripture to their own hypocritical advantage. I wonder how many members of the PBFC have been divorced and remarried? But of course that doesn't matter.
They smell red meat with their anti-gay crusade and no amount of irony, reason or human decency will stop that march for injustice.
I take little stock what the Bible says in regards to details. That is no secret. I have written about that before. I am not the "go to guy" when it comes to obeying the Bible in regards to contemporary ethical dilemmas.
If love, reason and commonsense isn't enough to help you decide right from wrong no amount of biblical proof-texting is going to help. This last sermon is about the most "biblical" you are going to get from me. Any document that says the following:
"If men get into a fight with one another, and the wife of one intervenes to rescue her husband from the grip of his opponent by reaching out and seizing his genitals, 12you shall cut off her hand; show no pity..."
is not a document to be trusted at face value regarding ethical behavior.
What is so bizarre about the bible-believing busybodies, is that a bronze age bible isn't even backwards enough for them. They have to read into it stuff that isn't there in order to justify their prejudice. Jesus did not say one thing about gay people. This is my paraphrase of his message to the busybodies of his day:
“Don’t even pretend to think you are holier than thou. If you think you can find a loophole that gives you divine permission to discard another human being, think again.”
To use a text in which he clearly is criticizing hardheartedness as a text to justify hardheartedness makes one want to run screaming into the darkness.
I know it is discouraging when we have to compete with the well-funded ignorance of the Presbyterian Coalition. But oppression has always been well-funded. In response, a little truth can go a long way. As Martin Luther wrote in his great hymn:
The prince of darkness grim -- We tremble not for him; His rage we can endure, For lo! his doom is sure, One little word shall fell him.
You get a 1000 words to "fell him" by telling your story of why we need justice in the PCUSA. Email the committee by November 15th.
The sermon theme today is letting go of the need to be a busybody.
Of course, I know that none of you are busybodies. But your friends might be. You can pass this sermon on to them.
Busybodies, fusspots, and scolds do their best to make life difficult for others. The modus operandi of the busybody is to try to look good by making others look bad. Busybodies are masters at downplaying their own shortcomings and elevating the shortcomings of others. Some do it under the pious guise of wanting to hear God’s Word and follow God’s will. These godly busybodies enjoy finding passages in the Bible that condemn the supposed sins of others. It is important for busybodies to find sins that other people commit that the busybodies themselves do not.
Abortion and homosexuality are for many busybodies their bread and butter. It used to be divorce. But now that so many busybodies are divorced or have been divorced, they don’t go after that one quite so zealously. But divorced busybodies, if they didn’t learn anything from that experience, are as busily bodied as ever in making sure you know that they are better than you.
In the Gospels, the Pharisees are the archetypal busybodies. It should be noted that the Gospels were not fair to the Pharisees. If you go to a synagogue and talk to the local Rabbi, he or she will tell you that the gospel portrait of the Pharisees is one dimensional. The gospel writers used the Pharisees as a literary foil for Jesus.
In actuality, the Pharisees are the precursors to the rabbis of today. They kept the narrative, the traditions, and the teachings. They were the scholars and the leaders. Many of the sayings of Jesus were originally spoken by Pharisees such as Hillel. We know the famous story regarding Hillel. He was asked by a scoffer to teach him the Torah while standing on one foot. He said: “What is hateful to you, do not do unto others." Sounds like Jesus.
The Gospel writers typecast the Pharisees as narrow-minded, sneaky, petulant busybodies. In the story, these busybodies come to Jesus to test him. They want to trap him. They want to mess with him. They want to discredit him and if they are lucky, make him suffer the same fate as John the Baptist. John the Baptist, as you know, lost his head.
John was beheaded because of divorce. Herod’s wife, Herodias, had been the wife of Herod’s brother Philip. She divorced Philip and married Herod. John the Baptist told Herod that he had broken Jewish law by doing that. Some might say John the Baptist was being a busybody. Could be. Herod had John the Baptist put in prison.
At one of Herod’s parties, Herod’s step-daughter, that is the daughter of Herodias (who was formerly Herod’s brother’s wife, but who now his wife) does a dance for him. Herod and the guests are so impressed that Herod promises her anything she wants including half his kingdom. The daughter asks her mother, Herodias, what she should ask for. Her mother replies famously: “the head of John the Baptizer.”
There you go: political intrigue, scandal, and naughtiness in high places. And that, good people, is how the wealthy elite get a head.
Not long after this incident the Pharisees come calling. They ask Jesus about divorce.
The busybodies who are asking Jesus about divorce are not asking him because they really want to know. They don’t want to learn anything. They know the law. Jesus knows they know. It is a test. It is a question that no matter how he answers he will look bad to somebody.
The Pharisees could read as well as Jesus. They know what is written in Deuteronomy chapter 24. For entertainment value you might read the book of Deuteronomy. It will take about an hour.
Before we discover what the book of Deuteronomy says about divorce, we might check what it has to say about other important topics. You will get advice on how to treat a rebellious son:
“If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place. They shall say to the elders of his town, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death.” -- Deuteronomy 21:18-21
After you conquer your neighboring suburb in battle, Deuteronomy offers counsel on what to do with the women.
“When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God hands them over to you and you take them captive, suppose you see among the captives a beautiful woman whom you desire and want to marry, and so you bring her home to your house: she shall shave her head, pare her nails, discard her captive’s garb, and shall remain in your house for a full month, mourning for her father and mother; after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.” -- Deuteronomy 21:10-14
Multiple choice: When you mow the lawn, what following pairs of animals are not allowed to pull the lawnmower?
a) Two oxen. b) Two donkeys. c) One ox and one donkey.
Deuteronomy chapter 22 verse 10 has the answer. C.
10 You shall not plough (or mow the lawn) with an ox and a donkey yoked together.
That is followed by verse 11:
“You shall not wear clothes made of wool and linen woven together.”
If any of you are wearing mixed fabrics would you undress now, please. We are in God’s house. If you insist on keeping your clothes on, no communion for you.
It is within the literary and historical and cultural context of Deuteronomy that we find this eternal wisdom, and the teaching on divorce which goes like this:
“Suppose a man enters into marriage with a woman, but she does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her, and so he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; she then leaves his house and goes off to become another man’s wife. Then suppose the second man dislikes her, writes her a bill of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house (or the second man who married her dies); her first husband, who sent her away, is not permitted to take her again to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that would be abhorrent to the Lord, and you shall not bring guilt on the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession.” – Deuteronomy 24:1-4
The busybodies tell Jesus that this is the law on divorce. From the perspective of Deuteronomy, women are the property of men. In other words say the busybodies:
“We men can divorce our women on a whim, send them out with nothing, and be righteous observers of the law while doing it.”
Jesus tells the busybodies that the reason Moses gave them this option is because people lack compassion.
Jesus says that ideally it isn’t like that. He quotes from Genesis: God made human beings. They grow up. They move out of their parents’ basements. They get married and they live happily ever after. That is the ideal.
Jesus is not offering new, severe, judgmental rules. Jesus’ message is to the busybodies,
“Don’t even pretend to think you are holier than thou. If you think you can find a loophole that gives you divine permission to discard another human being, think again.”
A lifelong, happy marriage is the ideal. But you know, it doesn’t always happen like that. Marriage is important. Those of us in helping professions whether we are counselors, educators, ministers, and legislators, try to help people in their relationships. At times it helps.
But life is complicated. Life is messy. Far too often, life is downright ugly. Why in the midst of woundedness and brokenness would some want to make it even worse for others by denying them, for example, access to Christ’s table?
Busybodies will also use the words of Jesus here against gay, lesbian, and transgender people. “God made them male and female.” Which they interpret as meaning, God made Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve. Ha ha ha. Tell me if you are tired of hearing that one yet.
These same busybodies will work in the name of their religion to deny happiness as well as rights and protections to other human beings. As if Jesus would really be like that.
As far as I can tell, the Jesus who speaks to me from the Gospels is a Jesus who is all about treating people with compassion, fairness, and hospitality. He had little patience with busybodies and with those who twisted laws to justify their mistreatment of others.
Life in Spirit as Jesus saw it and announced it, was not about never making a mistake. It was not about being perfect. For those poor souls who think life is about trying to be perfect, the best they will do is put on a mask and pretend. Trying to bury and conceal woundedness takes a lot of energy. As does trying to project it on others. Life in Spirit is about owning one’s woundedness. It is about forgiving ourselves and others. It is about getting up each day and starting again.
I am not much of a believer in original sin. I do, however, affirm original woundedness. We are all wounded and we carry these wounds. If we don’t bring them to consciousness, name them, and honor them, we will wound others and ourselves even more. We will continue to wound, generation after generation.
During communion, the celebrant lifts the bread in front of the congregation and breaks it. It is a visual symbolic act. A symbolic act is rich with meaning. The action itself means more than what words can convey. When I as celebrant break the bread and simultaneously as congregant witness the bread being broken, I acknowledge my own woundedness.
We are all broken. In the breaking of the bread we are confronted with that at once painful and liberating truth. We are all broken, wounded. That is our common bond.
We are broken in our interpersonal relationships. We are broken in our individual psyches. We are broken in our communities. We are broken in our nation. We are broken in our global family. We are broken in our relationship with Earth and with all living things.
The way of letting go and letting be is to let go of the need to keep nursing our particular manifestation of brokenness, our favorite wound. We can let go of the need to blame others for it, to feel ashamed about it, or to demand redress from someone (or society or God) for it.
Paradoxically, when we give up control of our woundedness, we are liberated from the control the wound has over us. We can only truly let go, that is forgive, when we realize that we have no right or power to forgive. Forgiveness only comes when we recognize that our woundedness is connected with that of others.
We are all wounded and broken including the busybodies, fusspots, and scolds. Forgiveness is the experience of being lucky enough to shrug and smile at the busybodies, including the busybody that is us.
As the bread is broken and the wine is poured all over the world today, may we and all living things receive the blessings we need. We are not alone. The bread and wine is for all of Earth, all of wounded Earth and all of its life. The bread and wine is for all of our broken, wounded and wonderful sisters and brothers.
As much as I have been involved with this organization throughout the years (my current congregation is affiliated with the Covenant Network) this is the first conference I have attended. 
