Okay, so a couple of updates on this warm, rainy afternoon...

First of all, I found out on Tuesday evening that my uncle now has pneumonia. IDK if he already had it when he went into the hospital for his foot/leg fluid issue, or if he contracted it since he's been there. Prayers for God's timing and provision. My parents only have until Monday, the 22nd to not exceed the 14 day limit on visitors at THAT complex. My oldest, Carissa, brought them to Concord for a City Welfare appointment today, but I haven't heard anything of what was discussed as yet.

Meanwhile, my ex-boyfriend Jeremy texted me about calling soon. We haven't spoken on the phone since before he left for the Philippines in early October. He's been back for over a month now, but withe the craziness of having Mike here, then my parents, back to back, I've needed A LOT of down-time. And he understands that, so even though he hasn't responded to my return message yet, I know he will.

Two more bits of good news, just from this afternoon, are that I was able to find new winter boots at a store I frequent just down the hill from where I live. My old ones have started crushing my left foot, specifically. I have no idea why, as I've had them for 2 years now; but the new ones will actually be easier to manage and maintain. (They zip rather than tying, and they don't need to be sprayed) I wasn't expecting to find anything decent for a low price, but Praise God!! Also, I received one of the FTC Amazon refund checks, so YAY!! That basically reimburses me for the boots I had bought for my parents a couple of weeks ago, so that definitely helps!!

So, most places with sports teams have mascots, right?? To my knowledge, my own school only had a mascot for one year. This happened 3 or 4 years before I was a Senior. It was a large white stuffed animal named Hobart. He was a donkey, if I remember correctly. His picture in the Year Book stated that his favorite color was chartreuse, of all colors!! LOL

While Hobart's "service" as mascot that year was forced, being that he was a stuffed animal, we find in today's message, that Jesus refused to be made a mascot to the misunderstood purpose of His role as Messiah by supporting anything of man's warped ideas of power.*

Our Scripture today is Mark 10:1-12 --

Mark 10:1-12

New International Version

Divorce

10 Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them.

² Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”

³ “What did Moses command you?” he replied.

⁴ They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”

⁵ “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. ⁶ “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’^{[a] 7} ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,^{[b] 8} and the two will become one flesh.’^[c] So they are no longer two, but one flesh. ⁹ Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

¹⁰ When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. ¹¹ He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. ¹² And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”

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In reviewing this passage, along with my notes just now, I am reminded of what this passage actually covers. The issue of divorce, as presented here, is troubling. To me, if the Covenant of Marriage has been broken, whether by Adultery, abuse (See Eph. 5:21-33), or simply by mutual agreement of both parties, then it is also broken before God. Therefore, the bit about not remarrying unless the ex dies, just doesn't mesh with God's love for us and the fact that true "abundance of life" comes from Him. (See John 10:10)*

Starting on a lighter note, Pastor Matt commented on the Car Show that was happening around the immediate area as a "Muffler Clinic" someone was running. 😆😆

Digging into the message, Pastor Matt's initial thought was this -- "In the midst of violence, vitriol, anger, confusion, and division, the Kingdom of God has come." He cited James 4:1-2, which reads as follows --

James 4:1-2

New International Version

Submit Yourselves to God

4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? ² You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.

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He went on to say that we, as Christians, are anchored by Jesus, giving us hope and peace. The truth is, only self-sacrificial love, as revealed by Jesus, can fix things.* He then proceeded to share about an object his daughter, Liberty, has. If you're familiar with Marvel Comics, you'll know what a tesseract cube is. Essentially, it's a crystal. Therefore, when light passes through, it shines out at every angle. (See image below) The connection here is that Jesus is the Light of the World. He was not sent to bend to man's expectations. His Mission was to bring Salvation and to teach His Followers how to share it. Full stop.

As I mentioned in my last post*, there were moments at which Jesus needed to manage the Disciple's expectations of what it truly meant to be Messiah. One of the ways He did this was by drawing them in by various parables and stories.

In looking at our passage above, we see in verse 2 how Jesus is refusing to be trapped by the questions of the Pharisees and Sadducees. This shows that He was refusing to be their mascot. Rather than agreeing directly with any one of their views, He simply explained the reason for the OT Laws and quoted from Genesis 2.

At the same time, there is a passage Pastor Matt brought out from Deuteronomy. Chapter 24, verses 1-5 outline the rules of divorce under Moses. They are controversial for 2 reasons. Number 1, is that the Hillel School of Torah (the discussion of which "finds the nakedness of the matter") views this as meaning that divorce is is acceptable for any reason decided upon by the couple in question. Conversely, the Shemai view is that Adultery is the only acceptable reason. In asking the question, the Pharisees and Sadducees were trying to divide the crowd. This also would have brought the issue of John the Baptist and Herod Antipas to mind. (the latter had married his brother's wife after the two had divorced) Jesus was not willing to participate in their ploys of division. Instead, He stood firm on His own Authority. Another way Pastor Matt phrased it was that He refused to be a "Billy Club". He invites us into relationship with Him so that we can learn to treat each other with respect while telling the truth in love. (See Eph. 4:15)

Verses 5-9 are just as much points of Covenant Loyalty with God as they are relevant to human divorce. The focus here is on rejecting the Old and embracing the New. In light of Salvation, we should reject immorality, and other sinful habits*, and embrace life in God.

Speaking of the Old Testament, the book of Hosea is uniquely suited to this discussion. While God specifically directs him to marry a prostitute; He is doing it for the greater purpose of showing the Nation of Israel what their continued patterns of disobedience toward Him looked like from His perspective. While the book is a prophetic image of God's judgement on Israel, it also shows His hesed (generous, ongoing, tenacious) mercy on them.

As we see throughout Scripture, Covenant Loyalty is a sign of the Kingdom of God. In acknowledging human weakness and the complexity of the human heart; He provides not rules, per se, so much as a vision for the Kingdom. (that actually helps a lot in understanding and properly interpreting this passage)

Finally, in verses 10-12, it is important as a point of context, to understand that, in Jewish and Roman Law, the woman was not a factor. Here, Jesus introduces the the point that Adultery can just as easily be perpetrated against the woman as the man. This speaks to Jesus' history of taking the marginalized and lifting them up.

The fact is that God requires partnership in Creation in order to fully accomplish His Mission of fixing long-standing issues. Two major aspects of this are --

• The ideal of Covenant Loyalty, even in rebellion. This is not meant to be an excuse for bad behavior; but about trusting God in the midst of weakness.*

• The beauty of ALL as image-bearers of our Creator. Just as He has no favorites among us, neither should we. Rather, we are called to respect everyone. (At least as human beings, if not for their specific ideas)

As mentioned above, God doesn't go by rules. He simply invites us into His Ways. Marriage is a beautiful image of our relationship with God. As we honor each other, we honor Him. In closing, Pastor Matt included the fact that even singles should honor others physically, mentally, and emotionally. Amen.

-- God Bless!!

Footnotes:

1. The only place we see Jesus even mentioning human authority, I believe, is in Matthew 22:21. This is when He basically tells the people, "render unto Caesar what is Caesar, and to God what belongs to God." In other words, fulfill your Civic Duties, but make sure your heart is safe with Him.

2. For more on this, see my blog post, "Sex and the Single Christian". You can find it on the Reflections Page. In addition, I will be writing an addendum, most likely as a separate post. I can't promise when, but be sure to keep looking...

3. If only more Christians would embrace the ways of Christ in self-sacrificial love, and refuse to be hypocritical and judgmental, we would bring a much better image of God to the World.

4. When I got to the bit about referencing my last post, I realized I hadn't explained why it's been 2 days in between. On Tuesday, the Maintenance guy came by, ostensibly to re-caulk my bathtub. When I asked about my kitchen sink, which I had called about, just casually, on Friday, he had no record of it. Consequently, he and another guy ended up working on it all. day. long. (NEVER put grease down your drains!!) On Wednesday, I expected the first guy back to do the calking, but he wasn't. He came back this morning and got it done. So, here we are.

5. Of course, in light of "immorality" and "sin", we are confronted with defining each of those terms. I think you'll find, that if you read enough of these posts, you'll see that I've mentioned this before. For those of you who haven't, here it is -- While the ISSUE of sin is universal, the DEFINITIONS can differ depending on various places and times. For example, traditionally speaking, here in the US, a "good Christian" would never drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes. But if you were to go to Indonesia, smoking and drinking are not seen as a problem. Over there, a "good Christian" wouldn't be caught dead in a Pool Hall. This is taken from the book, "Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes", by E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J O'Brien.

6. Speaking to the point of maintaining good behavior in a time of weakness, I actually have a personal example to share. Back in October of 2016, before Jeremy was preparing to move back East to be with me, I went out to Lincoln, Nebraska to visit him so he could "show me the sights" before leaving. (Nice town, BTW!!) Now, it's important to understand that I had been divorced for over 5 years by this time. He had just recently finalized his 2nd divorce. As it happened, the VERY WEEKEND before my trip, I had been invited to a Women's Conference, happening about an hour away. During some quiet time on that Saturday, I ended up messaging Jeremy that we would not be as physically active as we had planned. He agreed to this. The result was that we remained "pure" for the 10 days I was there; in spite of the fact that there was no option but to share the bed. Even when he moved to be with me just a few weeks later, it was mid January before we actually broke the agreement. (In my divorce, Adultery was one aspect. In Jeremy's Adultery was present, in some way, both times.)

Music -- Never any rights!!