1 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The sermon text is from Mark 10:2-16. Our Old Testament lesson describes the first surgery ever performed. Everything that God created He called good, only one thing was found wanting: It is not good that man should be alone. So God caused a deep sleep and drew a rib from Adam s side to form a suitable helper, presenting Eve and instituting God s gift of marriage. It seems doubly fitting on a day we give thanks for our Lutheran Women s Missionary League and also Life Sunday that these verses should fall under our consideration. A few years ago my niece asked me to officiate at her wedding. It was a great honor to celebrate that day, as we also celebrated her brother s wedding just last weekend. When she asked, I told her that I d be honored to officiate, but she must approach it with Christian integrity and that meant not living together outside of marriage until the day. That was already part of their commitment to each other, part of their Godly courage to found their marriage on God s will and to make God the center of their future home. But it was, and is, important that the Church not give witness to the world that we don t really care what God says We must be more interested in pleasing God than each other. Those are important things, not only for pastors, but for parents to speak. To be sure, there s much to risk. Sometimes people don t like to hear what s right, but if the Church is silent where will we hear the truth? Marriage was God s gift to our first parents in the Garden. Sexuality with the potential of God-gifting children was part of the goodness of that gift. Homosexual unions are a perversion of God s will. God gave Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve and Jesus is the One who said, A man will leave his father and mother and be united to
2 his wife and the two will become one flesh. What God has joined together, let no man separate. Supreme Court decisions and state laws aside, marriage, as God has given it, is the lifelong union of one man and one woman. It s the only way the body parts fit healthily together, and it s the only union that gives life. We see from the question put to Jesus that divorce is a perversion of God s will for this one-flesh union, with only two Biblical exceptions: adultery and abandonment. Jumping from one marriage to the next marriage to the next is never to learn to love and forgive and bear with each other, or to miss the joy of wading through the hard times and holding on to celebrate the good. To shack up outside of marriage is to begin with the unspoken clause there s a way out we are not committing to God or each other. We ll use one another just so long as we derive happiness. Is it any wonder that those unions so undertaken are many times more likely to fail? Other perversions of marriage include abusive relationships, spouses addicted to pornography, or Facebook friending others on the side. Some perversions of marriage aren t obvious at all, they are mine, and likely yours, a deficit of love and care in the home, the taking for granted of the spouse, the hurtful words and fights behind closed doors, where forgiveness is neither sought, nor given. Regarding each of these perversions of marriage, God s Word has clearly spoken: Those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. That is to say they will go to hell. But 1 Corinthians 6 goes on in the very next phrase to add: And that is what some of you were, but you were washed, you were justified by the Spirit of our God. Did you catch that? Such some of them were and yet they were forgiven!
3 Thanks be to God that for sins such as homosexuality or divorce or cohabitation or my marital moodiness there is grace and forgiveness from God! But that forgiveness only comes through repentance! It won t do for you to say, I ve chosen this lifestyle or I was born this way, so I don t need to repent. I was born the way I am, but that doesn t give me license for sleeping around, before or during marriage. The way of faith is the way of repentance to be done with the excuses and be real with ourselves and God. Why would we hold on to our sins and try to justify them before God and the world, when Jesus died to forgive them completely? And how can I think those sins, which demanded heaven s highest payment, are no big deal? Yet, Jesus receives and forgives His repentant children. The Samaritan woman in John 4 who met Jesus at the well had 5 husbands before living with a 6 th outside of marriage, but Christ called her to repentance and invited her in faith to receive Him as Savior to drink from the water that becomes a spring welling up to eternal life. That s what we are. And we must learn in repentance to see ourselves also as poor, miserable sinners. Jesus came to save sinners like the woman, and like you and me. This is totally off the text at this point, but there are some things we must share with our children and not leave it to the smut shows on TV to teach, some things we must have the guts to say straight and true, speaking the truth in love. Pornography is insidious, soul-destroying. It s a coarsening cancer that deforms, especially for men, their ability to have normal relationships. You make a serious mistake if your kids have unmonitored access to visual media. Throw away the TV or the smart phone or the computer, if that s what it takes. To paraphrase Jesus words it s better to go down to the grave without a cell phone than with a cell phone to be thrown into hell.
4 Remember the Christian wedding is about a marriage under God, not the marriage being about a wedding or a one day pageant. If your resources allow you to celebrate in a big way, that s wonderful, but don t delay a wedding for the sake of arranging festivities. Better to invite God into the new home. If necessary have a simple wedding, and then plan a huge wedding and dance with all the trimmings for later. That s not shameful. It s Christian character. And when your family does it that way get em a double gift as an Atta boy! And when the white hot passions of the early days abate, the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer are well remembered: It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on the marriage that sustains your love. Perhaps, most importantly, talk to your kids and pray with them now for a spouse who loves Jesus. It s very hard to live out our faith and found our families on Christ when one partner in the marriage isn t a child of God. Do not be unequally yoked to an unbeliever, 2 Corinthians 6 says, for what fellowship can light have with darkness! Especially, dads, God has laid this charge before you to bless your home by talking about your faith and praying with your family As you work, pray and play with your families, moms and dads let Jesus love permeate your words and worldview. Marriage is a gift from God. Some never receive that gift. In that singleness, some are content to use their extra time to serve God by serving others. Some grieve with prayerful, longing hearts. For these we pray God s strength. Some who married have lost their loved ones too quickly, humanly speaking. Others carry the hurt of divorce or grew up in broken homes. Some in marriage find their plans and dreams disrupted by the chronic illness or disability of their loved one. Some marriages ache for the gift of a baby s shriek echoing down their halls, but that day doesn t come.
5 We don t all receive from God s hand alike. Yet, we carry on in the certainty that God gives to each as His good and perfect will determines for our benefit. This side of heaven, even in marriage and family, we bear crosses that sometimes bring sadness. Married or single, divorced or widowed, the Savior who invited little children into His arms and blessed them, invites you to repent and run into His arms. Whether you have failed in marriage or are struggling with conflict, whether happily married or hoping to meet that person, be assured that through faith in Jesus God s greatest gift and promise is for you. The Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. His love reaches out to embrace you; and in repentance know, His faithfulness is greater than your failures. God has betrothed Himself to you in Jesus blood. What God has joined together in Holy Baptism through faith no one can tear asunder. Jesus said, No one can pluck you from My hand. Just as Eve was drawn from husband Adam s side, the Bride of Christ the Church was betrothed to Jesus when Christ the Second Adam s side was pierced on the cross of death. He laid down His life to draw you into a relationship of love and grace and forgiveness. To us who struggle in repentance over shameful thoughts, failed marriages or inappropriate lifestyles for us who are not for our spouse s what God calls us to be, you and I have a Savior who was faithful, even to death on the cross, a Savior who rose from the dead and lifts you up with the healing assurance that your sins are forgiven. Your debt has been paid in full. You are no longer a slave to the lies of the world, but God s strength can set you free and forgiven to live the life He calls you to live. In a little while, we ll place 60 white crosses on our north lawn, each cross in remembrance of a million little souls known only to God. We do it in testimony to God s
6 purpose of life and love, and we do it in remembrance that the cross of Christ is heaven s answer to a world of brokenness and despair. He from whose spear-pierced side the Bride of Christ was drawn, ever still extends His arms to draw you into an embrace that can t be broken. For better or for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness or in health, nothing can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. And now may the peace of God which surpasses human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.