Notes from this week's sermon

'Mind you, I didn't give the sermon, I'm paraphrasing without permission, but Deacon Chata said some interesting things I wanna remember.

-- A lot of people insist that they are better Christians/spiritual people when they're alone in the middle of Nature with no one but themselves and God. But there is only one time during the Creation Stories that God takes a look around and says, "This isn't a good thing". And that's when humankind (Edom/Adam/That One Guy) is alone in the middle of Nature with no one but him and God.

-- God creates another human being, and Adam is ecastic because he not only recognizes a part of himself in another person, but because he has someone else to love.

-- "Love sucks sometimes." Especially when our loves leave us. Living alone and being alone sucks rocks. Part of the point of getting our butts out of bed on Sunday is to come together with other human beings, to get out of our lonlieness and create a community of love (even though it also means we have to deal with the annoyances that being with other human beings brings)

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And now, my own reflection on the Gospel lesson-- When the Pharasiees came up and asked about divorce, they were testing Jesus. It's the equivalent of our "Where do you stand on the Ordination of Women?" or "Does God make homosexuals?" It's to test where on the political spectrum Jesus fell. Jesus goes and does that Teacher thing where you answer a question with another question (which is my all-time favorite thing to do when I'm teaching), and asks pretty much, "What does the Bible say? What does tradition say? What have you guys always done?"

So they tell him.

And Jesus proceeds to scold them and turn their perceptions upside-down.

Jesus was always doing things like that.
Jesus is always doing annoying things like that.
Jesus will always do annoying things like that, and people will get cranky at Him for it.

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In other news, check back here on Wednesday. Big things happening. It'll be fun. I think.