Eighteenth Sunday

Today's Saying

One advantage of marriage is that, when you fall out of love with him or he falls out of love with you, it keeps you together until you fall in again. ~Judith Viorst

Many of the liturgical churches celebrate today as the eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost. In those using the Revised Common Lectionary the Gospel is Mark 10:2-16. If you read the text you will discover it contain two different topics. The first is on marriage and the second starting at verse 13 is on faith and children.
This morning I am going to write just about the first part.
One must be careful when one comes to the Bible not to read in answers to today’s questions that are not in that text.
Fir example some people use this text to prove gay marriage is wrong. But the text is not interested in gay marriage so It can’t be used to prove anything in that area either way.
A group of Pharisees came to test Jesus. They wanted to catch Him saying something wrong. They wanted something to use against Him. Sort of like a TV reporter trying to get a politician to say something they can use on the Evening News.
So they ask “ Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?
Now everybody knew the answer to that.
The men did because it favored them.
The women did because they suffered under it.
By this time the Law of Moses had been refined so that all a man had to do was say to his wife “ I divorce you” and he was divorced. She was out in the cold with no rights at all.
But they seemed to be hoping that this radical Jesus would have an unorthodox opinion.
Jesus asks them what Moses said. They tell Him that Moses said it was okay for men to divorce their wives.
Then Jesus did to them what people who like to quote Scripture out of context hate. He asked why did Moses do this.
Then he tells them it was because of their hardness of heart. It was not God’s intent that men should get divorced.
Then he quotes from Scripture before Moses and how God intended for neither women nor men to get divorced. But they were to become one entity blessed by God.
The problem for us now is that the kind of marriage which Jesus speaks of is becoming rarer and rarer.
Real marriage requires commitment.
Real marriage requires love.
Real marriage requires God’s blessing.
Real marriage requires an expectation of being together until death parts them.
People marry today:
With no expectations but the thrill of the moment.
With no love just the joy of sex.
Without even asking or looking for the blessing of God.
Because the spouse to be is so pretty or handsome.
Because they are pregnant and the family is leaning on them.
Because weddings are so beautiful and part of their dream.
I know this because over my ministry I performed hundreds of marriages.
I saw three types of couples enter into marriage.
1. People who were in love , wanted God’s blessings on it, and had great expectations for their life together. You could tell them by the way they looked at each other and they way they talked about marriage. All of those marriages are either still going strong or went strong until one died.
2. People who could grow into a real marriage. They had some love for each other. Some understanding of God’s purpose in their life and a willingness to try commitment. I saw some of those grow into wonderful marriages but I saw others collapse.
3. People who had no idea what marriage was all about. But they wanted to get married anyway. I tried, often to talk them out of it but I seldom succeeded. Most of those marriages failed.
By Jesus understanding of marriage only the first group and part of the second were really married.
The rest entered into pretend marriages with pretend divorces like Hollywood movie stars. They never really divorced because they never really married.
At the same time there are people who have entered into a real marriage without getting a licensee from the state.
We live in strange times.
We can draw from today’s text that God wants couples to become one. God wants commitment and love. God wants to bless their life together.
Almost anything else doesn’t fit the age in which we live.

(Click on the Pigeon Falls Graphic for previous chapters.)

Poor Tommy knew the battle was lost but didn't want to surrender. If he turned off his power that was the same as surrendering but that's what the voice wanted him to do. He looked at Herman but Herman didn't seem to hear the voice. He knew the voice. It said it could help. He needed help.
Finally he decided to trust it really was Oops.
He turned off the power.
He felt himself being shaken then he was sitting up not on the street but in his bed. His mother was shaking him.
" You had a bad nightmare" she said. " You put out some kind of shield that kept us out of the room as we tried to help you."
Tommy hoped it was only a nightmare and not a vision of things to come otherwise he had seen the end of Pigeon Falls. He couldn't understand how he had projected power without the rock which was in the desk drawer well out of his reach. Another mystery for him to solve later if they lived through this battle.
How many more nights of this before the real thing?

Today we add a little spice to the treasure chest. A full gram of pure Spanish Saffron. Saffron sells for $3000 a pound. A priceless addition to our chest.


And the name Betty drew yesterday is Akelamalu. If she draws it again today Akelamalu gets what is in the treasure chest.
We will announce the drawing right after it occurs.

Betty has come to the computer room and drawn
It wasn't Akelamalu
Sorry Akelamau

The name drawn today and that will win everything in the treasure chest tomorrow if it is drawn again is:

.


.

AIMS

Congratulations Aims.
Why not stop by and wish her luck for tomorrow,

,