+Points to ponder

1. What are the four things, according to the sermon, that God has joined together?
2. What does St. Paul mean when he calls the Church, ‘the body of Christ’? Does understanding it in the way he describes bring us together in closer relationship to God and to each other? What do you make of Paul’s statement that we have, in our baptisms, been united to Christ? (Romans 6)?
3. How might we encourage those to see God’s uniting work who say that they ‘believe’ but, they ‘don’t need the church’?

+Sermon Transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto each of you from God our Father and our Lord and King, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Let us pray: Keep, O Lord, Your household the Church in continual godliness; that through Your protection she may be free from all adversities, and devotedly serve You in good works, to the glory of Your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

The Russian theologian Nicolas Zernov wrote: “A division is always a division, and it would never come about unless love has been driven out and hatred and indifference have taken its place.” Like many Christians who mourn the fractured state of the Church, he was lamenting the painful humiliation we experience as a divided body of Christ. Zernov’s lament about division seems apropos as we look at our Gospel reading from Mark this morning.

We again have a ‘hard-for-our-sinful-ears-to-hear’ section in Mark’s Gospel today. Nevertheless, we need to hear it because Christ’s work in His life, death, resurrection, and ascension begins for us as we enter into a posture of repentance as a yearning for the connection with God that Christ repairs – that Christ restores – our being united with Him and with each other.

So, as to the text, we know that the topic of divorce is obviously a problem caused by (and itself causing) division. But truth be told, the divide runs deeper, both in the appointed text and in our lives today.

Thus, another truth that our text helps us see is that each of us has experienced, at one point or another, division – the seemingly sudden tenuousness of a relationship we have had; or the outright estrangement in which we can find ourselves.

And so, the issue of division in our reading does not really begin with the Pharisee’s question about divorce. Division first arose much earlier in Mark’s Gospel. The cracks began in Mark, chapter two when Jesus claimed to forgive the sins of the paralytic. Rather than accepting His words (and works) as a gift from God, the Pharisees separated themselves from their own Messiah. This separation quickly morphed into outright opposition. In Mark, chapter three, the Pharisees are already seeking ways to destroy Him.

The test in this week’s text was not the first attempt to trap Him. In chapter eight it was the Pharisees who argued with Jesus and insisted the He give them some sort of sign. And the test today’s text would not be the last as we will see in chapter twelve as the Jewish leaders sought to entrap Him regarding the payment of taxes to their oppressors, the Roman Empire.

In this contentious context, the Pharisees asked Jesus a question about a specific type of division, namely, divorce. They wanted Him to take a stand on whether divorce was permissible. How they hoped to trap Jesus is not exactly obvious, and many commentaries offer various possibilities even if none of them seem definitive.

But that is okay, as it seems that the text finds Jesus’ response to their test to be more telling than the specifics of their plan. Jesus’ response was clear and direct. The permission Moses gave was never the way it was supposed to be. From the beginning, God had established marriage as a permanent union. Jesus’ conclusion in verse nine is definite – unambiguous: “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate (χωριζέτω).”

We acknowledge - when we together confess in the Creed, that we believe in ‘God the Father, Maker of heaven and earth,’ – we acknowledge that He is the Creator of all and that not only is He the Creator of all, He creates with intent. And that intent is uniting, it is, well, ‘creative.’ God joins things together.

On the other hand, the devil, our flesh, and this world, seek division – seek not creativity but destruction. Again, our text speaks more immediately to marriage and how in this union He joins two people into one. Hence the traditional vows … ‘in sickness and in health,’ ‘for richer or for poorer,’ ‘in good times and in bad,’ and Jesus says, “What God has joined together, let not man separate.”

What else has God joined together? Families. Without our consent or permission, God brought us into existence through parents. For many of us, He also provided siblings and children. The sad fact, however, is our greatest sources of heartache often stem from trouble with members of our immediate family. We are tempted to walk away, cold-shoulder, or edge out members of our family who are hard to love, forgive, or enjoy. “What God has joined together, let not man separate.”

What else has God joined together? Individual believers to others. St. Paul reminds us: “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”

Our merciful Father has united Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, men and women. He has made them members of one another as members of a body. God is even responsible for bringing you and me together right here at Redeemer at this time and in this place.

So, “the Church is not an institution as the word is popularly understood to mean, i.e., a bureaucracy concerned with [merely] getting a job done. When the Church is thus spoken of by what it does rather than what it is, it is reduced to a mere factory or academy. [The Church’s] being is not defined by activities, but by communion with Christ and the brethren.”

And so, we cannot afford to be bound by our personal preferences, or our penchant for programs, or our pining to grasp at the latest and greatest trends. We cannot afford to label our brethren faithless when things do not go in the way we think it should. It is these proclivities which too often sow the seeds of discord and hinder our communion with Christ and with each other. “What God has joined together, let not man separate.”

What else has God joined together? Individual believers to Himself. Holy Scripture tells us: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.”

Beloved, God has united YOU to Jesus in His death and resurrection. He has buried YOU and your divisive tendencies in the grave. He has raised YOU to a new and resurrected life. He has promised to remain faithful to YOU no matter what trial and tribulation may come your way.

This gave St. Paul encouragement which he shares with you and me: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate (χωρίσαι) us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

God’s promise here changes the real and potential divisions caused by sin in our lives. It emboldens us to live together and to love each other as members of His body with humility and selflessness. It empowers us to forgive and reengage estranged siblings, parents, and children. It enables those who are married to remain faithful to their vows, and to seek help when needed.

Above all, God’s promise that nothing can separate us from the love of Jesus means that our security, and our confidence, and our forgiveness – even for our part in past divisions – depends entirely on His faithfulness and not ours.

And so, with the tables turned on our dissension and divisiveness, in the end, we can rejoice to say, “What God has joined together in Christ, man cannot separate.” Amen

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

Sermon Study helps from Peter Nafzger (Ph.D. Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MO) is Assistant Professor of Practical Theology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. He is the author of "These Are Written: Toward a Cruciform Theology of Scripture." Found at https://www.1517.org/articles/gospel-mark-102-16-pentecost-19-series-b, accessed on September 27, 2021.