Are We Willing To Stop Grumbling?

Good Morning Friends,

Patience and being straightforward kind of go together to help make a happy marriage. Marriage and children go together too, for the scripture right after today’s discussion about marriage in the Gospel of Mark is about children. But there is a message here about our spiritual journey and the work of the church more so than just about judgement calls on having healthy relationships. Jesus’ first miracle was at a Wedding and in Revelation the image is of a Wedding. So ultimately it is about having the right attitude and not having a hardened heart. So, Are We Willing To Stop Grumbling?

Scripture: Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. Above all, my beloved, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “Yes” be yes and your “No” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

James 5:9-12 (NRSV)

He left that place and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him; and, as was his custom, he again taught them. Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Mark 10:1-12 (NRSV)

People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

Mark 10:13-16 (NRSV)

Message:  Today’s Gospel passage from Mark sounds harsh and condemning however as you unpack it you hopefully will understand it is actually about freedom, hope and grace. Let’s start with the context. Mark tells us in verse 1, that Jesus left Capernaum and went down to the region of Judea and into the area east of the Jordan River. Once again crowds gathered around him, and as usual he was teaching them. That doesn’t seem important, but it is. Why would Mark tell us that Jesus went down to the region of Judea and into the area east of the Jordan River? There are two reasons. First, this reminds us that Jesus is headed to the cross. If you look at a map of Jesus’ day you see that He is headed closer and closer to Jerusalem where He will be crucified. He is still on mission. He is still moving forward. He still has a plan, and He is working that plan to perfection. Hard questions or the cross ahead of Him is not deterring Jesus. But the Pharisees were going to try to trap him with some inconsistency in character. They were trying to set Jesus up for failure. The kingdom of darkness would love to see him brought down and defeated. So, they ask Jesus a question about divorce knowing Jesus didn’t hold the liberal view. They knew Jesus held an extremely conservative view on divorce.  The Pharisees wanted to trap Jesus by getting him to state his conservative view on divorce in what was an ultra-liberal part of the world where males could divorce their wife by clapping their hands three times and telling them to leave.  But when asked, Jesus refers accusers back to scripture and ultimately shows his disciples that marriage is a way of discipleship and following the way of salvation by taking up our crosses and learning about self-denial. Jesus teaches that marriage requires enormous quantities of this self-denial. We have to die to our own preferences and desires, learn to serve our spouses, and so become more like Jesus. Marriage is not just to make us happy but to make us holy. The Pharisees asked Jesus a question about divorce because they knew that it was common for divorce to be easy in the region of Judea east of the Jordan and that Jesus held a conservative view. They hoped that people would begin to turn from Jesus because he held an unpopular view in a patriarchal society. But there is more because they were in an area controlled by Herod Antipas who divorced his wife to marry his brother’s wife Herodias. John the Baptist shows up and makes a public statement that it was against God’s law for Herod and Herodias to be married in Mark 6:18. Herod and Herodias eventually had John the Baptist arrested because of his statement and placed in prison. Eventually he was beheaded. I believe the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus with this question about divorce in order for Him to say something publicly about Herod’s marriage in the hopes that what happened to John the Baptist would happen to Jesus. Notice that Jesus did not simply answer these Pharisees immediately out of his own authority. He sent them back to Moses first. In other words, he upheld the authority of the Scriptures. He always referred to the Old Testament as a book that has the answers, as a book that is an authority on life. Someone once said that life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you respond to what happens to you. The point is that we are to overcome whatever circumstance that challenges us by trusting Jesus to help us through it. And sometimes that means overcoming that temptation to say too much, overcoming that desire to sin, overcoming that hurt, and finding a way to praise the God who has called us to be His children. And So, marriage is a way of discipleship that is to mirror our relationship with God and as such is meant to be permanent.  God takes marriage and divorce very seriously and God wants us to make marriage a major commitment in our lives that spills over into our collective life as a body of believers. And this my friends takes patience and a lot less grumbling.

And So, when we pray for patience, we often get more afflicted. But, when we receive the compassion and mercy of the Lord in our life, it acts as a foundation for our faith to grow and with our faith, patience that the Lord will complete the work started in us. Here we overcome. This perspective, this foundation, changes everything. It has an impact on us and others when we show compassion and mercy when we have challenges of our own. One of the greatest hymn writers of all time was Miss Fanny Crosby. She wrote over 9,000 hymns. There are many in our hymn books, To God Be The Glory, Tell Me The Story Of Jesus, and probably her best-known hymn, Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine. One biographer called her one of the greatest in America and gave her the title “Hymn Queen.” One thing you may not know about Miss Crosby is she accomplished all this totally blind. She lost sight due to an illness at 6 weeks of age and she was never bitter. One preacher told her he thought it was a great pity that God would give her so many talents but not give her sight. She said quickly, “Do you know that if at birth I could have made one request it would have been to be born blind.” “Why,” asked the surprised preacher. She said, “Because when I get to heaven, the first face I’ll see will be my Savior. “At the age of 95 Miss Crosby passed away and on the grave at Bridgeport Connecticut there is a simple headstone with these words:

“Blessed Assurance Jesus is mine,

Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.”

Unfortunately, when we gather together as a group of sinners to worship and work, or in a family setting, it is not surprising that we are not always models of good behavior, like Fanny Crosby.  It is within such context that James directs his comments in today’s scripture. In other passages from James, we are called to have patience in life’s challenges, to follow the example of farmers who wait unhurriedly for the crop. We are called to patiently develop the skills of living in a community of believers and to grow in love. Friends, the judge is standing at the doors of our hearts, the door of the Kingdom stands before us, so do not stop before the goal is reached. So, if you want to avoid judgment on the journey, do not be a stumbling block for others… stop grumbling. Remember how patient Jesus was… think about the prophets and Job and let them inspire you too… Let them compel you to be patient with others. Pursue patience, friends.  Do not judge the work of the Lord until it is completed. Victory requires persistence. Victory requires patience. Victory requires the right attitude. So, let the fruit of love ripen.  Stop grumbling and start living…start giving…start growing. The opening of doors depends on it. The health of relationships depends on it. The harvest depends on it.

Pray for those who do not think they are getting their fair share. Pray that we do not develop hardened hearts. Pray we realize that good marriages and good churches are never accidental. Pray that we respect people’s individuality. Pray that we realize that people have different needs and that those need to be communicated in relationships. Pray our relationships align philosophically, aesthetically, and spiritually. Pray that we all develop emotional maturity and have clarity, traction and focus. Pray that we have healthy attitudes.  Pray that we consider patience a virtue. Pray we realize that patience is developed by living a life of faith… by developing a calm endurance that comes with the knowledge that God is in charge. Pray we realize that James tells us the truth about this attitude, but that Jesus demonstrated it. Pray that we learn from children what it means to be humble. Pray we learn from children about honesty. Pray we learn from our children about trusting and accepting God’s authority…about having confidence that with God we can be empowered to stop complaining.

 Blessings,

John Lawson