"Alaha" and "Adam"

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas

October 4, 2015; 19 Pentecost, Proper 22, Year B, Track 2

Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(Genesis 2:18-24)  The LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner." So out of the ground the LORD God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,

"This at last is bone of my bones

                and flesh of my flesh;

this one shall be called Woman,

                for out of Man this one was taken."

Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.

(Mark 10:2-16)  Some Pharisees came, and to test Jesus 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."

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.

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As English speakers, our name for Ultimate Reality is God, a word from the Germanic traditions. The native language that Jesus spoke was Aramaic, a language related to Hebrew. Jesus called God Alaha, which is similar to the Hebrew word Elohim and the Arabic Allah. The meaning of the name Alaha points toward the oneness of all that is as Sacred Unity. Unity without boundaries or qualifications. Oneness. Alaha.

In Genesis, Alaha says, "Let us make adam/humankind in our image,… male and female he created them." The Hebrew word for humankind or for the human person is adam. The sound of "A" (pro. Ah), pointing toward Alaha as the source and sacred unity of all, and the sound of dam, meaning blood, or sap, or essence. Adam/humanity/the person: the embodiment of the essence of the whole, the all: Alaha. Every human being is created in the image of Alaha, male and female, each whole human person containing both male and female, masculine and feminine along a continuum, as a human being. Genesis says that Alaha formed adam from the dust of the earth/adamah. Alaha breathes breath, spirit, air into the earthling/adam.

In the story of Genesis 1, at the end of each day of creation, God pauses and sees that everything God has created is good. Light, day, night, sky, water, earth, sun, moon, stars, birds, sea creatures and animals, and finally humankind/adam. "God saw everything that God had made, and indeed, it was very good."

It was all good, that is, until Genesis 2, the second creation story, when Alaha placed the human person into the garden and realized, "It is not good that adam/the human person should be alone." Humankind was made for relationship. So Alaha determined to make a helper as a partner. From the same earth/adamah, Alaha formed "every animal of the field and every bird of the air." And adam gave them all names, identity. They are all related to adam/humankind, formed of the same earth. But none of them was found to be a suitable helper and partner. So Alaha created from the rib of man (ish, in Hebrew) one called ishsha/woman. A new oneness in creation, "bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; …one flesh." She will be named Eve, meaning "living one, life-source, experience."

Adam, the human person who is the blood and essence of Alaha, the whole, the all; and Eve, the living one, life-source, quickening, reviving, nourishing helper/partner. One flesh. Centuries later the church will speak of God the Holy Spirit as the Helper, the quickening, enlivening, life-source.

So we see from these ancient stories that humankind is created to be in essential unity with Alaha, Sacred Unity itself, and to be in a living relationship of oneness within humanity. But we're not particularly good at being whom we are created to be.

"Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" It was hot-button question in Jesus' day. Marriage was an agreement negotiated between two families for the purpose of creating family alliances to increase their honor or wealth, and to provide heirs if they have property, or workers to help support the family with or without property. The loving relationship of the couple was a much desired but secondary interest.

The Hebrew grounds for divorce were found in Deuteronomy 24, allowing a man to write a certificate of divorce if the wife "does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her." The words of scripture are pretty ambiguous. What does "something objectionable" mean? There were two schools of thought in Jesus' day. The liberal school of Hillel held that divorce is permitted if, say, the wife ruins the meal. The conservative school of Shammai required a serious offense such as adultery. The Pharisees ask Rabbi Jesus, what do you think? Jesus took the conservative view. Earlier he sided with the liberals over the Sabbath.

Jesus asks his challengers what Moses says. They start to answer with that passage from Deuteronomy 24, but Jesus interrupts them and says this law was spoken only because of their hardness of heart. Jesus completely changes the focus, from Deuteronomy to Genesis, from the law and legalisms to origins and purpose. Jesus shifts the conversation from legal to relational categories, and he speaks in solidarity with the vulnerable.

A woman in that patriarchal culture had no identity or protection except through her male relationships – father, brothers, husband, male in-laws. A divorced woman was radically vulnerable, in need of male protection. It was a hard-hearted system. Jesus decries it.

Moreover, he goes on to say something remarkable about the consequences of the customary male hegemony. "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her." Against her! In that world, if a man was unfaithful to his wife, he would have offended or shamed her father or her brothers; they are the ones who entrusted her to him. But Jesus says the husband has sinned against the woman, against her dignity and honor and rights.

Jesus deflects the law in Deuteronomy and goes back to the origin stories of Genesis where we read that God cares about relationship. God's intention is unity. We are to be one flesh. Unspoken but implied: humanity may be unfaithful to this fundamental unity, but God will not. The Sacred Unity of Alaha is utterly dependable and eternal love. God will not be separated from what God has joined, and God has joined humanity, for good.

But you, human beings: There is much hardness of heart.

Jesus then reaches for a child. Be like this. Receive the Sacred Unity of the kingdom of God as a gift. Receive it simply, with open hands, like a child.

It is important for us not to read this scripture legalistically, like the Pharisees tried to do. I know some churches that have created rules and canons based on passages like this one. I have seen the hardness of heart behind their enforcement. I have known marriages that were destructive to the human spirit. I have known marriages that have died. I have known broken hearts when well-meaning clergy have imposed strict rules upon vulnerable, hurt people in the complications of divorce or remarriage.

Until 1973, the Episcopal Church would not allow remarriage after divorce. We were trying to be faithful to the scripture and words like these we read today from Mark's gospel. Eventually we also returned to our beginnings and remembered. "It is not good that the human person should be alone." (Gen. 2:18) We saw the fruit of the Holy Spirit in the loving relationships of divorced Episcopalians who had been remarried outside the church. Their lives together did not look like sin; but rather, resurrection. We remembered Paul's words: "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and temperance. Against these there is no law." (Gal. 5:22-23)

Jesus came that we might have life, abundant life. God created us to be in relationship, to be one. That oneness can be exquisitely experienced in the relationship of one flesh in a lifelong, commitment of faithful love. It is both hard work and a divine gift when that happens.

Whatever happens, God is faithful. God breathes divine life and Spirit into our being moment by moment, loving us and re-creating us constantly, over-and-over. Renewing God's promises of acceptance and forgiveness, the essential qualities for an enduring, loving relationship. Alaha, Sacred Unity, is one with adam, you and me. We are the blood and essence of that divine love and unity. Every week we renew that oneness and identity as we take the sacred body and blood of the divine into our bodies and we are recreated – whole and one.

We are one – with each other and with God. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.

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God's infinite grace, acceptance and love.

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