tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29373297.post8272074954551558887..comments2024-03-23T18:50:32.902-04:00Comments on Telling Secrets: What's in your heart?Elizabeth Kaetonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06787552280232329081noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29373297.post-11169165538534583732011-02-16T17:09:30.607-05:002011-02-16T17:09:30.607-05:00Dear How - first of all, thanks for your visits an...Dear How - first of all, thanks for your visits and for leaving this comment. It's very courageous of you. <br /><br />I think we get into trouble with passages like this when we try to apply a situation that happened in antiquity to our modern - or, postmodern, actually situations. It just doesn't translate well.<br /><br />One quick, albeit simplistic analogy I can think of is trying to explain the word "groovy" without talking about the time in which that word came into popularity.<br /><br />Context. Context. Context.<br /><br />It would be like trying to explain to Luther what has happened to the Lutheran churches since he first posted his Thesis on the Cathedral door. <br /><br />Your question is not unlike the Sadducees question to Jesus in Mark's gospel about the man who was married seven times. They wanted to know which woman would be his wife in heaven. <br /><br />Jesus said, "At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven." <br /><br />Here's what I take from Jesus that I think is timeless: the vows we make on earth are sealed in heaven. The judgment we receive about the vows we make and break is not here on earth. Your soon-to-be ex husband may be a scoundrel but you are not an adultress. <br /><br />You are, as you say, simply a woman immensely grateful for God's grace. There's no better state of being than that.Elizabeth Kaetonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06787552280232329081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29373297.post-81402358334483438242011-02-16T14:38:18.773-05:002011-02-16T14:38:18.773-05:00I’ve been reading your blog for some time, but thi...I’ve been reading your blog for some time, but this is my first comment. Sorry for the length.<br /><br />This gospel has troubled me for many years. I am a woman in late middle-age, soon to be twice divorced. My first divorce was almost 30 years ago from an alcoholic husband. In the near future, I will be divorced from a husband who, after over 19 years of successful (I thought) marriage and two wonderful daughters, announced suddenly that he no longer wanted to be married to me. <br /><br />Hearing this gospel last week, (thanks to the common lectionary) I was struck for the first time, that Jesus was specifically addressing <b>men</b>, instructing them to give their wives a certificate of divorce. I presume this was preferable to just abandoning or expelling her. (Obviously women had no such privilege, nor did the husband require “grounds”.) And then Jesus warned that, even with such a bill of divorce, should the wife marry again, she would be an adulteress. The implication is that it doesn’t seem to matter what the wife did or did not do – she is still an adulteress if she remarries. <br /><br />Then this follows “But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife,” – obviously men – “except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery;” – divorced wife is adulteress – “and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” What about the man who divorces his wife (not because of “unchastity”) and remarries a single or widowed woman? Does that not make him an adulterer, too? <br /><br />Of course the roles of men and women were different in the time of Jesus, but, seeing what I saw this time, this passage now troubles me on an additional level. <br /><br />Thank you for your writings but, I confess, I still don’t know what to take away. Therefore, as a life-long Lutheran, I remain simply and immensely grateful for God’s grace.howdidIgetherehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03056673632591015789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29373297.post-23925750404831017492011-02-14T16:41:07.706-05:002011-02-14T16:41:07.706-05:00Amen, Anonymous. Please consider leaving your name...Amen, Anonymous. Please consider leaving your name, next time you come to visit.Elizabeth Kaetonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06787552280232329081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29373297.post-55585085139167868812011-02-14T13:25:58.125-05:002011-02-14T13:25:58.125-05:00And we should return hatred with love. We should ...And we should return hatred with love. We should return bigotry with love. By doing this we will shed God's light.<br /><br />Amen!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29373297.post-52025756864234826002011-02-14T00:41:53.783-05:002011-02-14T00:41:53.783-05:00Amen!Amen!SCGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08162762233972733978noreply@blogger.com