27 “You
have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But
I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed
adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right
eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you
to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into
hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to
sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of
your members than for your whole body to go into hell.
I read the above words and think, “What in the name of
all that is holy did Matthew do with the soft, cuddly Jesus I grew up
with?” I think, “Whoa, Jesus! Someone woke up on the wrong side of the
bed.” Or, to return to what we discussed
yesterday, “Lord, help him!”
Deep breath.
Jesus is diving into sexual ethics here. I want to be clear that Jesus is putting the
onus not on women, but men.
We live in a world where our sisters continue to be sexualized from the
Superbowl commercials to pageants parading God’s beloved daughters in bathing
suits to school dress codes that tell young women their clothing choices are
the problem. The obligation Jesus speaks
is for men to keep their sexual desires in check. Let’s confess to each other that the recent
news reports shine a harsh, hard light that our culture does not do this and
how men continually disrespect women.
Before we say the problem is “out there”, we know in our UCC, women
clergy are paid less than men clergy.
We live in a world where the Victorian sexual ethic is still
in the water we drink and air we breathe.
We don’t talk about objectification of God’s daughters, we don’t deal
with sex trafficking, we turn a blind eye and often blame women who bring
charges against men. This passage might
be 2000 years old, but it is as challenging as it was the day the words fell
from Jesus’ lips.
I don’t have an instant or immediate resolution. We need to wrestle with legacies of pain
women have suffered. We need to confess
how we cling to “boys being boys” as an excuse of behavior. Human relationships can help or hurt; there
is an energy within us and between us and in the other ~ and we cannot
control/change the energy in others. To
be sure, when trust in a marriage is broken due to adultery, it is painful as
an eye torn out and hand cut off.
Adultery, emotional abuse, neglect, and the pain we cause each other
that violate the vows of love are all hell on earth.
Today, I pray for men and women whose marriage vows and
relationships are on the rocks because of adultery. I pray for the ways we sexualize each other,
especially women. I pray for the ways we
fail to affirm the holiness of one another and end up using one another to meet
our own desires and demands.
Lord, help us.
Lord, heal us. Lord, hold us
accountable to not dismiss or discount all you call “Beloved”. Amen.
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