Ah, Marriage. That condition needed in this life. For God noted that it was not good that men would be alone, and that a helpmeet, an equal, a creature with moral agency, needed to be there. Not male.
Not male. Complementary to male. And we know women have moral agency, for the LORD held her accountable for her actions. Adam was cursed with travail, troubles: from effort and sweat would his food arrive. And she was cursed with the wish to rule, but a desire to be for her husband, to be a wife, to be a helpmeet, as in the garden.
But Alte reminds us this morning that we are living in places nowhere near the garden.
Clearly, the problem with Germany — if you can call amassing a European empire "problem" — is that they have too many homemakers.
— TradChristianity (@TradChristianit) August 20, 2013
Nothing new there. Jesus was come to bring the kingdom of God to this earth, and was opposed by those who accounted themselves as wise, as powerful, and as religious. Those who lack imagination. Those who can only see the current state: have neither read history nor science fiction, and have never learned, or forgotten, that the intellectual fashions of this generation are as ephemeral as the hemline.
13Then they sent to him some Pharisees and some Herodians to trap him in what he said. 14And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not? 15Should we pay them, or should we not?” But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why are you putting me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me see it.” 16And they brought one. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” 17Jesus said to them, “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were utterly amazed at him.
18Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, saying, 19“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that ‘if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. 20There were seven brothers; the first married and, when he died, left no children; 21and the second married her and died, leaving no children; and the third likewise; 22none of the seven left children. Last of all the woman herself died. 23In the resurrection whose wife will she be? For the seven had married her.”
24Jesus said to them, “Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? 25For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27He is God not of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong.”
In the time to come, there will be no marriage. Nor will there be hard work, or Caesars (Roman, Russian, American or otherwise) who demand our taxes and respect. But heaven is not come on this earth.
Instead, if we are of Christ, we are of a hidden kingdom. The medieval idea that the city of God, so ably described by Augustine, may be able to be made in this earth by Christian kings and the universal church sickened during the reformations* and was rejected in the false enlightenment.
We are now as it was in the early church. We are public, but without power. We are loyal to a hidden king, obeying the commands of our Master, and seen as subversive, for our loyalties are not for this time.
But in this time, we need each other. Marriage is good, for most of us burn with desire, and those who can leave this alone — as Paul did — can often do greater things for the kingdom. (Every kingdom needs shock troops).
In the time to come, we will be fully complete. But that is not yet. In this time, we need to acknowledge and respect the talents of the other gender — but not worship them.
For before God, we are all equally accountable, equally fallen, and equally poor. Our glory is rusted and torn in comparison with that to come. And do not let this world drive that teaching from your mind. For our kingdom straddles this time and the time to come: the kingdoms and republics of this world will, by way of contrast, all fade and die.
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* The Protestant reformation led to a reformation within the Catholic church — in particular the spiritual life of Catholic believers. For every Luther, the was an Erasmus: for every Calvin an Ignatius. Both Catholics and Protestants died for their faith, from Mary Queen of Scots to the Bishops Bloody Mary burnt. The enlightenment was seen as such because the people were sick of wars of religion.
