Church and State
Isaiah 1:1, 2:1-10; Hebrews 1:1-4,2:5-12; Mark 10:2-16
I always experience a certain awkwardness when we come around to reading the Gospel selection for today that deals with divorce and marriage. I have been divorced after a 25 year marriage, and I am very happy in my second marriage of over seven years now, to a woman who, herself, was divorced after 25 years of marriage. But that doesn’t allay the pangs of guilt, the sense of failure that, I think, go along with any divorce in one way or another. Either the marriage was wrong to begin with, or it went wrong somewhere down the line, and we are never not at fault for either of those situations.
Churches and societies have struggled with this issue. Until 1972 remarriages after divorce were not allowed in the Episcopal Church. Now it is fairly rare for me to officiate at a wedding that’s a first marriage for both parties.
At times I’ve used our acceptance of divorce as an example of our willingness to interpret Jesus’ saying in other than literal, legalistic ways, particularly when people quote scripture as demanding or condemning certain sorts of behavior. This statement about divorce is, for example, a lot clearer than anything the New Testament has to say about homosexuality or war, and yet I don’t see propositions coming from the religious right to ban divorce or outlaw war.
I’ve come to the conclusion that we simply make a mistake when we try to turn any of Jesus’ statements, here or elsewhere, into some kind of moral code for a well regulated society. He spoke about spiritual reality, not social or political ideals. Our kingdom is a higher kingdom, our God a different sort of king.
Jesus says the law of Moses allows for divorce, but that really does not the to change the fact that when two people are married they become one flesh. I may not be legally married to Jane any more, but our lives are still spiritually connecting. Who I am in my soul, in my wholeness of life inevitably includes her. And the same would be true for a marriage of six months, if it were a true marriage. My life, my identity is also of “one flesh” with Molly. Spiritually I’m polygamous and an adulterer, and there’s nothing that can be done about that. So were Jacob and Solomon.
Evelyn Sharp, an old and venerated parishioner at Saint James, was very happy when I made it legal, but that was what Jesus was talking about here.
And that’s the difficult point I want to focus on this morning.
We have, I believe, a very defensible sacramental system in the Episcopal Church that recognizes an original, underlying spiritual reality of some kind and then manifests it in the world of space and time. Usually this has to do with some kind of call…a call to Baptism or confirmation, to ordination or marriage, to confession or communion…And we have developed sacramental rituals which represent outward and visible signs of these inward and spiritual experiences of grace. But it is God who transforms the bread and the wine at the altar, not my words of magic hands. A baby who is brought to that font for baptism is already a member of the body of Christ. The sprinkling of water and anointing with oil only call attention to that fact and celebrate it. The couple at a wedding are the ministers of the marriage. They are already one flesh when I bless their relationship.
Where it starts to get confusing is when the State gets involved. Marriage for the state is not a sacramental act. It’s a corporate contract. During the debate last year over Proposition 8 I would cringe when supporters used the argument that the state shouldn’t alter what the Bible has to say about the “sacred relationship of marriage.” The state shouldn’t have anything to say about any sacred institution. We left Europe and fought a revolution in part so that the state would not interfere with sacred institutions. And yet the Mormon Church and the Knights of Columbus spent millions and millions and millions of dollars last year to do just that…to establish religious opinion as the law of the land.
I have come to the conclusion that the only way to protect the integrity of the church from the overwhelming power of the state and the culture is to keep these functions as separate as possible. When it comes to marriage a system needs to be developed where, if people wish to be legally married, they can go to the courthouse and get proper authorization. They don’t even need a ceremony. And then the state, through its courts and legislature and initiative system can determine the specifics that pertain to that law. Then, entirely separate from the legal system, the churches can decide whom they’re willing to marry. Secular marriages could be blessed or not. Relationships could be blessed without secular interference. But no more would the church be a backdrop for a photo shoot.
As an Episcopalian I can’t impose this unilaterally and simply decide to stop performing civil marriages. The Bishop is the one who will have to do that. But I will advocate for it, because I don’t like acting as a functionary of the state. It’s not what I was called to do. I was called to be a priest.
Such a separation would clarify the eligibility of gay and lesbian couples to be married. Each religious group would decide for itself who qualifies for the religious ritual involved. The General Convention meeting this past summer made it very clear that all members of the Episcopal Church are eligible to participate to the fullest in our sacramental life. Ordination to the priesthood and episcopacy is open to all, and so is marriage, regardless of personal sexual identity or sexuality.
I think, likewise, that, separated from religious definition as it must be, legal marriage, which is a complicated, but perfectly reasonable civil contract ,ought to be open to all citizens, but that’s just my own political opinion.
This issue highlights an even more important and dangerous trend in our society, where certain groups and individuals are trying to impose their particular understanding of Christianity as a governing principle for the entire nation. Their religion is not my religion, and, as both a citizen and Episcopalian I will resist these efforts wherever I find them. What passes for this popularized, Americanized, right-wing Christianity is an angry, shallow and distorted version of the faith, which wields our sacred symbols as if they were political props. I don’t want the Pope in Rome to dictate California abortion policy. I don’t want the Mormon Prophet in Salt Lake City to dictate California marriage policy. I don’t want James Dobson to propagate his “Focus on the Family” doctrines through the California school libraries, and I don’t want the City of Monterey to have to pretend that a cross is just an historical marker.
Drawing the line between Church and State has never been to the benefit of the state. It protects the Church from the State.
Our Christian influence on society must be moral, not political. When we cross over the line and try to use the powers of government to further our mission we inevitably get swallowed up, and what comes out the other end looks nothing like Christianity. The Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in 325 AD, and in the process he obliterated deeply spiritual expression of the faith that didn’t happen to suit his purposes. Henry of Navarre said “Paris is worth the mass” and proceeded to kill most of the remaining French Protestants and set up the conditions whereby 250 years later the French Revolution saw Christianity as one of the primary targets of the evils they were trying to cleanse. Martin Luther traded the political control of the Pope for the political control of the German princes, and we saw in the last century where that German Christianity led. Our own Henry VIII got to marry Ann Boleyn, and we saw where that headed (or beheaded), eventually turning the Church into the stalking hose for imperialism and colonialism.
We are not a Christian nation. That concept is an oxymoron, a logical impossibility. We are Christians who live freely in America, and we organize ourselves politically as best we can, in a way that we hope offers the greatest scope for our spiritual growth and transformation.
God has joined us all together. Don’t let these things separate us.
Thanks be to God.
