The ancient Greeks knew how to describe human situations in dramatic ways that grab our attention. The Greek writers used a powerful myth to talk about the difficult kinds of decisions we have to make. In Greek mythology, a ship sailing between Sicily and the Italian mainland had to navigate between two terrifying dangers. If the ship sailed too close to Italy, it faced Scylla, the six-headed sea monster. But if it gave Scylla too wide a berth, it could sink into Charybdis, the giant whirlpool on the coast of Sicily. The ship and its crew could survive only by careful navigation, finding the narrow gap between the two dangers. The ship could make safe passage and arrive at its destination, but risks lay on each side.

            We do not often see the danger of reading scripture. We think of reading scripture as just feeding our souls, drawing some inspiration. A wrong interpretation of scripture can cause much hurt, however. A wrong reading of a passage of scripture can throw us right into the mouth of the sea monster of self-righteousness. Another wrong way of reading can sink us in the whirlpool of inescapable guilt. Our passage of scripture for today calls for careful navigation. Many dangers lie along the way of reading this text from Mark about divorce and children.

            Just on the surface, the passage might cause us problems because of the two parts to the reading. The lectionary committee has put together two teachings of Jesus. Not only do the two parts of the passage treat different subjects, but their tones seem quite different as well. In the teaching about divorce, Jesus

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