November 11, 2001
Twenty-third Sunday After Pentecost
CHRISTIAN GOSPEL: Debate About Resurrection ~ Luke 20:27-38
The story in the gospel of Luke is one of those antagonistic encounters. The Sadducees were one of the groups of Jewish leaders. They were the ones that were on the more fundamentalist side. The more literal side of things. While they appreciated the rest of the Hebrew Testament, they focused on the first five books. Resurrection was not part of the five books. The debate about whether resurrection really took place or not was going on in the Jewish community at the time that Jesus was teaching. The Sadducees tried to trip Jesus up and catch him in some inconsistencies. They challenged him. “Well, Teacher, let us ask you a question. If you are a believer in the resurrection, we have a question about the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses says that if a man dies having sired no children that his oldest brother should marry his widow.” This law was there so that the widow would be taken care of and so that there would be a possibility that there would be children from the first husbands bloodline.
They were merely following the Law of Moses. Then they said, “Supposing the first one dies, there are seven brothers. The next marries and no children, and dies. The third, the fourth, each one marrying the widow, but dying before there are children to carry on the name. When this woman dies and goes to heaven, which of the seven will be her husband?” They were trying to catch Jesus, to trip him up, to somehow make his position of resurrection look foolish. But, Jesus, as usual, flips things around and says, “Your question is based on an assumption that the world after this one will be like this world, and that is a foolish assumption.” He goes on to say, “The next world, whatever it is, we’ll be with God. But, we don’t know much about it. Even though people have tried to describe it along the way, all we know for sure is that it will be completely different from this world. The things that trouble us here at this time, won’t trouble us any longer, because we will understand. And we will be one with God.” From Jesus’ time until now, Christianity has had a lot of time to develop its own answers to these questions. So, we have all of those images that we started to develop when we were children about streets of Gold and angels floating on clouds, and all of those things about some wonderful kind of place that doesn’t have the problems that we have to deal with on a daily basis.
Jesus knew the scriptures very well. He used those scriptures to talk to the Sadducees. He used one particular example when he said, “When Moses talked to the bush God said, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” God didn’t say, “I was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” but “I AM the God…” but in order to be the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they must still be living. And if they are still living, even though they are dead to this world, then there must be a life after this one.” I’m not sure the Sadducees were convinced. What Jesus was talking about was the importance of knowing that God’s world did not have an end. Did not have an end like humans. Did not have an end that would leave us behind, that would leave us lonely and without comfort.
Jesus said, “The point of talking about resurrection is not to promise this great reward, but to let you know that God is the God of the living, here and wherever and forever. Here, and wherever and forever. There is no end to God’s love. There is no end to the love of God that we share with each other. When someone that we care about dies, there are many of us who would like to take comfort in the idea that somehow we will be reunited with them. That we will be able to greet them on those streets of gold or somewhere on the far beyond. All of those hopes are understandable, but we are trying to add content to something that we know nothing about. All we do have is the assurance tat God’s love doesn’t end. That the love of God we experience in our lives does not end.
There were lots of things written after September 11th. One of them, that I ran across on the Internet as I was looking for resources to say thank you to our civil servants, was a poem entitled “One.” It was on countless web pages, five or six weeks after the terrorist attacks. On some pages, it was attributed to a Presbyterian minister in Huston named Jim Gill, but many other pages said it was anonymous. So I called Jim Gill and asked him if he had written it. He said, “No. Someone handed it to me and I read it at a worship service. Somebody else asked about it and put it out on the Internet. Now it has my name on it and there is no stopping it!” I said I had mixed feelings about hearing that. On the one hand, Iwanted to thank him for the beautiful sentiments expressed in the poem. But on the other hand I was glad, because I didn’t like the way it ended. It has a very nationalistic ending, saying, “this is us and we are America.” But the words are very inclusive words that describe all of humanity. When I said that to Jim he replied, “Well, when I read it, I didn’t read the last couple of lines either.” So I’ll stop short. If you want the other words, you can look on the Internet and find them. But, I’ll stop just before the end, because I think it talks about what Jesus is pointing to when he talks about resurrection. The poem describes living in the fullness of God’s presence.
One
As the soot and dirt and ash rained down,
We became one color.
As we carried each other down the stairs of the burning building
We became one class.
As we lit candles of waiting and hope
We became one generation.
As the firefighters and police officers fought their way into the inferno
We became one gender.
As we fell to our knees in prayer for strength,
We became one faith.
As we whispered or shouted words of encouragement,
We spoke one language.
As we gave our blood in lines a mile long,
We became one body.
As we mourned together the great loss
We became one family.
As we cried tears of grief and loss
We became one soul.
As we retell with pride of the sacrifice of heroes
We become one people.
We are
One color
One class
One generation
One gender
One faith
One language
One body
One family
One soul
One people