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Questions Pentecost 27.C Luke 20: 20-38 November 11, 2007 The Rev. Jan Holland
Of all God’s creatures in the world we humans live in the tension between knowing that we “know” and knowing that we “don’t know.” And sometimes that’s “good” and sometimes not so good. Other creatures don’t regret their past or spend a lifetime searching for that illusive “something more” in life… like humans do. This unique gift helps us develop – at a very early age – a sense of who we are and to whom we belong… and that leads to questions; many, many questions.
Children are eager to explore the mystery of life and death! They have questions for parents and questions for God; questions about nature and questions about the unseen universe… and some of us children… got into trouble by bombarding the adults close to us with too many questions! At any given point in time, I think all of us have at least one burning question we’d like to ask God. Mine, right now… is about peace.
Over time my questions have changed from the innocent inquiries of a little child to something more like the interrogations of a prosecuting attorney: they’ve changed from: “God why can’t I swim like a fish or fly like a bird?” to “God, if you are really all powerful why is there evil in the world… and why are so many innocent people suffering from war and violence?”
I suppose that in the technical sense I am still asking questions. But the “if” statements that precede them give me away; because I’m no longer trying to grasp the mystery of God, I assume I know what God should be doing and then accuse God of not living up to my expectations. When we say “if” we come to God with answers in our hands; when we say “if” we’re not really seeking answers – we already know the answers and we want our savior, our personal redeemer, to prove us right. We forget that God’s ways are not our ways and God sees so much more than our eyes can imagine.
Also, God’s understanding of endings is not the same as our human perception. We ask God, “How is the end of life not the end?” Christian faith is centered in the belief of the resurrection: that death was not the end for Jesus and it is not the end of our lives, yet we have difficulty understanding what that means; what it looks like, and how we are to live into that reality.
We have no difficulty picturing the incarnation – museums are filled with images of the Word made flesh, the infant Jesus; and we have no problem with children portraying the nativity scene on Christmas Eve in Churches all over the world. But depicting resurrection is more difficult. There are glowing pictures of the resurrected Christ standing in a beautiful garden outside a dark tomb. Yet somehow we know resurrection is much more than that. The lessons of this week focus our attention on this central tenet of our faith, not just the resurrection of Jesus, but on our own.
Resurrection and the understanding of life beyond the grave is the question with which the Sadducees attempt to trap Jesus in our Gospel lesson. As Luke tells the story, Jesus has taken a long and roundabout way from Nazareth to Jerusalem. Jesus arrives in Jerusalem a week or two before Passover. He enters the city on the back of a cloak-covered colt with the crowds shouting Hosannas and waving Palm branches. Then for his first order of business he throws out the money-changers in the outer court of the Temple – not the smartest move if you want to win friends and influence people. Then he enters the Temple, sits down and begins to teach and preach the Good News.
Expecting that many people will bring their burning questions to him for answers, or at least for vindication, he prepares himself to face them. Almost all the questions are traps. The portion of Luke’s Gospel read today is the third of four debates that Jesus had with the religious leaders. First Jesus is questioned by the chief priests, scribes and elders; “By what authority do you do these things? Who gave you this authority; is it divine or human?” Then they ask Jesus, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” They may not actually say the word, but if you listen closely, you can still hear the “if” in these questions: “If you are who you say you are (and we know you can’t be), then let’s see you stumble over this impossible question.” In this, the third exchange, it is a group of Sadducees who try to entrap Jesus.
The Sadducees are the power brokers. They’re the no-nonsense literalists: accepting as law only the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses. If it’s not written in the law and the prophets, then it’s not true. They did not believe in angels and they did not believe in the resurrection of the body. (As a Seminary friend loved to remind me, that is why they were “sad you see”!)
The trap the Sadducees set for Jesus is their “one bride for seven brothers” question. Mosaic Law says that a man must provide an heir to his brother’s widow if she is childless. This is written in the law and is true. If this happens multiple times: six times – (or even twice) – in a family, then resurrection cannot be true. Because if they are all resurrected, then the woman would have seven husbands and this bigamy is a violation of God’s Law, therefore; resurrection is not possible. The Sadducees don’t really want an answer to their question they merely want to demonstrate that Jesus is wrong in proclaiming that there is a resurrection. They are big on logic and certain that Jesus will trip and fall.
Jesus uses this opportunity to beat them at their own game. First with: Resurrection life is a whole new way of life: it is life without death; it is life without marriage – because life is changed – and you no longer need marriage or procreation. Children of God in the “Resurrection Life” all live in blessed union with God, their creator. Finally Jesus says: God is the God of the living: as God told Moses at the burning bush; “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” Since the books of the Law tell us that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob died, and the books also tell us that they are now alive in God; present tense, then resurrection must be true. Case closed! End of interrogation! The Sadducees packed their bags and went home.
The real underlying question, not for the Sadducees, but for us, is a universal and fundamental question that begins when we are small children. Mom, or dad, we ask, what will happen to me when I die? This basic question of our human existence haunts us from earliest memory. And it is reborn in us each time death touches us, whether the expected death of an older relative or friend, or the premature unanticipated death of one who is dear to us.
Where do we go for answers? We pray. We look to the faith of our ancestors, to the stories of God’s people in the Bible, and to Jesus. Jesus teaches us to love God and one another. He declares there is a resurrection of the dead; our earthly end is not the end. Our story is God’s story. We are all God’s children: the people of faith who are called to remember God’s story and tell it to the world. Yes, we are a people with questions; yet we are surrounded by God’s grace like the fish in the sea are surrounded by water. The air we breathe is the breath of God’s Holy Spirit. The air we breathe is the breath of life; it gives us new life, and we are commissioned to give new life to the world.
Perhaps the words Job used three thousand years ago said it best, when he proclaimed his faith in God. We know these comforting words because we hear a paraphrase of them at the beginning of the Office for the Burial of the Dead. Job says, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; …then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.”
Our story of faith – God’s story on earth – continues today, November 11th 2007… as we pause to remember those who have died that we might live in freedom and peace.
We remember November 11th because it marked the official end of World War I in which many of our loved ones served. November 11, 1918; commemorated the armistice signed in France between the Allies and Germany… which took effect at 11 o’clock in the morning – “the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month”… Armistice Day was celebrated by all the allied countries to honor those who died for our freedom. Years later, after the end of the Second World War, the name for this Holiday was changed to Veterans Day in the United States, and Remembrance Day in England.
I hope we can all take some time today or tomorrow to remember, give thanks, and pray for those who served in past wars and for those who are serving today in the Armed Services of our Country.
I hope we can also carry with us into the world; our stories of faith, our questions… and our memories… as we end our worship service with a beautiful hymn of hope written by Isaac Watts in 1719.
“O God, our help in ages past, / Our hope for years to come, /
Be Thou our guard while troubles last, / And our eternal home.”
Amen.