November 7, 2010

Luke 20:27-38
“Alive”

Tough Questions

Over the last few weeks, Jesus has faced some tough questions. And each time, by his responses, he has hit home runs – not by answering the question, but by using each one as a ‘teaching moment’ to reveal the very nature of God.

He has been asked these difficult questions, some say, for the sole purpose of trying to get him to mess up, to say something that will turn the people against him. He’s made no claims, but others who have come to hear him are suggesting he’s the messiah. The religious leaders, those who benefit most from the status quo, see him as a threat, a troublemaker – doing things that will bring their house down.

Before it was the Pharisees asking the questions. This time it is the Sadducees.
“Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question,”

Their question was a complicated one. It was about resurrection (which they didn’t believe in because it wasn’t mentioned in the first five books of Hebrew Scripture) and the Law of Moses concerning marriage, marital identity, spousal obligation, and family heritage in the age to come. If it wasn’t in their Bible, it didn’t or wasn’t going to happen.
‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second; then the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.’

We believe in the resurrection after we die, don’t we? So, how would you have answered their question? After the woman died, whose wife would she have been in the life to come? In Jesus’ answer, neither marriage nor death is a primary concern in the resurrection or the life to come in God’s presence. For us, as well as this woman, participating in the communion of God’s love is what matters.

It’s not the conventions or the obligations of this world – those things we have got to do – that matters. Rather, it is God’s relationship to us. And that is, ‘God is present.’ Remember Jesus answer to the Sadducees? It’s there in verse 38,
“Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”
Earlier in his response, he said those who have died, being “children of the resurrection,” are “children of God.” He pointed out that Moses himself confirmed that the dead are raised in his story of the burning bush, where he speaks of the Lord “I am” as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Come to think of it, Moses at the burning bush was not given answers to his questions or solutions to his problems, yet barefoot “stood in the presence of God.”
And that is exactly what Jesus reveals concerning the true nature of God. God is present, in this life and the life to come. He is God of the living and in him all are alive.
“Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”

Several weeks ago, a long time friend gave me a couple of movies to watch and I finally got around to watching them later this week. One was titled Joshua and fits right in with our lesson for today. It tells the story of a stranger whose supernatural powers inspire an entire town. It too, speaks of ‘standing in the presence of God’ (in this case, Jesus) and ‘resurrected’ lives. [When Joshua moves to the outskirts of Auburn, he awakens the curiosity of this sleepy town. His wisdom and compassion place him at the center of the town’s attention. Some are suspicious of him and wonder what he’s up too. But in the end, lives are changed, transformed, resurrected. Sound familiar?
“Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”

Yesterday morning at Men’s Breakfast, Don Logan shared a chapter from this book [hold book up] The Practice of the Presence of God by brother Lawrence.
[Read chapter from book, First Letter, pages 29-32]
“Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”

Julian Hartt writes, “We have a great and desperate need for the gospel. The power of that word is not in utterance, but in concrete life.” The church has above all else [the things we do] a life of love to share, and a message of God’s free sharing of God’s self in Jesus Christ.

God is always present. May we live in that presence, always.