{"id":533,"date":"2019-11-10T13:28:20","date_gmt":"2019-11-10T13:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/?p=533"},"modified":"2019-11-11T01:30:57","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T01:30:57","slug":"twenty-second-sunday-after-pentecost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/2019\/11\/10\/twenty-second-sunday-after-pentecost\/","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Luke 20:27-38<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace to you and peace\nfrom God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nwe approach the end of the church year, the focus of our scheduled Scripture\nreadings has turned to questions of what happens after death and at the end of time,\nthe resurrection. In Luke we have a very culturally sensitive question being\nasked by the Sadducees. It was the tradition of the People of God that if a\nhusband were to die without producing a child, his brother was honor bound to\nmarry his deceased brother\u2019s wife; any child born to him and his deceased\nbrother\u2019s wife would be understood to be and so would be raised as the child of\nthe former husband. The Sadducees had no problem with this tradition; the\nSadducees purpose for their question was to make the circumstances of the resurrection\nappear silly and confusing. They themselves did not believe in a resurrection. I,\nafter hearing their question, would have taken up the challenge and argued that\nthe woman would be married to the first husband, because the purpose of the\ntradition was to fulfill for the diseased husband his husbandly responsibilities.\nIf I don\u2019t say so myself, my argument makes perfectly good sense, especially\nsince, men in that day, could have more than one wife, so the brother was free\nto marry another woman and raise children for himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well\nJesus understanding the motive, behind their asking that question and knowing that\nthey did not believe in a resurrection, (he) did not entertain the question in\nthe way that the Sadducees had hoped. Judging by the way that Jesus answered\nthe question, it is clear that Jesus was telling them that they were asking the\nwrong question; it was obvious that they did not believe in the resurrection\nand did not understand the resurrection. Jesus wanted them to believe in the\nresurrection and so in his answer, Jesus described what the relationships would\nbe like in the resurrection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nquestion asked by the Sadducees in order to belittle those who believed in the\nresurrection did not trouble Jesus, but the question has stirred up a great\ndeal of uncertainty and questions, among Christians, questions about the topic\nof the resurrection and being with their loved ones; I can\u2019t count the number\nof times that I\u2019ve been asked, by those in grief, whether they will see and be\nreunited with their loved ones in heaven. Jesus\u2019 answer doesn\u2019t exactly help\nwith this. Jesus describes a very different life in his kingdom, different from\nthe one that we now know; in his kingdom, those who are blessed to receive this\nnew life will be like angles and who will not marry or be given in marriage. This\nseems to suggest an end to former relationships, but actually it does nothing of\nthe sort; it does not mean that loving relationships will be abandoned in the\nresurrection, only that there will be no need for the institution of marriage, with\nits rules and vows. This makes irrelevant the complex question as asked by the\nSadducees. Again, it does not say that husbands and wives, mothers and fathers\nand children will not have the loving relationships with those they loved in their\nlives; people will seemingly have the opportunity to be with those that they\nlove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And,\njust as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob can be identified as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob\nin God\u2019s kingdom and just as Jesus could be identified after his resurrection\nby his Disciples and others, so we will be able to identify our loved ones and\nthey us. Worry not, those of you who want to resume your loving relationship in\nheaven! The resurrection, is for us a gift meant to be a joy for all who are\nblessed with it; it is to be for us a wonderful new life with opportunities to\nbe with God and enjoy, up close the love of Jesus. And, I would suspect that in\nthe resurrection there will be a lot more people with whom we will be able to share\nour circle of love, more family, additional friends, and others who may love us\nand we them. The promise of the resurrection is certainly something we can hold\non to, in hope for a future with those we love, even after death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus\nwas answering a question, not asked and by answering that question he gave us a\npeak into what it will be like in his kingdom. But there are other questions I\nam asked about married love and the resurrection by widows and widowers, who are\nfortunate to share a love with another. The question of who they might be with\nin the resurrection isn\u2019t so easy to answer from Jesus\u2019 words. Thankfully there\nis an understanding of Jesus that goes well beyond the words of today\u2019s Gospel,\nan understanding that we glean from listening to all of his words, and watching\nhis actions, and knowing his willingness to die for us that speaks a message to\nus that love will conquer all. How this will work, may not be for us to\nunderstand, but that Jesus will find a way for people who love each other to\ncontinue in the next life, that I don\u2019t doubt. Again, much of what Jesus said\nand, especially, what he did was directed by his love for humanity. His healings\nwere directed to Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles, demonstrating his love. Forgiveness\nlike healing was liberally offered. His feedings, were for all who came and\nlistened to him and he blessed many a meal attended by tax collectors, prostitutes\nand Gentiles. Finally, he taught any and all who wanted to listen to him, as a\nteacher and as a preacher. All of these are examples of his love, a love not\nrestricted by traditions, prejudice or (even) religious law. Jesus seemingly even\nwent against God\u2019s Law, but I trust that we are misunderstanding God\u2019s Law, and\nthat Jesus knew the heart of God\u2019s Law better than we could ever hope. Jesus\ndid and will always find a way for love to continue, to grow and to be at the\ncenter of life, today in this life as we listen to Jesus, and later in his\nkingdom, all of the time. Again, I can\u2019t tell you how our relationships will be\nrenewed in heaven, only that they will be there for us and they will be centered\nin Jesus\u2019 love. I truly believe that after all the war, anger, violence, deceit,\nbitterness, racism, prejudice, gossip, greed, injustice, envy, poverty and\nwaste that we now experience, a love-based life in Jesus\u2019 kingdom will be a\nvery welcome change; one I look forward to sharing with those I\u2019ve loved in\nthis life. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luke 20:27-38 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ As we approach the end of the church year, the focus of our scheduled Scripture readings has turned to questions of what happens after death and at the end of time, the resurrection. In Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":534,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533\/revisions\/534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}