22^nd Sunday after Pentecost

November 10, 2019

“Children of the Resurrection”

St. Luke 20:27-38

The Question about the Resurrection

27 Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him 28 and asked him a question, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man[a] shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; 30 then the second 31 and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. 32 Finally the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”

34 Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; 35 but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36 Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 37 And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”

Footnotes:

1. Luke 20:28 Gk his brother

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus, the Christ.

When you were baptized or you viewed a baptism what was happening? When we baptize our children is it simply because ‘we’ve always done it that way’? 

Is baptism an inoculation – a one-time spiritual flu shot to keep us safe from unholy infections? 

Is the baptismal certificate like a spiritual insurance policy that is taken out in cases of emergencies?  Is it the golden ticket that gets us into heaven?

What is the significance of any baptism or our baptism done so long ago?  Why should sprinkling water three times on the head of a child matter?

We will get back to those questions about baptism?

Jesus is approached by an elite group known as the Sadducees.  They were a collection of wealthy intellectuals who adhered strictly to the Books of Moses – the Torah.  There were no references that that could find in the Torah that spoke of resurrection.  The Pharisees believed in the resurrection to new life but the Sadducees did not.

So their question to Jesus is a ‘gotcha’ question.  It is an absurd question.  The good intentions of the Torah to provide for a widow are obscured by their quest to trip up Jesus.  God’s law was indeed progressive indicating that if a husband died, the brother of the husband would step in and take care of the widow.  So this woman is like a black widow – 7 brothers die.

Now who will she be married to in the afterlife?

This is a joke – a trick question.  But Jesus takes it on and makes a point – quoting the Torah against the Sadducees.

First he tells them that the afterlife is not a continuation of this life.  Those things will be different – unimaginably different.  But then came the real ding – the real point.  At the burning bush God is revealed as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – a God of the living.

Thus we are all children of new life – children of the resurrection.

“Now God is God not of the dead, but the living; for all of them are alive in him.”  This is the point:  Jesus proclaims a God who gives birth to children of the resurrection.

That is what is happening here at this baptism.  That is what happened to each of us at our baptisms.  We are born children of the resurrection.

What does it mean to be born children of the resurrection?

Paul writes in Romans:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. [6:3-4]

This passage is not simply talking about the afterlife – but new life now.  In Holy Baptism God gives birth to children of the resurrection.

What does it mean to be born children of the resurrection?

It means we are born into a way – a way of seeing and living our lives.

Children of the resurrection see life through an open tomb.  Through that opening life looks different.  For children of the resurrection God is not a God who miraculously intervenes at times of difficulty.  God does not simply stand above the creations pulling strings and showing up arbitrarily.

Maybe you’ve heard a preacher preach or a person talk about God that goes something like this:  ‘I had all these troubles in my life’ and they list all the troubles and then say, “But then, God showed up!”  As if God simply comes and goes.  One has to wonder why God would only show up for the preacher or that particular person in trouble.

If God just ‘showed up’ was God somewhere else prior to that?  If God was somewhere else and God came for a particular person, why not for other people in the same moment?

If this is one’s only conception of God – that God is outside our lives and arbitrarily showing up it will raise endless questions.

Children of the resurrection see God in another way.  Children of the resurrection see a ‘God with us’ – with us, right here, right now.  This is not a God of intervention but a God of companionship a God with us at every crossroad, during every sorrow, hurt, joy, celebration, loss.

God is not somewhere else – in and out of our existence – but rather in, with, and under all of life.  In God we live and move and have our being.

The Sacrament of Holy Baptism is the means by which God gives birth to children of the resurrection – people who are open and set free to see the God with us.

The God with us is seen most vividly in Christ – his teachings, his love, his compassion, his eating with sinners, his striving for justice, his passion and death on the cross, the open tomb.  Children of the resurrection see life most fully thorough the open tomb.

What does life look like through that open tomb?   Carrie Newcomer, Quaker and folk singer, gives us a glimpse of how children of the resurrection see their lives in her Song – “Holy As The Day Is Spent”:

Holy As A Day Is Spent

        Holy is the dish and drain

        The soap and sink, the cup and plate

        And the warm wool socks, and the cold white tile

        Showerheads and good dry towels

        And frying eggs sound like psalms

        With a bit of salt measured in my palm

        It’s all a part of a sacrament

        As holy as a day is spent

        Holy is the busy street

        And cars that boom with passion’s beat

        And the check-out girl, counting change

        And the hands that shook my hands today

        Hymns of geese fly overhead

        And stretch their wings like their parents did

        Blessed be the dog

        That runs in her sleep

        The catch that wild and elusive thing

        Holy is a familiar room and the quiet moments

        in the afternoon

        And folding sheets like folding hands

        To pray as only laundry can

        I’m letting go of all I fear

        Like autumn leaves of earth and air

        For summer came and summer went

        As holy as a day is spent

        Holy is the place I stand

        To give whatever small good I can

        The empty page, the open book

        Redemption everywhere I look

        Unknowingly we slow our pace

        In the shade of unexpected grace

        With grateful smiles and sad lament

        As holy as a day is spent

        And morning light sings “providence”

        As holy as a day is spent

Living in the covenant of our baptism we are children of the resurrection.  We see that all of life is with God…the check-out girl counting change…the hand that shook my hand today…the empty page, the open

book…redemption everywhere I look…

Even in those ugly places God is with us – Job pierces through total loss and grief to see God’s redeemer at his side.

Especially in those ugly places God is with us bringing redemption even on the cross - on that garbage heap known as Golgotha outside Jerusalem.

A cautionary note: we can easily lose sight and that insight so God provides a community of the children of the resurrection – it is known as the church…it is a community of faith that meets each Sunday in worship to renew their sight.  Neglect that community of faith and you begin seeing the world as the world wants you to see it rather than through the open tomb.

So we make promises at the time of baptism – parents promise to keep the child connected to a faith community.  Sponsors promise to remind the child that the way to see life is through the open tomb. 

The faith community promises to surround the child with its love and support – constantly pointing to Christ and the with-ness of God!

Baptism is not something nice we do to name our child, or simply a tradition or rite, or a ticket to the afterlife in heaven.  No, it is being born children of the resurrection and participating in the God who is with us constantly making all things new.

Amen