Luke 20:27-38
“The Not So Great Divide”
November 10, 2019
When I say the word heaven, what comes to mind? Movies like “Heaven Can Wait” depict folks walking on clouds and, as first described by John in the Book of Revelation, entering via twelve pearly gates, each one made from a single pearl, guarded by Saint Peter who has a checklist of those who will be admitted. In that Warren Beatty/Julie Christie film everyone who dies appears upon their entrance into heaven just as they looked at the moment of death. Resurrection is at the heart of our faith as Christians and yet there are so many aspects of it that we can have trouble understanding and even more difficulty explaining.
On the morning of 9/11, Betsee Parker was in her house in Manhattan awaiting a locksmith to do some repair work. She immediately knew something was wrong as soon as the elevator doors opened and she saw the expression on the locksmith’s face. This woman, who had recently been taking a break from her life as an Episcopal priest, in that moment rushed to put on her clerical collar and took the subway downtown to find out how she could help. Over the next several weeks her
job was to unzip the body bags when they arrived at the makeshift morgue at the medical examiner’s office and lay her hands on whatever was inside and say a blessing. She did this so as to relieve the first responders from this one terrible duty and to offer some comfort to them, if possible. What was in those bags was awful and was sometimes hard to imagine had ever been parts of a human body. She also went through the pockets, if they came with clothes, to unearth whatever might be there, maybe a photograph of a loved one or a wallet with contents that spoke of the life they lived. Rev. Parker would often, on those hard nights, think about heaven and in her words, “I would say to myself, ‘Someday I will see these people. They will be perfected. I will be there and I will meet these people who died in this terrible catastrophe and the rescue workers too. In the resurrection, the body and soul are one.” (Lisa Miller, Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife, 105-6)
Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem and he has mesmerized the crowds that surround him and want a piece of him. The religious authorities set out to discredit his teachings, trying to take the shine off of Jesus so that folks won’t admire him so much. If they could draw attention away from Jesus, maybe they could get rid of him without causing a riot. Here the Sadducees, a Jewish sect tied to the leadership of the temple, did not believe in any coming age of resurrection. The scenario they painted for Jesus of a wife dying childless after marrying a series of brothers as was outlined in the marriage laws from Torah came from a place of trying to trip Jesus up rather than sincere concern. But instead Jesus answers them, not buying into their cynicism, and uses this as an opportunity to share the message that God is a God of hope – a God of the living and that the whole marriage issue will be a moot point. Jesus emphasizes that heaven and earth are not the same. The age that Jesus speaks of, talking about this earthly life, is not meant as an insult but just an acknowledgment that it is temporary.
In earnestly and without resentment answering the question meant to show him up, Jesus is offering a vision of the coming age of resurrection. Marriage then and maybe even now, at times, was a way of preparing for aging and death. To marry and have children was a way of honoring two critical values of the time – the preservation of one’s name, making sure it would continue, and having the assurance that one would be cared for in their old age by their children. But Jesus assures those with the question meant to trick and all of those witnesses hanging on his every word, that no one will belong to anyone in the next life because all will belong to God.
God is the God of the living but what does that look like? Jesus is describing the unimaginable, that God is in the business of making all things new and vibrant. If God is the God of the living what would happen if we embraced all of that possibility and lived as resurrection people? How would we see each other differently? Just maybe, we might be able to see the extraordinary in each other. The writer C.S. Lewis put it this way, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal…But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendor…Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.” (The Weight of Glory)
Imagine how different life would be if we really embraced the concept of the Kingdom of God being here and now on a continuum with what comes next. If we were to view each other as holy and immortal perhaps we might learn to live together as a nation in spite of our divisions in opinions and politics. If we were to treat the stranger as holy and immortal, we would want to honor them rather than boxing them into a category and treating them as different or other. Recognizing the holy and immortal in each one of us – seeking it out and lifting it up – might just be our best hope in a world that feels as cynical as the Sadducees’ challenge of Jesus in Jerusalem. Were we to recognize that the Kingdom of God that we’re to usher in as close as the co-worker who annoys us, that neighbor we think of as inconsiderate or the relative we are already dreading spending Thanksgiving with – we might treasure their gifts more knowing that all of us can rise up to the best expectations others have of us.
Jesus is preaching, in his own way, a sermon here in the midst of hardship and struggle where the citizens live under occupation and his message is be not afraid. You are children of the resurrection. He’s not encouraging them to seek or rush to their deaths but he’s letting them know that they need not fear it either. Jesus does this with the Sadducees by finding common ground with them as he speaks from Exodus of the God who is the God of Abraham and Sarah – the God of us all.
God is the God of the Living – right now, present her with us. Let us embrace this life and not fret about the life to come. May that good news help us dwell in this age and dwell with joy to be found in those by whom we are surrounded in this life, God Incarnate. Let us find meaning in this day, the one laid out before us. Hear then these words offered from the Unfolding Light blog:
You spent your childhood planning
your retirement home.
You blew your youth laying out
that shuffleboard in your head.
You missed the fishing trip,
obsessed instead with
how you would be congratulated
for how you cooked the fish.
Never mind heaven.
Living is not rewarded. It’s just worth it.
Whatever you wait for, it isn’t
something God is withholding.
God is not the God of later.
God is in the present moment.
Life is this, not something else.
Pay attention. (www.unfoldinglight.org)
Jesus today is offering an image beyond our imagining, “providing a wider lens of love and belonging.” (Inward/Outward from the Church of the Savior) We may not be destined to understand but we have the promise of life in the age to come. Resurrection – it is ours, too! Amen