Sermon: November 7, 2010

“God of the Living”

Celebration of Our Lord’s Supper

Scripture Psalm 32 sung as the Psalter and Luke 20:27-38

Preached by Linda Jo Peters ~ November 7, 2010

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE

Luke 20:27-38: There were two religious groups that challenged Jesus’ authority to interpret God’s word. One was the Pharisees and the other was the Sadducees. Professor Murdock writes:

The Pharisees embraced the idea of resurrection from the dead. It was a way of putting flesh on hope, so to speak, in days when justice in this world seemed irretrievable. The righteous would surely be rewarded; they will surely be raised from the dead. Otherwise life does not make sense... The Sadducees rejected such speculation and were prepared to ridicule its exponents. That is what is happening here in this encounter with Jesus.

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him 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 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 and 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.” Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; 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. Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 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. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive

SERMON
Roberta Bondi, church historian, writes that she came to faith in an encounter with the writings of a 6th century Bishop. In her commentary on this passage in Luke, she writes:

I believe in the communion of the saints… not as a peculiar abstract idea but as a concrete and most practical reality… I am glad that Jesus cited Exodus to demonstrate to his opponents why he believed that God "is God not of the dead, but of the living, for they are all alive to him." This is certainly my experience.

We all have been touched by believers who have left their mark in us through their writing, music, stories, gardens, missions they created, church buildings, even textiles or bread recipes. Our assurance is that they are still alive in the power and grace of Jesus Christ. They are alive in a way beyond our imagining but connected to the simple things of everyday life like bread and wine.

During traumatic events, the normal flow of day-to-day life is disrupted in an instant. In the aftermath of sudden upheaval and incomprehensible loss such as 9/11, people seek a bridge between the irreplaceable past and a hopeful future. I recently watched a fascinating PBS documentary called Objects and Memory which examines the innate drive to maintain connection and continuity by preserving the past and speaking to the future. Museums have traditionally been our connection to the past. Scrapbooks are a more personal tool. We need places in our lives where we honor our connection to those who have gone before us. Wayne Muller would say in those places the veil becomes thin between now and eternity. Think of the roadside shines that mark the death of a loved one. This sort of keeping and preserving or even restoring is about a sense of continuity and connection.

I often wear a cross that was made in El Salvador during their struggle for freedom. In spite of the often horrific acts that threatened these people they chose bright colors and motifs to decorate the cross of Jesus. We have a cross in our sanctuary that lets light pour into our worship. We remember Washington Avenue and Westminster Churches and all the people who were part of those congregations in the two brass crosses and the wooden one on the wall. Ultimately every cross recalls to our mind Jesus the Christ. Our continuation of life and memory is not found in any item because it can only point to what was. Jesus connects us to what was, what is and what will be. In Him we are alive always.

This is what the Lord’s Supper is all about; recalling our connections to past, present and future believers in celebration of life. This is a table of life not death. It recalls Jesus’ death but that was not the end of the story. “This day you will be with me in paradise.” His promise to the thief is His promise to all of us. The Sadducees came up with an absurd game about a widow. They never thought once about what a horror that would be to live. Since they believed they could only continue to exist through their offspring, they looked for the same closed system in heaven and said impossible. Yet the stores of their faith are stories of God doing the impossible over and over again. God cannot be bound by anything not even death. This past Thursday we read from Revelations:

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the elders fell down and worshiped. (Revelations 5: 11-14)

No way, that is death! That is a vision of life eternal, a proclamation of life for all of creation. Amen.

Resources:
Roberta C. Bondi, The Christian Century, November 2, 2004

see: http://www.pbs.org/objectsandmemory/
See: Wayne Muller, Sacred Time
Note: Philoxenus of Mabbug, a sixth-century monophysite bishop and author of 13 very long sermons on the Christian life in the early Syrian and Egyptian monastic traditions.