Proper 27 C A Different Perspective
Proper 27 C A Different PerspectiveNovember 12, 2013By Rev. Ernest F. Campbell
In today’s Gospel the Sadducees ask Jesus a rather far-fetched 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."
Perhaps they asked the question to learn something, but it is more likely that it was meant to score points for the “Sadducees” theological point of view. It would help us to know that the Sadducees were an elite, well educated, materially well-off element in the Jewish society. Their religious beliefs were limited to doctrine which could only be found in the written laws of Moses.
For instance, they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. That is no doubt why they came to Jesus with an obviously contrived and rather absurd question about seven brothers who end up in heaven, all having been married to the same woman. (according to the cultural custom of the time it “could have” happened, but not likely).
It was in fact a question calculated to make believing in the resurrection…. a joke. (Now, let’s see…which one of the seven brothers will be the ladies… “lucky man?”). It is my understanding that some Rabies would spend weeks contriving the perfect “gotcha” question.
The Sadducees wait… with half-smiles on their faces… waiting to see how Jesus will handle their clever – “gotcha now Jesus” – question.
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.
To their dismay, Our Lord gives them a very straight forward answer. “Marriage here,” he says, “Is a major preoccupation but not in our resurrection life. Those who continue their relationship with God in the next age will no longer be concerned with marriage. In our resurrection state, all ecstasies and intimacies will be with God.
Then, because there is no such thing as a “dumb” question, and because a good teacher is always looking for a curious mind, Jesus gives the Sadducees something else to think about. He says,
“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."
You know the written law, in the written law Moses refers to God as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but as you Sadducees know, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were all dead. They died long before Moses. So, what did Moses mean when he exclaimed at the burning bush…. My God: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, you are not a God of the dead but of the living. So, my friends, the written law implies that in God all are alive.
I am inclined to believe that behind the Sadducees question there was a far more basic question. A question that, at one time or another, every one of us has wondered about. What happens, what really happens when we die?
And the congregation leaned forward in their pews and said to themselves…. TELL US.
The honest truth is, I don’t know. And despite all the artistic attempts to give us some idea, no one knows. St. Paul concluded that it was a waste of time to even speculate about the details of our existence beyond death.
In order to give us some grasp of the problem of speculating about life after death, let’s imagine twin babies in their mother’s womb discussing the possibilities of their life after birth. They might wonder, what do you suppose these eyes are for… and this nose…. and this mouth? In this fetal stage of life all these strange parts seem silly. From the perspective of the womb, they make no sense.
I believe that we have the same problem trying to speculate about life after death. Some have wondered if life after death would be bearable. (Singing, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, over and over forever, and ever and ever!!) One man (in thinking about eternal life) said, “Eternity with me would be more than distasteful, it would be intolerable!!!”
Will we miss the people who are not there? With what sorrow, or with what joy?
And then there is the question of space. Will there be enough room in heaven? Every thirty years there are approximately two-billion candidates. The book of Revelation tells us that heaven is fifteen hundred miles cubed. Of course we won’t have to worry about space, if the number of those saved will be 144,000 as it says in the book of Revelation. (And, as Jehovah’s Witnesses used to promote).
The point of what I am saying, and the point I think that St. Paul was getting at is this: trying to read into our spiritual future with our limited, finite minds, is at best futile and at worst, dangerous.
My ways are not your ways says the Lord. Yes, that’s true but – and here’s the big theological challenge – the only way we have to talk about God’s everlasting Kingdome is limited by our finite minds and understanding.
Example) In the spiritual “I Got Shoes,” heaven was a place where “shoes” symbolized freedom, protection and dignity, with the song asserting that all of God’s children will eventually receive them in the afterlife. They sang, “when I get to heaven ‘gonna put on my shoes and I’m ‘gonna walk all over God’s heaven.”
The song-writer was trying to express what ‘heaven’ would be like. The point is this: when we try to understand God, and God’s ways, we need a different perspective.
I have a problem with what I call, “Sunday School Art.” If you have ever seen an artist’s conception of Our Lord’s Ascension, you know what I am talking about. How would that look? How would you paint a picture of a man floating off the ground and disappearing into the clouds?
Back at St. George’s, I had an eighth-grade boy tell me that he could not be confirmed. When I asked me why, he said that he could not believe that God could handle all the responsibilities that we expected of him. Again, I asked why he insisted on putting limits on God. He said, “I have a picture of God in a book, and he is an old man sitting on a big throne.”
To help me illustrate what I mean about perspective, let me tell you about the *Flatlanders. These two-dimensional characters lived in a world where it was dangerous to even TALK about the possibility of a third dimension!
*[Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, is a satirical novella by the English theologian, Anglican priest, and schoolmaster Edwin Abbott. Published in 1884, the book used a fictional two-dimensional world, Flatland, to satirize Victorian society.]
In many ways, we are like the Flatlanders. We live in a three-dimensional world where we have learned to take care when talking about our personal spiritual encounters. Why is that? When we find ourselves in a “thin place” where for some reasons beyond our control we see possibilities that we did not, or could not, see previously…. our three-dimensional vocabulary fails us.
Like babies in the womb, we cannot even begin to guess about the shapes, sizes, colors, sounds and smells of heaven. As St. Paul put it, all we see of heaven now is a peek through smoked glass. Just for the fun of it, I clicked on “Images” on my computer, and typed in “Heaven.” Not bad, but I’m not so sure that I want to live there forever. In almost all the artistic depictions of heaven, there were no people!
Here's the good news! As babies in the womb, we are alive in our mother’s care… and in God’s care. (Even while our understanding of both is limited). And, when we are born into the world, we will be alive in our parent’s care, and in God’s care. Then, when we are born into the next life, we will be alive in God’s care, and in the care of God’s family of Saints. That, for now, is our hope.
Question: Can we live with that hope?
Here’s what I believe. Like the trapeze artist who swings out into space, our part is to trust the catcher. For me, it is a joy to start each day in God’s love and to trust that nothing can separate me from His love, in life or in death.
And, I will be thankful for the glimpses of heaven that have come to me in the thin places.
Some thin places for me have been:
Watching the Northern Lights
At our family Thanksgiving table
Where have you seen a glimpse of heaven?
Comments
Post a Comment