Title: “God is Still Speaking”
Scripture: Luke 20:27-38
11/7/04 23rd Sunday after Pentecost, Yr. C
Rev. Joy R. Haertig
The question that Jesus is asked in today's reading sounds rather absurd to our ears today. A group of Sadducees ask Jesus: “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.”
It is difficult at first to get past the whole idea of such a custom. Think about it, seven marriages and seven deaths all in one lifetime! And the woman would have no say in it. I wish Jesus might have addressed such a custom in his response, but he was wise enough to know that the Sadducees were NOT concerned with the custom, they were concerned with the issue of resurrection.
The Sadducees were closely associated with the priestly and aristocratic class. They were theologically conservative, and Scripture for them consisted of only the five books of Moses. No teaching was authoritative if it was not found in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers or Deuteronomy. The Sadducees found no doctrine of the resurrection in these five books so they did not believe in it. (Apparently they did not believe in the resurrection or in angels, and one commentator said that is why they are called “Sad - u - see”)
Because the Sadducees did not believe in resurrection, it is hard to know for sure if their question to Jesus is a test, or just curiosity. Jesus responds to their question with no sense of concern for neither their particular intention nor his differing views. He believes in resurrection, he believes in angels. He even goes so far as to say that he believes that Moses (someone the Sadducees considered an undisputed authority) believed in the resurrection when he talked about their beloved Jewish forefathers being alive in God. He quite simply explains to them that we do not place the customs of this world onto the next one, for they will not be needed.
The passage is refreshing as we get to listen in on Jesus, a Jew, discussing theology with a group of Sadducees, also Jewish. They are each coming from very different places in their beliefs, and could find support for those differing beliefs in the scriptures that they both hold as sacred.
Different people can look at the same scripture and see such different and often conflicting things. One can see evidence for belief in resurrection and angels, while someone else can see only guidance in what to eat and what to wear. That sounds strangely familiar to our time, doesn't it? Different people can look at the very same Bible and see and do such completely different things with it! The election season was a perfect example of this reality, and this kind of ambiguity can be part of the Bible's beauty and mystery or part of what drives you crazy!
This moment of witnessing Jesus in conversation with the Sadducees is a wonderful reminder that the process of interpretation and discernment has been going on for a very long time. The Bible was not written as the final literal word of God, that is something that some people do out of a need for certainty.
In the year 1620, seeking spiritual freedom, forebears of the United Church of Christ prepared to leave Europe for the New World, they would later be known as Pilgrims. Their pastor, John Robinson urged them to keep their minds open to new ways as they departed, saying to them: “God has yet more light and truth to break forth out of his holy Word.”
Like today's reading from Luke, Pastor Robinson reminds us that seeking to discern and understand God's light and truth is an ongoing process that continues from generation to generation, in different places and cultures across the planet. (And though Pastor Robinson did not say it, we would proclaim today that God also uses many religions to reflect God's light and truth as well, not only Christianity.)
There is a new initiative in the United Church of Christ that is reflective of Robinson's proclamation but uses the words of comedian Gracie Allen to express it in a new way: “God is still speaking. Never place a period where God has placed a comma.”
This new initiative will be splashing across the country on national TV during the month of December via a wonderful commercial about the UCC.
With this initiative we will proclaim more boldly who we are as a denomination in our country and world, that we are a church that remains open to the ongoing revelation of God's truth and light - in holy scripture and beyond them. God did not retire after the Bible was written! God is still speaking!
We are a church that believes that a Sadducee and Jesus can sit down in the same pew and talk religion or stand next to each other at the food bank and serve food to the homeless without beating each other up over theology or lifestyle, and maybe even learn something from each other!
This week I was reading a response from a pastor outside of our denomination to our “God is still speaking” initiative. He described our denomination as “a comfortable form of religion that won't cost you a lot but promises the church will be there for you in times of need.” I giggled a bit to myself, thinking that he had obviously not come to our church if he thinks it is “just a comfortable place to be that doesn't cost us a lot.” A comment such as this reminds me of another one I have heard about the United Church of Christ, that we are an “anything goes” kind of a church because we are not creedal in our belief structure or because we affirm and welcome all people. Comments like that come from those who do not know or understand the importance we place on seeking to live out the values we see modeled in the life of Jesus: concern for the poor, misuse of the environment and the use of violence to solve conflicts. Living out these values are not easy or comfortable!
We are a church that values the joy and the cost of discipleship that comes with prayer, sacrificial service, personal reflection and faith development. We share our financial resources, break the bread of life and share the cup of forgiveness. How could these things be easy or comfortable???
We are challenged to love as Jesus loved in all of our personal relationships and covenants. (My friends, this is NEVER easy!)
We are a beacon of hope and welcome in the broader community and we are inspired through scripture, by example and in the ongoing nudge of God's Spirit to work for the common good in our work places and our neighborhoods. Easy and comfortable???
We struggle in our doubts and search for God's presence in the toughest of circumstances, we sometimes lose hope and we sometimes despair, but we are here, and in fact this particular church has been here for 113 years! We are here because of a long line of saints that have remained faithful and open to the ongoing “light and truth” breaking forth from God's holy word, NOT because our faith is easy or comfortable!!
This last week has been full of moments that have reminded me of the witness that this denomination and this congregation are to the life of Christ. In fact it was really quite a whirlwind! But there was one moment in particular I want to share.
Not too long ago we thought we had a new tenant in our transitional house for a homeless family, but that single mom and her children did not work out. This week we welcomed a new single mom and her two children. On Thursday I went over to the house with Marilyn the social worker from the Church Council of Greater Seattle and our new tenant, Deanna. Deanna has been in a shelter for some time now. It took my breath away as I watched her walk around the Troyer house and look at the comfort of a home. “It has a TV!” She exclaimed. She could not believe the food in the fridge and in the cupboard and she was delighted to see a washer and dryer in the basement with detergent already there! In my mind I am thinking about all of you - wishing you could see her face and feel her joy.
We could be adding about $1,500 dollars to our budget each week if we rented that house, but instead we are housing a young family that would still be bedding down in a shelter if not for you.
A church where anything goes? A church that does not know the cost and the joy of discipleship? I don't think so.
Jesus invited the Saducees to go deeper than just the words on the page of Holy Scripture. He invited them to gaze beyond the customs of their current society and consider what it is to be alive in God. I celebrate that we are part of a denomination that can look deeply into scripture and beyond scripture into the ways God is speaking to us today and are called to actions of great joy and cost.
On this Stewardship Sunday I invite you to bring your pledge cards forward to the basket in affirmation of being a part of a local church and denomination in which we proclaim: “God is still speaking!”