• No Handicap Parking in
Heaven
with Luke 20:27-38
with Luke 20:27-38
www.FirstChurchBville.com
@FirstUMCBville @kerrfunk
A
video of the worship service was posted on Facebook 11/10/19
•
29 years ago my life was changed forever.
I was a freshman in college, I met the woman I would marry, and that’s what we did. 23 years ago she died.
I was a freshman in college, I met the woman I would marry, and that’s what we did. 23 years ago she died.
Also
23 years ago my life was changed forever.
I met the woman I’d marry. And that’s what we did.
We’ve been married 20 years now.
I met the woman I’d marry. And that’s what we did.
We’ve been married 20 years now.
The
Sadducees’ question has long given me pause.
Who will I be married to in the resurrection?
I don’t even know where I want my body buried!
Who will I be married to in the resurrection?
I don’t even know where I want my body buried!
On
the one hand, sounds like a legitimate question.
Luke points out, though, that it’s not: the Sadducees who don’t believe in life after death are asking a question about life after death. Hoping to trick or trap Jesus.
Luke points out, though, that it’s not: the Sadducees who don’t believe in life after death are asking a question about life after death. Hoping to trick or trap Jesus.
•
Levirate marriage idea sounds odd to us, but in patriarchal culture where few
women owned property or could honorably sustain themselves, LM offered
protection for widows.
Think of it as a kind of life insurance.
A safety net for a woman in the event of her husband’s untimely death.
Think of it as a kind of life insurance.
A safety net for a woman in the event of her husband’s untimely death.
•
One commentator I read said “I have many questions about resurrection, but
the details aren’t the point. Or at least they weren’t when Jesus answered the
Sadducees in the Temple. The point is, the promise of resurrection and the assurance
of that promise have the capacity to guide our life in this age.”
Why
aren’t the details the point?
Jesus
provides an answer, with a twist.
Levirate
marriage, a kind of life insurance, has death at its foundation.
The
resurrection, eternal life, the kingdom of heaven, there is no death in the
resurrection.
Therefore
there is no life insurance and no Levirate marriage.
There are no handicap parking spaces in heaven and no flashlights.
There are no handicap parking spaces in heaven and no flashlights.
How
do our earthly relationships carry over in the kingdom?
I
don’t know. Jesus doesn’t say.
But I trust there will be nothing to complain about.
But I trust there will be nothing to complain about.
•
I think Jesus had another point, though, when he replied to the Sadducees.
Don’t
waste your time on these things.
Recall the passage from Isaiah last week:
Live in relationship.
Live in relationship with God and people.
Esteem others.
Ritualistically going through the motions doesn’t honor me, God says. It’s your own mind game.
Recall the passage from Isaiah last week:
Live in relationship.
Live in relationship with God and people.
Esteem others.
Ritualistically going through the motions doesn’t honor me, God says. It’s your own mind game.
What
I honor: seeking justice – that is, what is right among people. Helping the
oppressed. Defending the orphan, pleading for the widow. Using the opportunity,
power, influence you have to lift others who lack opportunity, power,
influence.
•
What if, instead of gatekeeping the Temple,
disciples spent their resources and efforts in outreach and advocacy?
disciples spent their resources and efforts in outreach and advocacy?
What
if instead of deciding who was in or out,
disciples fed the hungry and aided the sick?
disciples fed the hungry and aided the sick?
What
if the people of the church lived their public lives in such a way that others
would be drawn to their actions and teachings?
•
Churches are intended to be resurrection outposts with the ability to be a site
and a people whose resources, words, and being can be a foretaste for the most
vulnerable among us.
May
we be strengthened by the promise, and worthy of the age to come.
•
Hymn 372 How Can We Sinners Know
Luke
20:27-38
(HCSB)
27 Some of the
Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came up and questioned
Him: 28 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s
brother has a wife, and dies childless, his brother should take the
wife and produce offspring for his brother. 29 Now there
were seven brothers. The first took a wife and died without children. 30 Also
the second 31 and the third took her. In the same way, all seven died
and left no children. 32 Finally, the woman died
too. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will
the woman be? For all seven had married her.”
34 Jesus
told them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in
marriage. 35 But those who are counted worthy to take
part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor
are given in marriage. 36 For they cannot die
anymore, because they are like angels and are sons of God, since they
are sons of the resurrection. 37 Moses even indicated in
the passage about the burning bush that the dead are raised, where he calls the
Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38 He
is not God of the dead but of the living, because all are living to Him.” ò
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