Saint Philip’s November 11, 2007 Sermon

The 24^th Sunday after Pentecost – Luke 20: 27-38 

“’When I Grow Up’ said Brother Ned”
By the Reverend Raymond J. Howe

We are nearing the end of the church year.  A new year will begin on December 2^nd.  The Gospel for this morning and the next two Sundays take place after the first Palm Sunday, in the final days of Jesus’ life.  The authorities are out to get rid of Jesus in any way they can.

Listen again to the trick question asked by the Saducees in this morning’s Gospel.

 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 the children for this brother.  Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless.  Finally the woman also died.  In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be?  For the seven had married her.’”

(Pause)

When I grow up said brother Ned, I’ll hardly ever go to bed.  ‘Til very late I’ll stay awake, and I’ll eat lots of chocolate cake.

I wonder why I still remember that little ditty after over half of a century?  I guess I liked chocolate cake and staying up late.  I do remember that in my family we had a rule that each of us could choose one non school night per year in which we could stay up as long as we wanted.  I think I once made it ‘til about 10:30 with a struggle.  In any case if anyone had asked me about heaven I probably wouldn’t have been interested if it didn’t involve staying up late and eating chocolate cake.

In today’s reading from Luke, Chapter 20 some skeptics who don’t believe in the resurrection of the dead try to embarrass Jesus with the story of seven brothers who each in turn marry the same woman.  Our Lord’s response says at least three things to you and me today:

1.   There is indeed a resurrection of the dead;

2.     Its meaning is beyond our ability to comprehend;

3.      Trust in the Lord.

During the last week in our Lord’s life we find a great deal of opposition growing against him, the forces of evil combine to get rid of him.  The chief priests, scribes, and elders attempt to trap him.  Even the Herodians and Pharisees (usually bitter enemies) combine forces against Jesus, their common enemy.

In Luke, Chapter 20 it is a still different group, the Sadducees who attempt to embarrass Jesus…..and they also fail.

Who are the Sadducees?  They were a small but very powerful and influential political and religious faction in the Holy Land during New Testament times.  They tended to be wealthy and aristocratic.  Most of the priests as well as the majority of the Sanhedrin, the supreme council and highest court of justice at Jerusalem were Sadducees.  In general they were opposed to the Pharisees.  The Sadducees accepted the written law only…primarily the first five books of the Old Testament.  They repudiated the existence of angels and spirits as well as the Resurrection of the Body.

An easy way to recall what the Sadducees believed about the Resurrection is to remember that it is SAD YOU SEE, that the ‘SADD U CEES’ didn’t believe.

Indeed it is the Resurrection of the Body about which they attempt to trap Jesus in today’s scripture.  They cite an Old Testament teaching that if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife, but no child, the man should marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. 

Then they offer a hypothetical situation in which there are seven brothers all of whom are married at one time or another to one woman (poor woman!).  When all are dead whose wife (they ask) will she be in the Resurrection?

This morning I am most concerned with Jesus’ answer for you and for me in our daily lives in 2007.  The answer is in three parts, the first two of which he also says to the Sadducees:

1.      There is indeed a resurrection of the dead;

2.      Its meaning is beyond our ability to comprehend;

3.      Trust in the Lord.

Fist the Resurrection of the Body is central to our faith as Christians.  On Easter morning the women came to our Lord’s tomb and found his body not there.  The tomb was indeed empty for Christ had risen from the dead and in doing so defeated all the powers of evil, sin and death.  That is our Easter cry.  “Christ is risen!”  “The Lord is risen indeed!”  And we who are buried with Christ in baptism are raised with him in his resurrection.

The truth and reality of the Resurrection are the very underpinnings of our faith.  PRAISE THE LORD!

Yet the second point is that the meaning of the Resurrection is beyond our ability to comprehend.  We cannot even utter intelligent questions about the resurrection with any real understanding of it.

St. Paul was one of the greatest thinkers of all time.  Inspired by the Holy Spirit, he speaks of celestial or heavenly bodies and terrestrial or earthly bodies.  He is clear that flesh and blood can not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.  He uses the analogy of a seed representing the earthly body and the grown plant representing the heavenly body.  But even his brilliance takes us only a tiny step toward understanding the mystery of God’s power, creativity, justice and mercy.

When I grow up said brother Ned, I’ll hardly even go to bed.  ‘Til very late I’ll stay awake, and I’ll eat lots of chocolate cake.

As a young boy my question about heaven or the resurrection would have been 1) Will there be chocolate cake? 2) Can I stay up real late every night?

Right now chocolate cake is probably not among my top ten favorite desserts.  I certainly hope it isn’t the only desert served in heaven.  And surely I don’t like staying up late at night.  I’ve definitely become a morning person rather than a night person.

Will there be chocolate cake in heaven? 

Which of the seven brothers will the woman be married to in the Resurrection?

Both questions make about the same amount of sense…the reason is because of the resurrection…life after death is way, way, way beyond our ability to understand or to comprehend.

The first two points are:

1.      There is indeed a resurrection of the dead;

2.      Its meaning is beyond our ability to comprehend.

The third thing that Jesus says to us today is TRUST ME.

Indeed that is where we are left in everything.

TRUST ME says the Lord EVEN THOUGH THE MEANING IS BEYOND YOU.

That is what faith, belief is all about…trusting, trusting a person, trusting the Lord Jesus as Lord and savior.

There was an old country doctor who traveled throughout his area to visit patients, often with his beloved dog.  One day he was visiting at the home of a farmer who was on his deathbed.  The farmer knew he had a very short time to live, but he was not at all afraid of dying.  The doctor was impressed, told the man so, and asked how he could face the unknown with no fear.

At the moment the doctor’s dog who was outside the door barked in such a way that both men knew he would like to come in.  The farmer said, “your dog has never been in this room, but  he knows that someone he can trust, who loves him and cares for him, is on the other side of the door…..and that is all he needs to know.  He is willing and indeed anxious to come in.

“It’s much the same with me.  For on the other side of life is my trusted friend Jesus Christ who loves and cares for me.  That is why I am not afraid.  Nothing can hurt me.”

Once again the message I find in today’s scripture is:

1.      There is indeed a resurrection of the dead;

2.      Its meaning is beyond our ability to comprehend;

3.      Trust in the Lord.