In the past after Diocesan Convention in other dioceses
I
usually said a few words about Convention in the sermon
just to remind everyone that the basic unit in the
Episcopal Church
is
not the congregation but the diocese
and to highlight what happened that everyone deserved to
know.
The last two days Hunt and I and our delegation
consisting
of Anne Affleck and John Daugherty
met
with 600 of our closest friends in Tacoma.
Very briefly here’s a report:
we
took pride in the fact that our rector was the only one elected
straight
out for Deputy to General Convention 2015 in the clergy order.
It took four ballots to select the other three and the
alternates.
John Daugherty participated actively in the convention,
speaking
at the microphone more than once
and organizing a lunch conversation group about a report
from the day before.
For me at this point in life
convention is more about having a big family reunion meeting
up again with those from other congregations
whom
I have known and loved for many years.
The theme for this convention was “Proclaiming the Word of
God,”
and a key report was about the
diocesan project called “Outside Church Walls.”
Those reporting talked about moving from being a welcoming
church
-
how to welcome and incorporate visitors -
into being an inviting church
-
actually
inviting others to come to church.
Well, that’s fine, but why would we invite them to church?
What is the Word that we are to be proclaiming?
Short answer:
It’s what’s at the center of our faith – Jesus.
The Gospels present Jesus and his powerful words and
actions
that
reflect to us what the Kingdom of God is like.
But it is his death and resurrection that bring home to us
very personally
the
redeeming, reconciling and healing love of God.
So let me do a little proclaiming of the Word of God
that
we were being directed to do
based
on the Gospel reading for today.
It’s
about a question posed by the Sadducees that is meant to catch Jesus.
Consider,
we hear more about Pharisees in the NT than Sadducees,
so
who were the Sadducees?
The
Pharisees were those who observed a pious faith in God
and
lived out their faith by careful observance of the Torah.
Theirs
was a spirituality centered in the Law
and in hope for the Messiah.
In contrast the Sadducees were predominately
the priests and the aristocracy,
so
they were heavily invested in the continuation of the Temple,
and
so also in continuing to live at peace with the Roman presence.
For
them the coming of a messiah would be threatening
to
their ordered lives that provided the people with essential services.
Their
spirituality was centered in the ritual of the Temple.
But
the main difference apropos to this Gospel reading
is
in how they viewed resurrection.
The
Pharisees believed that there was resurrection from the dead
while
the Sadducees held to a “genetic” resurrection,
that
is, that life was extended through offspring.
You
lived on through your descendents
as
they remembered you and as they carried on your name.
This
is akin to our remembering those who have gone before us in the faith
each
year at the celebration of All Saints.
So
that makes this question that the Sadducees pose to Jesus
particularly
significant.
Their
theology about resurrection in this way is expressed
through the hypothetical situation they
present to Jesus.
And
how purposely ridiculous they make the situation.
In
order to have a way to pass on inheritance,
and to assure being remembered,
one
needed to have descendants,
hence
the Mosaic law about raising up offspring through the brothers.
This
is a kind of practical and concrete resurrection.
So
how outrageous if then all the characters in their example
were
to come back alive,
such
as the Pharisees believed,
and
then how could they figure out to whom the woman belonged?
-
as though the woman were something
that could be
possessed/owned by the husbands!
Jesus responds by telling them they’ve missed
the point about resurrection
-
it’s not life like it used to be.
Resurrection
is not life like it used to be.
I
think we all get interested in life after death,
more
so with each year that passes
and
with each family member or old friend we bury.
There
are a lot of ideas about what life after death is like,
but
what is Jesus saying here?
First
of all, the topic is resurrection, not resuscitation.
It’s
not coming back from the dead
and
essentially being the same sort of being.
It
would seem that Jesus is saying that the old relationships,
such as a man possessing a wife, don’t figure
in resurrection life,
since
there is no need for procreation and raising up offspring
to
carry on the family name and inheritance.
One
could say that in Resurrection there is a new way of being
that has transcended all previous forms of
relationship.
Death
is no more,
which
is to say that one may come to see that
death never touches this resurrection life.
For
one who lives in Resurrection life there is no death.
The
body may disintegrate around us
and
drop away like a snake-skin sloughed off,
but
in Resurrection one does not even taste death.
Romans 6:3
Do you not know that
all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus
were
baptized into his death?
4 Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into
death,
so
that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
so
we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like
his,
we
will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
By
faith we live a new life in Christ,
and
so have already passed over from death into life,
and
the life that we now live,
is
the Resurrection Life of Jesus.
We
call this the New Creation, newness of Life.
I
am not talking about a theoretical concept to be understood,
but
a new reality to be experienced,
experienced
spiritually but truly experienced,
like
one day you know, you just know
that
life is new, that life is resurrection.
Resurrection
is about union with God.
And
in that union with God
we
then are in perfect knowledge and union with the will of God,
with the Mind of Christ.
God
is the God of the living, not the dead,
the
God of those who are alive in Christ,
of
those who realize that they are living in Resurrection – NOW.
May
we come to this realization so profoundly
that
we begin to see the effects of Resurrection
in
our own lives and how we live them,
that
we see the effects of Resurrection
in
this Parish family
and
how we live together
and
how we relate to one another,
and
that we begin to see the impact of Resurrection
on
our witness to the world outside these walls.
…because
there are implications,
implications
of resurrection as new life,
expansion
beyond the limitations of our culturally conditioned perspective on life,
life
that is lived in union with Jesus and the Father,
life
that is not conditioned by our bodies or our circumstances,
so
much so that we can say when someone’s body gives out
and
we get a flat line across the monitor,
“Life
is not ended, but changed.”
So
the obvious question is: Are we
experiencing resurrection?
Are
we aware that we are swimming in resurrection, the new creation?
If
not, then what are we to do about that?
What
can we do about that?
or
as the gospel reading states,
to
be those
considered worthy of a place in the resurrection.
Well,
we won’t get there by studying,
although
that will help.
We
won’t get there by being squeaky clean morally,
although
that won’t hurt.
We
won’t get there to that place of realization of resurrection
by
tithing, or acts of mercy, or being of service,
although
all that is good for our souls’ heath.
Only
one thing – put ourselves in the best posture for being able to see,
to
experience, to realize.
It’s
our openness, our submitting ourselves
to grace.
Let
the One who is the Master do the work in us
of
healing our sight, opening our eyes.
That is what
makes us worthy of resurrection.
Sit
down, be still and cease from limiting the grace of God
through
our ego-invested efforts.
No
need to roll away stones from tombs to see resurrection.
Resurrection will be
visible everywhere.
