Come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!

Advent 1 year A Sermon Isaiah 2:1-5Come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!



We approach this first Sunday in Advent...


with the sour taste of disaster in our mouths.


And yet the prophet Isaiah calls us...


to look forward... to that time in God’s future...


when all creation will be reconciled...


and every tear wiped away.






As well in this season... we look back...


to the birth of Jesus...the breaking in of God’s future into time and space. [pause]






If we could actually map out...the time space continuum...where do you think we’d be exactly...






Arrow slide


If we could map out a time line... of our faith history stretching from the dawn of creation...


through human rebellion against God’s good purposes ...through God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah...


the Exodus ...the cycle of War and Exile and Return


...the warnings of the prophets ...






tracing the line...right through...the incarnation of God’s Word made flesh in Jesus... the spread of Christianity to the gentile world...the dark ages...


the Enlightenment...


the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi... industrialisation... World Wars 1 and 2 Korea Vietnam... Iraq Afghanistan ...






If we could trace this time line...


all the way to the future... described in Isaiah’s vision... A future when all nations seek...


to learn the ways of God... and there is peace...






Just where... on the trajectory of Salvation History...


do you think we are... November 28, 2010?






[Ask]






blank slide


of course its possible... Isaiah’s vision is less about a particular time in the future


and more about... any time in history


when the conditions exist...that make for peace






I don’t know.






What I do know is that Isaiah 2:1-5... is a prophetic oracle... a poetic revelation. And it occurs again in the visions of the prophet Micah. We heard the same pattern... in Psalm 122.


All peoples go up to the mountain of the Lord


to learn the ways of God...God becomes the only arbitrator for human conflict and there is peace.






And we know we’re not there yet....don’t we?


And if we’re still a long way off...how can this oracle guide us to our destination...


I think there’s wisdom for the journey in its words...


Isaiah’s oracle... tells us what its going to look like. When God’s promised future arrives...






Slide words


They shall beat their swords into ploughshares,


and their spears into pruning hooks;


neither shall they learn war... any more






Earth slide


And as our planet sails through time and space...


and as we strive to reach God’s promised future...


when there’s peace and wellbeing for all creation...






Isaiah’s oracle exposes... the devastating connection...


between human conflict and human wellbeing...


between war... and hunger....it reveals a sobering truth about God’s good creation...its resources... are finite...


They can’t support both wellbeing and war.


One brings peace...the other... deprivation. [pause]






As a famous general once said...‘Every gun that’s made, every warship launched, every rocket fired… signifies in a final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.’






2010’s been a year of disaster for the South Island ...natural disasters... in the Canterbury earthquakes and the late spring snows...and accidental disaster...in this week’s unfolding tragedy at the Pike River Mine.






But the kind of disaster Isaiah’s talking about...


is neither natural nor accidental. It is unnatural.


the oracle tells us...


War is an unnatural act... war...has to be learned...






In God’s promised future...the unnatural act of war...


is off the curriculum. [pause]






You see Isaiah knows it’s natural for us to grow crops and sheep and cattle to feed our families...


but we have to be trained... to kill in cold blood.


And a farmer can’t grow anything... when he’s been run through by a spear...or blown up by a land mine.






Natural disasters come and go. Accidents happen...


their effects bring acute suffering...


but war is the chronic illness of our planet.






It devours the poor. Its demon is greed...


its god...mammon...its purpose is darkness and death.


The widow the orphan and the stranger...


are its collateral damage.






So as we map out where our planet might be


on the trajectory... to God’s promised future...


let’s listen again for clues in Isaiah’s words.






Slide words


In days to come... the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains,


and shall be raised above the hills;


all the nations shall stream to it.


Many peoples shall arrive there... saying






Slide words


"Come, let us... go up to the mountain of the LORD,


to the house of the God of Jacob;


that he may teach us his ways and


we ...may walk in his paths."






Slide words


God shall judge between the nations and arbitrate


for many peoples and






Slide words


they shall beat their swords into plowshares,


and their spears into pruning hooks;


nation shall not lift up sword against nation,


neither... shall they learn war... any more.






O house of Jacob,






slide words


Come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!






We don’t have to wait...the oracle is saying...


it’s possible for the children of God...to walk in the light of the Lord right now. It’s possible...


to learn God’s ways and walk in God’s paths...


to create the conditions that make for peace and wellbeing ...right now...






So come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!






And Jesus said






Slide words


Blessed are the peacemakers...


for they shall be called the Children of God.


Blessed are those who create the conditions...


that make for peace.






This Christmas we remember the millions ...


who suffer from poverty…war and avoidable disease.


And… as we give thanks for…our share of the earth’s finite resources… let us bear in mind…our brothers and sisters… who lack even the basics of life.






Despite a world full of food…over one billion people live in chronic hunger. That’s more than one in every six people on the planet…the worst figures since 1970.






And it’s not because of poor food harvests….


but because of poverty and war…and the unequal distribution of resources.


Hungry people can’t live… in peace.






Dealing with the… long term trauma…


of disaster and conflict… is increasingly important


in humanitarian response.






People’s daily routines are disrupted…


when schools and homes are destroyed.


And their suffering is increased… by the death of loved ones…and the loss of everything that’s familiar.






CWS slide


Today marks the beginning… of the 65th Christian World Service… Christmas Appeal.


They’re the official humanitarian aid organisation…


for the Presbyterian Church. This year’s focus…


is on hope and peace. And at our service on Christmas Day…our entire offering will go to this work.






Through our giving… local people… in Africa, Haiti


the Pacific and the Middle East…people who share the experience of trauma with their neighbours…


will be trained and supported…not for war…but


to lead programmes… that bring back wellbeing


in a bleak situation. [pause]






As we sail through time and space on our tiny vessel called earth…As we look forward to


celebrating the birth… of the Prince of Peace…


the conditions that make for peace on earth…


are still absent for many people






Yet God’s word has been revealed to us…


by the prophets and in the flesh in Jesus…


who is the way the truth and the light.






Whether we’ve learned anything…whether we walk


in the light of the LORD…will be revealed by our actions…toward family friend and neighbour…


whether near by or far away.






And into the coming week as we reflect on this…


will we begin to see more clearly…just where we are on the trajectory of salvation history…


as individuals and together as the people of God…






Let us ask ourselves…






Do the conditions that make for peace and wellbeing rule in our hearts? What about our community?


Our nation?






Does our use of resources…


bring wellbeing to ourselves but not to others?


Do our words and actions bring conflict… or peace?






How can we practise walking in the light of the LORD? Well with God’s help…as St Francis of Assisi… summed up in his prayer…






Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.


Where there is hatred, let me sow love.


Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life..






it’s my prayer…that in everything we do…


individually and together… we will not be standing still… or even worse…


travelling in the wrong direction.






we’ll be working and walking


towards God’s promised future






Let us stand and pray

Christ the King

Pentecost 27 year C  10 Sermon 

Title slide

‘Christ the King?’ you can just hear the scoffers asking
What crazy ideas of royalty these Christians have...

These followers of... this Jesus hanging up there…
on a cross...humiliated...ridiculed...bruised...bleeding... dying... dead...

Christ the King?
Why he’s helpless to stop his own execution...
his subjects...are so weak and so few…
there’s no one to fight the authorities on his behalf

Jesus slide

What sort of insanity...
keeps these people faithful to him…
when they can see with their own eyes…
he has no power at all.
And isn’t that the point of being a king…power?

Kings are in complete control,
have absolute authority…command armies and obedience

…and get to punish anyone who refuses to submit?

Kings have vast empires, palaces, wealth…and power to rule over people… that’s what Kings have!
If they think Jesus is a king these Christian’s don’t understand power at all. [pause]

And yet today two thousand years later…
we observe Christ the King Sunday...
the last Sunday in the Church year...
a day to celebrate Christ’s rule and reign
over all things in heaven and on earth… a day to rejoice in the victory of God…in Jesus...over the powers of darkness...

Are we crazy...to proclaim for all to hear…that in Jesus…
the kingdom of God has arrived...when the same forces
that took Jesus to the Cross…are still at work in us and in our community and in the world…the same abuses of personal…religious… political and economic power?

Are we foolish to believe that in Jesus...
the very power of the creator of the universe
is revealed and established...right here…
in our human dimension…of time and space?  [Pause]

Well…I for one…don’t think we’re crazy...to call him King as they did…after all it was the highest human rank they knew…
But I also believe that what Jesus meant
when he spoke about authority and kingdom and power...
was mysteriously and utterly different...

sign slide

from those who are laughing and sneering at Jesus…
as he dies on the Cross with its sign…Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews. [pause]

In the book Parables of the kingdom...author Robert Capon[i] notes... if there were one single overarching theme in scripture ‘it’s the mystery of the kingdom of God...not someplace else called heaven...and not some divine being at a distance …called God

but this place... right here...right now
with the Spirit of God mysteriously involved in it...
working in it…to reconcile all creation…to itself and to him.

But human beings have some strange ideas about how God uses power...to accomplish his purposes

Some insist on an omnipotent God...
with the power to control and to zap and to manipulate the universe to achieve anything God wants …
any time God wants...

But then they’re faced with a tonne of questions…

Like…‘why is God taking so long to complete the project?  

Why doesn’t God use some direct power…some force…

just knock some heads together…
put all the baddies under a large flat rock...
and get on with the job of reconciling with everyone else?’

But when we read the Bible carefully...
we discover there’s no incidence since Noah...

when God’s seemed to be the least bit interested
in using direct power...to fix up the world.

What do I mean by direct power?
Well that’s something you and I use every day…isn’t it?

Direct power is mechanical power... mechanical force...

cup slide

this morning at breakfast for example… you probably used direct power to lift your coffee cup…or your cereal spoon.
And the cup simply didn’t have a say in it...
you used the power at your disposal…to lift it up...

Every day…
we use this kind of power to mow the grass or put out the cat.

Direct power’s responsible for almost everything that happens

our human dimension of time and space.


And one of the advantages of direct power...
is it gets results…in so many different situations!
From taking out a splinter with tweezers...[pause]
to taking out your enemy... with a hand grenade.

And right there you can see one of the incredible dis-advantages of direct power… particularly when you believe
the purpose of life... is to maintain loving relationships
with other people and with God. [pause]

Car slide

Oh, sure direct power can be legitimate…like when you drag your seven year old out of the way of a moving car…but just try to drag her away from her plans for that rock concert in Auckland...when she’s eighteen...

Direct power can have great disadvantages
in loving relationships…

Daughter slide

let’s say one night after midnight

…your daughter sneaks out of the house without permission. When you find out you get really steamed and try to scare her out of doing it again...by shaming and yelling and taking away privileges.

But she does it again...and again and again and again...

What do you do next...
well if you’re the sort of parent committed to direct power  then when you’ve lost your voice and there are no more privileges to take away...

your final option is to beat her till you’re exhausted...
and lock her in her room… handcuffed to the bed...[pause]

Lock slide

I hope you can see the logic…
of why direct power is ultimately limited in loving relationships ... I hope you can see…
that very early on in all this... your relationship with your daughter would be completely destroyed...

unless…at some point in the proceedings…you simply refuse

to use the direct power you have at your disposal. And instead of inflicting pain and punishment on your daughter...
you make yourself vulnerable...and take onto your self...
all her sneering disrespect…her haughty eyes…
and angry fists.

Is that really some kind of power?

Yes…but it’s the opposite of direct power…
and Christians… from Martin Luther to
Martin Luther King have used it…

Just look at your right hand for a moment...
make a tight fist...

You can see that right handed power
certainly looks strong and in control...

Now take your left hand...and hold it out like this
in a gesture of welcome or support...

you might think your left handed power looks weak …
and it’s hard to tell if you’re intervening or not…

and you certainly can’t guarantee that your left handed power’s going to stop evil-doers in there tracks.

The only thing left handed power does guarantee... [pause]

is that after you’ve been rejected and battered
and hung out to dry… or to die...

you won’t have shut the door on your relationship.

And that’s the difference between what we call
right handed power and left handed power.

And if you don’t think leaving the door open to reconciliation has any power…

Jesus slide

Then turn your eyes to the cross of Christ...

and see…just how powerful left handed power is

so powerful...it’s the only thing in the world...
evil can’t touch. [pause]

Jesus died forgiving…not fighting…and in this powerful act…God wedges open the door…
between himself and the world and says...
‘just try to make me lock you out!’ [pause]

In the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry...
Jesus was tempted to use direct interventionist power...
to accomplish his mission ushering in the Kingdom of God one earth…and he refused.

And Jesus’ disciples expected he’d use force
to overthrow the Roman’s…and restore Jerusalem...
and the throne of David to the Jews. But he refused.

In fact Jesus warns his followers to keep quiet about it
when he uses direct power... feeding the crowd…
calming the storm...healing the demoniac.

From the beginning of his ministry
Jesus seems to realise…the world won’t be saved…
by these right handed miraculous acts...

He understands…the kind of power that will save the world …is a deeper more powerful…left handed power….
a mystery…at the centre of which would be his own death.

What would save the world...what would saves us...is Jesus...

When we make a decision…
to take up our cross and follow him...
we commit ourselves to left handed power in our relationships…the way he used power…
and he is the way the truth and the life…

and rationally and logically Jesus’ way
is the only way…

our relationships and our planet will survive…

If Christ is to truly reign in our hearts…
we must understand this dynamic…

For in Jesus…as Paul wrote to the Colossians

Slide words

God rescued us from the dominion of darkness

and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,

in whom we have redemption… the forgiveness of sins....

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,

and through him to reconcile all things to himself,

blank slide

by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. [pause]

So what will it be…my friends…results or relationships…

control or compassion…might or mercy…
who’s way will we choose?
I pray we’ll choose the way of Jesus’.

---

[i] http://www.amazon.com/Parables-Kingdom-Robert-Farrar-Capon/dp/0802806058

Signs of the Apocalypse

Pentecost 26 year C Sermon Luke 21:5-19

‘Interpreting signs that bear no real meaning… 

is one of the most profound impulses of human nature. This impulse is second… only to survival.’[i]

This year… a book and its movie created hysteria among …Apoca-freaks…looking for signs of the end-of-the-world. You might have seen the movie 2012 on TV recently. It was based Larry Joseph’s book…
Apocalypse 2012: An Investigation into Civilization’s End.

The book weighs up the odds… of a planet-wide catastrophe in 2012… presenting scientific evidence… of looming chaos and even mass extinction.

And now a new book by the same author…
tries to answer the biggest question arising from the first…What can we do…to reduce the impact of the coming catastrophe it predicts? The new book’s title is AFTERMATH: A Guide to Preparing for and Surviving Apocalypse 2012.

In this latest book… Larry Joseph…
lays out the latest research…on threats to the world as we know it. Solar flares…plagues, famines, droughts…
epidemics and global warming…
are all assessed for their catastrophic potential…


The book presents us… with data from NASA…
the National Academy of Sciences… and even from the Cave of the Apocalypse on the island of Patmos…
where the disciple John… is said to have written the book of Revelation…

Larry Joseph argues…that while the options are limited

… there’s a lot we can do…to prepare for…
endure… and emerge from the disaster he predicts.

And in the story you just heard… from Luke’s Gospel
Jesus has just predicted what sounds like…
the end of the world as his disciples know it.
And they’re full of questions…
about warning signs and how to survive.

They want to know…so they can prepare and endure and emerge…from the catastrophe to come… [pause]

Jesus has reached Jerusalem…his entry into the city… and the upheaval he causes in the Temple…
have sealed his fate once and for all…
the religious authorities…will have him killed.

But every day since the incident in the Temple…
Jesus has returned to teach. And on one of these occasions…when his disciples are …oooing and awring at the splendour and beauty… of Herod’s Temple…

their wonder…provokes from Jesus a dire prophesy …

‘As for what you see here …the time will come
when not one stone will be left on another;
every one of them… will be thrown down.’

Such a possibility… such a terrifying prediction… sounds like the end of the world…
as Jesus’ disciples know it. And just as we would…
Jesus’ friends want to… protect themselves
from the destruction to come…

They want to know how to interpret the warning signs.

And of course Jesus does eventually tell them…
exactly what to look for…

but first did you notice…he warns them not to be fooled by interpreting signs which have no meaning

Watch out you’re not deceived. He says

For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Don’t follow them. 

When you hear of wars and uprisings…nation against nation…kingdom against kingdom…
don’t let that scare you. These things will happen in the near future…but the end of the world as you know it…
isn’t coming right away.

There will be earthquakes, famines
and outbreaks of disease in various places…
fearful events in the sky. But these will mean nothing.

And Jesus tells his friends…
one thing’s for sure… before all this happens

on account of my name…
you will be arrested and persecuted…
handed over to synagogues…
thrown into prison and brought before kings…[pause]

And all this…will give you the chance…
to bear witness to me…[pause]

before the destruction to come…

And when you are arrested…don’t worry about
how you’re going to defend yourself…
I’ll give you… irresistible words and undeniable wisdom…

And Jesus tells his friends…
Lots of tough things will happen before the destruction I’m talking about…

You’ll be betrayed… even by family and friends…
and they’ll even put some of you to death.
Everyone will hate you because of me. [pause]

But not a hair of your head will perish. 
Stand… firm…and you will win life.

Hang on a minute…

Isn’t Jesus getting carried away?
His friends want some comfort and clarity
about how to survive the big one he’s predicting…
you know… when no stone is left standing…
the end of the world as they know it…

But Jesus is saying hey …I’m talking decades …
there’s a lot of work to be done in the meantime…
a lot of witnessing…
 to the new thing God’s doing in me…
and it’s not going to be easy…

I’m just warning you to get things in perspective
look around…what seems so permanent
and impressive to you now …just isn’t.

But what is enduring…Jesus says…what will survive…
is you my friends…my followers…
and the message you carry…

So stand firm, and you will win life…[pause]

Of course they couldn’t have imagined…
the next two thousand years…
and just how their movement would survive…

but here we are… at the ends of the earth…
with the chance to bear witness to what God is doing…
to breathe love and life into in a broken world.

And like I said…eventually Jesus does tell them…
the signs to look for…
of the… really big disaster he’s predicting

But first he wants them…to get things in perspective

 …the Temple isn’t coming down tomorrow…

They need to take a long view…
and recognise the road won’t be easy…but just hold on

…and somehow Jesus will be there…
to get them through it.

And somehow… they will endure.

And then Jesus finally reveals…the signs with real meaning about the destruction of the Temple

Yes… not a stone would be left standing…

When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, 

then you’ll know its desolation is near. Its war that will bring the real destruction. That’s the time to flee to the mountains…to get out of the city and stay out…

For those will be days of retribution…
in fulfilment of all that has been written...but mark my words Jesus says…

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

what seems so permanent and impressive to you now …just isn’t. Only what God is doing will endure…and your job will be to witness to what you’ve seen of it.  And of course forty years later the Romans marched into Jerusalem and flattened it along with the Temple which has never been rebuilt.

Like the first disciples...our job is to witness to what we have seen of what God is doing in our time. Our job isn’t to rush in panic after the next big earthquake…screaming that God is bringing the end of the world…

our job to look for the signs of love and healing and justice and peace…where God is at work in our world… and testify to these things…
tell the truth about these things

and with faith…never obsess and worry about what to say… because Jesus has promised to be with us…to give us the words.

ironically…the Greek word for Apocalypse  [Ἀποκάλυψις] Apokálypsis means "lifting the veil" or "revelation"

And that day in Jerusalem…just before his death…
Jesus lifts the veil for his friends and for us … don’t worry have faith stand firm…
only what God is doing will endure…

---

[i] Edgar Allan Poe 

The Sarcasm of the Sadducees

Pentecost 25 year C Sermon Luke 20:27-38

Did you know the word sarcasm…
taken back to its original Greek…

Greek slide

σαρκάζω (sarkazo) means to tear flesh.
Sarx is the Greek word for flesh…
and Paul uses often in his letters.

And here in this story… the most powerful people in the first century Jewish world…
are using sarcasm… to ridicule Jesus… [pause]
just days before his flesh is torn for real…
by Roman flails.
 

Sarcasm is always destructive.
It sneaks into our tone of voice as a spirit of malice…

Blank slide

Sometimes it hides behind irony …for example…
when someone might say… “What a fine musician you turned out to be!” or ‘don't work too hard’…
to someone lying on the couch watching TV.

When people use sarcastic irony to attack …
their criticism is delivered under a stealth missile…
of humour…So with this in mind… let’s listen to the Sadducees… who don’t believe in the resurrection…
as they question Jesus… about the resurrection.

‘Rabbi…Moses wrote if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children…the surviving brother…must marry the widow and produce children for his brother. 
And Jesus…since that’s right there in the Law…
what would you say if there were seven brothers…

The first one marries a woman and dies childless.  The second and the third marry her, and then all seven and they all die one after the other…leaving no children at all.

Finally, the woman dies too. 

Now then Jesus… at the resurrection…whose wife will she be…since all seven were married to her?

I was thinking about Jesus’ response to the Sadducees this week when I got this email from my mother…

Dear Dena…that’s her nickname for me…I want your thoughts  on  after  we  die.   I believe  in Jesus  our  Saviour and  life everlasting.   All my life  I   trusted  that  God is with me… Now… will Daddy  and I be together in Heaven?    I cry for him every day and night.  It doesn’t get better it gets worse  because I was   67 years  of my life with him.  I want to be with  him… 
will  we ever be… or is this  over  or  dissolved? 
I’m  having a  very hard time…
No one should  ever  love  anyone so much.
Must   go to bed now   Grace of  our  Loving god  be with you  I love you….Mother’

Is my mother asking the same question as the Sadducees? Would Jesus response be helpful to her?

Well…here’s how Jesus answered… the sarcastic riddle posed to him by the Sadducees  Jesus said

Slide words

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.

quoting these words of Jesus in scripture… can brings sadness emptiness and confusion…to people like my mother who are… in grief for their spouses.

I felt that to choose Jesus response to the Sadducees…
as a reply to my mother…would be cruel and insensitive …and as much an abuse of Holy Scripture as the Sadducees attack on Jesus with the words of the book of Exodus. Yes is it possible to abuse people with scripture.

blank slide

what I wrote back to my mother was this:

Darling Mother, I hope you wake up feeling better. Nothing can dissolve the bond you and Daddy have because it’s made out of love. I believe when we die we go to be with God… and that in God's presence all questions are answered and we will have true peace and everlasting life. I'm sorry I didn't ring you today. I will ring you tomorrow. [pause]

What happens after we die is the crux of my mother’s agonising question. But what happens after we die…
is just a political vehicle for the Sadducees…
a way to launch a powerful attack on Jesus…
by the high priests of the Temple.

You see in the first century…these Sadducees are in favour with the Romans and the Jewish royal family…the Herods. They’re descendants of Zadok… King Solomon’s high priest…
they control the economy of the Temple…
and command a majority in the Sanhedrin –
the Jewish General Assembly.

While the Sadducees are small in number…
compared to the Pharisees…their political and financial influence is far greater.

And while the Pharisees expect the Messiah to come at any moment…to restore the throne of David …
the gospel of Mark quotes the Sadducees… saying,
"We have no king but Caesar!".[i]

With so much… religious…economic and political power at stake…the Sadducees have the most to lose because of Jesus. A popular uprising
lead by an alleged Messiah…
would jeopardize their supremacy in Jerusalem.

And as Jesus enters the city… descending the road down the Mount of Olives…Luke reports…the threat becomes very real…for the whole crowd begins to sing…
 the ancient hymn…

“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

What happens next only the threat more intense…

When Jesus and his entourage enter the Temple courts…
the one hailed as ‘king’ by the crowds…
begins to exert his authority…
by driving out the money changers. 
Every day after this Jesus returns to the Temple to teach.

The Temple priests are now plotting to kill him…
but they can never catch Jesus without a crowd… hanging on his every word. [pause]

And while the Sadducees make the loudest noise in Jerusalem … their authority is being challenged…
by a man who speaks more quietly…
and claims his own prophetic… and royal authority.

As he teaches…Jesus hints at a conspiracy to have him assassinated. He tells a story…
about vineyard tenants who kill the owner’s son.

With crowds around him constantly … the Sadducees need some other weapon than arrest… and in today’s story they use it…they bring out a proof text from the book of Exodus …and cover it with sarcasm…
to make a fool of Jesus.

You see the Temple priests were real biblical conservatives… believing only the written Torah…
the first five scrolls…to have the authority of scripture
they considered the resurrection of the dead…
to be a new and modern heresy…

if they can’t get Jesus as a traitor to Caesar…

they’ll get him as a heretic.

There’s an irony… even in their choice of topic…
They’re plotting to kill Jesus and thereby
end the threat he poses…to their stranglehold on power 
They don’t believe in the resurrection of the dead…
so they’re sure Jesus influence will end…
if they can just have him killed.

My mother …was asking what happens when we die…would she get to be with Daddy again…
but that’s not what the Sadducees
want to debate with Jesus…

In the first century when Jews argued about ‘the resurrection’… they weren’t thinking about what it’s going to be like after we die…they had in mind Israel’s story.. from Abraham… to their own time…
and into a future…when God would raise all Israel from the dead… and create a new world for them to live in…

To first century Jews the resurrection was an event[ii]…
a God event…in which the dead would be alive again
in a way they weren’t right now… a time when all the wrongs of the world… would be put right.

The Sadducees don’t believe in this…and so they taunt Jesus with… what to them is a ridiculous question …about who’s married to whom…
when the resurrection comes. [pause]

But instead of tit for tat…Jesus’ ignores their flesh tearing purpose…and makes two serious points…

first…
resurrection life is going to be different from this one …for one thing…death will be abolished…
and so sexual relationships and the need to continue a particular family line… will be irrelevant.

Second
Jesus says… the book of Exodus which the Sadducees hold as authoritative…the book of Exodus
‘does teach the resurrection…when it describes God as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob… the patriarchs are still alive in God’s presence…
awaiting the final resurrection.’

So Jesus is saying it’s reasonable to believe
that all are alive to God...
even if the powers that be disagree. [pause]

No one present during this argument in the Temple could have imagined how the first fruits of the resurrection to come…would appear during their own lives.

The resurrection of Jesus…would give a huge boost to the faith of his followers… in Jesus as Christ…
and in their own future with God.

And they went on telling the story of the Sadducees debate with Jesus …long after the whole of the Roman Empire had embraced Christianity…
not only because it illustrated Jesus’ teaching on the resurrection…
but because Easter had proved the Sadducees wrong.

Death did not have the last word. [pause]

Over the next week…I pray that you and I will monitor the way we use sarcasm in our relationships with others.

Are we using it to put someone down…
as the Sadducees did?

Do we insist… we’re just asking… an innocent question
when we are actually intending to tear flesh…

And when someone uses sarcasm against us…will we respond with the confidence and gentleness of Jesus?

My prayer… is that we will all become ready to surrender any spirit of malice we might carry to God
and allow ourselves to be conformed to Christ…
by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

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[i] John 19:15

[ii] Two good resources on this are NT Wright’s Luke for everyone and his Surprised by Hope a complete work on the 1^st century understanding of the resurrection from the dead.