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Sermon Archive - November 8, 1998
Pastor Danielson
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Luke 20:27-38
This morning's Lesson from St. Luke reminds us that Sadducees did not believe
in "resurrection after death." That is because they accepted as their
scriptures just the first five books of Moses, in which they found nothing of
"resurrection." Therefore, their question about the "after death status" of
the seven childless brothers and the one woman whom they all in turn married
was clearly rhetorical. They had no real interest in discovering the truth
about "eternal life. Their only desire was to entrap Jesus.
Jesus insisted that, while there is continuity between this present life and
the "after life," that continuity is not simply an extension of our earthly
life of marriages and children. No, "eternal life" is a gift from
gift from the living God assures us that, though we do die,
God gives life back again.
We see then that Jesus was intent on teaching the Sadducees that the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is a God not of the dead, but of the living. And, by
recording this encounter between Jesus and the Sadducees, Luke in turn teaches
us that our hope of a resurrection is ultimately based on Jesus' resurrection.
Immediately following funeral services, sometimes at graveside, a family
member or friend of the deceased will seek me out and say something like:
"The scripture you read and the sermon you gave meant a lot to me, but where
is George right now?"
Before I give you my answer to that question, let me share the "Top 7 Answers"
I have heard others give in similar situations ---other pastors included:
- His body is in the ground but his soul is with God.
- His body is in the ground and his soul is with God, but the two will be
united at the "resurrection."
- Because there is no "time" in eternity, at his death George passed right
into heaven; therefore, he already has a resurrected body.
- We do not need to know the particulars, only that all is well with George.
- Well, we just don't know.
- He is making a long journey to better life in another world.
- I don't know, but there is this a lady in Wheeling that may be able to put
you in touch with him ?
Number 7 is a poor attempt at humor but, over the years, I have heard some
pretty silly answers to questions regarding the "here after."
What about my answer? To begin with I don't like short answers to questions
having deeply held convictions or, for that matter, questions that are asked
in the absence of convictions or personal beliefs. I prefer to respond by
asking the questioner if we could talk privately. If granted that opportunity,
I always begin with a discussion of Jesus' own resurrection. Where does the
resurrection of Jesus Christ and his promises about our resurrection fit into
your questions and beliefs about death and "after life?" I also want to know
more about what, on earth, you treasure so much that you would hold on to it
for eternity!
Several times before, in my sermons, I have mentioned a fascination I once had
with the television program, The Twighlight Zone. I'm pretty much over it now
but I do recall one episode in which a man was portrayed as loving nothing
more than playing a game of pool. When he died, he was ushered into a
penthouse suite by a cordial, nicely dressed man. There was a beautiful pool
table in the middle of the penthouse. The man was told he could spend the rest
of eternity playing pool. At first he was thrilled, as he spent each day
indulging in his favorite past-time. Soon, however, he realized that he always
won, no matter how poorly he played, no matter who his opponent was. The
challenge of the game was gone. Fed up, he sought out his host and said, "If
this is heaven, I don't want to be here. I want to go to the other place." His
host laughed and said, "This is the other place!
Everybody wants to get to heaven, but nobody wants to die. Which one of us
hasn't wondered what heaven will be like? Which one of us hasn't thought about
the resurrection life in terms of what we already know in our present life,
magnified and perfected? We dream of healthy bodies, pleasurable pursuits,
streets of gold, reunions with loved ones, and living forever. We can't help
but think of heavenly things in earthly terms. Like the Sadduccees, we project
this life into the next one?
Theologian Karl Barth, who enjoyed Mozart, believed the angels played Bach
when God was around and Mozart the rest of the time. CS Lewis hoped heaven
would be filled with good cigars that never burn up.
We who are in this moment in time alive, all have to die some time ---don't
we? This month's "Letter from the Pastor's desk. . ." addressed two related
issues: First, the importance of "memorial gifts" to the future of St. James
and secondly, the Memorial Garden that has been approved and is in the
planning stages. In the context of that letter I quoted my father as
repeatedly reminding his parishioners:
"Again and again we are reminded of the uncertainties of certain death."
Jesus taught the listening world that, after death, we will experience fully
that which was for us, here on earth, either absent or incomplete; ---that we
shall "then see face to face that which is now but like a dim image reflected
in a mirror." In other words, Ruth Wynkoop, together with the saints we
remembered last Sunday on All Saints Day, June Bark, Nancy Moore, Marianne
Koska, and Betty Kay, already know what we are still learning. Heaven is being
and doing what we could not be and could not do during our pilgrimages on
earth, no matter how long or how short. Heaven is not more of what we have.
Heaven is everything we could not even imagine --- promised and delivered by
God the Father in the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ!
AMEN.
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