November 7, 2004 - 23rd Sunday After Pentecost - Father Andrew Green

FIRST READING: Haggai 1: 15b-2:9
PSALM: 145: 1-5; 18-20
SECOND READING: 2 Thessalonians 2: 1-5; 13-17
GOSPEL: Luke 20: 27-38

I read a cartoon that shows two sheep talking to each other, and they are reflecting on this particular Gospel. They are saying, "Well, I guess the Resurrection is very mysterious", and the one says, "What do you mean by that?"; and the other says, "Oh, that brother number six - that he didn't see the trend".

Indeed, these Sadducees have set up quite a story - the kind of a story that we were asked, when we were questioning the Bishop candidates about a week and a half ago, not to do. We were asked not to give them any difficult story problems and not to give them any "gotcha's". It is clear, I think, isn't it, that the Sadducees who were asking Jesus this question were not really interested in an answer. They had simply set up a question that they had already answered for themselves, and the answer was - this is silly. And so, Jesus was being set up.

Now, the interesting thing is that we have been through all sorts of this with the election campaigns that have gone on. For months or even a year now, we have had candidates kind of trying to paint one another in the worst possible light and taking anything said by the other and trying to cast it as if it was utterly scornful. And then, the day after the election, they are all saying wonderful things about each other and how we have to all get together and work together and pull together.

My prayer is that, in our own election of a Bishop, we aren't so divided that the ability to come together and be a Diocese together, serving Christ and going forward, is not impossible for us. My prayer is that all of us would have that as our first goal and priority for the Church and for this election.

Well, in dealing with this trick question, this story problem, Jesus really doesn't even deal with it. Jesus points out the basic fallacy, from His perspective, of their whole question, and that is that they have presumed that life in the Resurrection is just going to be an extension of this life - that life in the Resurrection, in some sense, is just going to be more of what we have now, better than what we have now, purer than what we have now, in some way or another. And He says that is not how it is going to be. Moses wrote that about marrying the wife if the family was childless so that, during that stage when the Children of Israel were trying to build up the community, they could still do it; and so that that family would have a name. But, in the Resurrection, they are all alive to God. There is no dying anymore. There is no sense of his name being wiped out, because he is still there. It is just not needed. They have come up with an intricate solution for a problem that won't exist in the Resurrection.

Now, I have to tell you that I don't have any better idea of what the Resurrection will look like than those Sadducees, and anytime any of us clergy try to tell you about the Resurrection, you have to take it with a big grain of salt. We have hymns today. Did you notice the hymns that we have today include "Jerusalem, My Happy Home"? We have all sorts of hymns that are describing for us what life in Heaven, what life in the Resurrection, is going to be like. Now, none of these hymns are trying to trip us up. None of these hymns are trying to make us feel foolish. They are ways that people are expressing their hope for the life that God has in store for us. They are very much individualized, and they are very much organized on the basis of what it is in my heart that seems to need most attention right now. People who find themselves without a homeland obviously are going to be looking and seeing Heaven as the homeland that maybe they never had. People who live in slavery are going to see Heaven as the place where they are actually free. People who have not experienced equality are going to look at Heaven as the place where all that will be made right. And there are lots of writings in the Scriptures to tell us about that.

I want to talk about three things that I think we can count on, one way or another, in Heaven. I don't know how they will be worked out, but I believe they are realities about life in Heaven.

The first one is that it is going to involve praising God. The Psalm that we had today talked about all sorts of different ways of praising God, and, if you want to have some fun, read through the Psalms that are about praising God. There are Psalms that talk about teaching the oceans and the fish to clap for joy because of God's greatness. Heaven is going to be full of people praising God.

The second thing I think is that, despite the fact that this Gospel tells us that there is no need for marriage, I don't think it means that there is no need for love or intimacy. I don't believe that Jesus is telling people that we will all be so individualized that we will never make those kind of deep and intimate connections with other people. It just won't be the same as it is here. It won't be for the purposes, or at least some of the purposes, which it is here. Why do I say that? Look particularly at the end of John's Gospel when Jesus is speaking to His disciples before He is crucified and then raised from the dead. He is talking to them about His prayer to God for them, and His prayer is that they would be in Him as He is in God and as God is in Him. There is all of this inter-relationship and rather deep intimacy that is experienced or proposed by Jesus for us. It just may not look like it looks here on earth, and we may not experience it in the same way; but we will be able to know and be known. We will be able to develop and continue close relationships of some sort, because, in fact, the very nature of our understanding of God is about relationship - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If we didn't need relationships, we could have come up with something a lot simpler and easier to explain.

And the third - I think Heaven, I think the Risen Life, is going to be an awful lot about giving, where the way that we are oriented toward one another is about giving of ourselves. In Heaven, I see us as being healthy folks that can give without it being kind of abusive or dysfunctional. In Heaven, I see us as people who, instead of trying to carve out our own niche or protect what is ours, we are people who are going to be opening ourselves to others, sharing what we have, and sharing what knowledge and insights we have with one another as a part of the graciousness of the Resurrection Life.

Now, when does this Resurrection Life begin? When does Heaven begin? Is it the "sweet by-and-by?" It is right now. In fact, we believe that Heaven begins when you are baptized. When you are baptized, you die with Christ, and those who die with Christ have nothing to fear in any other kind of death; because those who die with Christ are born again immediately by the Holy Spirit into that new life. Now, it is not fulfilled yet. We are not there yet. It is not complete as we think it will be. St. Paul, in the wonderful letter to the Corinthians, in the 13th chapter, says, "We see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face." We will know even as we have been known by God.

So, I think what we are doing right now - those of us who are part of the baptized faithful of the Christian Church and are not yet dead - we are practicing for living in heaven. We need to be working at it right now, so that it is not a big surprise for us when we get there. We need to be practicing in our praises. Do you notice that our hymns, our Psalms, so many of the things that we do here are all in praise of God? We want to get ourselves in tune and fit on praising God. We also are building relationships. Juanice explained very well about what family means to her and how this congregation embraced her and drew her in and made her a part of this Body. It is about learning to share those kinds of intimacies with one another. It is knowing and practicing that our access to God is relational with other people. It is not just about me and God, but it is about all of us getting to the finish line together. And, finally, we are practicing our giving. We are practicing being open in sharing who we are with other people. We practice giving of ourselves, of our assets, of our resources, so that we get into that habit. I remember when the priest who I was raised with when I was very little kept saying, "Heaven is going to be Hell for a self-centered person". If you can't learn to give, if you can't learn that God is the ultimate owner, so our sharing of things is the order of the day - if you can't learn that, you may never figure out that you are in Heaven, because Heaven is going to be about where people following the example of our Lord Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us are invited to give ourselves for one another. We are invited to give ourselves for larger purposes than just what we accomplish here or even what our Church can accomplish.

Those are the ways that we practice being ready for Heaven, so that, when that day comes, we will be able to wake up, and I guarantee you it will be different. We will be changed. We will be in some new mode of existence, but, maybe, just maybe, because of all the practice, that new mode of existence will feel strangely familiar to us; and maybe we will even know some of the tunes.

AMEN