RESURRECTION HOPE

When I was a child, I looked forward to spending an occasional weekend with my older sister, Ann. Ann grew up with my maternal aunt and uncle in a small village in Trinidad. On some of those visits, my aunt and uncle would go out for the evening, leaving my sister, my cousin, Deborah, and me with an older cousin, Harry. Harry was an amazing teacher and a master storyteller. As dusk fell, Ann, Deborah and I would corner Harry in a cozy spot in the enormous living room. “Tell us a story!” we would demand. With a knowing smile, Harry would plop down on the floor, lean against a chair, and plunge us into a series of increasingly scary stories –

Stories of human beings by day who became terrifying creatures by night;
Stories of beautiful women who turned into balls of fire at night, and
Stories of little people who roamed the forest day and night - in search of their next victim.

By the time Harry was halfway through, one of us invariably would need to use the bathroom. In an unspoken pact, all three of us would stand up, tighten our grip on one another’s arm, and tiptoe to the bathroom at the other end of the house. On the way there, my eyes, having a mind of their own, inevitably would look out the living room windows. They would ignore the Anglican Church across the street and hone in on the cemetery behind the church,

searching for Harry’s creatures –
scanning for signs of life –
wondering if those in their final resting place would rise from their graves and wander across the street to add to my torment.

Without a wider array of information and experience, remnants of those early, limited experiences would have seriously distorted my understanding of resurrection stories. In today’s gospel, the Sadducees reveal how their limited understanding has influenced their belief about resurrection. The Sadducees – a rich, aristocratic, theologically conservative party within Judaism – accept only the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures as authoritative. So, because there is no doctrine of the resurrection in the five books of Moses – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy – they concluded that there is no such thing as resurrection.

So, we may wonder, what’s their point in coming to Jesus with a question about resurrection?
And how come they give an example that is extreme to the point of absurdity?
The example is based on the concept of Levirate marriage, which states that an Israelite man is responsible for 1) caring for his brother’s widow, and 2) carrying on his dead brother’s name by marrying her and having children with her. But they stretch the imagination by having one woman marry seven brothers in turn, with each one dying sometime after marrying her. Finally, the poor woman dies. So, if there is a resurrection, as those Pharisees claim, whose wife will she be?

Without getting into why they are asking him a question on an issue on which their minds are already made up, Jesus simply deals with the question. He does so in two ways. First, he points out the inappropriateness of the question. Biblical scholar Fred Craddock explains, “(there is a) difference between life in this age and life in the age to come - in this age the fact of death makes marriage and the perpetuation of life essential. However, in the age to come there is no death, but those who attain to the resurrection are equal to the angels.” They live forever.

Jesus then uses the Sadducees’ own Scriptures to reveal their limited understanding of the resurrection. He points out that, in the Book of Exodus, God reveals Himself to be God of the living, not of the dead. So Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are alive to God.

Many of us have questions about life and death that are based on a genuine desire to understand. But belief in the resurrection is not primarily about understanding – because none of us fully understands. Our belief in the resurrection is based first and foremost on our belief that God raised Jesus from the dead – and that belief did not come from scientific knowledge. It was handed down to us by a group of believers who were willing to stake their lives on that life-changing experience.

So, in the resurrection, God not only vindicated Jesus by raising him from the dead, God opened the way for Jesus’ followers – including you and me – to believe in our own resurrection. As Craddock puts it, “resurrection is based on the doctrine of God that says that even though we die, God gives life to the dead.”

How does our belief that God gives life to the dead influence how we choose to live?
How does that belief impact the way we see ourselves, our loved ones, our enemies?
How does our belief challenge us to see what’s important in life?

Last week, three people lost their lives when the driver of a tractor-trailer lost control, crossed the median and slammed into oncoming traffic. Reflecting on the carnage, one state trooper said, “those folks got up this morning, left their home and family, and just like that - their life is ended.”

But if we believe that life ends at death, where’s the hope in that?
Where’s the hope when we experience death as coming in unexpected, senseless, premature ways?

Less than two weeks ago, Jessica Rodriguez, a bright, promising 21 year old Capital Community College student was shot to death by her father – a father who, from all reports, adored his daughter – a father who then turned the gun on himself – leaving behind relatives, friends and classmates of Jessica stunned with grief, unable to understand.

Where does one find hope in senseless situations?

How do we convey our belief, a belief so eloquently stated in the service for the Burial of the Dead, that life is changed, not ended – and how do we invite others to share in that hope?

I find it particularly meaningful to officiate at burial services. It is often a time of deep reflection for me. In addition to being with grieving families, I have the golden opportunity to invite people who attend funerals to reflect on their own lives:

In the grand scheme of things, what’s really important in life?
Holding on to that grudge, or forgiving and letting go?
Trying to control what we can’t, or doing our part and trusting God with the rest?
Giving up on ourselves or others, or remembering that God can “make a way out of no way?”

Because that’s one of the blessings that the resurrection offers us – hope –

Hope that no situation in our lives is beyond God’s ability to change;
Hope that when a loved one dies, the separation is temporary,
Hope that

"neither death,

nor life,

nor angels,

nor rulers,

nor things present,

nor things to come,

nor powers,

nor height,

nor depth,

nor anything else in all creation,

will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”