Sun, Nov 10 - What Will Resurrection Be Like?

Job 19:19, 23-27a; Luke 20:27-38

So this passage from Luke takes a bit of unpacking to understand. The writer of the Gospel manages to put a lot of information into every sentence, and so it takes some careful reading. Overall, what we have is a debate about whether or not there is such a thing as resurrection.Is death it? The ancient Israelites did not actually believe in resurrection––that belief only became popular about 300 years before Jesus was born, and it was likely picked up from one of the other religions in the countries around Israel. So, resurrection was a relatively new idea in Jesus’ time, and there wasn’t agreement on it. The Sadducees believed that there was no resurrection. Their question about the woman with seven brothers-in-law is intentionally extreme, in order to make resurrection sound as ridiculous as possible. They cite Scripture to give weight to their argument, but really, the Sadducees are trying to trap Jesus into publicly saying that the idea of resurrection is absurd. Their target isn’t actually Jesus, but Jesus’ audience.

Because among that audience were Pharisees and scribes who, along with Jesus, did believe in resurrection. They believed what we hear in the book of Job, that even though our skin will be destroyed, we will be restored and see God with our own eyes, in our own bodies. They did not agree with the Sadducees, and, in the end, the belief of the Pharisees became the prevailing belief, both in Judaism and in Christianity. Both religions believe in the resurrection to life everlasting.

But what does that mean? We say it all the time, whenever we say the Apostles’ or the Nicene Creed. “I believe... in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” What does that mean? Are we all going to be walking around like zombies? What kind of body will we have in the resurrection? The one we had right before we died? That’s maybe not great if we die at 100, with cataracts and hearing loss. The body we had when we were in our 20s? If someone is born deaf, will they be resurrected that way? If someone has Downs’ Syndrome, will they be resurrected that way?

And what about those we love? The Sadducees are exaggerating to make a point, but they do have a point. What will our relationships be like in the resurrection? If you have lost a child, or a baby, maybe you wonder––what will they be like in the resurrection? If you have married after losing your spouse, you may wonder––how will this work out in the resurrection? Some people don’t get married again, for that very reason.

Now if you like clarity, and precise, cut-and-dried answers to these very meaningful questions, I’m sorry to tell you that the Bible doesn’t give us that. The Book of Job clearly talks about physical resurrection––in our flesh, and with our eyeballs, we will see God. If you remember Elijah in the valley of the bones, there is another clear picture that resurrection will be physical––bone to bone, sinews and muscles laid on those bones, and skin on top of that. In the Gospels, the disciples encounter a bodily resurrected Christ. He eats, he drinks, he can be touched. In The Apostles’ Creed we say, “the resurrection of the body.”

In contrast, in the Nicene Creed we say, “the resurrection of the dead,” without talking about bodies. And the apostle Paul writes, in 1 Corinthians, that we should not expect to be resurrected with the same bodies we had in this life. (1 Corinthians 15:35-56) He describes the resurrection body as being like a plant, while our earthly body is the seed. You can’t tell from the seed what the plant will look like, and you can’t tell from the plant what kind of seed it grew from. And yet there is a clear connection between the two. We would say today that they have the same DNA, that their essence is the same, even though their form is different. For the apostle Paul, who was a Pharisee, the resurrection is certain. And we will be resurrected, and we will still be ourselves, it’s just that our outsides will be different. Still us, but different.

This is what Jesus implies, too, in our reading from Luke. “The dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.” The life we will have in the resurrection will not be like the life we have now. It will be more like the life of angels, whatever that is, and we will be resurrected as children of God, rather than children of this age. In the resurrection, we will still be us, but, again, different.

Two very different ideas about resurrection. One physical, one spiritual. It’s no wonder we have questions.

But Jesus goes on to say something that is very clear, “God is not God of the dead, but of the living.” God is the God of life. Jesus, as the Son of God, as the Word made flesh, says in the Gospel of John, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) While Scripture presents different pictures of what resurrection is like, it is very consistent in saying that God, as we see in Christ, is the God of life, and so resurrection is a resurrection to life, with God.

Life with God. What gives you life? What gives you abundant life? I’m asking because how you answer that question shapes how you will experience resurrection. What I’m suggesting is, actually, that both the bodily resurrection view and the spiritual resurrection view are right. (God is, after all, capable of encompassing different things together, surely. God can handle both bodily and spiritual resurrection in ways that we can’t even imagine. God does not have the logical limitations that we do.) So what gives you abundant life in this life? What makes your life meaningful? What gives you joy? What makes you grateful to be alive? This is, I believe, what resurrection will be like for you.

For some of you, you might experience abundant life in your embodiment, your physical existence: being able to run, to dance, to embrace. These things bring you life. You might delight in your senses, in the taste of good food, in music, in art. If these things give you life—abundant, meaningful life—then you can trust that these will be part of your resurrection life. As Job says, God is on your side, and if these things give you true life, the God of life will give you a resurrection body that can continue to delight in these things.

For others of you, the embodiment part might not be so important. We all experience life differently. For others, what gives true, abundant, meaningful life, what makes you grateful to be alive, might be your relationships; your bonds with other people. With your spouse, with your children, with your friends. And you might find Jesus’ words today kind of troubling. It sounds like he is dismissing those relationships. Now, to be fair to Jesus, marriage in his time was not about love. It was about procreation and economics. For women, especially, marriage was not particularly life-affirming. Marriage was an institution, not a relationship like it is today. Today, marriage can give life, abundant, meaningful life.

Which is to say that, because our God is the God of life, in the resurrection, those relationships that give you life will be restored, marriage or otherwise. In physical bodies or spiritual bodies, the relationships that, in this life, have given you a taste of God’s love for us, that affirmed you as children of God, that made life worth living, will be there for you in the resurrection, made even more perfect. As we see through Jesus Christ, our God is the God of life, whether that life comes through our bodies, through our relationships, through both, or through something else entirely.

But here’s the thing. We don’t need to wait until the resurrection to experience abundant life. Our God is the God of the living. Jesus is the Word made flesh, come to be among us in this world. Jesus brought abundant life, through his healings and his miracles, to the here and now. As a foretaste of the feast to come. As a this-world experience of the coming Kingdom of God. As an example in this life of what resurrection life will be like.

And that means that part of the way of following Jesus, of walking the way of Christ, involves becoming aware of and then nurturing those activities and relationships that give you life, in this life. And I don’t mean live a life of hedonism, do-what-you-want, buy all the shoes that catch your eye, or eat fast food at every meal. I don’t mean exploit every relationship you’re in so that it’s all about you feeling good. Those things do not actually give us meaningful and abundant life. They don’t leave us feeling satisfied with life. There are experiences that leave us craving more of those experiences, and when they’re over we’re miserable. That’s not what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about those activities and relationships that lead you to give thanks to God, to be grateful for life, that lead you to hope that they’re included in the resurrection. Give more attention to those things, to those relationships, and less to the rest of it. Seek ye out the kingdom of God. We are called to resurrection life now, to life that gives us, and by extension those around us, even deeper life. Whatever that is for you, give attention to it now, be grateful for it now, because that is how you will experience resurrection.

And, if you have cultivated these experiences and relationships, and yet they are now lost to you, because the things of this world are not forever, take heart that in the resurrection God will restore them. If there are abilities or activities that once gave you life thatyou can’t do anymore, because your body is not what it was, in the resurrection God will restore them to you. If there are relationships and people who have given you life but they aren’t here anymore, God will restore them to you. Above all, our God is the God of life.

This is what Jesus was sent to show us, through his life and through his resurrection. God is the God of life, now and in the resurrection. My prayer for you this week is that you experience, whether through your body or through your relationships, even if only for a moment, what resurrection life is like, and so be reassured that our God is the God of life, today and in the time to come. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Nov 3, 2019 - All Saints' Day

Jesus’ demands of how to live as a Christian are not easy, are they? “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” If you even manage to accomplish only one of these things in your entire lifetime, then I would say that you are far and away better than most. Especially today––when we live in a society that is becoming increasingly polarized, where we “cancel” people who hurt us, where it is all too easy to mock our enemies, where we relish in schadenfreude, rubbing our hands in righteous glee when something bad happens to someone bad––especially today, Jesus’ words call Christians to a counter-cultural way of living. “Love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.” Bracketing the whole discussion that Jesus is not saying that we must remain in abusive relationships, because Jesus would most definitely tell people not to do that, we are still left with an incredible challenge. The Most High is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked, and so we are to be merciful, just as the Most High is merciful.

And unfortunately, it is not something we can wiggle out of. And that is because, in baptism, we committed (or were committed, if we were baptized as babies) to following Christ and living as he lived. In baptism, we entered into an irrevocable covenant with God, made possible by Jesus Christ: God committed to being our God, and we committed to being God’s children, brothers and sisters of Jesus. As we will hear in a few minutes, we committed to renouncing the devil and all the forces that defy God, to renouncing the powers of this world that rebel against God, and to renouncing the ways of sin that draw us from God. In other words, we committed to refusing to hate our enemies, refusing to do evil to those who hate us, refusing to curse those who curse us, and refusing to think ill of those who abuse us. We committed to living lives that really seem impossible.

Honestly, it does lead me to wonder why anyone would choose to be baptized, or to have their children baptized. To be brought into the Christian community, to be brought into the covenant with God through Christ, is to be set up to live very difficult lives, if we take our baptism seriously. Baptism is not a light thing. It’s no wonder, actually, that in the first couple of hundred years of the church, Emperors and kings and military leaders would wait until they were on their deathbed to be baptized. They felt that they needed to hold onto their vengeance and power for the good of the empire or kingdom, and if they were baptized, they wouldn’t be able to do that anymore.

And yet, all around the world, people do choose baptism, either for themselves or for their children. We don’t experience it as much in this country, but in other countries, people are choosing baptism by the millions. The worldwide Christian church is growing by tens of millions every year. For example, the Lutheran Church in Ethiopia, where I was the week before last, has grown to 10 million Lutherans over the last 60 years. The Lutheran churches in Indonesia number 7 million people. Every week, hundreds of thousands of people choose to be baptized and choose to take on the commitment of following Christ’s challenge.

Why? To what end? What is so worth it, that people choose baptism and that those of us who are baptized daily choose to live our baptized lives with integrity and commitment?

So far, I have talked about what we commit to in baptism. But we are not the only ones at work. Actually, we are not even the ones doing most of the work. It sounds like we are, but there is one who is making a bigger commitment than us, working harder than us, if we can say it that way, who is doing all of the heavy lifting when it comes not only to our baptism but to our entire lives. And that is God.

Through the Holy Spirit, in baptism God makes a commitment to you that never wavers, or weakens, or comes to an end. When you were baptized, the pastor or priest or minister who baptized you asked God that the Holy Spirit of God would fill you. When J---n is baptized in a few minutes, we will pray that God “sustain[s] J---n with the gift of the Holy Spirit.” And I will proclaim that J---n has “been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.” Forever. God’s gift and commitment to you is forever. We may waver in our level of commitment throughout our lives, but God never does.

And I think that we don’t take seriously enough what it means that the very Spirit of God comes into us at baptism and is present with us forever. This is the same Spirit that was present at Creation - that formed life where there was no life, whether you think of that through a literal seven days or through the Big Bang and evolution. The Spirit of Life, life in the face of death, life after death, life before death, came to dwell in you the moment you were baptized. The Holy Spirit of God that filled the prophets, that gave Elijah the power to heal the sick and actually raise the dead (once, but he did), the Spirit of God that filled Jesus, and gave him the power to love everyone without limits, that gave him the strength to actually die for others, that gave him new life after death, this same Spirit was given to you in baptism and continues to be in you now. This Spirit of God makes it possible to actually love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies. Just as Jesus did.

And this is why we choose baptism, for ourselves and for our children. This is why we continue to live as baptized Christians––as saints. Because yes, living as Jesus calls us to is hard, but it is not impossible. It can’t be impossible because we are filled with the Spirit of God. J---n is about to be filled with the Spirit of God, which is going to empower him and enable him to live as Jesus asks us to: to live with love and mercy and kindness as the guiding principles of our lives.

Jesus calls Christians to high standards of living. And I know that, as committed as we are, we frequently doubt our ability to live up to that. And, if it were up to us alone, we wouldn’t. We couldn’t. But Jesus calls us knowing that it is God’s Holy Spirit dwelling within us who gives us the ability and the strength to follow where Jesus calls. This is the blessing and promise and joy of baptism, and of baptismal living. Thanks be to God, Amen.