A sermon preached at Kowloon Union
Church on Sunday 6 November 2016, the twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost, by the Rev. Phyllis Wong. The scripture readings that
day Luke 20:
27-38
Opening prayer
God of
resurrection, we come before you to hear your word. May your word heal and
liberate us. May the Spirit of truth set us free and transform our life to
become more like Christ. Amen.
Introduction
Do you believe in resurrection? What is your
understanding on resurrection of the dead?
In the Apostles’ Creed, as universal church
and followers of Christ we affirm our faith by saying - I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy
catholic Church, the communion of saints,
the
forgiveness of sins, the
resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
Amen.
We affirm
our faith on “The resurrection of the
body and the life everlasting”. In today’s gospel reading taken from Luke,
it highlighted an important aspect of faith and theology on resurrection. The
topic is brought up by the Sadducees.
The Sadducees were one of the Jewish sects, tended to be rationalistic and by
and large wealthy. Unlike the Pharisees, they denied resurrection and did not
believe in resurrection at all.
They challenged Jesus on the belief of resurrection.
They brought up the Levirate marriage – an ancient and traditional Jewish
law as the centre of debate. According to this Levirate marriage law, a woman
cannot marry to another man outside the family if her husband died with no son.
Instead, the brother of the deceased has to marry the woman as a duty to his
late brother. The firstborn whom she bears shall succeed the name of the
deceased brother, so that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. (You may refer to this ancient Law from the
Book of Deuteronomy 25:5-10)
The Sadducees in the gospel account asked Jesus a challenging but very
interesting question:
A woman married seven brothers without
children for any of them. When resurrection comes and all these dead husbands
and wife are restored their lives, whose wife is this woman be? Who does this
woman belong?
The motive of the Sadducees is not to seek the truth or showing a concern
to the woman and the seven brothers who may have to resolve this problem in
heaven when they all meet. The Sadducees’ question is to test Jesus and see how
he responds to such a question of dilemma.
Although
Sadducees aim to give Jesus a difficult time, their question however is a very
good one worthy of our theological and faith reflection.
In fact,
Christians today who married for more than once due to the passing of spouse or
divorce, they may encounter this problem and dilemma. I heard of a Christian
wife who married a widower asking his husband, “when we both die and go to
heaven meeting your former wife, who then will be your wife, I or she?”
Jesus’ reply is not only wise and sweet, but remarkably life transcending
and transforming.
Here I read again the text from Luke 20:34-36
20:34
Jesus said to them, "Those who belong to this age marry and are given in
marriage;
20:35 but 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.
20:36 Indeed they cannot die anymore, because
they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.
Wow… how liberating Jesus’ words are!
We human beings living on earth are constrained by human systems,
cultural norms, fixed belief and forms of relationships. But in a place of that
age (I‘m referring to heaven) where resurrection occurs, human beings are
confined no more by all these human made institutions, legalistic practice and
customs. Human beings are all free from the imperfect systems and contextual
social relationships on earth in resurrection. Life and relationship are no
more bounded by fixed laws and values.
The Sadducees who assumed that afterlife is like this life, and just
wanted to show their rationality and authority in the Law, may not be that
happy with Jesus’ answer on resurrection.
But I believe that Jesus’ answer to the Sadducees’ question at least has
given deep relief to the woman concerned. A woman who married for seven times
due to some male-centric law on earth probably does not want to be “owned” by
these seven men when she goes into another life. For women who are living in
low and disadvantage
position in an ancient Jewish community, being possession of men and their
families, with no autonomy and limited resources to choose their own lives, a
resurrected life that allows them to live freely without the traditional
baggage of needing husbands and marriage, could be a great liberation. If I were this woman, I would say aloud,
leave me alone! Let me go free!
I can see
also, Jesus’ assertion of no more marriage and marital relationships in the life
of resurrection could help also create
harmony and peace amongst the seven brothers. They don’t have to argue and
fight for their wife back. Jesus’ has sent a strong message of ‘letting go’ on
resurrection. There is no more control and possession of anything or anyone in
a resurrected life.
Jesus’ teaching on resurrection enlightens us to reflect on our life and
faith. Do we live with fixed belief, prejudice, pre-conception and straight
social norms in family, at work, in church and in society, that have limited
our own and others to live a loving and free life in God of the resurrection?
In the readings from Luke, Jesus also quoted that Moses, whom the
Sadducees and the Jews respected, had shown the reality of resurrection of the
dead when he spoke in the bush about “the
Lord as the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the
living; for to him all of them are alive." 20:37-38
Jesus’ further illustration on resurrection by referring to Moses of his
assertion of the God of Israelites speaks to their patriarchs and people of all
generations.
Jesus makes a very strong point - God, is not of the dead,
but of the living; for to him all of
them are alive.
It is not
the death that matter. It is the life of God and his eternal presence that
matter. It is the eternal God that makes everlasting love, salvation and
transformation all possible in different times and different places.
Jesus’
teaching on resurrection has given us new insight about afterlife. He also
gives to us imagination on life and relationship with God and with each other
in the present life. A resurrected self and community on earth is possible when
Christ with the living spirit lives in us.
I would like
to conclude my sermon by sharing this wonderful encounter I had in a church
wedding.
The bride’s
parents were divorced and his father remarried to another woman. On the wedding
day, both her biological mother and step mother were present in the ceremony.
They were even sitting side by side on the front row together with the bride’s
father. I used to be sensitive to this kind of situation in order to avoid bad
feelings and embarrassment. When I spoke
to the bride’s biological mother, she was so relaxed and at ease to share with
me. She told me she has overcome her divorce. She said she has kept good
relationship with her daughter, her ex-husband and his second wife. She told me
that she is a Christian and thus she relates to them with love. She said they
are happy together.
I was impressed by the bride’s mother, a
sister in Christ.
She was
divorced but she is not enslaved by her past. She refused to be victimized and
trapped by the traditional values on marriage. On the contrary, she allows
herself to move on to a new life and a new form of relationship with her
daughter, ex-husband and herself. She remains single but lives with
self-confidence and contentment .
In Christ,
she lives fully and alive with freedom and joy. I feel strongly Jesus’
resurrected life dwelled in her. To echo what Jesus said, ‘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. Indeed they cannot
die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children
of the resurrection.’
Resurrection is to
listen to the word of Jesus and to live a life in Christ. Children of the
resurrection are to live a life of love, freedom, hope and creative imagination
of this life and the life after.
Sisters and
brothers, are you children of the resurrection, believing in the God of living?
May God
bless you all to claim that identity and to live fully a resurrected life in
Christ. Amen.
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, November 06, 2016
