25. Sunday after Pentecost, 11/10/2013

Sermon on Luke 20:27-38, by David H. Brooks

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her." Jesus said to them, "Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; 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. Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of 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."

What is a promise worth? All of us wrestle with that question, and many might say "it depends." A promise to a loan officer that you will repay? A promise to a four year old that you will come and play? A promise to a beloved that you will call? How about that same promise to someone you don't know well?

What we do with promises, both those we make and those we receive, says much about us. It is also true about God. There are many books, many articles, many essays, and many, many sermons written about God but I am learning that the first thing that must be known about God is that he keeps his promises.

The fact that God makes and keeps promises floats in the background of this story about Jesus in confrontation with the Sadducees. The Sadducees were the religious group or party that were prominent among the well-to-do and the powerful in Jerusalem, and you can see in the stories of Luke 20 that the various forces that are in opposition to Jesus are gathering, marshalling, circling. The Sadducees ask Jesus a question that is only meant to ensnare him-for the Sadducees themselves, as Luke notes, are not interested in resurrection at all.

Jesus answers them by quoting the only religious authority that Sadducees would recognize: the written Torah, those five books of the Bible attributed to Moses. Long before he became a leader, long before he became a lawgiver, Moses was standing out in the wilderness, up to his armpits in sheep that belonged to his father-in-law. One day, Moses notices a scrub bush that burns without being consumed, and he goes to investigate. His investigations bring him before the God of Israel, who calls and claims Moses to be a part of God's plan to redeem his people out of bondage. Moses walks away from that encounter to be an agent in God's work of fulfilling a promise.

That is how God works.

But that is not how we work-or how it works for us. For us, promises are conditional. Death does away with all our promises, no matter how heartfelt, no matter how sincere, no matter how important. Death is the power that both propels and invalidates our promises. Even as children, we "cross our hearts and hope to die"-a promise that invokes something sacred by making the sign of the cross over our hearts and invoking death upon us if we fail to fulfill our promise. Heady stuff for the schoolyard! But the penalties that are prescribed for broken promises are just variations of how death is at work in the promises we make. We say to one another "see you tomorrow," but we have no ultimate power to make that promise come true. Perhaps we will see our friend, our co-worker, our loved one-but our promises are not guarantees. They are not unconditional.

This is what makes Jesus' statement so wonderful. The Sadducees misunderstand, thinking that all promises are conditional, tied to the power of death, and if there is a resurrection, well, then where is the power of the promise? For all were married to the woman, until death parts them. But the power of God's love is different, and his promises are unconditional-those that stand in the Lord's presence no longer have death as their enemy, and they are no longer like those who bind themselves by promises made good by death. But God keeps his promises-and he has promised to be the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and Jacob. How could he continue to be their God if they were no longer, if death had claimed them?

Please notice that from this encounter with the Sadducees, Luke tells us that the trap fell upon Jesus quickly. The circle tightened, and the authorities had their man. All those promises that Jesus made-they would be ended by his death, for all promises are conditional. All promises end sealed up in a tomb, buried in a lock-box, stuffed into a file drawer, hidden away in a child's keepsake box.

But for those who are claimed by God, those who are children of the Resurrection, those who are buried with Christ in the great, wondrous mystery of baptism are not like those whose promises are conditional. To do something, anything, in the name of Christ who has defeated death means that something extraordinary can happen. Because in God, anything is possible-bushes burn without being consumed, a people enslaved are free, a man crucified is raised, a nation of saints is brought into existence.

Because God keeps his promises. Always. Amen.

The Rev. Dr. David H. Brooks
Columbia, SC USA
E-Mail: DBrooks@EbenezerLutheran.org

Bemerkung:
From The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

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