Take courage

From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul

Take courage! 7 November 2010 The Revd Jenny Wilkens

• Haggai 2:1-9
• Psalm 98
• 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17
• Luke 20:27-38

http://wellingtoncathedral.org.nz/index.php/Sermons

Some years ago I spent a month staying with my sister and her family while they were living in Beckenham, Kent. I would often go into London for the day on the train, and I have an abiding memory of travelling through the interminable and rather drab railway yards and warehouses coming up to Victoria Station, and always looking for a sign high up on a brick building which boldly declared "Take courage!"

You will probably know that it was an ad for a certain brand of British beer, but it always seemed to me like a sign from God as I prepared to take on the delights of finding my way around the metropolis of London - even if you get lost, take courage!

'Take courage' is the message that comes through all three of our readings today, not least from the prophet Haggai, who says it three times for emphasis. Haggai is speaking to encourage the bedraggled group of exiles who have returned from Babylon to find Jerusalem and its temple in ruins, and now face the task of rebuilding their lives, their city, their temple, not without opposition. They remember the former glory of Solomon's temple and despair of the little they can achieve now. For they are but a remnant of God's people…

But Haggai's message to them is that they are a remnant with God on their side - 'work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you, do not fear.' God is alive and well, faithful to his promises, and still at work in the life of his people. God is Lord of history, and of the life of this nation and all the nations. What they see now is not the end of the story. If they trust in God's presence with them now when the going is tough, they will see God's glory again among them in the future. So now, take courage, work, do not fear.

It's to that same temple in Jerusalem we come in our Gospel reading to find Jesus on the receiving end of a full frontal attack by the Sadducees, the temple authorities of Jesus' time, tenuously holding onto their power through a dodgy alliance with the governing Romans.

This whole chapter of Luke's gospel contains controversy stories, debates where Jesus' opponents try to trap him, to shame him with trick questions and riddles that trivialise the real issues, and are really only exercises in point-scoring. But Jesus has a trick or two up his own sleeve…

Just where do we go with this hypothetical story of one bride for seven brothers? I must admit to a grudging respect for the bride who outlived all her husbands! But let's see how Luke frames this story - some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection asked Jesus a question. They have already made up their minds that there is no resurrection from the dead, an idea that came rather late into Jewish theology, and was not acceptable to the Sadducees who regarded only the Pentateuch, the first 5 books of the Bible as authoritative.

The Sadducees argue then from Deuteronomy (25), using the provision of levirate marriage, which was designed to ensure the continuing of a man's name through giving him progeny - the only form of immortality then available to the Jewish mindset. From this they concoct the puzzle they set before Jesus, one of many similar riddles that did the rounds at the time.

How does Jesus respond? Well he certainly doesn't walk into the trap of getting tied up in the minutiae of the story, or into idle speculation about what the after-life could be like, something which incidentally is quite a preoccupation of our own times with its fascination with the after-life, vampires, communication between the living and the dead etc.

First of all, Jesus takes the Sadducees head on, in affirming that he believes in the resurrection of the dead, whereas they do not. And in believing in the resurrection of the dead, Jesus for once aligns himself with the Pharisees, who also affirmed this.

Then Jesus takes the Sadducees on using their own trusted Scriptures. Jesus reminds them from the book of Exodus (3:6) that their beloved Moses at the burning bush hears God announce himself as I am, 'I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob'. Now Moses knew these patriarchs of the faith were long dead, but to God they are alive, alive in God's presence, awaiting their final resurrection.

Of course we tend to then want to speculate, just what does this mean that the dead are alive in God, alive in God's presence? This is often an urgent question for us personally as we think about those we have loved and lost, those we have entrusted to God's care and keeping.

And I think that is the clue. Those who have entrusted themselves to God are children of the living God and so children of the resurrection. Like parent, like child. Their resurrection is founded on the nature of the God they serve, the living God who is the God of the living. The proof of resurrection is found in the living God, the only one who transcends death. And of course God's raising Jesus from the dead will convince the early church that this is the future hope for all who follow in Christ's footsteps - they too will rise with Christ; we too will rise with Christ.

We may still want to say, there is so much mystery in this, so much we do not understand. We just do not have the language or the concepts or the experience to talk about what the resurrection life will be like. And we tend like the Sadducees to want to pin down the details, to talk about it in categories we understand, but our earthly categories won't fit.

Rather Jesus paints a bigger picture for his hearers. In broad terms, he says there will be both continuity and radical discontinuity between our earthly life and our resurrection life.

We are perhaps both worried and intrigued by the discontinuity idea - just what will be different? What will we miss? But Jesus is saying something bigger. He is at pains to say that God's future can't be seen as just an extension of our present existence. We can't just take the bits we like out of our current life, and extrapolate them to the nth degree and call that heaven.

Rather, resurrection involves transformation, metamorphosis like the caterpillar becoming the butterfly. And just like the caterpillar on the leaf can't grasp what it's like for the butterfly to fly in the sky, but entrusts itself to that process of transformation, so we in faith entrust ourselves and those we love to the God of the resurrection, the God of the living. Yes, there is discontinuity between this life and the resurrection life, but God is the continuity factor, the one who can be trusted with our future in life and in death.

Perhaps that's what the communion of saints is all about. When we say in the Apostles' Creed, 'I believe in the communion of saints', is our vision big enough?

Do we see that our communion is with all God's saints, because we all have communion with the living God, both those of us here on earth, and those who have gone before us into God's presence. We all participate in the life of God - that is why we worship 'with the faithful who rest in him, with angels, and archangels and all the company of heaven'.(ANZPB p. 422)

This is the vision to keep before us when we face the future with all its uncertainties. It is important to hang on to the certainties of our faith in uncertain times. This is what Paul reminds the Thessalonians in our Epistle reading (2 Thess 2) and I want to end with these affirmations of faith - may we hear them for ourselves.

• You are brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord. (v.13)
• God chose you as the first fruits for salvation. (v.13)
• God called you…so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. (v.14)

Stand firm and hold fast to these traditions.(v.15)

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word. (v.16,17) Amen.