Does Your Mind Unconsciously Tend To Limit The Power Of God?
Good Morning Friends,
Today we explore the issue of the Resurrection from the perspective of the lectionary reading from Mark and the context of the plot is of the religious leaders baiting Jesus again. The issue they bring to the conversation is an extension a longstanding hair splitting theological debate of the rationalistic Sadducees (who did not believe in life after death) and the moralistic Pharisees (who did believe in life after death). Jesus uses a text from Exodus (scripture the Sadducees acknowledged) to prove his point that eternal life is not just an extension of life but the transformation of it. The passage is below and it seems rather insignificant until we realize that it is about the nature of God and the truth of God not about us at all. The point is that the Exodus passage is in the present tense talking about God’s relationship with those who have died. The key thought and truth for us to discover is that our death does not stop God from being God. We do so want to limit God but the thing is that scripture makes it clear that God continues to be in relationship with us after we die and believing that makes our life healthier. And some may say it is a placebo effect but the thing is that it is real now and God has given this idea to us so we might be more resilient now. This believing in and having faith around the idea that love is connected to eternal life is the essence of the Resurrection just as the essence of the Church is believing in a community of love that goes on as well. Here belief makes us more effective in being part of a community but also healthier as individuals. The Sadducees were seemingly incapable of garnering a fresh insight from scripture. They are trapped by their own unbelief and yes that made them sad and less effective. And their reality must make us reflect on our lives in relationship to the authority of God as well. If we too are noisy gongs, if we too lack love, do we not foolishly restrict the influence of the divine in our lives. So, Does Your Mind Unconsciously Tend To Limit The Power Of God?
Scripture: Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that ‘if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.’ There were seven brothers; the first married and, when he died, left no children; and the second married her and died, leaving no children; and the third likewise; none of the seven left children. Last of all the woman herself died. In the resurrection, whose wife will she be? For the seven had married her.” Jesus said to them, “Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is God not of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong.”
Mark 12:18-27 (NRSV)
He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Exodus 3:6 (NRSV)
Message: Jesus’ response to the Sadducee’s reductio ad absurdum argument about relationships in heaven is surprisingly both spiritual and dogmatic in today’s passage from Mark. I imagine the knowing of all the believers in heaven will be quite joyous. But Jesus makes it abundantly clear that some descriptions of heaven are figures of speech and are not to be taken literally. Sometimes misconceptions can keep us from seeing very simple truths. The preservation of our personality and relationships is a nice thought but Jesus says that knowing that God’s love can never be separated from us even in death is enough. Friends, there is a moral confusion that results when we do not believe in the power of God. Furthermore, it is hard to understand the truth when one uses a false standard to search for it. Jesus instructs us to use both the standard of scripture and a belief in the power of God to answer today’s question about the Resurrection but also to face up to the reality we too often unconsciously tend to limit the power of God. To deny life after death and the resurrection requires that we deny the promise and hope that is Jesus today, tomorrow and forever. Our existence is meaningless vanity if this life is all there is. There must be more. Believe it.
Pray we never get in the habit of thinking of God in the past tense. Pray we not be old believers but instead embrace the renewal of the Holy Spirit. Pray we not live by a false standard of truth. Pray that in love we realize that we are ever being reborn into living creatures. Pray we think not so much of the God of yesterday but the God of tomorrow so our todays might be more abundant. Pray we realize that the finality of our own death has no power to stop God from loving us. Pray we realize that knowing the fullness of God in heaven will be more than enough.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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