November 7th - Reflection

Time after Pentecost - Lectionary 32
Luke 20:27-38 (NRSV)
Jesus speaks of the resurrection

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."

Reflection
As children of God, there is death, yet there is no death. There is a death to the "old man" yet there is no death to the new life graciously given through Christ.

In some sense then, there is no need for marriage and procreation. All is life and all is relationship in perfection. Our relationship with Jesus as Lord and Savior, our relationship with husband and wife, and our relationship with one another will finally be perfected. So, in this, Jesus brings hope and life here to our relationships on earth and hope and life to our future relationships in heaven. For the Lord is not God of the dead, but the living and we are alive in him.

Thanks be to God!

Prayer
Lord, grow all of my relationships into the perfection that you desire for them to be...especially my relationship with you. --- Amen