Luke 20. 27-38 “Marry
ME” November 6, 2016 Pastor Jacqueline Hines
Television and radio
and social media are full of interviews of public figures. [slide # 1 Clinton /
Trump] On any given day you can hear
interviews of your favorite people and people you do not know but find
interesting. Journalists [ slide # 2 Fox News] make an art out of asking the right questions and
presenting the perfect challenges to public figures. The Pharisees tried to ask
pointed political questions like, [slide # 3 Dan Rather] “should we pay taxes to the Roman government
that is oppressing us?”, and Jesus answered, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar,”
and he sent Peter to get the tax money from the mouth of a fish. The Pharisees
brought a sinner woman to him, without her guilty male accomplice, and asked
Jesus’ if they could have permission to stone her to death as the law required.
Jesus invited those without sin to cast the first stone. The Pharisees asked
penetrating questions and Jesus always came out on top. [slide # 4 Pharisees]
The Sadducees on the
other hand asked even harder questions because the Sadducees did not believe in
the resurrection, or Heaven, or angels. [slide # 5 Sadducees] That
is why – as you learned in Sunday school – they were sad you see! So when they
asked Jesus if a woman had seven husbands and they all died, which of the seven
would be her husband in Heaven, [ slide # 6 verse 33 whose wife will she be? The question was a setup, a mockery of those who
believed in the supernatural and angels and life after death, for the Sadducees
did not believe in any of that.
I found a story in the Fishwrapper about a tired mother driving
her son to a piano lesson during a sleet storm. The roads were icy roads. She
thought about turning back when her 6 year old shouted, “Look” as he pointed to
a car that was spinning out of control on a patch of ice. It crashed sideways
into a telephone pole. As a nurse she wanted to run to their rescue, but was a
bit nervous about leaving her son. At her urging, he promised to stay put while
she walked over to the scene of the crash. The ambulance came and one of the
passengers had died. By now mother was feeling sad that her little boy –
anybody’s little boy - had to see such terrible things. When she returned to
her car her little boy’s eyes were as big as saucers, staring at the crash
site. He whispered, “Did you see it?” “See what, Honey?” she asked. “The angel,
Mom! He came down from the sky while you were running to the car. And he opened
the door, and he took the girl’s hand, and they floated to Heaven together. Did
you see it?” [slide
# 7 boy pointing]
The Sadducees could not
or would not see things that were above. Believing is a choice. We walk by
faith, not by sight. It is nice when we have inspiring experiences that stir up
our faith and convince us one way or another. Still, our faith has to be nurtured
in as much Christian fellowship as we can get. Our faith grows as we feed into
as many biblical readings and studies as we can muster in our spiritual
journey. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism taught us to make decisions
about what we believe based on the Scriptures, our traditions, our reasoning as
well as our experiences. Our guts do not always tell us everything we need to
know.
The idea of
resurrection [slide
# 8 resurrection of Jesus] is before us once
again on this communion Sunday [slide # 9 last supper] when
we celebrate our Lord who rose from his grave, when we remember our loved ones
who are no longer with us in this life but, as we affirm, have been raised like
Jesus into a new life. We experience a resurrection when we see that the dreams
that God gives us in prayer are alive in every heart that can see it. [ slide # 10 see what
God sees ]
So Jesus says to the
Sadducees in verse 38, all those dead husbands have become like angels,
surrounding and serving God. They are alive in Heaven. Just like Moses talked
about the God of our spiritual ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
God is also the God of all those husbands. [slide # 11 God…not of the dead] as verse 38
says, “Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them
are alive.”
Just like God is the
author of true love, God invented marriage. [slide # 12 two hearts…purpose of marriage] The purpose of marriage is the purpose of all of
life: to give God the glory, to fulfill God’s purpose. [slide # 13 heart cloud] Marriage
without a covenant with God is not a marriage. Call it a partnership, call it a
union, call it a blessing, call it a contract, call it a convenience, but until
we say “I do” to God, it is not what God intended as a marriage. [slide # 14 wedding
ring / bible]
We are thoroughly
blessed and satisfied as can be when we give our hearts fully to God and to one
another as God guides us day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. Every
morning we wake up, we can affirm our covenant, we can say “I do” to God, who
is always seeking and proposing to us “Mary ME. Marry ME.” [slide # 15 Jesus at
the door]
When we rush about with
our important agenda’s we can hear God’s gentle voice, “Marry ME, Marry ME.” In
earth as in Heaven our love for one another is no small thing, but even greater
than our greatest love is the covenant we keep first with our God. In the end,
that is all that matters. So we are all the more blessed if we keep a covenant
from the beginning. [slide # 16 dare…walking in sand]
I am in awe with the
love I experience and witness at Bethel.
There is not enough time to tell of all the wonderful work that is done
here in a given week. The countless kindnesses from the Compassionate Care
Team, the loving phone calls, the gentle gestures, the divine comfort, the
exchange of joy and humor, the hopes handled, the faults overlooked, the
sorrows shared, the burdens borne, the closets that are cleaned meticulously,
methodically, the soups made, the pots watched, the messaged emailed, the fuses
fixed, the tables tethered, the signs painted, the furniture assembled, the
hours freely spent, the songs sung, the worship videos recorded, the thanks
given, the nails driven, the hearts healed, the marriages mended, the souls
saved, the bodies made healthier, the dollars sent, the seeds planted, the time
sacrificed, the dialogues dared, the conversations cleared, the respect
revealed, the missions managed, the toilets plunged. I even caught someone conscientiously
vacuuming behind couches even though no one ever looks there.
There is no end to the
wonders that God is performing among us as we serve God and minister to one
another. There is nothing greater than love! [slide # 17 nothing greater]
Our love is a Christian
love because we do not just do good for goodness sake. We do good for God’s
sake. We pray, not just for good ideas. We pray for God ideas. Our elevator was
not just a good idea. It was a God idea. The idea of an elevator was confirmed
in more ways than I can number. When we meet in committees, we do not just
brainstorm, we praystorm! God reveals ideas and insights and direction that can
only be seen in the presence of God. [slide # 18 man bowed in prayer]
Bishop Johnson gave us
clergy a book on prayer by Mark Batterson. He helps us see how our ability to
see God grows clearer. He says, “When babies make their grand entrance into the
world, [slide #
19 baby] their visual resolution is
one-fortieth of that of a normal adult. They lack depth perception. And their
visual range is only about thirteen inches. The world is low-definition, two
dimensional and only thirteen inches in diameter. Slowly yet sovereignly, the
world begins to take on width and breadth and depth. By four months, a baby can
perceive stereoscopic depth. By six months, visual acuity has improved fivefold.
Their black-and-white world has burst into a kaleidoscope of colors, and they
have volitional control of their eye movements. And by his or her first
birthday, the child sees the world almost as well as an adult.” * [slide # 20 children ]
The more clearly we see
God’s love for us, the more we can accept God’s proposal and hear the call,
“Marry ME, Marry ME!” May we all engage in this world and with one another and
with our God in ways that show we are in love and we are married in the truest
sense of the word. Amen. [slide # 21 God’s love never fails]
* Draw
the Circle, Mark Batterson p. 70
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