Proper 27, 2007

Luke 20: 27-38 Cognitive Dissidence

This theological duel between the Sadducees and Jesus, explicit belief in the resurrection of the dead was a relatively new topic in Judaism, only a couple of hundred years old. The Sadducees were traditionalists, devoted to the books of Moses. They did not believe in the resurrection of the dead because it would not accommodate the command about levirate (brother-in-law) marriages.

There is also underneath the argument an issue of materialism. They see resurrection as pertaining to this space and time, subject to the current law. Jesus answered that their assumptions were wrong. The social levirate law was constructed to continue the clan – the “family” through the conception of a child by the brother of the dead husband – if there were no children already – so that his male line would continue. Marriage was procreation.

The traditionalists think they are following the Law of Moses. In truth God revealed the truth about resurrection to Moses in Exodus 3:6, 15 when God said the Lord is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This word spoken to Moses was long after these patriarchs were dead. God is the God of the living. . The problem is that the scriptures are understood at one level but not entirely. How often have we experienced the same, especially in matters of life and death?

If we or someone we love is experiencing a fatal illness, an untimely death, we too may fail to understand the importance of our resurrection faith in the face of such a crisis. Either we fear that the grade we are getting in this life is somehow not a passing score or that God is less forgiving than we hope. We say things in prayers and in worship that we may fail to understand in our daily lives.

We too are challenged to understand that resurrection is the promise of God…while we live in the restricted time and place of our mortal lives. In the day to day work we engage in it is hard to keep the future in mind…to live with any degree of certitude that our lives are not infinite, that we too die, and there is another life beyond this one in the presence of God. We struggle to hold this faith in a real way because we suffer here. Things happen that cause use sleep depriving anxiety. We long to know that we are “in” and we are tempted to judge others as “out”. We may struggle with whether the existence of hell is a way to induce us and others to live a moral life so as to avoid its pain and alienation. We hope the resurrection is in our future and those we love but see no longer. Such assurance helps us cope with the loss and grief of their death. As we lose our various functions, as our bodies age and decay, we begin to see death as closer than we like.

This past week, I guest lectured for a friend who teaches a course on death and dying at FCC. The instructor asked me to talk about the tension between autonomy and justice, informed by work in developing countries. I began with a discussion of how I believe individuals decide what to do when facing a terminal illness – whether or not to use hospice – whether or not to do “everything” technologically possible to extend life – whether to write an advance directive or name a medical power of attorney. Every person has his/her own view of this world and the next. Every person has a perspective shaped by experience, reason, culture, faith. Each person knows at some intellectual level he/she will die, but many if not all think, not yet. Every one of us, as we gather in worship of God, knows that our faith is based on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Do we have the active faith that means we can let go of this life because we can see the eternal shore in our future? Do we know that God is present with us in all sorts and conditions of our lives? Or, do we think that we must gain a few more years, months, weeks, or days, to make right what we have neglected in the past?

It was the thesis of the 16^th century Caroline Divine, John Donne, that every person dies the way he/she lives. I think John Donne was right. In his famous poem, “Death be not proud” he reminds us that death is not the end of our journey but the beginning a new one because Jesus has by his resurrection destroyed death…death in the final sense.

“Death be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and deadfull, for, thou art not soe,

For, those whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,

Die not, poore death, nor yeat canst thou kill mee.

From rest and sleepe, which but they prictures bee,

Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,

Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.

Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, warre, and sicknesse dwell,

And poppie, or charmes can make us sleep as well,

And better then thy stroake; why swell’st thou then?

One short sleep past, wee wake eternally,

And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.” (John Donne, Holy Sonnets)

Contemplating death is not for Donne an examination of life, nor of fear in the face of his acknowledged sin. Hearing bells toll announcing the death of someone, alive just a few minutes earlier, he is reminded that he too will die and uses this awareness to approach God in faith. We walk by faith in this time and space. We do well to be uncertain of what heaven is like or who will enter into it. We do well to think instead of the life we live – is it aligned with the teaching and example of Jesus? Do we know that we are by baptism in Christ and the living witness to Christ in our day? If we do, then we too are instruments of resurrection, here and now.

By seeing the need every person has for acceptance and love we can see how important it is to hold fast our faith and hope and share it in loving others by means of our very presence. How hard it may be to be present at the bedside of one dying but how necessary it is to remind us of our own mortality and renew our faith and hope that God’s promises are sure. If we sit beside one who is dying and if we are blessed to have that one share her sense of the transcendent God with us here and waiting for us on the distant shore, we see a glimpse of the confidence Jesus had in discussing the resurrection with the Sadducees. Jesus had a certainty we long to have. In the resurrected Christ if we will live and move and have our being in Christ we too will find in our hearts the hope that passeth all understanding.

Knowing his future was in God, Jesus walked into Jerusalem, that holy city and wept over her. Jesus faced the horrific death on a cross, in Luke’s version, saying, into your hands I commend my spirit. This prayer of confidence ought to instruct us that our lives, now and eternally, are in God. If we trust God, if we believe and feed our Christian hope, we can let go of fear and live in freedom, and generous in good works.

The critical day is not the day of our death but the whole course of our life. In scenes of dire poverty, illness, and death in Kenya and Uganda, I have come to recognize the demand placed on my life here and now. The Gospels tell me that Jesus cared about the plight of the poor, the sick and the dying.

We experience cognitive dissidence when we honor as we do today those paid the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. On Nov 11 at 11:10 am the armistice was signed, signaling the end of WWII. Those thousands upon thousands who wore the uniform, fought for freedom, and some died in the process. We honor them today because we believe they gave their lives for the freedom we enjoy. Do we honor them by working to free others who today are oppressed? Does our faith help us to live well now and in so doing to prepare to die well?

John Donne expressed it well in his poetic manner: ask not for whom the bells toll, they toll for me.