Today, the twenty–fifth day of December, unknown ages from the time when God created the heavens and the earth and then formed man and woman in his own image.
Several thousand years after the flood, when God made the rainbow shine forth as a sign of the covenant. Twenty–one centuries from the time of Abraham and Sarah; thirteen centuries after Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt.
Eleven hundred years from the time of Ruth and the Judges; one thousand years from the anointing of David as king; in the sixty–fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel.
In the one hundred and ninety–fourth Olympiad; the seven hundred and fifty–second year from the foundation of the city of Rome.
The forty–second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus; the whole world being at peace, Jesus Christ, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father, desiring to sanctify the world by his most merciful coming, being conceived by the Holy Spirit, and nine months having passed since his conception, was born in Bethlehem of Judea of the Virgin Mary.
Today is the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.
Gathering Hymn: Once in Royal David’s City – ELW 269
The Holy Gospel according to John
Glory be to you O Lord
Gospel: John 1:1-14
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it. 6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
The gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you O Christ.
Homily:
It is Luke (in his Gospel) who tells us when Jesus was born.
It is Luke who tells us about the young Mary…nearing full term…traveling atop a mule clopping from Nazareth to Bethlehem…the ancestral home…
It is Luke who tells us that an innkeeper turned them away for want of a room…
It is Luke who reveals that the baby was delivered in a cattle pen populated by farm animals…a cow…a goat…a sheep and chickens.
It is Luke who gives us the touching detail of Mary wrapping the baby in some tight swaddling clothes…
It is Luke who mentions the shepherds watching their flocks by night…
It is Luke who describes the amazing appearance of an angelic chorus…
It is Luke who tells us that one of the angels said:
Do not be afraid…for see…I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people…to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior…who is the Messiah…the Lord.
Tonight’s gospel reading…though…is not from Saint Luke.
Tonight’s story of the nativity of Jesus is from Saint John.
This is John’s account of Jesus’ appearance on earth…and it is quite different from Luke’s version.
Not that there are contradictions…there are not.
John’s Gospel was the last of the four Gospels to be written…and so he has read Luke’s version of the birth of Christ…and has no intention of retelling it.
How can you top the magisterial treatment Luke gives to the birth of the Christ child? You cannot.
It is a moving…emotional…poignant account of a baby surviving against all odds.
Luke answers the questions as to how…when and where Jesus was born.
John reveals the why of Jesus’ birth.
John begins with the words…In the beginning…
Words that cannot fail to take the reader back to Genesis chapter one.
John takes us deep…pulling back the curtain on the cosmic why.
John does not begin in Bethlehem.
He does not even begin with Mary or Joseph or angels or stars.
He begins in eternity.
In the beginning was the Word…and the Word was with God…and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
Sound familiar?
That opening phrase echoes Genesis Chapter one…verse one:
In the beginning God created…
John wants us to think back to the dawn of time…
To remind us that Jesus did not begin in a manger…he already was.
This is a great truth John gives us:
That in the cosmic sweep of all that is and ever was…Jesus is the eternal Word of God.
Yes…the birth of Jesus is celebrated according to tradition on Christmas Day.
This is why we are here today…to celebrate a specific birthday on a specific date.
It makes sense…we all have birthdays…and we have birthday parties and receive birthday gifts.
This is baby Jesus’ birthday…but John reminds us that Jesus divine nature…has no birthday at all.
A baby without a birth date!
The story of this immortal being…clothed now in a mortal baby body…
Stretching and curling his baby fingers…gurgling and soiling his diapers…begins before time began.
The Greek word John uses is logos…the Word.
To the Jewish mind…the Word…was the creative…powerful voice of God that spoke the universe into being.
And so…John declares: This Word…this eternal…divine…creating…sustaining Reason…was with God…and was God.
For those who receive Jesus…life will never be the same.
Verse 12: But to all who received him…who believed in his name…he gave power to become children of God.
This brings us back to the birth of Jesus.
His birth reminds us that it is never too late to experience a new birth…
To embrace a life that can only be called a new creation.
Our reading tells us that not everyone rejected him.
This is the offer of Christmas…the purpose behind the Incarnation:
To turn orphans into children…
To give strangers a place at the table…
To transform believers into family.
We are not born into this family by blood…or by willpower…or by pedigree…but by God’s grace.
And the Word became flesh and lived among us.
This is Christmas according to John.
Not a baby in a manger…but God taking on skin.
Not just visiting…but moving into the neighborhood.
The word…dwelling…is a reference to a tent…
That God pitched his tent among us.
In Jesus…God is not distant…not abstract…not far off.
He is here…present…with us…Emmanuel.
And this is great news for those of us who are wondering what life is all about.
This is the true miracle of Christmas.
Not just that God sent us a message…
But that he came in person.
Not just that he came…but that he came full of grace and truth…
Enough to save…enough to reveal…enough to carry us through whatever darkness we face.
So…while Luke gives us the cradle…John gives us the cosmos.
While Luke shows us the baby…John shoes us the glory.
While Luke sets the scene…John sets us up with a purpose.
The Word became flesh…so that we might become children of God.
Prayers of Intercession
Empowered by the news of Christ’s birth, let us pray boldly for the church, creation, and all who are in need.
A brief silence.
The Word becomes flesh and dwells among us, bringing life, love, and joy to a weary world. Gracious God, use our lips and our lives to proclaim the good news of your coming. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
The earth rejoices and the coastlands are glad on the day of your birth. Bring life to barren wastelands, healing where we have caused harm, and bold hearts to respond to creation’s call for justice. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
Righteousness and justice are your foundation, O Holy One. Fill world leaders with your zeal for righteousness and your love for any who are marginalized and oppressed. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
The heavens proclaim your glory and announce that we have been made your own people. Keep watch over all who are spending this holy day alone, alienated, or ill. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
Light dawns for the righteous and joy visits the upright in heart. Fortify us with your grace and fill us with zeal to proclaim the news of your birth to those who long for love. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
From the nurturing darkness of the womb to the tender night of the tomb, you enfold us in your love. We remember with affection those who have died and now rest in your eternal embrace (Keith Waldron). Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
With the joy of Christ’s birth in our hearts, we commend our prayers to you, O God, trusting in your boundless mercy and eternal love, through Jesus Christ our Savior.
Given Jesus’ pedigree as son of Abraham and son of David…it seems inconceivable that God…
In his infinite wisdom…would send his Son to be born under questionable circumstances.
At least it does to those schooled in the wisdom of the world.
The world values tidiness and appearances.
If Jesus were running for political office…his opponent would be running negative ads against him…
Reminding everyone of his illegitimate birth.
But God does not play by the rules of the world.
The Lord be with you.
Well…here’s the thing:
God tends to work from the outside and backside of life to bring about his salvation.
If we re-examine Jesus’ ancestors…in Matthew chapter one…it is remarkable that his family tree includes four other named women:
Tamar…Rahab…Ruth…and Bathsheba…the wife of Uriah.
This inclusion of women in a male-dominated genealogy is unusual…
But these four women were all involved in unbecoming or at least unusual relationships.
Tamar tricked her father-in-law…Judah (son of Jacob) …into fathering a child with her.
Rahab was a Canaanite and a prostitute in Jericho.
Ruth was a foreigner…a Moabite.
And Bathsheba was involved in an adulterous relationship with David.
Yet…God worked through these women…
And these unusual circumstances to advance the line of people through whom Jesus would be born.
This remarkable story illustrates the reality that God can work through the messiness of human life…
And how the faithfulness of God’s people can help God aid and abet his mission.
Here is what St. Paul said about Jesus:
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ…that though he was rich…yet for your sakes he became poor…so that you through his poverty might become rich. (II Cor. 8:9)
Jesus did not leave Stanford or Harvard or Oxford.
He left the throne of glory to become the babe of Bethlehem…
Born in a stable because there was no room in the inn.
Why did he do it?
Because the world sat in darkness…to use Isaiah’s rich metaphor.
Christmas is not simply the celebration of the birthday of a good man…
Christmas is the celebration of light penetrating darkness…
Christmas is the celebration of hope penetrating despair…
Christmas is the celebration of life overcoming death…
Christmas is the celebration of salvation delivering fallen humanity.
They will call him Immanuel…which means…God with us.
What does it mean to say that God is with us?
It means that God cares enough for us that he seeks to invade the chaos of our lives.
A friend…Judy Gunther…pretends to go shopping each Christmas season in the Nordstrom department store at the Ross Park Mall in Pittsburgh…PA.
She pretends to go shopping at Nordstrom because the store is so upscale that she rarely purchases anything there.
But she goes there during the Christmas shopping days because the ambience is spectacular.
Judy gets herself a Nordstrom shopping bag…fills it with tissue paper…
And meanders around the store…
Enjoying the decorations and listening to the live music playing in each department.
On one of these Christmas visits to Nordstrom…Judy was on the top floor…where the most expensive dresses were for sale…
When the doors of the elevator opened and an impoverished woman stepped out.
When Judy saw this woman…she fully expected that a couple of security guards would show up momentarily to usher the woman out of the store.
After all…this woman…who was shabbily dressed…was not the kind of person who could afford to buy much of anything at Nordstrom…
Let alone one of the expensive dresses for sale on the top floor.
But instead of security guards…a tall…stately saleswoman appeared and went up to this woman.
She asked: Can I help you…Madam?
Yes…said the woman in a raspy voice…I want a dress!
What kind of dress? inquired the saleswoman. A party dress was the answer.
You’ve come to the right place…the saleswoman replied. We have the finest dresses in the world.
Indeed…they did! The least expensive dress on the rack of evening gowns cost just under a thousand dollars.
The two women looked over the dresses as they talked about which color would be best…given the woman’s coloring.
After a discussion that went on for more than ten minutes…they picked two dresses off the rack.
Then the saleswoman said: Follow me…Madam. I want you to try on these dresses to see how you look in each of them.
Judy was flabbergasted.
She knew the saleswoman must have realized that this woman did not have the means to buy any of the dresses for sale in the store.
When the two women went into the dressing room to try on the dresses…
Judy went into the dressing room next to theirs…
And she put her ear against the wall so she could listen to what they said.
After a while…she heard the woman say:
I’ve changed my mind. I’m not going to buy a dress today.
The saleswoman answered:
That’s quite all right…Madam…but I’d like you to take my card.
Should you come back to Nordstrom…I would consider it both a privilege and a pleasure to wait on you again.
Judy was more than surprised by the kind and respectful way in which this saleswoman treated a woman…
Who had not the means to buy anything in that upscale store.
This saleswoman did what a Christian should do.
In all probability…she treated everyone she met in her everyday encounters in the workplace as Jesus would treat them.
The meaning of Christmas?
Isaiah said it all nearly three thousand years ago:
The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son…and they will call him Immanuel…which means…God with us.
When God is with us…we are empowered to live in extraordinary ways.
The year was 1809…all of Europe was living in dread of the armies that threatened to sweep the continent.
Napoleon Bonaparte was on the move.
In every city of Europe…from the alehouses and marketplaces of the common people…
To the salons of the upper class…they were talking of little else but marches…invasions and battles.
Newspaper headlines screamed out the latest atrocities of the emperor of the French.
Something else…however…was happening in the Year of Our Lord…1809…besides the campaigns of Napoleon…a quieter thing…a subtler thing.
On the 12th of February…1809…in a little backwoods cabin three miles south of Hodgenville…Kentucky…a baby boy was born.
His parents were dirt-poor…subsistence farmers.
They could not read or write.
Yet their newborn baby boy…Abraham Lincoln…
Would grow up to become president of the United States.
And in the eyes of many…he would become one of our greatest presidents.
The influence on world history of that one baby…Abraham Lincoln — born in 1809…is beyond measure.
But back then…anyone in the know would have insisted that Napoleon’s campaigns were the pivotal events of history.
Nowadays…the name Abraham Lincoln is a household word…
But who among us can remember the name of even one of Napoleon’s victories?
What we remember is Waterloo…his greatest defeat.
The Lord be with you.
Is it not…just like God to work through a baby…rather than a general?
Our Lord is a Lord of life…rather than death.
A giver of hope…not despair.
A God who…in causing the infant Jesus to be born…
Hits the world with the force of a hint.
Like the newspaper reporters of 1809…John the Baptist was seeking to read the signs of his times.
John looked around him and saw that the world was not a happy place.
His people…the chosen people of God…were oppressed by the Romans.
Tax collectors swindled widows and children.
Roman soldiers were billeted in the towns…their very presence an insult to the Hebrew people.
The king was a pampered autocratic potentate.
Prepare the way of the Lord …shouts John…his voice crying in the wilderness.
Bear fruit worthy of repentance…he warns the Pharisees…for even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees.
John looks around…in other words…and sees it is not
He looks to God to break into history at that very moment and set things right.
Sometime later…John is in prison when he hears of the growing fame of Jesus of Nazareth.
He sends some of his disciples over to investigate…to talk with Jesus.
Are you the one who is to come…they ask…or are we to wait for another?
Jesus’ reply is simple: Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight…the lame walk…those with a skin disease are cleansed…the deaf hear…the dead are raised…and the poor have good news brought to them.
It is not the sort of answer John was expecting.
John spent his life anxiously scanning the horizon for a Messiah thundering in with the reins of a chariot in his hand.
A righteous general at the head of an army.
The Messiah John’s expecting would cast the Roman overlords from the land…
Free political prisoners from their cells and re-establish true worship in the holy Temple.
Jesus’ claim to prophetic authority is of a very different order.
He speaks not of judgment and destruction but of health and peace…light and love.
Go ask the ones who used to be blind…or lame or leprous…Jesus says…
Go ask the ones who once were deaf…or dead or mired in poverty…they know who I am!
The sign of this Savior’s coming is not the scorched earth of a vengeful army…as John imagines.
No…it is…echoing the poetry of Isaiah…a fresh…green shoot sprouting forth from the stump of Jesse.
In Jesus Christ…God does indeed hit the world with the force of a hint.
A hint of new life for those hungry to hear good news.
A hint of new life for you and for me.
Jesus was born in a stable…not a palace.
Who could have predicted that the little boy playing in the wood shavings of Joseph’s carpentry shop is God’s own son?
Who…indeed…but Mary…his mother.
Mary…who talked with the angels?
It is Mary who first comes to understand the full force of God’s hint.
That day in the Temple at 12 years of age…as Jesus stands there astounding the learned scribes with his wisdom.
When Jesus sets off on his three-year ministry…he walks the dusty roads in battered sandals like anyone else.
He breaks bread in the cheap inns and humble roadhouses of the common folk.
Can anything good come out of Nazareth? They ask in ridicule.
Then comes that day on the high mountain apart…when Peter…James and John gaze in wonder at their Lord and master.
His clothes have become dazzling white…such as no one on earth could brighten them.
When the vision of Transfiguration is over…everything returns to normal…except for their memory of the force of God’s hint.
After his resurrection…there’s the time a few of them are walking with a stranger to Emmaus.
As the stranger breaks bread at supper…their eyes were opened…and they recognized him.
When you are suddenly hit by the force of a hint…you know…somehow…you just know.
God still speaks to us that way:
In hints and whispers…in glimpses out of peripheral vision…in dreams and intuitions and portents.
The touch of our Lord’s hand on this earth is exceedingly subtle.
God’s touch comes…most often…not with a trumpet’s fanfare…
But with a gentle beckoning…a call to come home.
What hints of God have we been hearing this Advent?
Christmas is still the time of year that brings a bounce to the step and a twinkle to the eye.
This time of year is positively laden with hints of Christ’s presence…
If only we have eyes to see and ears to hear.
Christmas…quite simply…brings out the best in a great many people.
We are all more likely to give…more likely to attend worship…more likely to reach out to neighbors during Advent and Christmas than at any other time.
The One Thing that makes a human life complete is not a thing at all.
It is a person…the person born under a star in Bethlehem long ago.
So many of this season’s joys are quiet ones…suggestions…hints…of a greater glory yet to come!
Listen carefully this week.
And we will all sense the force of God’s holy hint!
Today we enter again into this four-week season of Advent.
The church year begins with Advent as a time to return to waiting.
A time to prepare.
A time to get back in touch with our ancestors in the faith…
Who watched and hoped and anticipated with great joy the day when God would bring peace on all the earth!
When at last…the prophesy of old would be fulfilled.
For a child would be born!
A new kind of king who would reign over all…establishing peace through justice.
Ushering in a new day…resting on the Anointed One…
So that no more would oppressive empires rule over the people.
No more would distress cover the land.
No more would despair break backs.
But the dawn of the Light would rise for love…joy…peace and hope to rule in every heart!
Advent is the season that returns us to God’s promise as we await ancient echoes to come…
Come Lord Jesus! Dwell among us…be for us the Way!
Today is the first Sunday of Advent.
And the gospel of Matthew turns us almost to the end of the story.
To a day…shortly before the crucifixion…when Jesus sat among his disciples in the Temple.
Teaching them to guard themselves.
No matter what happened…Jesus did not want his followers to be led astray.
For the path of the Anointed was not streets paved in gold.
But the way of the cross.
A giving of Life for True Life to flourish.
Jesus might as well have recited the words of the Psalmist:
Put not your trust in princes…in mortals…in whom there is no help. For when their breath departs…they return to the earth…on that very day their plans perish (Psalm 146:3-4).
We cannot help but notice in the 24th chapter of Matthew’s gospel the use of catastrophic images…
As disciples of the Way sought to read the times.
The verses of this part of the gospel are how we get ideas of an eventual
When some…the faithful…will be taken.
And others will be left behind.
(This is really an image of how nations conquered other nations…the conquering nation would take the best and the brightest…and leave the old and sick and less able behind).
Texts like Matthew 24 are one way we have gotten elaborate notions of what is called
Millennialism is a religious belief…that is dependent upon an understanding of a Second Coming of Jesus that includes a final tribulation…
Judgement…with a golden age before or after…
Depending on which religious flavor you like…
That will lead to a world yet to come.
This is how we get the idea of being left behind…
Torment for some…release for a handful…
The kind of Christianity that turns a lot of people away…
Because it is based on biblical ideas that fail to read the gospels in their total breadth and scope.
So…forget for now about the end of time.
What we have here in Matthew 24 is a picture of the world as it is…all too familiar to us.
A world of things we know and a world of things we do not know…
Which Jesus wants to make sure his followers understand.
There are things in the world…Jesus says…that are known and that can be anticipated.
Look at the fig tree…which Jesus points out to his followers in another portion of this lengthy lesson that Jesus was giving…
When his disciples were terrified and wanted to hold some certainty that would allow them to be prepared.
Fig trees remind us that winter gives way to spring.
Summer sunshine ripens the fruit on the branch which brings about the harvest of autumn….
The earth’s bountiful yield.
All of nature reminds us that there is a pattern and order and regularity in the world…
The very basis of science and technology…and it means that we have a measure of control…
Without which life would not be feasible.
The very world around us teaches that there are some things upon which we typically can rely.
At the same time…the words of Jesus also offer the other half of that lesson.
Concerning the things that are unknown.
Something the wise never take for granted.
Not so we live with a sense of dread about the other shoe always about to drop.
But so…we do not find ourselves feeling robbed by life…
Or worse yet…blaming such troubles on ourselves or God or others…
When…in fact…difficulties are a part of life.
Because life is both ordered and reliable AND it is hazardous and unpredictable.
However much we may feel in control…we always are vulnerable.
We know that we always are susceptible to the unexpected and the unplanned…
That suddenly throws our routine lives into turmoil and confusion.
Does all of this seem like good news?
Maybe not…if we are riding on top of a beautiful wave…
Feeling all-powerful and totally in charge.
But remember the setting of this gospel.
Written shortly after the Temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed forever…
Except for that still-standing Western Wall.
It is good news to hear from the Anointed…the One crucified…yet resurrected.
It is good news to hear that sometimes life will feel like the thief in the night…
The mysterious disappearance while harvesting the fields.
The random occurrence of one being struck by lightning while the next is left totally fine.
The truth is: life is both known and unknown.
The activity in our lives that we can control.
And the unexplainable action of other forces upon us.
So…in the season of Advent…our surest comfort is to remember the story of the God who lives among us.
Born a vulnerable baby.
So fixed on loving us that our own flesh and blood would become the instruments through which God chooses to work.
In all of life’s knowns…in all of life’s unknowns…let us trust fully in that!
A question is posed to Jesus…in our reading for today…by a religious sect called the Sadducees.
The Sadducees were the religious conservatives of Jesus’ time.
They accepted only what was written in the Torah…
The books of Moses…
Also known as the Pentateuch…
The first five books of the Bible.
And so…for the Sadducees…if it was not in the first five books of the Bible…
It was not crucial to the faith.
The Lord be with you…
The first five books of the Bible say nothing about eternal life or resurrection.
Therefore…such things should not be taught as part of the faith…according to the Sadducees.
Accordingly…they did not believe in Heaven or an afterlife.
Because their faith was restricted to the first five books of the Bible…
They did not have the benefit of such writings as the book of Job…
Which contains this witness:
Oh… that my words were recorded…that they were written on a scroll…that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead…or engraved in rock forever! I know that my redeemer lives…and in my flesh I will see God…I myself will see him.
According to the Sadducees…there was no such thing as life beyond the grave.
So…the question they posed to Jesus is quite surprising.
In that culture…women were no better than property to be passed along to keep the family estate intact.
Think about it.
When a man dies…if he did not leave a male heir…
His eldest brother was to marry his widow. (Levirate marriage).
This would continue the man’s name and keep his property in the family.
In our reading …the woman was passed among seven brothers.
She outlives them all…but then she dies.
Whose bride will she be at the resurrection? asked these Sadducees.
It was…of course…a trick question.
These Sadducees had no interest in the intricacies of life after death.
They did not even believe in such a thing.
They simply wanted to get Jesus in trouble with the people.
But Jesus was accustomed to scholars attempting to trip him up.
And so…Jesus does three things:
First of all…the Sadducees were people of the Torah.
If something was not in the Torah…it could not be part of their faith.
So…Jesus answered them from the Torah.
He turns to the third chapter of Exodus… the story of Moses and the burning bush.
Moses was tending the flock of Jethro…his father-in-law…the priest of Midian.
Moses led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb…the mountain of God.
There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush.
Moses saw that…though the bush was on fire…it did not burn up.
So…Moses thought:
I will go over and see this strange sight…why the bush does not burn up.
When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look…God called to him from within the bush:
Moses! Moses!
And Moses said: Here I am.
Do not come any closer…God said.
Take off your sandals…for the place where you are standing is holy ground.
Then he said: I am the God of your father…the God of Abraham…the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
God does not say: I was the God of Abraham…Isaac and Jacob.
When Moses wrote these words the three patriarchs had been dead for centuries…
Yet God refers to them in the present tense.
God is not the God of the dead…Jesus insists…but of the living.
Secondly…Jesus answered an uncertainty that many good people have about marriage.
This poor woman outlived seven husbands.
Now…we might be wondering what kind of secret poison she employed to get rid of each one of them.
Maybe she was the quintessential Black Widow.
Anyway: Whose wife would she be in the afterlife? Asked the Sadducees.
Now…most of us do not lie awake at night wondering about whether we will still be married in heaven.
We understand that marriage in this world and in this life is a physical and emotional relationship.
Heaven is not a physical place…but a spiritual place.
And we do not know what our spiritual bodies will be like…
But they will not require us to live as husbands and wives.
We even say in our vows: Till death do us part.
Now…that might be a relief to some folks.
There are many good people who outlive their spouses.
In fact…if we are married…half of us will outlive our spouses.
Death is a part of life.
And half of spouses will one day be left behind.
For most…it will be a day of deep grief.
Eventually…however…the question may arise Should I take a new partner?
Would that be a betrayal of the great love my spouse and I shared?
It is a heart-felt question.
In my ministry…at times…I have discovered it more emotional for other family members than for the widow or widower.
Sometimes children can make their parents feel very guilty for all the wrong reasons.
The biblical answer to this question would be…
By all means re-marry…if that is where our heart leads us.
Marriage is for this world.
Our beloved former spouse who is now with God lives in a different kind of world that knows no marriage…
Only pure and unrestricted love.
We need feel no guilt…no sense of betrayal if someone else fills the loneliness we now find in our heart.
Thirdly…Jesus answered here a most important question in life…
Is there life beyond death?
And the answer he gave is:
Yes…there definitely is life after death.
He not only gave us that answer with his lips…
He also gave it with his own life.
He is alive! reported the women on their return from the empty tomb.
I attended the memorial service of a close Christian friend a while back.
The service itself was wonderful in every way…
Filled with biblical imagery and great hymns.
And just as the benediction was pronounced…
An unseen bugler hidden on one side of the sanctuary began to play Taps…
The traditional musical piece signaling the end of the day or the death of a soldier.
And as the mournful notes faded away…
Another bugler on the other side of the sanctuary began to play Reveille…
The traditional musical piece signaling the coming of a new day.
It’s time to get up…it’s time to get up…it’s time to get up in the morning.
It was my friend’s way of saying that he expected to get up on the other side of death.
We have that expectation too.
It is Jesus’ own teaching.
A teaching he conveyed with his lips and his life.
