Seven Brothers and One Bride

I apologize for not making blog posts for the last few weeks.  It seems that each week before I realized it the week has closed in and I just haven't been able to squeeze in getting the posts up here.  Again, I apologize.

Our scripture this past week was as it has been for the last several weeks, in the Gospel of Luke.  This time we were in the 20th Chapter at verses 27-39.

Luke 20:27-39New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

27 Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him28 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[a] shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; 30 then the second 31 and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless.32 Finally the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”

34 Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; 35 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. 36 Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.37 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. 38 Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.” 39 Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.”

The bottom line of what I wanted to express from this passage is the relationship of the seven men and the woman.  We need to remember that in this society that women are chattel property. The woman needed a man to care for her, to provide for her, and to protect her.  The question of "whose wife will she be" is not a question so much of who gets the privilege of being married to her, of loving her and enjoying her company as their spouse, but rather... who is going to be responsible for her, who is going to be stuck providing for her.  It's a question of obligation not of privilege.

The point of the parable in this line of thinking is that nobody is tasked with caring for her.  In fact, no one is tasked with caring for anyone, for God is caring for all.  In a world then as it is now, where uncertainty reigns supreme we look forward to the life to come, where nothing will be uncertain... for God will be our absolute provider.

The second point is the restoration of these tangled relationships.  What we have here is a first-century version of the Jerry Springer show, but in God's final Kingdom even these extraordinarily messy relationships can be reconciled.  Perhaps that's one of the greatest things we can look forward to in the hereafter, the untangling and rebuilding of these damaged and distorted relationships that we all create here on earth.  In the resurrection, we will be reborn and our relationships with God and each other will be reborn.  Praise God...

But, let us not think that this means we can reject others and disenfranchise those around us.  Even though we know fully well that there are some relationships that are so horribly broken that they can only be glued together in God's final Kingdom we are tasked to try and be reconciled to one another here in this world at this time.  Waiting is just not an option, reconciliation to each other and God's creation are what we all are called to do... I just wish we'd listen...

There was one 'blip' so to say in the sermon.  I printed out my scripture on a newly installed older printer that was given to the church by a member.  Unfortunately, I didn't notice until reading the scripture that the printer had skipped printing an entire line.  It was no big deal, but I did have to pause to retrieve a Bible from beside my chair.  All in all, it was no big deal and certainly wasn't the end of the world.

Thanks for dropping into my little tiny corner of the blog world.  Please remember...

To be a blessing to someone today!!

In His Grace,

Roy