Proper 27C                R Lundquist                           11/11/07

Luke 20:27-38  http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=61758848

It all depends on the question, doesn’t it?

From The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, chapters 27-28: 

“Er…Good morning, O Deep Thought, said Loonquawl nervously. 

“Do you have… er, that is…”

“An answer for you?” interrupted Deep Thought majestically.  “Yes.  I have.”

“To Everything?  To the great Question of Life, the Universe and Everything?”

“Yes… though I don’t think that you’re going to like it.”

“Tell us!”

“All right,”  said Deep Thought. 

“The Answer to the Great Question… of Life, the Universe and Everything… is…” said Deep Thought, and paused.

“Yes…?!”

“Forty-two,” said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.

“Forty-two!” yelled Loonquawl.  “Is that all you’ve got to show for seven and a holf million year’s work?”

“I checked it very thoroughly,” said the computer, “and that quite definitely is the answer.  I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you’ve never actually known what the question is.”

“But it was the Great Question!  The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything!” howled Loonquawl.

“Yes,” said Deep Thought with the air of one who suffers fools gladly, “but what actually is it?”

A slow stupedfied silence crept over the men as they stared at the computer and then at each other.

“Well, you know, it’s just Everything… Everything…” offered Phouchg weakly.

“Exactly!” said Deep Thought.  “So once you do know what the question actually is, you’ll know what the answer means.”

The Sadducees ask the wrong question of Jesus.  They hope to trip him up.  In this Gospel passage Jesus has just answered the question about whether it is permitted to pay taxes to Caesar.  But Jesus uses this answer about the woman widowed sever times to paint a picture of a different world.  Imagine – no marriage!  And no disease!  And by extension:  no politicians, no toothaches, no addictions, no in-laws…

St Paul picks up this theme in I Corinthians 13:  there will be no prophecy, no knowledge, and again by extension:  no earth, no cosmos, no USA, no democracy, no churches, no hospitals, no universities – only love.  “Faith, hope and love abide.  And the greatest of these is love.  Imagine such a world.  John Lennon’s famous song realized?  Imagine…

*           *           *

The setting for today’s Gospel reading:  In Jesus’ time there were 4 parties in Judaism – the people lived, worked, and worshipped together, shoulder to shoulder.  But there were 4 distinct world views.

Pharisees: they were the populists who believed that God’s people made up a kingdom of priests.  They are the forebears of modern Judaism

Essenes:  they were survivalists who advocated a “withdraw & wait” attitude to the world.  It was the Essenes who hid the scrolls, rediscovered in the 1940’s, that have revealed so much about life in biblical times.

Zealots:  they were the armed insurrectionists, ready to overthrow the occupying Romans by any means necessary

Sadducees:  they were upper crust, protectors of the status quo.  They believed that only the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrews scriptures, written down by Moses, were authoritative.

In today’s reading the Sadducees mock the Pharisees’ belief in life after death.  They are citing the Torah direction that “no family shall die.”  A man shall marry his brother’s widow, and the son of that union will be the heir of the deceased brother.  This was known as Levirate Marriage (Gen 38, Deut 25, and Ruth 3 & 4).  So who is the woman’s husband in the afterlife, ask the Sadducees, if she marries seven brothers?  The question to Jesus is absurd, a twisting of a premise until it becomes ridiculous…

Jesus gives the perfect Anglican response:  scripture, tradition & reason –

He acknowledges the tradition of widow marriage.

He cites the appropriate Scripture

And then he applies reason to knock the ball out of the park – God is God of the Living, not the dead!  (Ex 3:6) – God spoke to Moses through the burning bush that was not consumed, identifying self as “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”  Note that God said not was but is their God.  They are alive, says Jesus.

God is the God of the living:  Moses & Miriam, Abraham & Sarah, Isaac & Rebecca, Jacob Leah & Rachel.  ALL LIVE in God!

And WE live in God.

Jesus came that WE might have life, life abundant.  The Sadducees interested only in sex in heaven.  They are majoring in the minors, picking at the small stuff.  Jesus says, “Those living the resurrection life have no need of marriage OR death.”  They will have better things to think about. They are like angels, these children of resurrection. 

When you know what the question is, you’ll know what the answer means.

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

                        John Lennon, Imagine

Our God is the God of the living, not the dead.  To God, ALL are alive.

Life abundant is revealed by Jesus.  Revealed in his life of love, given as answer to all of your questions, voiced and unuttered…

Amen