Deuteronomy 26: 1-11
Psalm 100
John 6: 25-35

Being Thankful is not a Suggestion

They tell me that I can get an AI program such as “Chat GPT” to write my sermons. Several years ago now, back in Saskatchewan, on a Zoom call with several colleagues, we tried it out, but only for just a few paragraphs. Before this, I had never heard of such a thing except in the context of news reports of students caught cheating by finding essays on the internet instead of writing them themselves. All I can say is that our experiment that day wasn’t a disaster! Maybe AI could write a sermon for some minister, BUT I doubt it would suit me and my PEI sense of humour. By the way, AI, as I understand it, is a collection of computers able to answer any question and do research for you. These computers are housed in part of what is referred to as “the cloud” but I am told that, “the cloud” is not in the sky, but on a barge or a collection of barges off the coast of California.

Years ago, I left my encyclopaedias behind when I moved because I had discovered that the internet could answer the vast majority of my basic questions, and I was able to quote something in a sermon without having to wade through many entries in an encyclopaedia or having to search through my volumes of literature or poetry or even without getting up to walk overe to to my bookshelf. I do still have a lot of books!

If I took advantage of AI and went looking for the origins of Thanksgiving I would have to specify Canada, and wade through tales about “Pilgrims” and the Wampanoag peoples who just showed up for supper on the first Thanksgiving and stayed for days. It would interest you to know that they did not come empty-handed but brought venison, shellfish, stew and beer.

In Canada, it was explorer Martin Frobisher who, in 1578, began the tradition of a formal thanksgiving observance, in the territory now called Nunavut. This was a celebration of thanksgiving for safe passage across the Atlantic and all of the hazards of the open ocean.

While our Thanksgiving is not part of a four day weekend, we are starting to fall for the same kinds of retail bargains that entice our American sisters and brothers to shop till they drop. Our big sales tend to happen on Boxing Day, an event that is not part of American culture

In 1904 Elizabeth Philips created a board game to show the dangers of wealth concentration - you know- where the rich get more and more and the poor have to settle for less and less. I read that, before the Queen’s passing, the game was banned from Royal Family get-togethers. The Windsor-Mountbatten clan is much too competitive to play without arguments. The game is best known by its newer name: Monopoly.

I should not need to remind you that the Christian church did not invent thanksgiving; not even the Americans can claim that they got to it first. Our first nations forbears were celebrating thanksgiving in one form or another long before Europeans even knew there was a “new world.” Today’s passage outlined an ancient thanksgiving celebration festival tied to their journey through the wilderness and into the land of promise. Of course, thankfulness is intrinsic to spiritual practice in many different religions. -6-

I love the British Comedy, “the Vicar of Dibley,” set in an English parish somewhere near London. One evening the handsome newcomer, the accountant the Vicar has been seeing romantically, comes to the door of the rectory and proposes to her with words somewhere along the lines of, “I absolutely know that we are meant to be together and know we will always be happy.” She reacts with absolute, over the top, joy before she says “yes.” I suppose that all couples who stand before me to be joined in marriage, hope that their marriage WILL be a source of happiness for the rest of their lives, but statistics tell us that many do not make it.

I am interested in the timing of the set-up instructions for this biblical thanksgiving celebration. It is not a festival organized in the midst of what promises to be a bumper crop; it is outlined BEFORE they cross the river into the land of promise. It is mandated before seeding or harvest; it is mandated before they have eaten their own crops, before the manna stopped appearing, before they had to work for everything. They have known nothing for an entire generation except the manna which appears and gives them food FOR THAT DAY, or FOR the 2 days that take them OVER THE Sabbath.

This Thanksgiving Ritual is given in the future tense; BEFORE they plant their first seed; BEFORE the blossoms turn to fruit which shows signs of ripening, BEFORE they can count on food in storage, before their stores last until the next harvest.

I was watching TV the other day and saw a commercial from one of Canada’s banks. It spoke about them being the bank able to give you more. But, even the commercial acknowledges that sometimes more is not enough. The truth is that getting more does not always touch that empty space in our lives.

What is Thanksgiving if it is not about essential physical food? Should we not be thankful for the food in our refrigerator and cupboards, the clothes in our closet, the family we can count on? WELL, YES. But it is more than that. Jesus alludes to the “more” in the Gospel passage read earlier in the service.

Rabbi Harold Kushner, from Massachusetts who died about 2 years ago, wrote a book titled, ‘When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough.” Along with his best-selling, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People,” his works are widely read by mainline Christian clergy. When we pin our happiness on the accumulation of things, or other rewards of some kind, success, or health, we are missing an important spiritual truth.

When you are 17 you pin your success and happiness to High School graduation, then to the basic degree then advanced decrees, or, if you choose the trades, on your “Red Seal”. You pin your hopes on owning a home, owning a vacation home, having a healthy RRSP, or retiring at 55 as the commercial used to define “freedom”. However, more often than not, once we arrive, we still strive for more. More. More.

I read a story one day about a United Church minister who was serving the church overseas. He knew how little the people with whom he worked, had to live on and how generous they were known to be. One day, when offered a meal he accepted happily and like any good Canadian he cleaned his plate. It was taken to the kitchen and refilled. When he finished that and the host disappeared with a look of consternation on his face, for a longer time he realized that it was his “Canadian manners” that had gotten in the way. In that culture, cleaning your plate signified that you still might be hungry so when the host came back the third time he was careful to leave a few forkfulls to show he had eaten enough. What was striking was that this man was willing to give this Canadian stranger, all the food he had in the house, AND borrow some, out of hospitality. Would any of us do the same?

I recall visiting a couple in a nursing home, both of whom had significant physical challenges. I asked them if they were, “glass half full people or glass half empty people” to which they immediately replied, “Neither. Our cup runneth over.” They saw blessing in the life that they were living - even though most might regard it as “less” in many ways than what they had enjoyed in their younger years.”

When we tie our thankfulness to things, we miss the point. When we tie our thanksgiving to success, we miss the point. When we accept that gratitude is a way of living and looking at life, we are hitting the nail on the head.

Thankfulness is the meat and potatoes of life, its not desert; its not optional. Let us make it a way of our life in the faith. Amen!

Jeremiah 31: 27-34
Psalm 91
Luke 16: 19-31

The Changing Good News?

I am almost certain that every one of you who went to Sunday school in your youth, memorized the “10 Commandments.” Raise your hand if you did not! Along with committing the “Beatitudes” to memory, memorizing a list of the “12 disciples” and a selection of biblical verses, the 10 commandments were considered the building blocks of a good Christian education. BUT - I wonder, did you memorize the entire passage or just the shortened version from a list, or a card with a pretty picture on it? For the second commandment you probably memorized, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image;” in the elegant phraseology of the King James Version. Though most of us had to be taught what a “graven image” was, those few words were probably all there was to it. We went on to number 3 which was about not taking God’s name in vain. BUT, did you know that there are actually three sentences in the second commandment. Again reading from the King James,

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.”  

Well, that changes things, a bit! It seems that its not just you who is responsible to keep the commandment, its your parents, and grand-parents, AND your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who have had to have avoided this sin in order for you to be “in the clear”. How can you be responsible for all of them!

The passage from Jeremiah quotes what had become a common saying, “the father’s have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” It seems to me that it is meant to be taken as similar to ones we in Nova Scotia might have used, such as, “the apple does not fall far from the tree,” or ”you can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear.”

However, the Jeremiah passage both laments the past and gives hope for the future. This hope is rooted in a change that he is preaching about. As he hopes, the law is not going to simply be written on stone or in a rolled up scroll, but on and in their hearts.

If we take this Jeremiah passage as a whole, it is actually good news and is hope filled. He insists that each person is responsible for their own faithfulness; no one can blame their parents, or think that this would excuse them. Sometimes such “sayings” give people the idea, “why bother, I am doomed anyway.” In Jeremiah, what might seem, on the surface, to be harsh, is intended as good news.

 “In those days they shall no longer say:
“The parents have eaten sour grapes,
    and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”
But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of the one who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge.” 

In some ways it seems like a tug of war is going between prophets and streams of thought, with one filling people with nothing but hopelessness and despair and the other with hope.

Jeremiah has been called “the weeping prophet” and this passage helps us to see the heart of the God with almost human emotions whom he serves. As Christians we have become accustomed to the portrayal of God as “father”; even as “daddy” in the same way that young children love and rely on their fathers for love, support and praise, but the image of “husband” is more rare and even less mentioned. Jeremiah does not portray a God who is angry, but as one who is deeply hurt, devastated even by their unfaithfulness. God had put everything into this relationship and walked with Israel, hand in hand, as a young couple would walk together, enjoying one another’s company, but Israel betrayed that trust and had gone its own way. There are fewer than 20 references to God as husband in the Bible, but I actually thought there were fewer than that!

The people have been defeated and their country overrun by a foreign power. In several waves they have been taken into exile and even though they are not suffering from slavery and hard labour, as their ancestors had in Egypt, they are not in their own land and not in charge of their own lives and futures.

Psalm 137 refers to the feelings of the people; hanging up their instruments of praise and descending into despair. You may remember the 1970s hit by British Band, “Boney M”, Rivers of Babylon. I had a cousin who went to England with a friend the summer it came out and she brought the song back with her, before it was a hit in North America. My younger brother told me I was wrong when I said that the song came from the Bible - it was clear to me that it did, AND my certainty is confirmed by a quick internet search! As far as my brother and I go, it was not our last argument! It is a song of longing and lament; life has not turned out like the authors wanted and our enemies are rubbing our noses in our failure.

Yet, not to get too sidetracked by another Psalm, the one read today, speaks of joy, the joy of being immersed in God’s law. In the modern world, when we think of the word law, we tend to think of restrictions and the type of thing we find in the ten commandments, “thou shall not.” We think of the laws by which we live every day, and laws which we break at our peril. Thou shall not go over the speed limit. Thou shall not “forget” to pay for your gas. Thou shall not shoot your neighbour for letting his dog poop on your flowerbeds. The list is endless.

You may remember the 1970s TV game show, “This is the Law” which featured the hapless actor turned criminal, Paul Soles, being arrested for breaking an obscure Canadian law. The assembled panel would have to guess what law was being broken. As a kid I regarded as a comedy because the laws were so obscure. Did you know that a 1958 law allows for the sale of any horses, cattle, swine or sheep who wander away from home, and remain unclaimed, with the proceeds from the sale going to the poor. This is still the law, somewhere in Canada !

Some folks regard the law as unnecessarily restrictive but most of us realize that a world without law ends up in anarchy; our laws are for the purposes of the principle that defines our nation: peace, order and good government.

Within the parameters of the law we are free to live without fear of speeders mowing down pedestrians, or of the “gas and dash” crowd, driving up gas prices to make up for their crimes, or of our lives because our dog does it’s business on the neighbours lawn without penalty - or any number of other infractions for which the wronged party is free to avenge - to use the three examples mentioned earlier.

What restrictions must accompany freedom? When we meditate on it, I hope our restrictions make sense and most laws really should “go without saying.” It is only those studying for their bar exams who really need to know “chapter and verse.”

Of course there is a difference between the civil law that governs our country and the laws of faith and there are some folks who believe that Christians should strictly adhere to biblical laws but when we try to make lists of those we run into trouble. The search is made more difficult by contradictory passages found throughout the bible. It is made more difficult by changes over time between Moses and the later prophets who sought to guide the people and then Jesus and the writings of Paul.

I find it very helpful to look at law as covenant which speaks to me of mutual relationship. Relationships change over time; relationships change the people in them. 21st century Christians are not the same as our ancestors of even a few generations ago.

As a community of faith grows and develops the scientific knowledge that changes how we view the universe, and medicine, and human psychology, and the faith of one influences the other and the community grows in understanding and compassion for one another. John Donne wrote that we are not islands, but we are part of the whole, responsible to the whole and our actions affect the whole and the whole affects us. While we cannot be held responsible for the actions of one, we do know that both good and bad affect the entire community.

As Christians we need to take our faith seriously as we wrestle with the law’s demands on us as individuals and as a community. Let us engage our faith as we seek to determine God’s call to us.

Amen.

Joel 2: 23-32
Psalm 65
Luke 18: 9-14

True Humility

Jesus was a teller of parables. Parables were carefully crafted stories through which he conveyed profound spiritual truths. While they were realistic, and seem to the 21st century reader that they could have happened, they often had a “little twist” which forced people to think, endeared him to many but made others very angry. In addition, many in 1st century Palestine knew, “that would never happen” or maybe “should nev er happen.” I read this sentence somewhere, “Jesus told parables and Jesus was crucified.” This statement implies that there was a direct connection between the two. We are so familiar with Jesus’ parables, we can easily forget that while they looked tame and even simplistic, they were powerful tales of a world turned upside down and inside out. I don’t know, but if Jesus was a hockey fan his parable might have told of Montreal letting the Mighty Ducks win, because they had a soft spot for sunny California or were buddies with someone on the team from their time in the major juniors! Parables revealed the heart of God to those with the ears to hear. Since we were young we were taught the ten commandments and the golden rule and expected to follow them and also the values of honesty and charity, among other things. In a town like Springhill, perhaps the company store was the equivalent of the tax collector. The company store had the miners over a barrel and was were indifferent to their plight. Many songs have been written about this reality of mining life which made a hard life even harder.

Many years ago in one of my congregations there was a grandmother who told stories to her two grandchildren who lived close-by. When either of the children were struggling with their child sized dilemmas she took the child on her knee and told them a story. The girl’s stories were all about “Betsy Bunny” and the main character in the older boy’s stories was Robbie Rabbit.” In this way she passed on wisdom, caring and the certainty that someone older, understood their dilemmas and cared for and supported them.

As I have already said, Jesus was a preacher who told powerful stories that have been called “parables” My biblical dictionary tells me that the word parable is a form of the verb “to be similar” and that parables are really extended metaphors.

The author of this Gospel, known simply as “Luke” tells us that this parable was addressed to “those who regarded themselves as righteous but also looked down on others, with contempt.” Those two characteristics apparently applied to a number of the Pharisees, who were critical of Jesus, but we must remember that it was certainly not all of them.

I read an article online that said the three most important religious practices of 1st Century Judaism were giving, praying and fasting. It seems clear that this pharisee agreed, practised those three and was also intent on reminding God of that faithfulness. “Just in case you didn’t notice God, I follow the important practices. Not like that sinner over there. People like that should not be allowed to come here to pray.”

In essence Pharisees were a political party (in a time when Rome actually did all the ruling) who had a cosy relationship with the Romans so as to not rock the boat, and advocated a rigorous adherence to the law - you had to be very dedicated and have enough money that you did not have to work at menial jobs. The Pharisees criticized by Jesus were either unable or unwilling to see how their social status gave them the advantage of being able to obey specific laws such as the one about washing their hands before they ate. I don’t know enough about coal mines to know if the miners had a way to wash their hands before they opened their lunch box to eat their meals but many labourers in Jesus day would have not been able to so.

While Jesus would have probably agreed that the practices of giving, praying and fasting, were important to faithfulness, in another passage Jesus himself tells people who are fasting not to go out of their way to look like they were, and he assured them that God saw that they were fasting. Apparently, some would don sack-cloth and smear their faces with ashes to show others their sacrifice. By contrast, Jesus said keep your fast to yourself and when you go out, put oil on your head and wash your face - which were part of their daily lives - like men today shower and shave.

In Jesus day, tax collectors were especially hated. They collected taxes for the Roman oppressor, but that was not the worst of it; their income came from the “top up” or “commission” they added to the taxes. Most people could not really afford the tax rate to begin with but most of the tax collectors became wealthy by grossly over-changing their neighbours. Of course, as long as Rome received what they wanted, Rome did not care how much their collectors made in addition.

You might agree that the average person listening to this parable would not have considered either of these two men to be good people, loved and forgiven by God. The Pharisees made their lives miserable by insisting on all sorts of picky rules and the tax collectors were Jews, colluding with the Romans.

But today, Jesus is in the tax collectors corner because this man does not make a big show of his repentance but prays quietly, asking for mercy. He prays over to the side, in the corner, maybe, and perhaps only God can hear what he was saying.

You may remember the tax collector Zacchaeus, who climbed a tree to see Jesus, preaching and encounter with him caused him to make a vow that he would repay a number of times over what he had taken from his neighbours if it was fraudulent. When he met this real person, Jesus did not go into a long tirade about honesty in business and the commandment against stealing but simply invited himself to Zacchaeus’ house and remained open to him and the Holy Spirit did the rest.

Parables are head scratchers and it is often a good thing for those of us who have been in church all our lives to have to think, and even to be shocked as Jesus’ first listeners were. Jesus often landed in hot water because he did not refuse to associate with the wealthy elites and also with those who were not respectable and all the people in-between. The grace God lavishes on us may be far more than we admit.

We can learn from this simple fact. When we put “all welcome” on our church sign let us make sure we really mean it.

Amen.

Habakkuk 1: 1-4, 2: 1-4
Psalm 119: 137-144
Luke 19: 1-10

A Long Journey for A Short Man

Many children have learned to sing this song:

Zacchaeus was a wee, little man,
And a wee, little man was he.
He climbed up in a sycamore tree,
For the Jesus he wanted to see.

And as the Saviour came that way,
He looked up in the tree,

Spoken: And he said,"Zacchaeus, you come down from there!"
	
For I'm going to your house today.
For I'm going to your house today.
	

When I was in New York City a number of years ago my friend and I got off a bus and we knew we had only a short time to get to our theatre before the curtain rose, but the sidewalk was swarming with people who did not seem to be moving at all. I thought we would be late for our show, but my friend grew up in Montreal and she moved through the crowd with great skill and I followed along in her wake; and we did not push anyone over or step on them. Many people who are accustomed to crowds are skilled at moving through them.

In 1984 the pope, John Paul II, visited Halifax as part of a Canadian tour and at a youth rally held in the Halifax Commons, greeted the “young people of Halifax.” Many of us strained to see the stage that had been set up but since the Commons is very flat and I am not tall, I did not see much. I was envying those who were able to look out of the upper story windows of the buildings that line the street surrounding the Commons. His visit also involved a mass, I don’t know if it was open-air or not, and my Catholic classmates, who were seminarians, were given the task of holding his printed liturgy for him. I gather that it’s a common liturgical task in the Catholic Church. The picture was in the AST library for years; it may still be somewhere on Campus!

In 2010 the PEI tourism department paid a small fortune to entice New York talk show hosts, Kelly Rippa and Regis Philbin to broadcast from Charlottetown. My sister and I did not manage to get official tickets so we watched from the sidelines. We actually had the better view because we were on higher ground. Those with tickets sat in folding chairs, in neat rows all on one level. We saw one man move his chair into an aisle but security quickly told him to move his chair back to where it had been. His protest, “but I can’t see.” The reply was, “sorry, that’s what everyone gets. You cant sit in the aisle.”

On the day of the big yearly parade in Charlottetown, the Gold Cup and Saucer, my sister and I often arrive very early and stake out a place of prime real estate along the sidewalk of the parade route and set up our lawn chairs so we have front row seats. Several friends ask her to save seats for them and they come along fairly early too! We don’t really care who is standing behind us; they don’t block our view!

Apparently great crowds followed Jesus wherever her went, but the city had no one appointed for crowd control! On the day in question in the Gospel story, Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector of that region was intent on seeing Jesus but he, Zacchaeus that is, was short and he could not see over the heads of the others. So he took matters in his own hands and climbed a tree so that he could see. The internet tells me that the tree just after the Benediction in your bulletin is a sycamore! It’s a good thing for Zacchaeus that such a tree was on Jesus’ route. Some trees are harder to climb than most.

Maybe you remember the scene from the Sound of Music where Captain VonTrapp, Herr Detweiler and the Baroness von Schraeder are driving back through Salzburg on the way home from Vienna and see a group of children swinging from trees and obviously having a great time. When asked about them, Captain vonTrapp passes them off as, “local urchins.” The trees lining the street, were, no doubt, good for climbing!

As the Gospel story goes, Jesus sees him and being Jesus, knows his name. We assume that Jesus knows what his occupation is and he tells Zacchaeus that he wants tom come to stay at his house. The granting of hospitality was considered a sacred duty, but the fact that Jesus, a holy man, was consorting with such a despicable man shocked many people.

Jesus was in a difficult place. The crowd would not have wanted him associating with those they considered traitors and thieves and many of the Scribes, Pharisees, and other upstanding citizens would not have wanted him associating with such “low-life” as tax collectors.

The gospels frequently tell the reader that Jesus seeks people out and during those conversations the people he encounters are changed by the work of the Spirit. Many of these folks are given the desire to change and embrace the kind of justice Jesus had spoken of. It seems that Jesus teachings had already rubbed off on Zacchaeus because, even before they left togather, Zacchaeus was vowing to make restitution for his greed.

I once knew a minister from another denomination who would call a parishioner and order a pie for pickup sometime that day. It was a bold and entitled practice. The fact that I knew about it showed that several people in his church thought it was inappropriate. No one wanted to say no to the Pastor so they got out their rolling pins!

In the gospels it seems that Jesus was known for asking for hospitality, but he was not ordering a take-out like my former colleague, he was setting up an opportunity for deep spiritual conversation. With no fixed address, always being on the move and having no cell-phones, what else could he do?

I spoke about tax-collectors last week and how hated they were because they almost always charged so much “commission” that they lived very well while their neighbours were always scraping the bottom of the barrel. Zacchaeus was the chief tax-collector, so perhaps the rest of them worked under him, and he got a commission as well. He would have been reviled along with all the people who worked under him; they preyed on the average people who were very poor, became rich doing it and to top it all off worked for the hated Romans. Jesus people would have self identified as a people who were supposed to have their own country and their own king. After the bad experience with Saul, the great King David ruled and made their nation great. He was the measuring against which all future leaders would be measured. However the empires of the world, Babylon, Persia and finally Rome were territory hungry and wanted their small nation, its resources and control of its strategic location. Now all of their wealth flowed to Rome!

I heard on the radio the other day that an audit has been done OF the Canada Revenue Agency call centres. Ironically, the CRA is usually the one doing the audits. In this case the tables were turned and it was discovered that callers, Canadian taxpayers, are too often given incorrect information. We know that amounts owing, even when the mistake is a result of incorrect advice, when caught, still have to be paid and interest will be charged. We are not happy about this news. I guess being wary of tax collectors is a universal sentiment, even in a modern democracy.

In Jesus day religious leaders were not supposed to associate with questionable people and certainly not eat with them. To eat with someone implied that they were considered equals, that you agreed with their life choices.

Jesus, on the other hand, likened it to a doctor, treating the sick and not those who were well. Sometimes those who think they were well have to be convinced there is something wrong with them in order for them to listen to a doctor.

A simple example: A friend of mine is wondering how to get her pre-schooler to wear his new glasses; he does not yet have the language skills to be convinced that wearing them makes him see better and improve his life. Small children often don’t like taking medicine, particularly if it has a bad taste. Some conditions are treatable but the side effects of the medication make it hard to stay with the treatment program.

Hardness of heart, seems to be the thing for which Jesus has the most impatience. Judging someone because of outward experiences or occupation was something he spoke against. There is an expression which is, I believe, supposed to come from first-nations culture and it is about not having an opinion about someone else until you have walked a mile in their moccasins.

Jesus calls us to see those in need with understanding and the love of God. God calls us to give to that person the same love we expect or even more.

When it comes to being critical of those who welcome the Zacchaeuses of the world, we need to be careful lest we find that we have come up short!

Amen.

Haggai 1: 15b -2:9
Psalm 98
Luke 20: 27-38

Are We Asking the Wrong Question?

The game Trivial Pursuit became very popular about the time I started university. I played it so much that I became very good at it. mostly because the same questions tended to come up over and over again and I learned a deal of practically useless trivia. If you did not know the answer, there was no penalty for making something up, no matter how ludicrous This often resulted in a laugh. I was playing with my cousin one day and the question that was picked out of the box for me was, “Who is the Prime Minister?” My answer was, “Joe Who.” (If you recall, the Rt Hon. Joe Clark, was often referred to in that way during his time in office. We had a good chuckle and she deemed the answer to be correct! When the game was finished, we put the cards back in the boxes for the next game. If I didn’t know previously, who discovered insulin or penicillin, I remembered it from the last game. Even though the question you are asked depends on the roll of the dice, the game also involves both strategy and a small amount of choice. The only colour of questions I avoided were the pink ones: arts and entertainment, I believe. The game was so successful commercially that a number of editions were produced and at one time I think I had 3 or 4 different editions- only the latest ended up in the van this summer: Millenium Edition.

Now, it’s your turn to answer a couple of questions: feel free to call out the answer. Don’t be shy!

You may have heard about the large jet that crashed on the border with the United States - just south of Estevan, exactly at the place where Montana, North Dakota and Saskatchewan meet. Most of the passengers were from various countries in Europe. Where were the survivors buried?

Next one. You all went to Sunday school. How many animals of each kind did Moses take into the ark with him?

Maybe I tricked you, maybe I didn’t, but the first question included a number of details that were totally irrelevant to the reality that they don’t bury survivors.

The Gospel story for today involves Jesus’ encounter with a group of Sadducees who ask him a question meant to show how foolish it was to believe in life after death. There are two things you need to know about this encounter.

One

Historically, a belief in life after death did not develop in Israel until much later in their lives as a people of faith. The early Hebrews believed that a man lived through his sons, who carried on the family name and his “flesh,” or what we might refer to as DNA.

The second thing

The Sadducees decided to overlap this practice with the idea of “heaven” and take it to extremes. It sounded like some modern teenager trying to provoke an argument. One of them asked, “hey Jesus if this happened 6 times, whose husband would she be, in the life of the resurrection?”

Even though their question was not in the spirit of genuine inquiry, Jesus answers them sincerely. While the Sadducees question was a trap, Jesus took it as an honest question and as an opportunity to teach something; as they say this was “not Jesus’ first rodeo”, He refers to passages that they see as scripture, so they have to take what he says seriously.

Basically, he asks them to consider that when God spoke of the great patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the Torah, he spoke of them in the present tense. God said, “I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” If you didn’t catch that implication, God spoke of them as if these ancestors were still alive.

Jesus then goes on to say that life in the resurrection will not have marriage and procreation since there is no need to carry on a family name, since all people who once lived, are still alive. There will be no need to care for widows which, as I said was part of the purpose of this practice.

You may remember the story of the widow Ruth who went back to Israel with her mother-in-law and marries Boaz a relative of her dead husband. The man who was actually a closer relative had to relinquish his right to take her as his wife. Its an interesting story; it’s in the book of Ruth - between Judges and 1 Samuel.

The following story was presented to me as true. I was listening to a presentation on grief work with children. A student in an elementary school had died and the school board called in a counsellor to talk to his classmates. The situation was explained, including the basic details about the funeral and burial. There were a lot of questions - but the counsellor noticed that one boy looked like he had a question but was reluctant to ask.

She assured him that there were no bad questions and he could ask about anything, so finally he asked, “if he is locked up in that box, how does he get out to go to the bathroom?” Once the counsellor explained that dead people don’t ever have to go to the bathroom again, he was fine - he did not have to worry any more about his friend.

That question might seem to be amusing to us as adults, and be the furthest from our adult minds, but for a child that makes perfect sense - being locked in a place with no bathroom would have been a big problem. After all, what does almost every parent ask a child before a car trip, “Do you need to go to the bathroom?” The two most frequent comments from a child on a car trip are, “Are we there yet?” and “I gotta pee.”

Adults have other questions. One of the biggest decisions for those twice married is “where to be buried” - beside spouse number 1 or spouse number 2? These days there are a number of options: cremation or traditional burial? Traditional funeral or another form of celebration of life, or nothing at all?

I think of the “All in the Family” tv series in which Archie and Meathead have animated discussions about religious topics. Even if Michael asks a genuine question from his perspective as an atheist, Archie cannot grasp the implications and he parrots traditional theology without ever actually thinking about it.

Our culture has a lot of non-biblical ideas about heaven; for example streets paved with gold and Peter as the keeper of the pearly gates, as if heaven was a private estate or a military base, guarded 24/7. While these is some mention in the Bible of “the book of life” the idea of God “making a list and checking it “ has more to do with Santa Claus than it does with eternal salvation. While our cities do not have “gates,” the cities of the ancient world were protected by walls with gates that could be closed if invasion was feared. Perhaps, these days you would have Peter acting as a customs agent. “What country are you from? Can I see your church membership card?

You probably all know the expression, “you can’t take it with you,” or “have you ever heard of a hearse pulling a u-haul?” I heard a joke about a rich guy who made a deal with God that he could take one suitcase with him into heaven. He liquidated enough of his assets to fill a suitcase with as much gold as he could carry. Upon his death, he arrived at the heavenly gates and St Peter asked him if he had anything to declare; he showed Peter the contents of his suitcase. Peter’s response was, “Great, you’ve brought more pavement.”

The title of my sermon today is about asking the right question. This passage is not designed to answer specific honest questions people have about life after death. It is designed to show a particular dispute during Jesus’ lifetime.

As you can expect, I deal with this kind of question all the time and, I find that most people who believe in life after death are certain that couples and families will be together and recognize one another. Jesus’ response to the Sadducees challenges all of us to think outside the box. According to Jesus, the need for marriage and family and community will not exist in the resurrection. This life will have served it’s purpose. In the end Jesus asks his listeners and later his readers to trust in God. This is the God who has led their Jewish ancestors over the generations, the God of Jesus and the early church, the god of Life. This si the God of all nations who will care for us without favouritism.

Some people have a higher capacity for trust than others. When some go on a trip they don’t book a single hotel while others have to also know where the gas stations and restaurants are. My trip east in July was well enough planned that I had the hotels booked but one wrong turn meant on the second day meant that we ALMOST ran out of gas somewhere around The Pas. We were to gas up more frequently after that.

Jesus reference to the leaders of old, reminds us that Abraham left home and family and tribe and journeyed into a future that was unknown. Moses led the people out of Egypt and ended up spending the rest of his life just outside of the land of promise. These people, their sons and their wives are the people who are held up as guides and inspiration.

These stories remind us to journey in faith, without solid answers to our questions - trusting in the God of life to be with us always.

Amen.