Rev. Woo Jae Im, wife Kyeong-Mee Oh, and son SangHyeok Im
Sermon: "God of the Living" by Rev. Dr. Woojae
Im
Text: Haggai 1:15-2:9; Luke 20:27-38
Date: November 11, 2007
When John Owen, the great Puritan pastor and teacher
lay dying, he was
dictating some last letters to friends. He said to his secretary:
"Write, I am still in the land of the living." Then he stopped and said: "No, change that to read - I am still in the land of those who die, but I hope soon to be in the land of the living."
Today's reading about Jesus and the Sadducees also deals
with how an understanding of the future can affect our lives here and now.
The Sadducees were religious conservatives who did not accept the "innovations"
brought into Jewish theology following the exile in Babylon. They held to
the belief that the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament attributed
to Moses) was the sufficient core for theology, and that anything not established
in Torah was not to be taught as doctrine. Among the "innovations"
they rejected was the resurrection of the dead.
Jesus was not a Sadducee. His theology appears to have been much closer
to that of the Pharisees on many issues, including the resurrection of the
dead. The Sadducees' strategy in this encounter with Jesus was to try to
show the absurdity of his belief and teaching about resurrection. They do
so by offering the strange story of a woman who married seven brothers,
all of whom died, and asking whose wife she will be in the resurrection.
Jesus demolishes their logic on two levels: Their understanding
of marriage and their understanding of God. Marriage, Jesus argues, is a
phenomenon that makes sense in this age only. It is not an eternal bond.
Jesus states that human relations will be totally transformed into new ones
at the resurrection. So, the question that Sadducees cast "whose wife
she will be" is simply nonsense.
And if the same God who in the Torah is described as the God of the living
is also the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (as God frequently says in self-description!),
then Abraham, Isaac and Jacob must, logically, be alive. Since they had
all died, it follows that for them to be alive to the God of the Living,
they must have been in some way raised from the dead. Jesus gave the Sadducees
a proof of resurrection from Torah relating to the founders of the faith
that caught them by surprise, may have convinced a few of them, but generally
left them unwilling to ask any more questions. Jesus' response is to turn
the issue around. The Sadducees have been evaluating eternal life on the
basis of earthly life. He tells them that all those social and legal and
relational arrangements which can be so good and necessary and wonderful
here, remain here.
There is An Italian legend about a master and servant. It seems the servant
was not very smart and the master used to get very exasperated with him.
Finally, one day, in a fit of temper, the master said: "You really
are the stupidest man I know. Here, I want you to carry this staff wherever
you go. And if you ever meet a person stupider than yourself, give them
this staff."
So time went by, and often in the marketplace the servant would encounter some pretty stupid people, but he never found someone appropriate for the staff. Years later, he returned to his master's home. He was shown into his master's bedroom, for the man was quite sick and in bed. In the course of their conversation the master said: "I'm going on a journey soon."
"When will you return?", asked the servant. "This is a journey from which I will not return." the master replied, The servant asked: "Have you made all the necessary arrangements?"
"No, I guess I have not." "Well, could you have made all the arrangements?" "Oh yes, I guess I've had time. I've had all my life. But I've been busy with other things."
The servant said: "Let me be sure about this. You're
going on a journey, from which you will never return, and you've had all
your life to make the arrangements, but you haven't."
The master said: "Yes, I guess that's right." The servant replied:
"Master, take this staff. For at last I have truly found a man stupider
than myself."
The Attitudes and philosophies of who doesn't believe
there is tomorrow will live so differently from those of who surely believe
there is something to prepare for tomorrow. We as a community of faith are
people who live today with a hope and vision from tomorrow. When eternity
becomes what we really matters, today's sorrow, loss, anger, and hopelessness,
or ambitions or great success will pass by.
Our life rooted in the firm foundation of eternity won't be conditioned
by temporal glory or suffering.
Those who set their heart in the eternal life may forgive those who harm
themselves because they see God's acceptance beyond today's resentment.
Those who lose their beloved ones but know their undiminished presence in
Jesus will let go of their grief. We as people of Easter will see comfort
in the midst of grief, reconciliation in fight, blessings in sufferings
because we glimpse something transcendent beyond today's reality.
Jesus declares that God is not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive. To Martha, weeping for her brother, Jesus said "I am the resurrection and the life." To Mary, weeping outside the tomb on Easter Sunday an angel appeared and said, "why are you looking for Jesus from the dead?'
To God all of are alive. Are you people of today or tomorrow? Live up eternity Today.
If you would like to know more about the Kingdom of God or what it means to be a Christian please give us a call at (320) 982-6325. Or you can E-mail us at: milacaumc@milaca.net
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