Living Faith, November 11, 2007

Haggai 1:15-2:9
Luke 20: 27-38
This morning's pasages call us to question and discern what do we believe about life and death, what is important, and what is real. Not simply to accept a philosophy, to claim membership, but rather to live our lives differently because of who we are and what we believe.

Dan Wlliams was a member of this church, sang in the choir, was an elected, ordained, installed Elder, who served on the Organ Task Force ad came to Bible Study, who now travels extensively for work. He stopped in a week ago, wanting to know what was new and what was going on.
It took about 2 minutes to review that the Organ was built, all Debt from all the Campaigns has been repaid, and the Cinic not only was built, but built by volunteers from this church and now staffed and operational for 6 months; at which point we paused and said “The rest of this is not something the Session or I or the Church can claim any responsibility for, only that we have been blessed to be a part of... but folks with Cancer are prayed for and listened to and SURVIVING. A Baby born with a serious problem with her heart has had the doctors and nurses and medical care and prayer to HEAL. No one of us made these things go away, or disappear, the lives of each and of all of us have been changed.” And he said, “The church is not just talking about faith any more, not simply teaching it, or believing in it, you are LIVING FAITH.”

As Children of the Enlightenment, product of times, we know two realities, SURVIVAL & FACT
A Living Faith calls us to go beyond Survival at life, beyond what we know and can prove exists; to what gives life meaning, what beliefs can change lives?

From the time of Moses' Brother Aaron forming the Golden Calf, through the Early Monarchy of Kings David and Solomon, there was a constant tension between RELIGION & FAITH.

Aaron gave the people the Idol they wanted to worship a GOD of Gold made by Human Hands. Moses brought the people the 10 Comandments not as Tablets to worship, not as possessing some Indiana Jones type of mysticism or magic, but as a different way of life, Covenant Commitments of who we would be to God and one another.
The Prophet Nathan challenged King David he could not build a SANCTUARY to contain God, but instead God would build out of David a house and lineage and monarchy.
All of the Old Testament Prophets: Elijah and Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos agonize and struggle with the people to NOT simply go through the motions of WORSHIP, but to live the Covenant and believe.

The nation did not understand, could only comprehend SURVIVAL (working at our jobs, caring for our family, making ends meet and getting by from day to day) or LAWS as dictated by the King (We will have a feast, we will pay taxes, make an offering, go to war). Believing in Nothing, having no real Covenant, the people were carried off destroyed.
70 YEARS went by, and the people were allowed to return, finding everything in ruins.
THE PROPHET HAGGAI calls the Nation, NOT simply to SURVIVE, NOT to see with their Eyes, but to REBUILD their Covenant Commitment to God.
HAGGAI preached in a time of devastation when the people literally were trying to SURVIVE and HAGGAI challenged them to question their COMMITMENT TO THE COVENANT w/God.

Like the Old Testament People, we have tendency to hear
the story of ADAM = eating the APPLE from the TREE OF KNOWLEDGE,
instead the Covenant is about TRUSTING and OBEYING GOD.
We hear about NOAH and think that THE COVENANT is about RAINBOW, when it is promise
God will never again destroy life and we will be stewards of God's Creation.
We hear the story of ABRAHAM, the covenant becomes CIRCUMCISION/KOSHER FOODS,
when the COVENANT was to BE HOLY, To be Different, To be Set Apart for God.
Living in COVENANT COMMITMENT is not simply going through the motions, doing what we are supposed to do, or avoiding what we should not touch... COVENANT be it BAPTISM, or MARRIAGE, ORDINATION, or any of these NAMED, is a CONSTANTLY CHANGING IDENTITY and RELATIONSHIP, To LIVE FAITH, No Matter What!

My PARENTS are aging, none too gracefully, do we abandon the relationship because Dad NO LONGER pays my allowance? Or because they now need us more than we need them to do for us?
When your spouse has CANCER, and they have to have a hystrectomy, or their prostate removed, or their hair falls out, do they need you any less? When one is crisis, does the other love them any less? Should we, can we stop loving them? Lunacy!

Recently, an old friend stopped by. When we first became friends as married ministers, the four of us would share dinner, play bridge, share vacations and projects. In the intervening decade, they had gotten divorced and remarried others. We had maintained contact, though not seen eachother in fifteen years. He said, DIVORCE is something people don't know how to deal with, there is a sense of brokenness, violation, and you are left isolated and alone, as if because you are no longer part of that relationship you cannot be part of any of the relationships you had had. BUT Instead, you never gave up on me, on our trust and relationship though our CIRCUMSTANCES CHANGED.

That was the critical piece of Jesus' response to the SADUCEES. The Epytians, Greeks and Romans had all developed PHILOSOPHIES about the IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL as a DOCTRINE OF HUMAN NATURE THAT DENIED THE REALITY OF DEATH. Mummification and pyramids, Grecco-Roman understandings of Heaven and Hell, were all developed around the SOUL'S CONTINUATION UNCHANGED after Death.

We need to realize that Judaism in that time and today, and Islam, are as diverse as Christian denominations. The Saducees were the Educated Ruling Class. While the Rabbis and Pharisees accepted as a whole the Old Testament as Scripture, the Saducees accepted the Pentateuach, but not all the Prophets and Writings and Oral Tradition of Rabbis. The Saducees knew that there was life and death, and because one could not prove life after death or the immortality of the soul, they believed faith was PHILOSOPHICAL, that after death there was nothing, and they bated Jesus and others about Resurrection and Immortality.

One of the Laws of Moses, recorded in the book of Leviticus deals with the care of widows and perpetuation of inheritance to future generations after death. SO, if a man is married, and they have no child, and he dies, his next of kin was responsible to marry her and provide children through her to continue the lineage for the man who had died.

Jesus response is that the question is not about the IMMORTALITY OF THE PERSON or SOUL, but INSTEAD about the Eternal Covenant Commitment of God, and the power of God that EVEN THOUGH WE DIE, God could resurrect the dead. Marriage and Inheritance are necessary for this mortal life, because as human creatures we do have children and assets, and we do die. BUT RESURRECTION is not about the dead coming back to life, or continuing on the same or as something reincarnated different.

First, and foremost, GOD'S DESIRE according to Genesis has always been that we would LIVE IN TRUST, IN FULL COMMUNION WITH GOD & ONE ANOTHER.
Resurrection then is Answer to the COVENANT of ADAM, that for their sin, for the betrayal of the trust of Adam and Eve, there is DEATH. If God suddenly made humanity immortal, that first COVENANT would be invalidated, and if that one, then all the rest.
INSTEAD for having Maintained COVENANT COMMITMENT through Death JESUS WAS RESURRECTED BY GOD making possible the choice of FREE WILL anew. Do we sin and break trusts, like Adam, believing nothing but ourselves, and Die?
OR, knowing that we do sin and trying to follow the example of Jesus, do we HOPE for resurrection?

But Second, the Gods of Egypt, of Babylon, of the Greeks and Romans, had all been NATIONALISTIC GODS. If this had been our hope, then it would be in the IMMORTALITY OF THE NATION, the Empire. HOWEVER,The Saducees themselves, describe God, as being the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of Moses, so clearly God CARES about COVENANT Relationship with individual persons. If individuals, we, each of us matter to God, as described elsewhere “YOU ARE PRECIOUS UNTO GOD”, then our hope is in GOD, not in ourselves.