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November 11, 2007
Scripture: Luke 20: 27-38
Title: “Children of the Resurrection”

One of the last things that I had to do before I was graduated seminary was to defend my Senior Symposium paper. The final paper. The last assignment that stood between my life as a seminary student and my life as seminary graduate. This last paper was our opportunity as seminary students to take all that we had learned over our years of learning in the class, of working in student churches and funnel it down to one 20-30 page paper. Seems pretty easy, right?

This paper is the paper of your seminary career as a Master of Divinity Student. In this paper, you are supposed to answer the Big questions: Who is God? Who is Jesus Christ? What is the role of the church? And by what authority do you claim to support all of your answers: Biblical, Reason, Experience or Tradition.

Really easy questions.

And after months and months of preparing, of editing, and re-writing this paper, the time comes for you to defend your paper, your personal theology. After months of struggling, after months of agonizing over your paper, the time comes for you to defend it to the faculty.

I remember walking into the room and taking a seat. Two of my favorite professors are sitting across the table from me and as soon as I sat down, they began to flip through the pages, making some notes. While I sat there, thinking, well, this is it. I just knew they were going to say to me: Heather, I’m sorry, but you missed the whole point. Go back to start. Do not pass Go. Do not collect your money. You’ve failed.”

As I sat there, watching my professors flip through the pages, I just know the big questions would be coming up and I had to be ready to answer them. I had to be ready to defend my answers and give support for my answers. I had to be ready to discuss my personal theology and to articulate my faith.

And finally the first question came:….

As I look back on that moment in my life, I am not sure what the questions were or what my answers were to their questions. Apparently I gave answers that satisfied my professors because I am standing before you as a graduate of that seminary.

As I look back on that moment, I realize that it was a defining moment for me as someone who accepted the call to teach the Gospel message. It was in that moment that I articulated my faith. It was in that moment that I articulated the core values of what the Gospel means to me as a person of faith. It was in that moment that I was able to take all the teaching from my classes, take all my field work, take all my readings from classes and say what was the heart of the Gospel message was for me as a person of faith. I was able to engage in a genuine conversation about my faith. I was able to fully claim my calling as a Child of the resurrection, as one who was learning, sharing, and was living her faith in the living God.

And that is exactly what Jesus is doing in our passage today. Jesus wants to have a genuine conversation about faith with the people that he meets. He wants everyone to embrace their calling as children of the resurrection, as ones who are constantly learning, sharing and living their faith in the living God.

He has continued his ministry of teaching and healing while in Jerusalem in hopes of achieving this goal. But there are questions. There are worries from the higher ups! And the time comes for Jesus to accept one last assignment before fulfilling his role as the Son of God.

So he goes to the Temple in Jerusalem to have a genuine conversation of faith and in a sense, to defend his final paper before he graduates. He wants to engage them as children of the resurrection. He wants to take all that he has taught and shared with the people and engage them in conversation about their faith. He wants them to learn, to share, and live out their faith as children of the resurrection.

He walks into the Temple and there are the Pharisees. He has already had a few run ins with them. He wonders if they will be open to having a real conversation with him today. He looks around the room and he sees the Sadducees. This is his first meeting with them and he wonders what sort of questions they were going to throw his way, or would they share their real questions of faith with him. He pulls up his seat and waits. He watches the Pharisees and the Sadducees flip through some papers and begin making some notes.

And the questions begin. Not the questions that Jesus hoped they would ask. Not the questions that would deepen the conversation. Not questions from people who really want to deepen their faith. No, they asked the questions that they thought that they already knew the answer to. They ask questions to confirm their faith. “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally, the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”

Jesus pauses for a moment, thinking to himself: “What kind of question is that? This question has nothing do with God or with the purpose of the church. What does this have to do with the coming of God’s kingdom? In that one question, Jesus knows that they don’t want to engage in a genuine conversation of faith. Jesus knows that they could care less what he was saying as long as what he says fits into their way of thinking.

So Jesus gives them his answer and not the one that they were looking for. He talks about marriage being of this age. He talks about angels. He talks about God being the God of the living, all in the hopes that maybe, just maybe the seeds of a genuine conversation about faith may be planted. That they may want to learn, to share, to live out their faith as children of the resurrection, as children who worship the God of the living.

But the answer is no. After Jesus finishes his answer, there is a pause. And the moment for a genuine conversation about faith is lost. There is no hope of sharing. There is no hope of engaging in a discussion that will strengthen their faith. They have closed off their minds and their hearts to the living God. The moment is gone.

Through his answer, Jesus is trying to engage the Sadducees in a real conversation. Jesus is trying to invite them to see beyond what they think they already know and believe. Jesus is wanting them to quit wasting time on playing word games and to see the Son of God right there in front of them. He wants their real questions about their faith.

And they had no more questions for him.

And now it is our turn. It is our turn to ask our questions. Jesus is ready for our questions and he wants us to think long and hard about the questions we are going to ask.

Will we only ask the questions that are safe, that we already know the answers, that allow us to stay in our comfort zones? Or are we going to ask the questions that invite us to grow in our relationship with Jesus? Will we ask the questions that open our hearts and our minds to where God is really calling to go and who God is calling us to be? Will we ask our genuine questions of faith?

For we know that in the stories about Jesus, when genuine people came with genuine questions to Jesus, Jesus often [didn’t] say anything. What he did was rather touch their lives. What he did was encounter them and relate to them. Jesus invited them to journey with him on the way, to deepen their relationship with God, to be with the living God each and every day of their lives.

This is a defining moment for us as people who have accepted the call to teach the Good news. This is a moment where we can name the core values for us as people of faith. This is the moment where we can engage in a genuine conversation about our faith.

Jesus is ready. What questions will you ask?

May we ask the questions that strengthen our faith in the God of the living as children of the resurrection. Amen.

Rev. Heather McColl
Midway Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

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