Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time. Year C 6th November 2022
Lectionary Readings:
Job 19 v23-27a; Psalm 17 v1-9; 2 Thessalonians 2 v1-5, 13-17; Luke 20 v27-38.
Life in the Kingdom of God.
The Sadducees did not believe that people would rise to life after death. So some of them came to Jesus and said…(Luke 20 v27)
Luke goes on to recall a testing question posed by some Sadducees, (a sect of the Jews), a question based on their interpretation of the ‘Law of Moses’.
Jesus answered, “The people in this world get married. But in the future world no one who is worthy to rise from death will either marry or die. They will be like angels and will be God’s children, because they have been raised to life. In the story of the burning bush, Moses clearly shows that people will live again. He said. “The Lord is the God worshipped by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”. So the Lord isn’t the God of the dead, but of the living. This means that everyone is alive as far as God is concerned.” (Luke 20 v34-38).
Jesus, not for the first time, challenges the thinking of his questioners. Jesus uses the ‘burning bush’ tale of Moses’ encounter with God as a ‘proof text’ for his own interpretation of the scriptures. I doubt whether the writer (of Exodus 3 verse 6) ever intended the verse to be used as proof of who might end up in God’s eternal kingdom. I think he was simply suggesting that the person speaking from the bush was the one true God, the same one the ancestors of Moses had worshipped.
We know from stories in the Old Testament that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were men of faith, but not perfect human beings, yet Jesus suggests that they are ‘children of God’, alive and well, living as ‘citizens of God’s kingdom’. Jesus reinforces this point be saying, “This means that everyone is alive as far as God is concerned.” (Luke 20 v38). Hope for us all!
Job was falsely accused by his friends of not really knowing God. Job argues that God is faithful at all times. Job says, “I know that my Saviour lives and at the end he will stand on this earth. Yes, I will see him for myself and I long for that moment.” (Job 19 v25, 27).
“Only you (God) can say that I am innocent, because only your eyes can see the truth.” (Psalm 17 v2).
God knows that Job is innocent. (see Job 1 v8). Job knows that regardless of the circumstances he has found himself in, the bond of love between God and himself will not be broken in this world or the next.
The writer of the second letter to the Thessalonians, by way of encouraging the faithful, says,
“God our Father loves us. He is kind and has given us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope.”
(2 Thessalonians 2 v16a).
Hymn writer, Charles Wesley, invites us to join him in praising God;
(Singing the Faith No 5 v1).
Father, in whom we live, in whom we are and move,
glory and power and praise receive of thy creating love.
Let all the angel throng give thanks to God on high;
while earth repeats the joyful song and echoes to the sky.
Bible quotations are taken from the Contemporary English version.