God's Last Words

“DRESSED UP WITH NO PLACE TO GO”
Luke 20: 27-38

A woman died and ascended into heaven. As she walked to the pearly gates of heaven, she saw St. Peter at the gate. St. Peter asked her what her religious affiliation was. She answered "None.” So St. Peter didn’t know where to put her.

St. Peter took her to the different religions rooms, to let her get a peek and choose.

First he opened the door where the Baptists were. They were all eating and drinking and having a great time! Then St. Peter took her to the Methodists and they were dancing and having a good time! He then took her to the room where the Catholics were. They were just sitting around twiddling their thumbs!

So she turns to St. Peter with a puzzled look. He tells her that the Catholics were all partied out because they could do everything they had wanted to do on earth.

I have a lot of training and experience in the doctrine and policies of the church. I will admit that I am considered somewhat of an “expert” on the Reformed Church doctrines and policies from 1700 to about 1875.

The average person in the pew would be surprised at how much the church has argued the finer points of “how many angels can stand on the edge of a pin,” “are there rocks too big for God to lift,” or even “what God knows and when did He know it?”

Very few of the doctrines and policies of the church are biblical, but rather center on human interpretation of scriptures. Regardless of what you might think there are no actual “user’s guide” or “Bible for Dummies” written by the Holy Spirit!

That’s why the catholic church didn’t let lay people read Bibles or talk theology and why the oral tradition of the Jewish Rabbis became important. It supposedly cut down on false doctrines and ideas. But it actually ended up suppressing biblical truth.

 I feel the biggest issue has always been what the church’s role is in an individual’s salvation. Most church doctrines and traditions fight for and against this notion.

Most of the time various points are often the result of what’s called “cherry-picking,” or taking an obvious meaning of one passage and assuming that it trumps all other references to it.

That’s how we get specialty Bibles like “the feminist’s Bible,” “the Queer Bible,”

among at least 25 others catering to a specific viewpoint. It’s not surprising that successive societies thru history often seek to reinterpret the Bible in lieu of their own truth.

The hottest thing in today’s scholastic circles concerns those people who receive the “mark of the beast.” Two well know Bible scholars and a National Christian group are now claiming you can take this mark and not be rejected by Jesus at the last judgment. The answer to this issue is easily found in Revelation 19 and 20 but the debate rages on.

The debates over doctrine and policy continue primarily because without such

squabbles there would be a lot fewer denominations, religious sects, and churches out there. We also wouldn’t have the history of religious warfare we do.

Most people don’t know that the founder of the Reformed Church, Ulrich Zwingli,

died in battle over religious freedom. He was called a “warrior Monk.”

As I learn more about Biblical things I see things simplify before me. There are the essential things Jesus taught and the rest are fun discussions that pass the time.

Throughout human history church ritual and doctrine have been manipulated to achieve political, personal, and physical power over individuals and communities as if they were items on a buffet.

Listen to our scripture lesson for today from Luke 20: 27-38:

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him ²⁸and asked him a question, “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.

²⁹Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; ³⁰then the second ³¹and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. ³²Finally the woman also died.

³³In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”

³⁴Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; ³⁵but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.

³⁶Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.

³⁷And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. ³⁸Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”

A priest, a Pentecostal preacher and a rabbi all served as chaplains to the students at a Midwest University. They would get together two or three times a week for coffee and talk shop.

One day, someone made the comment that preaching to people isn't really that hard. A real challenge would be to preach to a bear. One thing led to another, and they decided to do a seven-day experiment. They would all go out into the woods, find a bear and preach to it.

Seven days later, they meet to discuss the experience.

Father O' Flannery, who has his arm in a sling, is on crutches, and has various bandages, goes first. "Wellll," he says, in a fine Irish brouge, "Eywintoot into th' wooods to fynd me a bearr. Oond when Ey fund him Ey began to rread to him from the Baltimorre Catechism. Welll, thet bearr wanted naught to do wi' me und begun to slap me aboot. So I quick grrabbed me holy water and, THE SAINTS BE PRAISED, he became as gentle as a lamb. The bishop is coming oot next wik to give him fierst communion und confierrmation."

Reverend Billy Bob spoke next. He was in a wheelchair, with an arm and both legs in casts, and an IV drip. In his best fire and brimstone oratory he proclaimed, "WELL, brothers, you KNOW that we don't sprinkle...WE DUNK! I went out and I FOUND me a bear. And then I began to read to him from God's HOOOOLY WORD! But that bear wanted nothing to do with me. I SAY NO! He wanted NOTHING to do with me.

So I took HOOOLD of him and we began to rassle. We rassled down one hill, UP another and DOWN another until we come to a crick. So I quick DUNK him and BAPTIZE his hairy soul. An' jus like you sez, he wuz gentle as a lamb. We spent the rest of the week in fellowship, feasting on God's HOOOOLY word."

They both look down at the rabbi, who was lying in a hospital bed. He was in a body cast and traction with IV's and monitors running in and out of him.

The rabbi looks up and says, "Oy! You don't know what tough is until you try to circumcise one of those creatures."

The problem with this story is that every point is made from the reference point of the minister, church, and/or religious group and not the bear and God, who should be the most important part. Our church and faith is here to help others get close to God, not a point of view or religious tradition.

Now that I have your attention let me cut to the meat of this passage with a question: “What is the distinguishing trait of a Unitarian funeral? Answer: The guest of honor is all dressed up with nowhere to go.”

Friends you can water down beliefs and argue ideas down to the point where nothing means anything anymore. It gets to the point that upholding the tradition and/or actions of the ancestors is more important that the meaning behind them.

That’s what happened to the Jewish faith, and it’s the reason why people like Zwingli rejected the catholic church.

Jesus’ answer to the Sadducees got to the heart of the matter. Men can debate all they want but in the end God has the absolute authority over death and eternal life. It is Him who decides and sets the standards.

Regardless if we are living on earth or in heaven God is God. He is God of the living and He will reign forever. It is His rules we follow.

We can’t always assume that human experience helps us know God fully or explains all His actions. Some are mysterious and will only be known when we all get to Heaven. I’m good with that!

Amen.