Homily for November 11

The Resurrection of the Dead - Signorelli (click on image to enlarge)

Homily for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14
2 Thessalonians 2:16—3:5
Luke 20:27-38

The Sadducees and the Pharisees,
two leading religious political parties at the time of Jesus,
disagreed about resurrection, whether or not there is a life after death.
The Pharisees believed in an afterlife, the Sadducees did not.

I presume all of you are Pharisees
since every week I hear you say, in the Creed,
We look for the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come.In fact, right after that you add an Amen!

When I was a child I was quite sure that there was a life after death
- and a heaven – at least in large measure
because I was sure there was a hell
and I was equally sure about where I wanted to end up!
But I was a child then and although it wasn’t all that long ago,
those were simpler times.
How about today? How about us?
Do we look for the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen ?
To put a finer edge on it, we might phrase the question this way:
Do we live our lives, you and I, day to day,
as people who look for the resurrection of the dead?
Do we live our lives
as people who are waiting for the life of a world to come?

In other words,
is there something, anything about my life and yours today
that might suggest to others
that we live in anticipation of something beyond this life?
Is there anything about the way we live
that marks us people who have their eyes on a prize greater than
success in business;
a comfortable life style;
giving our children as much as we can;
a secure retirement?

Perhaps that’s a good way to frame the question at hand:
am I living this life in preparation for the next life,
or am I living as if retirement is the last stop on my trip?

The presumption here
is that if my life is preparation for a world to come,
then my life now should look different than the life of those
who don’t believe in life after death.
(The seven brothers and their mother in the first lesson
certainly give evidence of looking for the resurrection of the dead.)

Just this connected is our present life and the next
in the preaching of Jesus.
Jesus teaches that our lives now should be living icons
of the life to come;
that even now we should be welcoming and caring for
the poor, the marginalized and the outcast
because they will be the ones welcomed first
to the banquet of heaven.
So says Jesus.

And Jesus teaches that we must be people of justice now
because in the life to come justice will rule
and will overflow with mercy.
So says Jesus.

And Jesus teaches that even now we must divest ourselves
of whatever impedes our growth in the knowledge and love of God
because in the life to come the beauty and embrace of God’s love
is all that we shall want, shall have and need.
So says Jesus.

If my life looks no different than the life of those who do not believe
in the life of a world to come,
then something may be seriously wrong with how I’m living.

It’s not enough –good, but not enough– to recite, Sunday after Sunday,
We look for the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen.It’s not enough –good but not enough-
for us just to show up here every seven days.
It’s how we live our lives on the days in between the Sabbaths
that will identify us as those just waiting for retirement
or those who live for the life of the world to come.

Each week, after we profess our faith in the resurrection
we come to that table where even now, in our brokenness,
the reign of God breaks through and is present
in the sacrament of the One who was first to rise to new life,
the One who gives us a taste of that feast which will be ours
in the life of the world to come. Amen!

- ConcordPastor