I’m back! My finger has healed enough for me to type again.
To recap what led up to this proclamation of Jesus, the Sadducees
have been trying to trap Jesus into saying something compromising. They came up
with a wild tale about seven brothers marrying one woman in succession in
accordance with the Levitican laws. As each died, she married the next brother
in line. Finally, everyone died without any children. The Sadducees, who do not
believe in the resurrection, want Jesus to tell them whose wife she will be in
heaven. After Jesus tells them they know nothing, he states that in the
resurrection, we will be like angels in heaven.
When you hear the word ‘angel,’ what comes to your mind? Do
you think of those sweet-faced cherubs on greeting cards? Do you think of
people you know as angels? What about Clarence in “It’s a Wonderful Life?” What
do we really know about angels? Well, in the New Testament, they certainly
weren’t thought of as cute cherubic babies. No, the response to angels in the
New Testament is usually fear, which is why they so often have to say, “Do not
be afraid.” Or, as my first pastor put it, “Freak not out.” They were scary!
Dealing with the divine is not a safe preoccupation if you value what peace and
calm you have in your life…
Seeing angels or hearing a voice that is clearly not our own
takes us out of our everyday world, in which we are content and know how things
work. It confronts those notions about how the world works and the existence of
the supernatural. God shows us a vision of a world upside- down from our own. Of
course, it’s upsetting! And, God shows up not only to comfort, (peace be with you)
but to ask something of us. It’s a perfect storm of fear and confusion. No matter
what happens next, your life will never be the same.
It’s possible to ignore it. For a while. I know people who
held out for over 20 years. God doesn’t stop after the first no. Does that make
God a stalker? There’s a reason he’s called the Hound of Heaven, after all.
Sometimes, though, God speaks through other people. That’s always a little
harder to ignore. I may have mentioned it before, but that’s what happened to
me. I made a deal and told God that if someone else said something, I’d take it
more seriously. The next day, a friend of mine asked if I’d ever considered
becoming a minister. I was a little surprised at the speed, to be honest. Too,
God uses situations to get our attention. I think my struggle right now is how
to do ministry when the Cleveland sun makes me sick so much faster than the
Chicago sun. I’m not looking forward to summer, that’s for sure. Do angels have
these problems, too?
All this, however, doesn’t really tell us what we will be
like in heaven? Will there be sex? Will we remember our spouses? Our friends? Angels
don’t marry, but do they love? Will we not care about anything but God? Will we
be singing hymns all the time? Wouldn’t that get boring? Will it be rest? Or is
our time on earth only a training ground for what is to come after?
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