The Mission to Restore Hope – not Fear
The Rev. Dr. John Judson
November 7, 2010
So how many of you here this morning were wishing that the election could have been pushed back another couple of weeks so we could see some more campaign ads? Ok, let me try another one. How many of you are glad that the election is over? My guess is that most of us had gotten pretty tired of the attack ads which seemed to fill every moment of commercial time for the past year. But less you think that this sort of behavior was only invented recently, think again. It is exactly what Jesus faces in our morning’s story. Jesus is minding his own business when he is approached by some Sadducees. Now, as a reminder, the Sadducees were a First Century Jewish political party that wanted to sway the hearts and minds of the Jewish population to buy into their theological program; which was that there was no life after death. Dead was dead. Granted, at least to me, that does not appear to be a vision which would win many converts, but nonetheless they attack Jesus by asking their stock question about whose wife would a woman be who had married seven me. The trick here is that God had commanded that a woman could only be married to one man…so if there was an afterlife then God would have to violate God’s own rules. They attacked Jesus hoping to drive people away from his movement to theirs.
Jesus’ answer is a rather fascinating one. On the surface it appears that he merely responds with a set of Biblical quotations that would prove his point correct…sort of like a positive ad to counteract their negative one. But what Jesus is in reality doing is offering a very different world view. In the face of the Sadducees world view that the short and brutal lives lived by most people in First Century Judea was all that there was, Jesus offers a world view based on hope. He begins his vision by reminding his listeners that those who have died are raised and are equal to angels and are still children of God. Then he reminds them that even Moses speaks of God as the God of the living and not the dead, thus all live into God. My guess is that is hard for us to comprehend just how much hope Jesus was offering in the world view he presented. For a people who were economically, politically and socially oppressed and depressed Jesus’ world view reminded them that even in the most difficult of times, God was still at work. And, just as importantly, when God’s people lost their lives because of the acts of cruelty from Rome or the powers in Jerusalem, Jesus proclaimed that God still held God’s people in God’s hand. This was hope.
In many ways the day and age in which we live is one that is also defined by two basic world views. The first world view is that of fear. We live in a world in which if it bleeds it leads. We live in a world in which people work very hard at making us afraid so that we will buy what they have to sell, vote for the right candidate or give to their cause. On the cover of the bulletin this morning I included just a handful of things, people and organizations of which we are supposed to be afraid. My guess is that each of you could add some of your own. In fact I would like you to do just that, take a moment a write in a few of your own. In fact we could probably simply list each of the candidates from the major parties and know that we were supposed to be afraid of them because they were going to steal our money, corrupt our children and kick our puppies. So what is wrong with this kind of fear you may ask? The answer is that fear cripples. Fear cripples our willingness to risk. Fear cripples our willingness to face great challenges. Fear cripples our ability to listen. Fear cripples our ability to be kingdom people reaching out to those who are different than us. Fear cripples our souls. The gift of God however is that there is another world view.
That other world view is the one offered to us by Jesus of Nazareth…hope. Just as Jesus offered a contra-world view in the First Century he does so today. He reminds us that even in the worst of times God is at work. God does not come and go with elections, with difficult times or even with death. As our confessions teach us, in life and in death we belong body and soul to God. Such a world view breaks the power of fear. Such a world view offers hope to the hopeless and courage to those on the journey. It offers hope to those who have been bullied or picked on. It offers hope to people who have been discriminated against because of the color of their skin or their sexual orientation. It offers hope to those whose businesses are struggling. It offers hope to those seeking employment. God is at work and so there is hope. And it is that world view which we as First Presbyterian church proclaim. We are not a church of fear. We are a church of hope. And in this time and place if there is one commodity that is desperately needed it is hope. So for that reason I challenge you on this day to consider how you will help us continue to make that hope known. You can do it through your presence, through your service and through your tithes to the life of this church. Each is necessary. Each is crucial. My question to you this week then is this…how will I help make hope known through this amazing hope giving church?
