NOTE FROM PASTOR J R FOR SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2022
This Sunday is the Eleventh Sunday of Kingdomtide. Next Tuesday will be elections in America. There is a saying that goes “God never intended for us to check our brains at the church door.” That also applies to the ballot box.
Too often some preachers and practically all politicians never give you all the vital information you to need to have a healthy relationship with God or to make sound decisions in voting. They ask leading questions to distract you from asking the right questions or discovering the information they don’t want you to think about. In both cases, it’s done to either manipulate you or discredit those with opinions different from their positions on matters.
We see all of this in the assigned gospel text from Luke 20. The Sadducees, who don’t even believe in resurrection, asked Jesus a hypothetical question about a woman who was widowed seven times in succession. They asked: “In the resurrection, to which husband will she be the wife?” It was NOT a question to gain information or get closer to the truth. It was an attack question designed to discredit Jesus and manipulate His followers.
Jesus dismisses the very premise of their question to address what folks really need to know. He told them folks are not going to be concerned about marriage in the afterlife; but the hope you need now and in the resurrection that “God isn’t the God of dead (people) but of the living. (And) To God all are alive.” (Luke 20:38, The Message)
Like Jesus, we need the ability to see through questions and tactics of religious folks and politicians trying to manipulate us or discrediting of others to distract us from knowing the truth. This would well serve us on Sundays when we worship, on next Tuesday when we vote, and all the days of our lives.
Join us for worship Sunday, in-person, by Zoom or Facebook Livestream. My sermon title will be “The Importance of Asking the Right Questions.” It’s based on Luke 20:27-38.
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