Patrick Comerford
Next Sunday, 10 November 2019, is the Third Sunday before Advent.
There are two sets of readings in the Revised Common Lectionary as adapted for use in the Church of Ireland, the continuous readings and the paired readings.
The Paired readings: Haggai 1: 15b to 2: 9; Psalm 145: 1-5, 18-22; II Thessalonians 2: 1-5, 13-17; Luke 20: 27-38. There is a link to the paired readings HERE.
The Continuous readings: Job 19: 23-27a; Psalm 17: 1-9; II Thessalonians 2: 1-5,13-17; Luke 20: 27-38. There is a link to the continuous readings HERE.
The Church of Ireland Directory notes that ‘Remembrance Sunday be observed.’
Many parishes may be observing Remembrance Sunday on 10 November. But some parishes may also opt to use the Lectionary readings for Sunday, particularly for early morning services before the Remembrance Sunday service. So, this posting is looks at the readings and liturgical resources for Sunday 10 November as the Third Sunday before Advent. A separate posting this morning looks at the readings and liturgical resources for next Sunday as Remembrance Sunday.
Introducing the readings:
In the Lectionary readings, we have been working our way through Saint Luke’s Gospel. After a long journey, Christ has arrived in Jerusalem, and we are preparing for the climax of the Gospel: his Passion, Death, Burial and Resurrection.
In the Old Testament reading (Haggai 1: 15b to 2: 9), the Prophet Haggai challenges the people, who are unwilling to commit their resources to rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem, to not only rebuild the Temple but to a time when they will be aware of God’s presence, and when they will be blessed. In the Psalm (Psalm 145: 1-5, 18-22), we are asked to look forward to a future in which all will bless God’s holy name for ever. In the epistle reading (II Thessalonians 2: 1-5, 13-17), we hear that while God’s kingdom is still in the formative stage, we live with the promise of God’s glory.
The Gospel reading (Luke 20: 27-38) offers an opportunity to reflect both on how we treat the marginalised today and how we imagine heavenly life.
Haggai 1: 15b to 2: 9:
The Prophet Haggai is one of the 12 minor prophets at the end of the Old Testament. He wrote in 520 BC, when the first exiles returned from Babylon to Judah. The Babylonians had been defeated in 539 by the Persians, who helped the exiled Jews return to the Promised Land, albeit to a small portion of the land.
Haggai’s message is simple and practical: rebuild the Temple, so God will again have an earthly dwelling place.
King Cyrus of Persia decreed the return of exiles from Babylon and the foundation of a new Temple in Jerusalem was laid in 536. However, little work was done on it for years. Judah now has three kinds of leadership: Zerubbabel the governor, Joshua the high priest, and Haggai the prophet.
The people insisted on first building houses for themselves (1: 2) and felt the Temple could wait. Now Haggai asks whether anyone remembers Solomon’s Temple, which had been destroyed about 70 years earlier. Who remembers its former glory?
Haggai reminds them that just as God was present with the people when they came out of exile in Egypt, God is now present with them after their return from exile in Babylon: ‘I am with you, says the Lord of hosts … My spirit abides among you.’
When they rebuild the Temple, God will fill the Temple with splendour, it shall be greater than the former Temple, it will be filled with God’s presence, and the people will be blessed.
Psalm 145: 1-5, 18-22:
Psalm 145 is only Psalm to actually identify itself as a psalm: ‘David’s Psalm of praise.’ This psalm is a hymn, summarising the characteristics of God.
This psalm or song is written as an acrostic poem, each verse beginning in sequence with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, praising God for his blessings and his love, and hoping for a future in which all will bless God’s holy name for ever.
However, it is a curiosity of this psalm that, despite its structure, there is no verse beginning with the letter nun (נ), which would come between verses 13 and 14. This missing verse has since been supplied through other sources, including the Vulgate and the Dead Sea Scrolls:
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures throughout all generations. (NRSVA)
The version of this restored verse in the Book of Common Prayer 2004 (p 761) is:
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
II Thessalonians 2: 1-5, 13-17:
It seems some people in the Church in Thessaloniki were claiming that the Kingdom of God or ‘the day of the Lord’ had already arrived. This is not so, the author of this letter insists, and he tells the people in Thessaloniki that God’s kingdom is still in the formative stage.
Before that, there will rebellion, lawlessness and destruction.
But the author thanks God for those who are faithful in Thessaloniki because God has chosen them as ‘the first fruits of salvation,’ and to receive glory. He urges them to stand firm and to hold fast to in the traditions they have received in the church and in scripture, ‘either by word of mouth or by our letter.’ They are to put this into action in live, grace and hope in what they do and say, ‘in every good work and word.’
Luke 20: 27-38:
There is an old Hollywood musical, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), starring Jane Powell and Howard Keel. There are many superstitions about the seventh son of a seventh son. I even know a restaurant in the old Venetian harbour in Rethymnon in Crete called ‘The Seven Brothers’ (Τα Επτά Αδέρφια).
But this reading about seven brothers and one bride is primarily a story about questions about the resurrection (for parallel readings see also Matthew 22: 23-33; Mark 12: 18-27). How does this relate to the approaching Advent theme?
After his arrival in Jerusalem, Christ is in the Temple each day, teaching kingdom values (Luke 19: 47). But his teaching is ignored by those who see him as a threat to their power and their privilege, by those who want to get rid of him at any cost (Luke 19: 47-48; 20: 20) … without realising that their choice, their actions, are part of the climax that ushers in Christ’s reign.
As an example of his kingdom values, his rejection of the either-or options, the black-or-white, the take-it-or-leave-it values of the world, Christ refuses to enter the debate about paying Temple taxes with imperial Roman coins (Luke 20: 21-25).
And so another trap has to be set – this time by the Sadducees, the Temple priests, who set the trap.
The Sadducees held that only the first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah or the Pentateuch, were authoritative. They had very traditional views of the Law and rejected what they saw as the novel idea of life after death. They saw it as a dangerous innovation, an importation from the Babylonian exile, a Persian idea adapted by the Pharisees. The more traditional view accepted that people were rewarded or punished by God in this life.
So, seeking to trap Jesus into speaking against the Law, they pose this puzzle about a woman who ends up marrying seven brothers, each of whom dies in turn. In the new life, whose wife will she be?
The apostles later have a similar encounter with the Sadducees when they are preaching the Resurrection (see also Acts 4: 1-4), as does the Apostle Paul when he faces the council (Acts 23: 6-10).
This question about ‘levirate’ marriage is not about the marriage of Levites, but comes from the Latin word levir, meaning a brother-in-law. There was a sense in which a man was seen to live on in his son. So, if a man died without sons and heirs, his brother was required to marry his widow and give her a son, thus continuing the family line (See Deuteronomy 25: 5-10; see also Genesis 38: 8).
Saint Luke makes the same point that human relations in the home do not exist in the same way beyond death. Christ distinguishes two ages and kinds of existence. Mortals are part of this age by the fact of physical birth, and of the age to come by resurrection (verse 36; see Romans 1: 4).
‘This age’ (verse 34) is the current era; ‘that age’ (verses 35-36) is the era to come, when Christ returns. In God’s kingdom, marriage will no longer exist. Those who are admitted into eternal life for their faith (‘considered worthy of a place...,’ verse 35) will all be ‘children of God’ (verse 36). This will be the new family relationship. They will be immortal (‘cannot die anymore’) and will be like ‘angels.’
Christ argues for life after death, and for the resurrection, from the Pentateuch, the very five books to which the Sadducees limited their understanding of what is Scripture. In the story of the Burning Bush, God tells Moses: ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham …’ (see Exodus 3: 6). Because God says he is (not was), Abraham is alive now. He died, so he must have been brought back to life, resurrected. God is truly ‘God … of the living’ (verse 38). God is not frustrated by physical death (verse 38).
What happens afterwards?
Some scribes, who are believers in resurrection, are pleased with Jesus’ argument (verse 39). The Sadducees ‘no longer dared to ask him [Christ] another question’ (verse 40). Christ has evaded the trap that was set for him. What does this say about how we should deal with those who question and challenge the Christian faith?
Some pastoral questions:
1, Death and November: How would you approach this reading in the context of November, which is often associated with remembering the dead, including All Saints’ Day (1 November), All Souls’ Day (2 November), Remembrance Sunday (10 November) and Remembrance Day (11 November)?
2, What response to this reading might you expect from people in your parish who are widowed, or in difficult or broken marriages, or people who have never married? How should this shape or inform our sermon preparation?
Luke 20: 27-38 (NRSVA):
27 Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him 28 and 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. 29 Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; 30 then the second 31 and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. 32 Finally the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.’
34 Jesus said to them, ‘Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; 35 but 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. 36 Indeed they cannot die any more, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 37 And 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. 38 Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.’
A reflection on the Gospel reading
Jesus’ response is a reminder that the things we think of as important in our lives – institutions like marriage, political structures, economic systems, and even the outward forms of the Church – are temporary constructions to protect us in this life. In the age to come, they have no significance, no meaning, no value. In the Kingdom of God, God’s love alone unites us with God and with each other, and we have no need for those temporary structures.
But, of course, we do not yet live in the fullness of God’s kingdom. People still marry, people still vote and run in elections, people still invest and spend money. When we do those things, they have most value when they reflect the values of God’s kingdom.
When they do not reflect kingdom values, they become debased and lose value, significance and meaning. It is easy to understand that in this country, in terms of the political and economic crises we face. It is more difficult to say that in terms of relationships and marriages.
How we inhabit the political and economic structures of this age can become a sign of our dwelling in God’s kingdom … if we live with those structures so that we give priority, not to our own self-interest and gain, but to the concerns and needs of the poor, the outcast and the marginalised.
If we live our committed relationships in this life with integrity and honesty and self-sacrifice they can become a sign of how we live our risen lives in the age to come.
We cling so tightly to the structures of marriage and family because we see family and marriage as foundational for society and its structures. But what about the people who become the victims of our constructed structures when they have visibly turned sour?
In all their questions to Christ, the Sadducees betray an underlying acceptance that the structures of the day – the religious hierarchy with the High Priests at the top; the political structures with their acquiescence in unjust structures that marginalise the poor, women and minorities; the family and societal structures that dictate when and who women should marry – are at their service, at the service of the elite, rather than signs of the Kingdom of God.
Who is the sign of the Kingdom of God in this story?
And who is marginalised, forgotten, abused?
There is one figure in this story defined not by her beliefs or function or role in life, but because of the men in her life, and by what men think of her.
This woman, unnamed, is made an object by the people who come to Jesus with their silly questions. But none among them is truly concerned about her plight.
Her only role is to meet the obscure obligations set out in the arcane interpretations of the marriage code that make her an object. She has no name, no home; her only function is to serve the needs of men, to continue the family name and line, so that the family lands and wealth are not estranged.
How would you feel if you were a widow listening to this story in the back pew of a parish church next Sunday morning? It would certainly be an exaggerated reminder of your plight and your marginalisation.
To us, the questions in this story stretch the limits of credulity. They are so hypothetical that they appear absurd. But they were neither hypothetical nor absurd if this woman really existed, if her plight was well known in Jerusalem in those days.
Then her plight and place becomes more pitiable.
As my mind wanders, I like to compare her with two other women in a similar plight in the Gospels.
The first is the Samaritan woman at the well in Sychar (John 4: 7-42). She too comes from a religious group who, like the Sadducees, refuse to accept the concept of life after death, dismissing it as an innovation, a Persian importation by the Pharisees.
And she too is in danger of being marginalised and dismissed, of becoming an object, because she is married (or has been married) to five husbands.
She debates with Jesus, she argues with Jesus, she jokes with Jesus, she cajoles Jesus. She is so marginalised that even the disciples fail to join in the conversation or to appreciate its significance (see John 4: 27). Yet she becomes the most effective missionary in the Fourth Gospel: husbands or no husbands, she brings her city to Christ as the Messiah (verse 29), and ‘many … believed in him because of the woman’s testimony … And many more believed because of his word’ (verses 39, 41).
The second woman I am forced to think about is the woman who appears in the verses immediately after this Gospel reading (see Luke 21: 1-4).
Remember that the chapter divisions and headings are not a natural part of the original text. And this debate, in which the Sadducees mock and marginalise a poor woman, in which the priests of the day show no compassion for her, no understanding for her plight and predicament, leads naturally to the woman appearing before them and being the true priest in the Temple.
She is the Christ-like figure, the one who gives up everything so that God is truly worshipped and served, and humanity truly invited into the kingdom.
Who shows true faith and its fruits?
Who is the true priest in the Temple?
Sunday’s Gospel story leads straight into that concluding image of that poor widow arriving in the Temple.She has nothing of our own.
All her husband’s (husbands’) wealth has gone to her husband’s (husbands’) family.
Without children, she is left with no visible means of support.
All she has are two of the smallest coins known in the Mediterranean basin – two lepta in Greece today are worth only two cent – until the Euro was introduced, there were 100 lepta to the drachma, and there were 370 drachmés to the Euro.
At any time in history, the two lepta coins she had were worthless. Yet, they are all she has. She has little to live for … and little to live on. Yet all she has to live on she offers to God. Christ-like, she gives up everything.
In the Kingdom of God, there will be neither lost lepta nor squandered zillions, neither high priests nor widows. All that will matter is whether we have lived our lives, as priests or as widows, as lives that point to the Kingdom of God.
The wealth of the Sadducees, like their faith, died at death. The wealth of the woman, like her faith, multiplied beyond calculation in the Kingdom of God.
Old 1, 5 and 10 lepta postage stamps from Greece … the widow’s two lepta were the smallest coins in the Mediterranean worldLiturgical Resources:
Liturgical Colour: Green (Ordinary Time)
The Collect of the Day:
Almighty Father,
whose will is to restore all things
in your beloved Son, the king of all:
Govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,
and bring the families of the nations,
divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
to be subject to his just and gentle rule;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Collect of the Word:
O God, our eternal redeemer,
by the presence of your Spirit
you renew and direct our hearts.
Keep always in mind
the end of all things
and the day of judgment.
Inspire us for a holy life here,
and bring us the joys of the resurrection,
through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God of peace,
whose Son Jesus Christ proclaimed the kingdom
and restored the broken to wholeness of life:
Look with compassion on the anguish of the world,
and by your healing power
make whole both people and nations;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Recommended Hymns:
Haggai 1: 15b to 2: 9:
501, Christ is the world’s true light
527, Son of God, eternal Saviour
488, Stand up, stand up for Jesus
Psalm 145: 1-5, 18-22:
683, All people that on earth do dwell
321, Holy, holy, holy! Lord God almighty
357, I’ll praise my maker while I’ve breath
358, King of glory, King of peace
360, Let all the world in every corner sing
365, Praise to the Lord, the almighty, the King of creation
Psalm 98:
146, A great and mighty wonder
125, Hail to the Lord’s anointed
166, Joy to the world, the Lord is come
705, New songs of celebration render
710, Sing to God new songs of worship
369, Songs of praise the angels sang
Job 19: 23-27a:
92, How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
270, I know that my Redeemer lives
226, It is a thing most wonderful
7, My God, how wonderful thou art
Psalm 17: 1-9:
635, Lord, be my guardian and my guide
620, O Lord, hear my prayer
II Thessalonians 2: 1-5, 13-17:
328, Come on and celebrate
244, There is a green hill far away
Luke 20: 27-38:
325, Be still, for the presence of the Lord, the Holy One is here
328, Come on and celebrate
415, For the bread which you have broken
670, Jerusalem the golden
672, Light’s abode, celestial Salem
277, Love’s redeeming work is done
392, Now is eternal life
323, The God of Abraham praise
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.
The hymn suggestions are provided in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000).
For resources for Remembrance Sunday 2019 follow the link HERE.
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