Resurrection and Rebellion, 11/9/25

Resurrection and rebellion. These are the two words I want to pull from today’s readings. These two words belong together: resurrection and rebellion.

You see the Sadducees who were aristocratic Jewish leaders connected to the priesthood and who thought all beliefs must be found in the Torah so they didn’t believe in Resurrection, the Sadducees are out to trip up Jesus. They don’t like him. Neither do the Pharisees who do believe in the resurrection so the Pharisees don’t always get along with the Sadducees, but when it comes to Jesus they are both on the same page: Jesus needs to go. Because the very existence of Jesus threatens the status quo. The Body of Christ threatens their power and status and authority. This Jesus and how he lives is drawing all kinds of people to seeing things in a new way, wanting a new life. Jesus offers light and hope and love and another world right smack dab in the midst of empire. And people want that. 

So those in power think he’s gotta go. So the Sadducees try to trip him up, try to make him look like a fool to preach resurrection. 

But Jesus knows it is ludicrous to try to understand resurrection in terms of this life. Jesus knows that this life, “this age” as Jesus calls it, is fundamentally different than resurrection life, what Jesus calls “that age” in today’s reading. Jesus knows that what the Sadducees are presenting is really an unanswerable riddle, and Jesus refuses to get trapped by it, and instead, Jesus reveals their faulty understanding of the resurrection; Jesus exposes their inaccuracy. Using the Torah—their most trusted texts—and how God speaks of the dead in the book of Exodus, Jesus points out that God of the Torah believes in life beyond this life, a.k.a. resurrection. God speaks of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob as still living. Jesus is pointing out that the dead still live in “that age,” in that resurrection age. Yes, Jesus tells the Sadducees, Yes, there is life after death, there is another age after this age. The Torah tells us so.

Resurrection, Beloved, is not simply a continuation of this life before death; resurrection is not a continuation of this age; it is a new age. A fundamentally different age. Because to be part of “that age,” the resurrection age, the resurrected life, is to not be restricted by this age’s limits and assumptions. The hypothetical woman the Saduccees present, and all women for that matter, in resurrection life, “are not commodities to be deployed for the preservation of the male family line” (spiritualityofconflict.com). No, ma’am. In the Resurrection life, in “that age,” we enter God’s presence not as a commodity, not as someone’s wife, not as any label given to us by society or culture, but we enter God’s presence simply as “child of God,” “the Beloved.” In Resurrection life, it is this luminous identity that defines us. Beloved child of God. Each and every one of us. 

Beloved, what Jesus was pointing out, then and now, is that Resurrection is a Mystery. Humanity tries to shrink it down into human boxes and labels, bite-sized bits we can consume, but the promise and proclamation of resurrection is that God’s love is stronger than death; God’s love is stronger than hate; God’s love is stronger than any force in all of creation. Even the force and energy of evil. Living in “that age,” then Beloved,  means that resurrection is experiencing the liberation and freedom to see and know who we really are and who our neighbor really is. And Beloved, when our vision, hearing, and mindset is fine-tuned into that Resurrection age, every moment we live and move and have our being from “that age” and not “this age,” well that, Beloved, that is salvation. Something we can see, taste and know now. And when we fully enter that Resurrection age and leave “this age” behind, we live salvation for all of time, shedding this age once and for all.

Beloved, like the Sadducees, we need new language, new imagination to grasp the meaning of resurrection life. We need re-formed vision and hearing to experience that age now—right in the midst of this age. When the writer of the 2nd letter to the Thessalonians talks about the rebellion that must come first, he may be talking about an external rebellion—a revolution in society. Lord knows we need that too, but I want to invite us to consider today that this rebellion that must come first is an inner rebellion.

That what Jesus invites us to over and over again is a rebellion within us so that we can shed the lawless one who reveals himself within us—those thoughts, beliefs and behaviors that oppose love and love’s action which are in us. That is what evil is after all—this is what sin is—to miss the mark of Love. And each and every one has the capacity to choose evil over and over. To swim in it and have it as our way of being. 

What makes Jesus different than other humans is his capacity to always move from love. To always shed the evil that is presented to him—to resist it. He is so steeped in Love, his luminous identity as beloved child of God, that he can do no other. This is what our life of discipleship is all about, those baptismal promises we made last weekend and every time there is a baptism: to gather regularly to learn, to pray and to break bread and share wine, the body and blood of Christ, because these practices re-shape us. To resist evil. To care for Creation. To respect the dignity of every human being. To seek and serve Christ in all persons. To strive for justice and peace among all peoples. In other words, we have promised to live and move and have our being in “that age” that resurrection age. And that, Beloved, requires an inner rebellion. And practice. Lots of practice and practices. Practices like prayer, confession, communion, fellowship, serving our neighbors.

We have been experiencing that resurrection age this weekend. For weeks, for months, you all have been setting aside useful and helpful items you no longer need for the Rummage Sale. Some of you have been planning and organizing. Many of you came together to set up tables and to put all those needed and helpful items out on Wednesday night. This year, due to the crisis of our neighbors who had their SNAP benefits delayed and pulled out with very little notice, you also collected food. Take what you can. Give what you can. Not only helping our community and neighbors to get the household and other items that will enhance their lives, but also stretching whatever funds they have for food by giving from our plenty to fill the gap. You gave your time, your energy, your patience and your presence. For our neighbors. This is Resurrection Life. Living “that age” right in the midst of “this age.” Salvation for the taking.

Today Beloved, I must be clear: I must make the Gospel as transparent as possible. Because even while we move from Resurrection, we still live in this age. And Beloved,  we cannot proclaim to follow the Christ  AND be complacent or remain silent when economically vulnerable individuals and families have their food resources taken away while the wealthiest among us are given tax breaks and at the same time. Or when our neighbors are abducted off the streets without any thought to civil rights. These decisions, Beloved, to take food resources from the hungry, to allow the wealthy to grow wealthier in order to not fund the impoverished, to treat our neighbor as the enemy, these ways of being, Beloved, are the opposite of Gospel. They are  in direct opposition of Love. We name them as evil. We name them as sin. 

This Beloved Community is about being a gathering of people who are providing opportunities for forming and re-forming anyone who desires to be shaped for “that age,” that resurrection life. What allows us to stand on the side of Light isn’t our goodness or morality, but it is the grace of God blowing into us via the Holy Spirit, this breath of life we are created to receive. And then to give that life away. Because Beloved, only Love defeats hate. Only Love overcomes evil. Did  you notice that when Jesus was re-aligning the Sadducees’ understanding he didn't deride them, or call them names on social media or condemn them. But with intelligence, with resolve, dexterity and grace, Jesus directly exposes their mis-understanding of Scripture and resurrection.  As followers of Christ, let us also live in and from “that age,” allowing our lives to be a means to grant others the capacity to imagine, trust and believe in this new life of resurrection. 

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can  hear her breathing, she is on her way. (Ana Hernandez)