Ep. 36: Resurrectaggedon or Proper 27C / Ordinary 32C /Pentecost +25

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For Sunday, November 10
Proper 27C / Ordinary 32C / Pentecost +25



Show Notes after the break (click read more) 

SHOW NOTES -  11/10/2013

Resurrectaggedon!

Opening Music: Who Wants to Live Forever? by Queen
For Sunday, November 10
Episode 36 - Proper 27C / Ordinary 32C / 25 weeks after Pentecost
Welcome to the Pulpit Fiction Podcast, where two local pastors discuss the lectionary reading for the week. This is episode 36 for Sunday November 10, Proper 27C, Ordinary 32C and 25 weeks after Pentecost. We will be discussing Luke 20:27-38 and 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17.  

Luke 20:27-38 - Questions About Resurrection
2 Thessalonians 2:1-17 - remain steadfast and faithful

Introduce Show and self

Check-in
  • World Series
  • Veteran’s Day
    • Armistice Day (A Peace to End All Peace)
  • Healthy Families, Healthy Planet  A project funded by a grant of the United Nations Foundation and housed in the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society.  The mission of HFHP is to educate, inspire, and empower faith leaders to take on maternal health and family planning as advocacy issues in their local congregations or communities.
  • Movember
  • RHE Nov 7

Primary Scripture -– Luke 20:27-38 - Questions About Resurrection

  • Include vv 39-40.  Let Jesus drop the mic and walk off in victory.
  • Sadducees (according to Fred Craddock)
    • Priestly class
    • Aristocratic and wealthy
    • Theologically conservative
    • Only considered Pentateuch as Holy Scriptures.
      • Did not consider the Prophets, Psalms, or other Writings as authoritative.
  • Context
    • First and only time Jesus speaks of resurrection -did I write this? I think i meant argued with the Sadducees
    • Shortly after clearing the Temple, the conflicts between Jesus and authorities are heating up.
    • 20:20 “The legal experts and chief priests were watching Jesus closely and sent spies to pretend to be sincere.  They wanted to trap him in his words so they could hand him over to… the governor.”
    • Second of two “Trap” questions.  The first was about taxes, trying to trap Jesus to admit sedition.
    • Sadducees don’t believe in resurrection, yet ask Jesus a rhetorical question about the resurrection - clearly not an honest curious inquiry.
      • This is not a pastoral response, and should not used in a pastoral context to alleviate the pain of mourners.
    • Immediately after this exchange Jesus warns the people “Watch out for the legal experts. They like to walk around in long robes… They are the ones who cheat widows out of their homes… They will be judged most harshly.”
  • Nearly identical stories appear in Matthew and Mark.
    • Jesus’ response is edited down in Luke.
      • Matthew - “You are wrong because you don’t know either the scriptures or God’s power.” (Mt 22:23)
      • Mark - “Isn’t this the reason you are wrong, because you don’t know either the scriptures or God’s power?” (Mk 12:24)
  • Does Jesus care about the resurrection?

“It is probably best not to try and describe too concretely what resurrection is. Personally, I've always thought that if there is no sex in heaven, I'm not going. (Just kidding. Sort of.)
However, every preacher had better be aware that there will be some in the congregation who have themselves been married more than once, and this will be a pressing question for them. And don’t assume that everyone present is looking forward to the possibility of meeting a deceased spouse in the life to come.
But every preacher had better have a good explanation of what Jesus could possibly have meant when he said, "Though we die, yet shall we live."

  • We care much more about heaven and resurrection than Jesus seems to
    • The resurrection is different.  That’s all he really tells us.
    • Don’t worry about this kind of stuff, just know that God is God.
    • Death is just a detail that we dwell on, not God.
    • In God there is no life and death, no need for marriage because all are united.
  • Jesus is much more focused on what is going on now- the living.
    • Jesus quotes Exodus to provide proof that there is a resurrection.  It is  found in God’s use of present tense when talking to Moses.
    • Moses and the patriarchs are not dead.

Secondary scripture - 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17 - remain steadfast and faithful

  • Continued theme of enduring hope
  • It will get worse before it gets better
  • What about the “Day of the Lord” the Second Coming?
  • "Paul lays out an apocalyptic schema, the didactic elements of which are not offered for their own sake, but rather to support his practical purpose of exhorting them to live calmly and faithfully." Abraham Malherbe, The Letters to the Thessalonians, Anchor Bible 32B (New York: Doubleday, 2000), 41
  • Walter Wink
    • Satan not as an evil deity or being, but a reminder of the reality of evil
    • "What the ancients called 'spirits' or 'angels' or 'demons' were actual entities, only they were not hovering in the air. They were incarnate in cellulose, or cement, or skin and bones, or an empire, or its mercenary armies." Walter Wink, Unmasking the Powers: The Invisible Forces That Determine Human Existence (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986),
  • Exodus - God did not smite Pharaoh's armies out of vengeance but in order to save
    • Why would God change that now?
    • Even in the midst of systemic evil- God’s answer is grace
  • Live as if the end as if nigh
    • New England Eclipse - “Let us be found doing our duty”
    • DO NOT GIVE INTO FEAR!
  • Check out

It’s the End of the World as We Know It by REM

Closing -
TY: listeners
Opening music: Who Wants to Live Forever? by Queen
Theme Music: Dick Dale and the Deltones “Misirlou”
TY: Closing music,Paul and Storm, “Oh No”


Shout outs:  
Diann Bailey, Marianne Paul

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show@pulpitfiction.us.

All, LukeEric FistlerComment