All Saints Sunday/Pentecost 23       Luke 20:27-38, Eph. 1:11-23            11/7/04

                                                           "Sad You See"

What would you do if one day a letter from a major law firm arrived in the mail telling you that your Great Uncle Joshua (until now unknown to you) had died and left you a million dollars?

Hmm, with an inheritance like that I could pay off all my debts finally, take my kids on a trip to a country I’ve always dreamed of visiting, buy the home of my dreams, work where and when I like, get one of those cute little Volkswagens that look like a Fisher Price toy,...and of course, give a sizeable donation to the church.

Yes, having an inheritance would be exciting, freeing, satisfying. I’d never feel insecure again. My future would be assured.

What a pity that people so often get that envelope and throw it away with other junk mail, never realizing what they are missing.

This was the case with the Sadducees. Sadducees were a kind of fundamentalist branch of Judaism. They came into existence around 2 BC and ceased to exist after the temple was destroyed in 70 AD. They were a mixed party of priests and the very wealthy of the community. The focus of their piety was the temple. Historically, Sadducees were anything but friends of the Pharisees. They were also a divisive force on the Jewish council, called the Sanhedrin. Sadducees were even more rigid in upholding the law than the Pharisees and much more severe when meeting out punishment for infractions. They went out of their way to catch people in false belief. And one of the things they were most opposed to was a belief in any kind of life after death and of course any idea of a resurrection from the dead. They believed that you made your own heaven or hell right on this earth by the kind of life you led.

Thus, we find Sadducees confronting Jesus with this trick question about who the woman is married to in heaven. They are not the least interested in the ultimate outcome of what is called "Levirite Law", the practice of having the brother of a deceased man with no children marry the widow in order to produce an heir who would carry on the deceased’s blood line and thus insure his immortality. They are interested in condemning Jesus for teaching that there is an afterlife that humans can inherit.

A witty writer asks the question: "Do you know the difference between the Sadducees and the Pharisees? (Pause) The Sadducees don’t believe in the resurrection. That is why they are Sad You See."

The Sadducees had nothing to look forward to. They invested everything they had in this life and lived in fear of doing some wrong that they might cause them to lose it. I think they had to look down on others and try to force them to be the same way in order to avoid facing how sad and hopeless their lives were.

And here they have Jesus offering them freedom from their miserable law-filled lives. He even gives them the courtesy of a logical rationale for believing - God cannot be the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob if there is no life after death, because God is God of the living and not the dead. He takes their own logic and turns it back on them so they can accept the inheritance being offered to them, but they (as we know) refuse it. They throw it away with all the other castoffs on that landfill called Golgotha.

Even though the Sadducee party of Judaism ceased to exist a millennia ago, Sadducees are all too present in our day. They are the people who might best be represented by Donald Trump and the Apprentice show. They are out for all the material goodies of life, seeking not only the jet plane, the house in the Hamptons and a gold lined casket when they die, but also power over other people’s lives. But, even if they don’t realize it, these modern day Sadducees are sad you see. In their rush to power and fortune they nearly always throw the greater inheritance out in the trash because it doesn’t fit their idea of wealth.

Today though we celebrate those who were wise enough to see the value of the inheritance given them in Christ. These are people who not only believed in a life after death, they counted it as more precious than anything in this life. They knew that not only did heaven await them after death, but that Jesus was with them in this life as well. And nothing in this life could compare with that inheritance, nor could it dissuade them from clinging to Jesus promise - not even suffering and death.

As we celebrate All Saints Sunday, we actually celebrate two holy days. All Saints Day, Nov. 1, is an ancient feast that goes back to the early days of the Christian Church. Originally, a feast was held on the anniversary of a martyr’s death, but as persecution grew, so did the number of martyrs, until it was impossible to recognize each with his/her own feast day. Thus All Saints Day began. Halloween (or All Hallow’s Eve) was the eve and preparation day for All Saints Day.

All Souls Day’s origin is a bit later in history. It came from the belief that people, other than saints, could not have atoned for their sins adequately in this life and needed the prayers and almsdeeds of the faithful to finally have their souls see heaven. All Souls Day was designated as a special day for this and the date finally came to be set on Nov. 2.

Most Protestants don’t celebrate either day and those who do (the Episcopalians and Lutherans for the most part) have pushed the two observances together, cleaned out any scent of works righteousness and moved it to the first Sunday in Nov. Many of us have also co-opted it as a day to remember our own beloved dead whether everyone might have recognized them as saints or not. We will remember Charles Kraus, Josephine Feldmiller and others from our personal list of saints with lighting of a candle and prayer after the sermon hymn.

We can do this because we do believe that all who believe in Jesus as Savior from sin are with him in heaven. They are there not because of their own saintliness, but because through baptism they inherited salvation in Christ. This gives us joy even in the sadness of loss for we know that those who have left this life are now able to be fully aware of being in Christ and fully able to enjoy His love. Thus, we need not be "Sad You See".

This day stands also as a reminder to us that we do not have to wait till we die to claim our inheritance. St. Paul writes, "In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory."

The verbs in those two verses are past tense. We have already obtained (better translation: been given) our inheritance. That means we do not have to wait for the "sweet bye and bye" to experience our redemption in Christ. God in His love gives it to us now, in this life. We are already redeemed, declared children of God and saints. We are set free from the Law and from fear of the eternal consequences of our sin. We are already able to enjoy the benefits of God’s love in Christ. Opening ourselves to this gift as we might open that letter from a lawyer telling of our other inheritance, we are able to live for the praise of God’s glory. In other words, knowing that Christ is with us now and into eternity and growing in our ability to experience it by means of Word and Sacrament, we live our lives in joy and thanksgiving to God. Thus, no matter what this life holds, even death itself, we need never be "Sad You See". Amen.