Waiting In Hope

A Poem and Reflection or Advent I                                        St. Andrew's Church, Nags Head, NC December 1, 2019                                                                      Thomas E Wilson Supply

Deuteronomy 30:11-14             Psalm 19:1-6             Romans 13:11-14              Matthew 4:18-22      

Waiting In Hope

Today we have combined the lessons and prayers for the Feast of St. Andrew (November 30) and the 1^st Sunday of Advent. I wanted to do this since I heard that you hadn't celebrated the feast of your Patron Saint, St. Andrew in a very long time.



This is the first Sunday of Advent and the theme of this Sunday is “Hope”. If we looked at the lessons set for the this Sunday, they deal with hope. The Hebrew Testament lesson for today is from the 2^nd Chapter of Isaiah when the prophet knowing they are surrounded by hostile nations, envisions a time when there will be peace and he sings a song of hope where: “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.” That is hope!



But the Bible also tells us about Andrew. In the Gospel lesson for the Feast of St, Andrew, Andrew is fishing with his brother, Simon Peter when the Lord comes by and calls them to follow him.  I think Jesus called many others but only those with some degree of hope answered by following. I think hope is a prerequisite for following. Hope looks at the present and dares to think of something beyond. They live in an occupied country  ruled by corrupt rulers who practice greed and deceitful bullying practice by twisting the law to serve their own purpose. Day after day of that abuse will drain the life out of anyone, where you keep your head down and try not to pay attention. Except those who choose to hope, perchance to dream, of a different way of living; they keep paying attention, fully aware of themselves, of nature and of God. They are listening so they can hear. When we are ready to listen, we are ready to hear.



Some people think that prayer is talking to God, but the true reality is Prayer is the deep listening, especially during the times when nothing seems to be said. But God is the WORD and is being said all the time. I think of Andrew, looking over the sea of Galilee, hearing the waves lapping against the gunnels of the boat, feeling the motion of the rocking up and down, being aware that he is not the center of the universe; there is something greater than himself. Being connected to and having a reverence for the gift of the sea, he is connected to the one who created the oceans, sea and land. He slows down, aware of where, who and whose he is in each task he is doing. People who rush through life really don't listen to God for they are too busy. There is no room for God  and hope because it is all up to them. People who are constantly distracted by all sorts of things really don't listen to God, because they are not paying attention. Andrew is throwing the nets over the side because he hopes there will be enough fish on that day to make up for the days when the catch will be small. To cast your nets is a sign of hope. It is not wishful thinking that demands nothing from you, but hope is about taking life as one step at a time, one moment at a time, hoping for a better world which begins with him; he must be willing to change in order to change the world. If the church that is named for St. Andrew wants to have Hope, they learn to slow down, pay attention and listen.



Andrew has hope in that he knows that he cannot do it all himself; he must join with others. He enters in communion with God and with others. Communion not just with people who are alike but with those people who are different. We learn from the experiences of others, and that can help us see things we might overlook. Andrew does not become a solitary disciple; he joins with others to nourish the hope they share.  They are not Lone Rangers and are sent out two by two to share the experience of hope. In one story Andrew brings into the community outsiders who wish to speak to Jesus. If the church that is named for St. Andrew wants to have Hope, they learn by having unity of purpose not uniformity of outlook. They must learn to work together than separately.



Andrew has hope because he is able to think outside the box. There is the story where Andrew, facing the task of feeding thousands, sees a young boy with a small basket of loaves and fishes. It is a ridiculous idea to think there is enough in that basket to feed all of the multitude. A Person without hope would dismiss the whole idea out of hand. But in hope Andrew brings the most he can find and brings it to Jesus. Jesus then takes, blesses, breaks and distributes and there is more than enough. Hope is open to different ways other than the way we have always done things.  If the church that is named for St. Andrew wants to have Hope, they learn to consider other options no matter how out of the box they might be, and then listen to see what God can do.



Andrew is a disciple and that group is hungry as well. There would have been enough in that basket to feed Jesus and his disciples. But they gave it away to people who were not part of their small group. Hope considers the outsider needs as important as their own needs.  If the church that is named for St. Andrew wants to have Hope, they learn to pay attention to the larger community as part of the beloved of God.



Andrew, after Jesus dies, is emotionally drained with fear and could go into hiding. But, Andrew joins with the other disciples to share their grief and disappointments. They slow down to listen and the Resurrected Christ comes in the middle of the suffering and brings peace, the peace that passes all understanding. If the church that is named for St. Andrew wants to have Hope, they learn to honestly share what is going on in their walk with Christ with each other.



After the Ascension, Andrew and the disciples gather to spend time in prayer to determine the next step in the journey. They enter into hope that they can be faithful on the Way, and it takes longer than they want. However, they don't just settle for the first plan that comes up. They are patient, because they know God's Holy Spirit is in charge.  They are waiting in Hope. If the church that is named for St. Andrew wants to have Hope, they learn to be patient and not just settle.





Waiting In Hope

Hope is not a wish with eyes closed

breathing fast, saying magic words,

and incantations over ouija boards

crossing of fingers, arms and toes.

Hope is taking one step at a time,

not down yellow brick to the wiz,

but to a goal which in the future is

beyond mere achievement, sublime!

Hope may not get there by next year,

but we won't be grinding in old place,

stagnant, unaccepting of God's grace,

but finding the indwelling holy near.

Hope, waiting now, for us to choose
to move as if there is nothing to lose.

The Thanksgivng Gathering

Poem/Reflection for Thanksgiving Day                                 St. Andrew's Church, Nags Head, N.C. November 28, 2019                                                                  Thomas E. Wilson, Supply Clergy

Deuteronomy 26:1-11             Psalm 100       Philippians 4:4-9            John 6:25-35

The Thanksgiving Gathering

My father used to have a saying. He had been a Major, a field grade officer, in the Marine Corps in World War II. When he was looking at his two oldest sons, trying to make them into gentlemen, instead of the louts we were acting like, he would say, “I was made an officer and a gentleman by an act of congress. It is really going to take more than that with you to make you two gentlemen.”



For number of years when I was growing up our family would make a trek to New Jersey to have thanksgiving with our cousins. The first trip was when I was in the 4^th grade, Paul and I were instructed to act like little gentlemen. My sister was always perfect, so she did not need reminding and my little brother was only four at the time and he had an excuse because of his age but he was a sweet kid anyway, unlike the terrors of his two older brothers.



It was a lot easier because my cousins were always polite and positive to us. There were four boys and two girls in that family of cousins. There was Len, at least a dozen years older who had a convertible and was SO COOL. He took us for a ride as Paul and I stood up in the back seat to catch all the wind There was Mike who laughed so much. There was Joe who had a collection of Buddy Holly records and opened for us the, to us, hidden world of Rock and Roll. Then there was John, who was so well manned because he was the one who was most religious, and we all knew he would end up being a Priest. Susan and Anne Marie were younger and so well behaved and played with my sister Anne Louise but they were used to putting up with boys and were gracious to us. They acted at least as if approved of us.  It was as if the whole family was thankful for us and they went out of their way to make room for us during our visits. Being thankful, it did not take much for us to be kind in return.



Today is Thanksgiving Day, a day passed by an act of Congress, but what will it take for us to be truly thankful. How much is enough? How much more do we need? Every year this day rolls up, and every year, after we have stuffed, eaten more than we can possibly digest, we begin a season of frantic shopping for more stuff. How much is it going to take?



In the lesson from Deuteronomy for today, the Hebrew children have been brought into the “Promised Land”, a “land flowing with milk and honey” but it does not seem to be enough for them to be truly thankful and to act in love and charity with our neighbors. Instead they tear apart the fabric of the society to build bigger barns to hold all the stuff they are withholding for caring for the needy. Their injustice and greed with end up destroying them. They end up with nothing because they thought they could never get enough. How much is it going to take for them to be thankful?



In the Gospel lesson, Jesus has fed the multitudes and they are back for more. He goes to the other side of the lake  to get away from their grasping for more. He says to them: "Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”



We tend to think of “eternal life” as life after we are dead, which is not bad, but I think that Jesus uses that phrase as meaning living right here and right now as if we were in the presence of the eternal. The eternal is infinite, more than we can possibly measure. It is beyond more. When we know that we are in the presence of that which is beyond more then we don't need to stuff ourselves and our lives because we are afraid of not having enough. In the presence of the eternal we begin the process of emptying ourselves, unburdening. Jesus says, “Come unto me all of you who are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.” Refresh – make us new again without all that baggage we do not really need. How much is it going to take for us to be thankful?



My oldest cousin, Len, more 15 years older than me, was so open in welcome and I thought he was so gifted and knew everything would go right for him. He led a very good life but not everything was perfect. One of his children was a daughter who is a Thalidomide survivor. Thalidomide was a drug now used for cancer treatment, but a half century ago it was given to pregnant women for relief of morning sickness until it dawned on the government that it caused malformations in limbs of the babies. Carolyn does not see herself as a victim, which would make the drug company the winner, but she sees herself as a survivor, having the strength to meet each new day for which she is thankful. When I read what she writes, I hear my cousin Len, and I think, “She comes from good stock.” Her life could have easier if the drug companies would have been less greedy, but that is not the world we live in right now. She keeps making choices to be thankful. How much does it take for us to be thankful?



Thank you for coming here to take the time to say we have more than enough for which to be thankful for being in the presence of the eternal.





The Thanksgiving Gatherings

The counters are sagging with weight of the meal

Bringing together those different family and friends

Waiting for stories to pause, parade coming to ends.

Latest babies passed around making pictures real.

The empty places speaking of conflicting agenda

And repositioning members through the mazes

of relationships. A religious ceremony amazes

new friends acting as this year’s new addenda.

Folding tables and chairs are borrowed to give

Each an awareness that all belong in this gathering

Of noisy laughs, kisses, hugs, even some blathering,

Finding a seat and voice to all coming here to live

In this day long moment of giving God Thanks

While regretting our yearlong posing as cranks.

Poem/Reflection for Christ the King Sunday 2019

A Poem/Reflection for Feast of Christ the King         St. Andrew's Church, Nags Head, NC

 November 24, 2019                                                    Thomas E. Wilson, Supply

Jeremiah 23:1-6                      Colossians 1:11-20                             Luke 23:33-43

“in him all things hold together”

Today is the Feast of Christ the King, as the author of the Colossians letter writes: “In him all things hold together.” 

When I was growing up in the Episcopal Church, with the 1928 Prayer Book, this Sunday was called the Last Sunday in Trinity, often called “Stir Up” Sunday, from the first words of the collect for that Sunday, which would inevitably lead to a sermon illustration on the old tradition that this was the time to make Christmas Pudding,  a stirring up the ingredients of that fruity pudding before the month long process of letting the alcohol do its work, until that day, Christmas Day, when it would be once again drenched with brandy, set on fire and brought in to the Christmas Feast, just like in Dickens' Christmas Carol. 


In my family we didn't do puddings that didn't come from a box, so I just assumed that the Priest was referring to Fruit Cakes, which we knew was soon to arrive in the mail, encased in tins from relatives who had made them to be served on Christmas, but not set on fire.


In 1925, Roman Catholic Pope Pius XI set up a Feast of Christ the King for the last Sunday of October. Pius looking at the world in alarm uses the language of nostalgia. The world had changed since the 1^st World war, the war to end all wars, except it brought confusion and turmoil as the old social order of Kings, being swept away with revolutions in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Russia, Spain, Portugal, China, and the Ottoman Empires. The remaining Kings sitting on thrones were now seen as mere figureheads over weak democracies or authoritarian movements like Mussolini in Italy. Worldwide, there was increasing secularization of society as workers demanded rights, middle classes demanded modernization and rigid class structures were weakened. Pius was attempting to remind us that even while the days of earthy Kings seem to be passing, we must hold on to Christ as our King over daily life.  


In 1969, Pope Paul VI, moving away from the alarm of Pius to a hope for a better future if we look to the one in whom “all things hold together”, changed the date of the Feast to the last Sunday of the Liturgical year, a time to look back in remembrance, giving thanks for the previous year and to make a commitment to live under the rule of Christ to make a world of justice and peace. During the Ecumenical movement in the 70's, Protestant churches started to adopt a Common Lectionary which made reference to a Feast of Christ the King.


What would our world look like if we seriously took on the idea that Christ, the one in whom all things hold together, is the ruler of our lives? Suppose we look at the strutting popinjays who like to pose as Masters of the Universe, and instead of being impressed, threatened or awed, we feel sadness for those tiny little men obsessed by greed and insecurity, praying for them instead and the opening of the eyes of delusion for their followers?


Suppose we begin spending more time and energy loving and less time and energy hating? Love takes courage while hate takes fear. Suppose we asked each day for the courage to meet the day ahead as a gift from a loving God, looking for ways to redeem the events instead of reflexively condemning them?


Suppose we look at our neighbor as a fellow child of God in a universe of abundance rather than a competitor in a world of scarcity? Suppose we see forgiveness not as a burden but as an opportunity for a better future to set ourselves free from the past?

Suppose we wake up each morning not as one more deadly day to put up with, but as the beginning of a new life, a resurrected life? Suppose if we wash our hands and faces in the morning, we would be reminded of our Baptism of being born anew, of the breaking of the water from the womb of God at the birth of the world?


Suppose we were to eat the meals we have as the fruit of the earth given for us to nourish the giving of ourselves to nourish a better world? Suppose, as we eat the bread and drink the wine at the service, we see ourselves as becoming what we eat, the body and blood of Christ in this world? 


Suppose we were to take the wages we receive not as our own private treasure to meet our own desires and to give whatever is left over as the resented rent of living in this country where there is poverty and want, but to rejoice on how much we have left over after we have given the first fruits of love? Suppose we were not to live in the license to do whatever we want to do, but to live in the peace and freedom of a disciplined life?


Suppose we were not to assume that a person's worth is dependent on possessions, accomplishments or the approval of others, but our worth is found in Christ’s love, a love so great that he died so that we might know how much love he had for us? Suppose in the middle of things going bad instead of looking upon ourselves and cursing our fate and others, we give thanks and ask for a strength that passes all understanding?


Suppose instead of living in fear in the shadow of the day of our death, we might see that the words have come true right here and right now, “Truly I say unto you, today you are with me in paradise.” Suppose today, every day, is the first day of living in God's presence?


Just suppose “in him all things hold together”.

“in him all things hold together”

Kings are supposed be stronger ruler,

as if they were used to being in charge,

face a visage where power is writ large,

kind to friends and to enemies crueler.

This King, yet over enemies doesn’t trod

as conqueror, but rather as loving friend,

emptying self out, supporting to the end,

forgiving; not forgetting all belong to God.

This King, with convict thieves surrounded,

scorned by the town’s so-called good folk,

looks to Heaven, meekly accepting a yoke,

not forcing others their sins compounded.

This King, awakening from the lonely tomb,

calls us awake anew from our God’s womb.

Poem/Reflection: Creating A New Heaven and A New Earth:

A Poem and Reflection for XXIII Pentecost (proper 25C)       St. Andrew’s, Nags Head, N.C. 
November 17, 2019                                                                  Thomas E Wilson, Supply

Isaiah 65:17-25          Psalm 98         2 Thessalonians 3:6-13            Luke 21:5-19

Creating A New Heaven and A New Earth

 The Hebrew Testament lesson for today is from the Book of Isaiah, which many scholars have divided into three parts. The first part is set in the 8^th Century BC. The prophet Isaiah is in the Temple in the year that King Uzziah died (742 BC) when he has a vision calling him to confront the leaders of the Kingdom with the rampant corruption of the legal and religious institutions which end up with the poor and vulnerable being abused. He calls on a reform to live into God’s vision for the community of God in which there would be care and respect for the poor and needy. He is in a tense relationship with the Temple, on the one hand he knows the Temple has been part of his and the communities’ life for hundreds of years and it is corrupt. While it is part of the problem, Isaiah still has hope for the better angels of their natures to answer God’s pleas for justice and mercy.

The first 39 chapters of the Book of Isaiah belong to this 1^st (or Proto) Isaiah. He will gather a group of younger disciples around him who will continue the message after Isaiah dies. There are some sporadic reforms, but they are short lived, and the old ways do not die out. Finally, the Kingdom falls to the Babylonians and the Temple is destroyed in 587 BC. The destruction of the Temple was a horrible tragedy, but part of the cost of the arrogance of the leaders. The exile was a horrible thing but one of the best things to happen to the faith of the people. The exiles found that their LORD was to be found not in a building but wherever and whenever two or three would gather together in prayer. 

The school of the Prophet Isaiah holds on to Isaiah’s vision and will continue sharing the original hope of the prophet with the exiles in Babylon. They are to forget the Temple made of stone and remember a relationship with the God that is not trapped in a building. 40 years later, the Babylonian Empire falls to the Medes and the Persians and the Persian rulers allow the exiles to return home.  The followers of Isaiah write to those coming home to look not for a Temple as the center of their worship to solve problems but a to continue as a community working together to build a new commonwealth of justice and compassion. True worship is in caring, sharing and working together with God’s spirit. The part of the Book of Isaiah covering this ministry to the exiles and the welcome of their return we call 2^nd or (Deutero) Isaiah.

The same spirit of the original Prophet Isaiah now faces the time after the exiles return and the hope for the future. These chapters are what we call 3^rd or Trito Isaiah, which sees God working through them to build a new Heaven and a new earth. It is a vision of the future. There is no Temple there for the true Temple will be in their hearts and in their lives.

However, the people build a second Temple and place God in there instead of in their lives. Four centuries later, the Temple gets all tarted up by Herod with Roman help, so that it looks like a real downtown Temple like all the other Gods have. Jesus looks at it and sees this corrupt and gaudy building, all impressed with itself, with the eyes of Isaiah and sees a waste of energy and money. People are putting their faith in a building and ritual instead of placing their lives in relationship with God.

The destruction of the Temple, while a real tragedy, was one of the best things to happen to the followers of Jesus, because it sets them free to live fully into the living Spirit of God. Jesus’ followers do not build Temples and buildings, for they see the real temple as God’s resurrected Christ’s spirit living within the changed people and in the space between them in the community coming together in Christ’s name. Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians warned about people just going showing up instead of working by giving the gifts that they were given by God; everybody had to work together to bring change into the world. The English word “church” comes from the Greek word kyrios, meaning Lord; church meant the people who belonged to the LORD, not the building belonging to the people. Another Greek word for church is the ekklesia, meaning the people gathered.

However, that started to change when the church got legal in the Roman Empire and wanted to look like a “real” religion and have fancy buildings with lots of gaudy trim to impress the outsiders and themselves with how important they were. In that configuration the church came to mean buildings and those who staffed them, hired ministers. These churches tended to become as corrupt as the old Temple concept, where the church was seen to meet the needs of the members instead of the vision of God.  Jesus kept reminding them that stone buildings don’t last, only God’s spirit lasts. We are not here to throw holy water on corrupt institutions. Billy Sunday used to say: “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile.”

Over the coming centuries Prophets and saints would come and call us to return to the vision of Isaiah and Jesus. One of those people was a man we remembered two weeks ago at the Wednesday service. He was William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury during World War II. Who said: “The church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.”

In the history of Nags Head there was a chapel built in the 1850’s, during a time in history when most Southerners had little problem with what they called “our way of life” or “our peculiar institution” of the exploitation of fellow images of God based on the color of their skin. The State of North Carolina’s Constitution backed up what most of the churches in the state taught and put a limit on the number of slaves that could be set free and laws kept slave owners from Baptizing or educating their slaves because they realized that real Christianity might help them to hear about God’s love instead of the state’s fear. The time came for facing that corruption and injustice in the Civil War, choices needed to be made.

On one side, for example, we have Bishop Leonidas Polk, of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana, born in Raleigh and his first church was in Fayetteville.  He took leave of his calling and, because of his connections and previous military training, he was a classmate with Jefferson Davis at West Point, he became a General in the Confederate Army of Tennessee. He announced his decision because of his belief that Federal Government had no power to ruin the “Southern way of Life,” meaning slavery. As a North Carolina native, he believed slavery was God’s will for inferior people, as well as an economic necessity for profitable agriculture in the South if they would have to pay workers rather than own them.

On the other side, runaway slaves escaped to the Outer Banks which was held by Union soldiers and the slaves were kept as wartime contraband, not full human beings until the Emancipation Proclamation a few years later. The runaways needed shelter, so the chapel was torn down for timbers to build shelter for the contraband. It was horrible to tear down the Chapel, but it was one of the best things to happen to the church that replaced it. The metaphor of the loss of arrogance helped future members of St. Andrew’s to start to remember what a church was supposed to be: a community devoted to changing the world instead of an institution to throw holy water on corrupt and unjust ways.

This is where we are right now as we search for a new Rector. What are you looking for? Are you looking for someone who will run an institution to meet the needs and desires of the people who claim membership in this parish? Or, are you looking for someone who can enter into, and challenge, a community with members and model what it means to live in the Spirit working together to do God’s work in the larger community of the Outer Banks? The buildings of St. Andrew’s are beautiful, but they are not the mission of St. Andrew’s. The services are inspiring, but they are not the mission of St. Andrew’s. We are here to change the world, not retreat from it. We are, as Isaiah says, called to be co-creators of a “new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I am creating;”

Creating A New Heaven and A New Earth

Third Isaiah has a new vision for the people,

coming back to the light, ending darkness,

clutching hope, standing on ruined edifice,

to raise a new faith, not just another steeple.

Centuries later looking at a ruin soon to be,

Jesus will repeat all the three Isaiahs hopes,

arrogance brings ruin, but God changes folks,

to dream of new times when they'll be free.

Free from past seduction by tawdry grandeur,

being able to see true worth of work meant,

to change worlds, to sing rather than lament,

of sharing riches rather than abusing of poor.

Timbers of a church housed runaway slaves,

teaching us churches are not religious caves.

Times, I Wish I'm As Clever As A Sadducees

Poem and Reflection for XXII Pentecost (proper 27C)       St. Andrew’s Church Nags Head, N.C. November 11, 2019                                                               Thomas E Wilson, Supply Clergy

Haggai 1:15b-2:9           2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17                  Luke 20:27-38

Times, I Wish I’m As Clever As A Sadducee

In the Gospel lesson for today Jesus has an encounter with a group of Sadducees. The Sadducees were a party that had its roots in the Temple Hierarchy of the 2^nd Temple after the return from the Babylonian Captivity. This is the Temple that Haggai is referring to in the Hebrew Testament lesson. The Sadducees tended to be members of the aristocracy. They believed that the Temple was the pathway to a relationship with God through worship ceremony led by the Priests on Holy Days. They had all the answers. They were different from the Pharisees who were centered in the Synagogue worship experience, gatherings of people centered on the study of scripture, led by a Rabbi who would do daily and weekly prayers They believed that the Temple was corrupt and it was only in leading a pure life that led to a relationship with God. They also knew all the answers. Two groups knowing all the answers, but the answers were different. 


Isn’t it great to have all the answers? Especially if you can surround yourself with people who have the same answers. I remember when I was in college and there was a group of us Dramas majors who would gather in the cafeteria or a restaurant  around a big table and act as if we the modern equivalent of the Algonquin Round Table with fabulously witty and sophisticated people passing judgment on all those less enlightened peasants who didn’t have the clue about the right answers. We thought we were wonderful, but we were insufferable. We would see a play or movie and rip it apart with criticism and suggest that we would have done it better. There is an old poem: “You can tell a freshman by his silly, eager look / You can tell a sophomore ’cause he carries one less book / You can tell a junior by his fancy airs and such / You can tell a senior, but you can’t tell him much.”  We were ahead of the curve; sophomores who had all the answers and you could not tell us a thing. I sure miss being so sure of myself. We acted as if we had all the answers because, deep down, we feared appearing as if didn’t have it all together. Behind arrogance is always fear.


Years ago, when I was working for a living, part of my time was counseling with addicts; and at the start of the session a  client was asked what was going on with them. If they would respond that they were “fine”; either the co-leader or I would say; “Oh yes, you are FINE, that is why you are here. F for all FUSSED UP (or a variation of that), I  for INSECURE, N for NEUROTIC, and E for EGOTISTICAL. FINE!


The Sadducees believed that God was in heaven and we were not to even consider that we were pure enough to enter into heaven, where God lived and ruled. We could however, plead through the proper channels in the Temple to the far-off God. This life was all there was and if you were a faithful worshipper then you could expect rewards from God in this life. If you messed up; there was a service and sacrifice for that. The afterlife was sort of a muddy existence; you are in the dirt and dead is dead. The closest they had to an afterlife is to have sons who would keep their names alive, generation after generation until the end of time.


The Pharisees, on the other hand. believed it was possible to be pure enough to enter into God’s presence. One had to lead a blameless life following the law, staying away from unclean persons and foreigners in order to get into heaven after you were dead, where you would be given the rewards you may have missed while on the earth. Jesus was distrusted by both sides, he seemed to think that a relationship with God was not dependent of correct worship, or perfect behavior but a loving grace from God.


In today’s lesson, the Sadducees ask Jesus a clever question about the afterlife while taking a side swipe to the Pharisees. The Levirate Law, followed by the Pharisees, said that a family member had to marry a brother’s widow to have children who would inherit the dead brother’s estate. It kept the property in the clan. The Sadducees place the dilemma in the afterlife on whose husband still owns the widow.


Marriage was not a question of love but a clan cementing its wealth. You usually married someone who was within the clan structure. The Bride was purchased from her father, she was his property and by the “brideswealth” given, the husband’s property after the banquet and the proof of the purity of the goods on the wedding night, after all you didn’t want to be sold a bill of goods.  A Husband could have more than one wife, just like today a man could have more than one car, more than one house; it depends on what you could afford. The wife would refer to her husband as her lord and he was the one through whom they could know God.


For Jesus the eternal life doesn’t begin after we die, rather it begins by living in the eternal right here and right now while we are still alive; on earth as it is in heaven. In this life we are free from acknowledging all the petty lords that claim to own us, for there is only one Lord. Living in the eternal means that marriages are not about people being property, or the all importance of clans, but the equality of all people under one Lord. Jesus saw the old kind of marriage as as part of the dying old age that is passing away. No longer would we be taken or given in marriage, but, in this new age, we are joined as part of a larger family who care for one another. Resurrection begins now, when we walk away from the tomb of the past and walk in the loving grace of God.


The older I get the more I realize that there is a lot I don’t have the answers to. I still have moments when I want to say, “I know it all!” But one advantage of marriage is I have a wife and daughter, and living in a community I have friends, who can remind that I am far from knowing it all. As for the afterlife; I don’t have all the answers about what will happen after my body wears out by accident or design. All I know is that I am loved today, and, a bit like Pascal’s Wager, I make the assumption that God’s love does not end. In every moment living in eternal life in God’s love now, I have everything to gain.





Times, I Wish I’m As Clever As A Sadducee

Times, I wish I’m as clever as a Sadducee

being able to string together arguments,

that can look like they’ll make real sense,

observers will stand and yell “Whoopee!”

Trouble was, then I was an undergraduate,

full of fear of being taught something new,

that might take my ignorance beyond a clue,

then I’d just stand, gape into wonder’s gate.

I am now too used to being daily in awe,

content in limited ignorance as chosen due,

living a life of hope for future beyond view,

faithfully trusting in what isn’t settled law.

I know I will die, entering the undiscovered

Country; guessing in all Divine Love covered.

Dana and Monte Wedding Poem

Dana Warren Corsi and Monte Christopher Ruder

November 9, 2019

Today we’re so glad you guys didn’t back out

of making promises you’ll need help keeping.

we’ll try to be there before you start weeping,

about how you’re tempted to do a bailout.

Your marriage does not just belong to you

as your own special treasure, its ours as well,

for we are all stakeholders, committed to tell

you we want to believe in a hope that is true.

A kind of Hope giving us strength to keep on

trusting in a power greater than ourselves living

in space between us, helping us to trust in giving

through dark times to get to bright new dawn.

Gifts we gave are down payments, a credit line,

to listen, hold, pray, laugh as signs of love divine.