NOVEMBER 9, 2019- SUMMARY SERMON – JOHN TSCHUDY
SCRIPTURE LESSON- HAGGAI 1:15-2:9, 2 THESSALONIANS 2:13-17, LUKE 20:27-38
The hardest part of this week’s sermon may be which text do I start with.  In Haggai we are at that time in Jewish history where Jerusalem and the temple have been destroyed and the leadership has been led into exile.  Because the temple has been destroyed the act of making a sacrifice to God, the central act of Judaism can’t be done because it must be done on the alter in the temple.  Imagine looking around you and everything of value in your community has been destroyed and you can’t even maintain the proper relationship you are called to have with God.  How would you feel?  What would you think the future will be?  But in the darkest of this time comes the words of Haggai speaking for God that God is still with them and the promises of God made to Abraham and Moses and their ancestors will be kept in their time and Israel will be rebuilt.  There is an interesting line in this text where God claims that it is God that owns all of the silver and gold.  This is another biblical teaching that tends to get overlooked in the modern church of all types.  There is an old hymn we use to sing instead of the Doxology when the offering is brought forward and perhaps we should go back to that tradition.  I notice it isn’t in the newer hymnals but most of the older ones have it.  “We give thee but thine own, what e’re the gift may be.  All that we have is thine alone, a trust O Lord from thee.”  That use to be what the church would teach.  I wonder why we changed?  The point is even in the darkest hour God is with us and even when there seems to be no hope, God is there for us and we are dependent on God for what we need.  
Part of the problem of the Old Jewish Law was that it was written to be followed in this world and had been interpreted to fit this world and thus could be guided by this world’s standards.  Thus as our Gospel lesson demonstrates it was easy to obey the letter of the law while ignoring the real moral intent of the law.  The Jewish Law on marriage was written in a culture and a time where women had a difficult time living without the protection of a man and a man who would provide for her physical needs and the needs of her children.  It was also written for a culture which was often a warrior culture, so a woman’s husband was often killed in battle.  Thus a way to provide for the dead man’s family had to be found.  Also if the dead man didn’t have a way of providing a blood male heir had to be found, thus the law said the dead man’s brother had to take the widow into his home as his wife.  Remember at this time a man could have up to four wives.
In this context the Sadducees set up this false case to test Jesus.  It was common for a man to obey the letter of the law and take his dead brother’s widow in but that didn’t always mean he provided for her needs.  Remember the Sadducees don’t believe in the developing idea of life after death and thus are pushing Jesus on that idea.  Jesus’ answer to them is their thinking is only about living in this world not in the world that is to come.  The world that is to come, functions in a way totally different from the world today and as followers of God we are called to live as if we are in that world that is to come, rather than being bound by the attitudes of this physical world we live in.    
In Haggai the physical world is without hope but as children of God they are to put their faith in God and the future world that God promised to those that came before them.  The people of Jerusalem are supposed to live for the future, with their Faith in the promises of God, even if it defies their physical surroundings in the world of today.  That same goes for followers of Christ, who are called to live as if they are already living in the world that is to come and not bound by the physical world, with its rules  seemingly carved in stone that can’t be challenged.