Today's Gospel presents us with a conflict between Jesus and a small but influential sect within first-century Judaism: the Sadducees. In a bizarre attempt to trick Jesus, they spin a story which we might call “One Bride for Seven Brothers.”  (The similarly-titled Hollywood musical, 7 brides for 7 brothers, is a lot more fun, with fantastic dancing!)  But for the Sadducees, this is no laughing matter.  Their whole convoluted story is a legalistic attempt to trick Jesus, to ridicule his belief in the Resurrection.    

Now just who were the Sadducees?  Luke introduces them as "those who say there is no resurrection."  You might call them the original religious fundamentalists: a priestly, aristocratic body, centered in Jerusalem, whose adherents accepted only the Pentateuch – the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures – as authentic divine revelation.  To them, even the Pharisees were suspicious innovators, for they accepted the message of the Prophets, the wisdom writings, and the oral tradition handed down through the Rabbis as also part of God's law.   From their perspective, this idea of resurrection was just another dangerous new idea, a liberal innovation to be put down. 

In fact, it took the Jewish people many centuries to grow into their belief in the Resurrection of the dead. Hinted at in the Law, appearing more explicitly in the prophets, it entered mainstream Jewish belief in the 2^nd century B.C., in the context of the persecution endured by the Jews under the Persian King Antiochus, which we hear about in today’s poignant first reading. This account of a mother who courageously bears witness, along with her seven sons, laying down their lives rather than deny their faith, evokes the memory of all those throughout history (and who still today) face ridicule, persecution, and even death for fidelity to faith and conscience. 

At the time of Christ, the majority of Jews did live in hope of some form of eternal reward, but there was far from universal theological or popular agreement on this.   But instead of seriously engaging the question of the Resurrection, the Sadducees trivialize it, make it look ridiculous by creating the unlikely story of a woman who marries seven brothers, one after another, in order to satisfy the alleged responsibility of an unmarried brother to raise up children for his dead kinsman through his widow.  

This is still a very popular political game. Make your opponent look sufficiently ridiculous, treat them as an object of scorn, call them names and threaten them, so that you don't have to engage them at the level of ideas and policies that affect real people.  Create a problem that doesn’t really exist, and use that to divide people and distract them from the real issues that need to be faced.  (If you are catching a reference here to the travesty which is the U.S. election, you are on the right track!)  Not being overburdened by party politics, Jesus is smart enough not to fall into their trap.  He refuses to be drawn into stupid arguments or distracted by irrelevant stories.  Instead, he moves the whole debate to a higher level.  

Jesus' concern is for people, for their relationship to God and one another.  Moreover, Jesus takes the equality of men and women seriously.  He refuses to accept the idea that a woman is simply a piece of property to be passed on from one man to another, so that children may be "produced".  Jesus takes the dignity of this woman just as seriously as that of the seven brothers, and in the context of a patriarchal culture, gives a most surprising answer: that she doesn’t "belong" to any of them.  Just as much as her husbands, she too is a child of the resurrection, and will belong just as fully to God as they do.  And for the women here today, just think about it.  As much as you might love your husband, would you really want to be stuck with seven husbands for all eternity?  You might wonder whether you had been sent to the wrong place!  

Jesus answers the question by talking them back to the core experience that shaped Jewish experience: The Exodus.  The God of the patriarchs, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was the same God who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, who intervened to deliver them from slavery in Egypt.  God is the God of the living.  There exists a relationship between God and each of us that nothing can overcome or destroy - not even death. 

This is the core of Jesus' message.  It is the path he takes as he goes up to Jerusalem, sharing in our death that we might share in his Resurrection.    Jesus knew what was waiting for him in Jerusalem.  Like the Maccabee brothers and their mother in the first reading today, he knew that by remaining faithful to his Father's plan, he was likely to encounter opposition, persecution, death even.  But believing passionately that the Father would raise him up, living fully out of his love and unity with God, Jesus received the strength to embrace the Cross, which became the sign and source of salvation for all humanity.

This weekend, we welcome the families and friends of nearly 40 parishioners whose funerals have taken place at St. Monica’s over the past year. Intimately aware of the grief and loss that experience the death of a loved one, they (you) are also aware of the hope and consolation that comes from faith.   Many of you have also written the names of family members and friends in our “In Loving Memory” books.  You know the meaning of grief, the pain of loss.  Perhaps, you have also tasted the consolation of knowing that in some mysterious way, your loved one is still present to you.  In memories both fond and bittersweet; in the physical features, mannerisms, and values of those whose lives they touched; in the mystical connection which our faith calls “the communion of saints”, which we profess in our Creed every Sunday.  For death is not the final answer.  It is not the end, but a time of transition: a threshold between this world and the next, between time and eternity.  Our God is a God of life:  Jesus came “that we might have life, and have it to the full."

To live faith in the Resurrection is not to reject this life, to deny its importance, in favour of some promised future life.  It is to live this life with passion, with love, with intentionality, precisely because our life is transcendent, whether we are conscious of it or not.  Our faith expresses itself in values now revealed to have transcendent worth: values of compassion and forgiveness; of welcome and acceptance, especially of those who are different; of service, generosity, and love.  Each day, we are invited to lay down our lives in fidelity to those values: perhaps not physically, but morally, moving beyond self-interest, refusing to make our own needs or desires the sole focus of our lives.  This cannot be commanded by a law or charter or election result.  It requires a living relationship with the One who did lay own his life, and who offers to those who live by the values he embodied a share in his eternal life, right here and now.

Next Friday is Remembrance Day.  As we pray for our beloved dead, let us also pray for peace, for an end to all wars.  Let us not forget the courage of those who, like the Maccabean martyrs in today’s 1^st reading, were willing to lay down their lives in defense of their nation, their people, their faith, their core values: freedom, justice, courage, compassion, and the fundamental dignity of all God’s children, especially the most vulnerable.

Who are the martyrs, the heroes of today?  Who will carry the torch of the Maccabees, of the martyrs, of those who gave their lives in order that we might be free?  How can we BE the change we want to see in the world? 

Love is the answer.  Jesus, who is Love, is the Resurrection and the Life.  Let us not only remember, but imitate our heroes: may we pledge faith with all the martyrs, all the saints, all who have died for their faith, all who gave up their lives in the service of justice and freedom.