Daily Office

Daily Office, Proper 6, Wednesday: Living in the Resurrection

Today's Readings:

• Psalm 119:97-120
• 1 Samuel 2:12-26
• Acts 2:1-21
• Luke 20:27-40

Samuel is a rough read. It's hard to hear about God not letting someone hear the truth because God wants to kill that person. It is not easy to hear it when God 'hardens the heart' of the Pharoh in Exodus, it is not easy to hear that He 'hardens the hearts' of Eli's sons. It's the action of a tribal God, but when the book of Samuel was written, monothiesm didn't have its modern meaning. The Jews were probably henotheists, as other Old Testament language hints at.
I've heard the story of Pentecost from Acts many times in my life. Reading it today I realize something that I didn't notice before: Peter describes the gift of Pentecost (of speaking with a universal translator) as a sign of the last days. I'm also interested by the fact that the devout Jews, having the gift of tongues, did not teach about Jesus, but about God. The Trinity had not been established yet, but even with Trinitarian language we have to be careful. I heard one young woman talk about 'when Jesus created the world' and I heard someone on the Sid Roth show say that he read about Jesus is Genesis. The Trinity doen't work like that for me, so I have a hard time not screaming at the radio when I hear something so blatantly wrong. Oddly enough, I have no problem saying that our gifts come from God, and they come from the Holy Spirit. Jesus teaches. God never taught the masses, He has always relied on prophets. But, I digress.
Jesus avoids another trick question with an honest answer. Basically, there is no marriage in heaven. We learned this in our pre-marital counsiling sessions, but didn't really know where that statement came from. Now I know. But more importantly, Jesus says that "God is not the God of the Dead, but of the Living." Those who have died and have lived rightly live in "the resurrection." To God, Moses, Abraham, etc., are Alive. Since I tend to avoid any talk of the afterlife, I need to remember this and re-examine it.

posted by Josh English @ 12:57 PM