We overwhelmingly want more of life either to continue the good life we have had or…another life to make up for the pain and suffering experienced perhaps year after year in this life. The Sadducees of Jesus’ time were oddly advocates for no Resurrection of the dead. They did not yearn for another life to continue or make up for this troubled one. They followed only the first five books of our Old Testament (The Pentateuch) and argued in clever ways against Jesus and, once again, oddly the Pharisees who also believed in Resurrection. The Sadducees seem almost modern in that so many in our own time disregard Eternal Life!

On All Saints Sunday we recognize not only the impact of the departed faithful upon our lives, but we trust them to the God of the living, the people of the Resurrected Lord who does not leave us to Death. This dimension of our faith is always subject to questions that surround us in loss and grief and absence. The cemeteries “seem” to remain as they are.

Christian Faith says otherwise at the very depth of our being. But, we are NOT Sadducees worrying about the peculiarities of translating this life into the Next! All that going on about who is married to whom in the Resurrection! There is always a healthy curiosity but we have little business speculating about it. That is finally God’s “business! And that is good!

So, let’s come in faith, hear the Scriptures read to fill us with trust, and remember and honor our dear departed saints. They live!
Blessings! Mazel Tov!

Pastor Barry