The Gospel for WEDNESDAY, June 15, 2005 (Evelyn Underhill)
Luke 20:27-40
Some Sadducees—those who argue that there is no resurrection—approached him and they put this question to him, ‘Master, Moses prescribed for us, if a man’s married brother dies childless, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for his brother. Well then, there were seven brothers; the first, having married a wife, died childless. The second and then the third married the widow. And the same with all seven, they died leaving no children. Finally the woman herself died. Now, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be, since she had been married to all seven?’ Jesus replied, ‘The children of this world take wives and husbands, but those who are judged worthy of a place in the other world and in the resurrection from the dead do not marry because they can no longer die, for they are the same as the angels, and being children of the resurrection they are children of God. And Moses himself implies that the dead rise again, in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him everyone is alive.’ Some scribes then spoke up. They said, ‘Well put, Master.’ They did not dare to ask him any more questions. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1995, c1985
Why Not Eight Wives?
Jesus was not moved by yet another attempt to get him to trip over fine points of the add-ons to the Law. He had -- make that has -- a better message: YHWH considers all of us, for all time, as His beloved children, and he numbers the hair on each of our heads.
A Reflection
There seems to be some explicit ambiguity injected here by Jesus. It actually complements His placing the kingdom of heaven right here, right now -- as well as his reference to some time to come when the Son of man will return.
It is confusing to highly analytical people like me to have this both/and condition, without any criteria established as to the either/or that is implicit in the ambiguity created. We have kingdom now, and we shall have kingdom then; is the latter the continuation of the former, or is it in another dimension, or is it otherwise improved, somehow? And if YHWH is God of Abraham now, what will be the difference in their relationship, then?
The answers (if any) to these questions seem to be the kind that we need to think on and for which we should prayerfully listen. I don't expect lightning bolts of revelation about them, but when I am forced to think, reverently, about the borders and/or the overlaps of the imminent and the transcendant, I am improved merely by having "been there."
Unlike the scribes who decided to be silent in the face of Jesus' wisdom, we must dare to ask more questions, because we won't learn without doing so. Jesus wants us to recognize our right -- our duty -- to be inquisitive children of the Father. If we don't start asking now, we will be even less ready for the answers when we finally learn them!
The Collect
O God, Origin, Sustainer, and End of all your creatures: Grant that your Church, taught by your servant Evelyn Underhill, guarded evermore by your power, and guided by your Spirit into the light of truth, may continually offer to you all glory and thanksgiving, and attain with your saints to the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have promised us by our Savior Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever.
1:14:46 PM 
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