To the Letter

Luke 20:27-38 CEB
    Some Sadducees, who deny that there’s a resurrection, came to Jesus and asked,  “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a widow but no children, the brother must marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first man married a woman and then died childless. The second and then the third brother married her. Eventually all seven married her, and they all died without leaving any children. Finally, the woman died too. In the resurrection, whose wife will she be? All seven were married to her.”
     Jesus said to them, “People who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage.  But those who are considered worthy to participate in that age, that is, in the age of the resurrection from the dead, won’t marry nor will they be given in marriage.  They can no longer die, because they are like angels and are God’s children since they share in the resurrection. Even Moses demonstrated that the dead are raised—in the passage about the burning bush, when he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.  He isn't the God of the dead but of the living. To him they are all alive.”

How does one start a new year? This is the question I tried to answer. This is the first post in a new year for Fig Tree Christian.

I think what I can do for this week is share the pitfalls we as readers and writers come up against. We have metaphorical Pharisee's and Sadducees today, and each comes in different form. This message today is simple. Be careful who you read and what they say.

The Sadducees are kinda like the Gnostics. We have tons written about them but nothing first hand. For the Gnostics, most of their first hand experience was purposefully destroyed. Their wild and crazy ideas led to the Apostles Creed. People were so offended by what the Gnostics said, it organized the church. The Sadducees, on the other hand, as the Jewish writer Josephus put it, were boorish. Their wild and crazy ideas did not lead to unity. They supposedly were more about division and, in some ways, creating it. They didn't really get along with anyone. Even Herod was suspicious of them. They were by no means buddies with the Pharisees. Well, they did seem to get along with one group, the Roman elite. 

 Realize the Sadducees were not around to play nice except with their friends, if their friends got them invites to the parties or special gifts. Today we have our Pharisees and Sadducees. The Pharisees are the leaders in the church who refrain from change because good change would cause them to lose power. The church is dying and these people are more concerned with themselves. Leadership comes in many forms and doesn't preclude anyone with a 'Rev.' in front of their name.

The Sadducees are far more powerful today. They are the bloggers on the internet who use their soap box to spread an agenda instead of a message. They look to page hits and take scandalous points of view to get those hits. They get away with it because people don't question what is said on the internet. We are becoming lazy. We are at fault. What this scripture does is call out those who were just after power grabbing rather than true educating. The message is simple: Stop keeping our focus on the dead issues. God is for the living. Now there are good and bad writers on the internet. I know some really good ones. This isn't an all or nothing game. We just have to realize, just because it goes by a Christian name doesn't mean it's worth reading. (Or in the case of the Sadducees, worth listening to.) That's all I have to say today. Engage back- including me. I will always admit when I am wrong. I am after the truth, not an agenda. Finally, don't allow Sadducees to hold the megaphone on the internet.

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