God of the Living

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, ‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally, the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed, they cannot die any more, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as 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 all of them are alive.’ Then some of the scribes answered, ‘Teacher, you have spoken well.’ For they no longer dared to ask him another question. Luke 20:27-40

I have spent a good deal of my life by the ocean and the sound of the surf still can lull me to sleep. Noone who spends time along the sea can fail to understand that it is teeming with life. Small crustaceans hide in every rock crevice, the outgoing tide deposits horseshoe crabs on the shore, and at night the tiny luminescence are visible in the rolling surf. There is life where we cannot see it as well. Deep in the depths the ocean teems with life. So too, our Creator, the God of the living, is renewing and restoring life in the places where we might not be able to see or to comprehend life. 

Great Creator, source of all life

the seas roars with your praises

the birds sing with love for you

all creation is alive with your spirit.

We only see life as we know it now

we fail to anticipate the renewing of life

we worry that there is nothing further for us

yet you hold us tenderly in your hands.

Help us to join all creation in song

for you are the God of the living

and those no longer here are with you

as we are too, loved completely by you. Amen.