Musical Prelude and Service

Psalm 145:1–5, 17–21 & Luke 20:27–38
I want to offer up a few thoughts on the passage from Luke before moving on to discussing the
importance of Remembrance Day. This passage about resurrection and marriage can be a touch
confusing or perplexing. What is Jesus saying about marriage? What is Jesus saying about
relationships in the resurrection?
It helps to know a little about the Sadducees and their relationship to the Pharisees to appreciate
what is going on here. The Sadducees were a branch of Judaism at the time of Jesus who were very
temple focused in their theology around the relationship between God and the people of Israel.
They also didn’t believe in the idea of resurrection.
The Sadducees in question seem to be engaged in a form of debate that involves posing an absurd
hypothetical situation to trap Jesus into a position that will essentially embarrass him and the
Pharisees who also believe in the resurrection. And that brings us to the system or tradition of what
is referred to as Levirate Marriage which is being used here to question resurrection.
In this system, a man has a responsibility to his brother to ensure his memory in the community is
preserved; in particular through the continuation of his lineage. So if a man dies before securing an
heir, his brother will marry the man’s widow to ensure a son is born.
In an article on Leveriate Marriage, Avishalon Westreich notes that the purpose of levirate marriage is
to ensure continuation for the deceased (both by reproduction and by preserving his land within
the family), as it is stated: ‘And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his
brother who is dead, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.’
Westreich also points out that historically, that tradition also serves to financially protect the widow.
What might become very apparent here is the lack of any choice or decision making on the part of
the widow here. The ultimate question of the Sadducees might be put as, ‘who does the woman
belong to when all are resurrected?’
The premise of this question is that all shall remain the same in the next world. Resurrection involves
restoring all to the way it was before. Jesus rejects that premise. We belong to God. We are
connected to God. That does not reject intimate relationships with those we love. But we are not
possessions of another to be kept in that bondage in a new life.
But, if I am fixing my attention on remembrance; and in particular Remembrance Day this morning,
where do I go from here? And I must confess that for all the problematic presumptions of Levirate
Marriage and the role it assigns to half the population, commitment to preserving the memory of
one’s brother is where I want to focus this morning. There is a communal responsibility to honour the
memory and lineage of a sibling. Yes, this particular tradition is very patriarchal and reduces women
to their ability to provide an heir. But I am drawn to the idea that the community has a responsibility
to the memory of those who have died.
In the same way, the Psalm we read this morning is fixed on the idea of remembering what we have
endured, and how God has provided for us and strengthened us in our time of need. We are gifted
with a memory. We are blessed by the ability to recall what we have endured and what we have
received. And we are called to praise God and give thanks to God for those memories.
This Psalm essentially says, ‘remember your history. Remember your story and old on to it and hold
on to God.’
So, how do we remember? And why do we remember?
Today is Remembrance Sunday. It is the Sunday we take to commemorate Remembrance Day, which
is set aside to remember and honour those who made a sacrifice for our country in armed conflict.
Now. On a personal note, I have no memory of most of the wars Canada has participated in.
Years and generations of family separate me from the World Wars and from Korea. My experience,
or lack thereof with war, is the same as a great many Canadians of my generation and younger.
But this is not only about personal experience. It’s about community; about the country. This is about
ensuring that we as a society do not forget what happened.
We as a country decided it was crucial to go to war on different occasions. We as a country decided
we must send men and women into armed conflict in South Africa in 1900, in World War 1, World
War 2 and Korea. We chose to send soldiers to Afghanistan and to countless Peace Keeping
operations over the decades.
These are decisions that cost people their lives. They resulted in injury and wounds; physical, mental
and emotional. Those decisions, no matter what the merits, resulted in heartache and heartbreak for
loved ones who remained at home. They resulted in incalculable loss for communities across our
country.
I don’t want to get into a discussion or debate over the reasons or the morality of the choice to go to
war. To discuss whether the decision to go to war was necessary or if perhaps there was no real
choice.
For me, the relevant part is our country found it necessary to call on its young men and women to go
to war carrying our flag. To represent us. To kill for us and to die for us. That comes at a cost, and
not just for those who served. We have a responsibility as a community; as a people; to remember
that. We have a duty to listen, to read and to recall the stories, the memories and to honour the
experiences of those who served. And, if we care, if we truly want to honour those memories; to
learn from those stories.
Now, here’s a big question you might be asking right about now. Where is God in this sermon?
In the Psalm, we are called to thank God for God’s constant presence. To thank God for the gift of
memory. To remember that God is always there, guiding us and protecting us. To praise God and to
remember that God stays with us; even when things seem their darkest. God gifts us with a memory
and the ability to learn from our experiences. May we commit ourselves once again to learn from the
lessons so painfully earned by those whom we honour today. We are not condemned to repeat the
experiences of our history.
That, I want to believe, is part of what Jesus is trying to teach us in the story of the woman who is
widowed so many times. Part of the hope of resurrection is that we are born into something new.
Those whom we love are part of the resurrected world, but we are not bound to a world that has not
changed. Part of the hope of resurrection is the promise of a new world where love and peace and
justice are a priority. A world where human beings are not commodities to enrich or further the
selfish interests of others. The hope of the resurrection points us to a world where we are all
recognized as beloved children of God; free to live our lives in the protective shelter of God’s love
in relationship with who we choose; not based on the rules established by law and tradition.
We remember who we lost. We remember what they endured in our name. And we honour those
men and women who paid so heavy a cost. But we have a duty to learn from those memories and to
ask difficult questions before we make those same decisions in the future and ask this of people
tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and the day after that. Because we live with the hope of a new
world; a new life where such demands are not made of our friends, our families, our neighbours,
ourselves.
Thanks be to God.
Amen

Music provided with permission through licensing with CCLI License number
2701258 and One License # A-731789