"Congratulations on Your New Location"

Introduction. At Duke University, a legendary story is told about four students who, before their final chemistry exam, took a road trip to the University of Virginia. They partied there too hard and too long, and got back to Duke too late to take the final. They sheepishly appeared before their chemistry professor, and told him a sad story they had devised on the ride home. They had left Virginia in plenty of time to be there for the exam, but, alas, they blew a tire, and their spare was flat. Consequently, they had difficulty getting back on the road, and thus were late, and very sorry. The professor was amazingly compassionate and understanding. He agreed to give them the exam the next day. So that next morning, the four students came into class prepared to take a chemistry exam. But they each received a piece of paper with only one question: Which tire went flat on your car? (William H. Willimon, "A New World," Pulpit Resource, October, November, December 2004, p. 26)

Move 1. Life is often compared to a test. Life’s challenges sometimes lead us to think, "I’m being tested," or "God is testing me." And in the end, life doesn’t provide simple answers to the questions we find ourselves wondering about.

Some questions are virtually unanswerable, at least in any systematic way. Why is there life? Why is there suffering and pain? What is the after-life like? A question is asked of Jesus in today’s scripture reading by some religious leaders of the day, the Sadducees–"There was a woman who got married. Her husband died. Then, in accordance with…the law of Israel, she was given in marriage to the dead man’s oldest brother. But unfortunately, that husband died shortly after their marriage. Then she was given to the next oldest brother, and he died! And then the next, and the next. Here is the exam question: Whose wife will she be in the resurrection?" (Willimon) Virtually unanswerable.

Some questions are answered in ways we might not imagine, though. The answer Jesus gives to his exam question is intriguing, and outside the box in which the Sadducees are trying trap him. His answer is this: "In this age, people marry, but in the age of the resurrection, they do not marry. They cannot die anymore because they are like angels and are children of God." (Willimon) Answers do sometimes come when we are able to look at questions in a different light, from a different vantage point. That’s those times when we go, "Hmmm, I never thought of it like that before."

Other times, answers to questions simply lead to other questions. One woman says this about the passage: "Jesus gets himself out of the Sadducees’ trap neatly by stating that in the resurrection there will be neither giving nor taking in marriage. I wish he had also made it (clear) to that bunch of jerks that women…were the not the property of their husbands…." (Roberta Bondi, "Living by the Word," Christian Century, November 2, 2004, p. 16) In other words, Jesus’s answer to the Sadducees doesn’t address the underlying assumptions of their question to Jesus, and so other questions emerge.

Life is a lot like that. Questions emerge, answers are provided, some satisfactory, some not so satisfactory, but THE ANSWER, the one thing that might finally satisfy our curiosities, our dilemmas, our sufferings–that answer seems elusive.

Move 2. As human beings, one way we try to formulate answers is to look backward. We try to find answers in what is long dead and gone.

We see this tendency captured in the song "Glory Days" by Bruce Springsteen. The first part of the song goes like this:

We see in the glory days an idealized past, and our minds and hearts wander there often. Like the baseball player friend of Springsteen’s, we go to the past in our personal lives, remembering past glories, the way we used to look, what we used to have. We also go there in our religious life, remembering when it used to be the norm that people went to church, and wondering where peoples’ faith has gone. We go there, too, in our political life. Part of the opening song of the 1970s TV show "All in the Family" goes "Baby we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again." While President Clinton was in office, Republicans longed for the days of President Reagan; and especially five days after a very emotional election, many Democrats long for the days of President Clinton.

We see the tendency to live in the past reflected in the Old Testament lesson today from the prophet Haggai. The brief ministry of Haggai occurs around 520 B.C., just after his people, the Jews, return from exile in Babylon. Along with them, Haggai comes back to a homeland, the promised land, that is in ruins, including the ruins of the glorious Temple built by King Solomon hundreds of years earlier. The prophet is instructed by God to have the people start rebuilding the Temple, and so work on it begins. But even in the initial stages of its reconstruction, as the foundation is laid and the building begins, there are many, especially older people who can remember Solomon’s Temple, who can tell that it won’t be as good as Solomon’s Temple. It’s going to be smaller, not nearly as grand. Haggai reflects his peoples’ sense of living in the past when he asks, "Is there anyone here who saw the Temple the way it used to be, all glorious? And what do you see now? Not much, right?" (Eugene Peterson, The Message, 2002, p. 1710) We can see the Jewish people shaking their heads in disappointment, longing for a world gone by.

Of course, we know that history is important. We remember Winston Churchill’s words, "A nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it." But we also know that living in the past can be useless. Though most of us tend to get stuck in the past at times, we know that this is no way to live life today.

Move 3. God gives us a gift, though. God breaks into our world. God enters in each day. God’s new order comes upon us, and calls us to look at what new things are happening.

God promises Haggai and the Jewish people, when all seems broken and mediocre, that "I am with you….My spirit abides among you; do not fear….the treasure of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor…." (NRSV) "This Temple is going to end up far better than it started out, a glorious beginning but an even more glorious finish: a place in which I will hand out wholeness and holiness….I’m living and breathing among you right now. Don’t be timid. Don’t hold back." (Peterson, p. 1711)

"A Toronto legal firm sent flowers to an associate in Winnipeg upon the opening of (her) new offices. There was a mix-up at the florist’s and the ribbon on the flowers sent to the new law office read "Deepest Sympathy." The florist was very apologetic when he was told about the confusion, but he turned positively green when he realized that the ribbon on the (floral) arrangement sent to a local funeral must have read, ‘Congratulations on your new location.’" (James S. Hewitt, "Illustrations Unlimited," as found in Aha!, Oct/Nov/Dec 2004, p. 33)

Though a mistake by the florist, God doesn’t make mistakes, and indeed, a celebration is in order over God’s gift of new life. Sometimes, God guides us to a new physical location that allows us to leave our pasts behind. Other times, God opens up new emotional and spiritual spaces where we can encounter the divine in fresh ways, where new answers to old questions become alive, and where new questions can be asked.

God hopes that we will not live in the past, will not relive over and over the "Glory Days," or what might have been, but rather that we will be tuned into what God is doing now--in our personal lives, in our world, in our church.

Ann Landers said that "Nobody gets to live life backward. Look ahead–that’s where your future lies." Our church, First Presbyterian, has lots of questions about our future–what will the world and this valley be like a few years from now, and how will we continue to carry out our mission here? Will we be able to build new structures at our current location? What kind of emotional and spiritual space will we as a congregation be in? May we continue to open our hearts and minds to God’s leading, so that with the prophet Haggai, we will not fear, because we know that God’s Spirit abides with us.

As we prepare to join together in the Lord’s Supper, we come to a table at which, by uniting past, present, and future, Jesus Christ breaks into our reality. We remember the past--Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Through bread and juice we meet him today, in the present. And together, as the people of God, we move into a future that we cannot know, but a future God promises will be better than ever.

All who follow Jesus are invited to partake. I now ask the elders to join me at the table as we get ready to celebrate.

November 7, 2004

Rev. Dave Hedgepeth

First Presbyterian Church

Logan, Utah