15 June 2011

Psalm 119:97-120; 1 Samuel 2:12-26; Acts 2:1-21; Luke 20:27-40

For a man who was seemingly observant (recall how Eli observed Hannah praying and concluded she was drunk), Eli apparently over-looked his sons deplorable and sinful behavior. The first part of the passage describes how they ignored the law of God concerning sacrifice and took the best parts for themselves. The worshippers were right to be indignant and question these men concerning their practices and it seems to have had no effect on them at all. Next we are told that Eli “heard” all that his sons were doing to all Israel and fails to properly confront and deal with the problem, his words seem more like suggestions of impropriety than bold confrontation. He speaks truth to them, sins committed with a “high hand”, premeditated and presumptuous sins, could not be atoned for with sacrifice, but they have already proven that they don’t have respect for either the law or the lawgiver and in the end, the Lord takes their lives. Samuel, however, grows in favor with the Lord and with others.

Can you imagine how these Sadducees felt when they got to the throne of God and saw Jesus standing there, the man to whom they addressed this ridiculous question? They too think themselves to be clever and I can imagine the eye-rolling of everyone other than their own party over this example. We have little clue what Jesus means by this answer regarding the non-existence of marriage in the resurrection because we have only this world’s experience for estimating what the next will be like. Here, Jesus tells us that this world is in no wise an analog for the next. Jesus wins the begrudging respect of the scribes in this encounter.

The Day of Pentecost is the day that the wisdom of the wise was utterly confounded. The leaders surely thought that with Jesus out of the way this festival, the Feast of Weeks, a celebration of the agricultural harvest and of the giving of the law, would be a quieter, more controlled time than the last festival, Passover. The disciples and others were gathered for prayer during the festival and suddenly God did something that attracted the attention of all Jerusalem and since that day has never stopped adding to the number of the church daily. What the religious leaders assumed was a dead letter began with an explosion of the Spirit of God. Everything they thought they knew was wrong and this new thing enjoyed favor with God and, increasingly, with man.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!

All thy works shall praise thy Name, in earth, and sky, and sea;

Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty,

God in three Persons, blessèd Trinity.