God and Man Resurrected from the Dead
November 11, 2007, 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time
2Maccabees 7: 1-2, 9-14 2Thessalonians 2:16-3:5 Luke 20:27, 34-38
To the church in the diaspora[1]
& to the church of the unchurched[2]
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke.
Glory to you, Lord.
First reading
It happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrested and tortured with whips and scourges by the king, to force them to eat pork in violation of God's law. One of the brothers, speaking for the others, exclaimed, “What are you trying to find out from us? We are prepared to die rather than break the law of our ancestors.” The king had him put to death by means of indescribable torture. The king and his men inflicted the same torture upon a second son who exclaimed with his last breath, “Inhuman tyrant, you might send us from this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up to live again for ever, since it is for his laws that we die.” Then they tortured a third son who exclaimed, “It was heaven that gave me these limbs; for the sake of his laws I disdain them; from him I hope to receive them again.’” Then the king and his men tortured a fourth son. As he was about to expire he exclaimed “Ours is the better choice, to meet death at men’s hands, yet relying on God’s promise that we shall be raised up by him. For you, however; there can be no resurrection to new life.”
Gospel
Then some Sadducees, who do not believe in the resurrection of the dead, came to Jesus. He said to them, "As to your question—whether or not there is a resurrection—why even the writing of Moses himself prove this. For when he describes how God appeared to him in the burning bush, he speaks of God as being the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, as though they were alive. He does not speak of God as having been the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, as though they were dead. So to say that the Lord is some person’s God means that person is alive, not dead. From God’s point of view, all men are living.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Introduction
Dead sure
The Maccabees brothers were dead sure that God would raise them up on the last day. The Sadducees, on the other hand, were dead sure that God does not raise the dead up on the last day. By a kind of convoluted thought process, Jesus proved the resurrection to the Sadducees by reminding them that the writings of Moses speak of God not as having been but as being the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That bit of convolution proved to the Sadducees that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were not dead but alive.
Eventually we all wonder about resurrection from the dead. We do not wonder about it when we are young. We do wonder about it when we are 82 years old and are living on borrowed time. After 82 years, I, too, have developed a convoluted approach to the question of the dead rising. When God is dead for us, then it is difficult (in fact, impossible) for the heart and mind to be believe in a dead God raising up dead people. When, however, God is alive for us, then it is easier for the heart and mind to believe in a living God raising up our loved ones and us from the dead on the last day.
A dead God
”God is dead” was the fashionable cry of a group of philosophers in the middle of the 20th century. They were called The Death of God Theologians. As a theological movement it did not attract a large following nor did it find a unified expression. It passed on as quickly and dramatically as it had arisen. The expression "God is dead" is a famous quote from the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It first appeared in his book The Cheerful Science. In section 125 of that work he wrote, “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves -- the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives. Who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves.”
God murdered by religious people
Who are the murderers of God? A man going from Jerusalem to Jericho was waylaid by robbers and was left dying by the side of the road. Along came a Jewish priest and a Levite. With monstrous inhumanity and indifference they passed the poor man by, leaving him to die by the side of the road. Those religious people, precisely because they were religious, effectively murdered God for that poor man and made it quite impossible for him to believe that his God, who was dead, was going to raise him up on the last day.
God murdered by Nazis
Who are the murderers of God? Perhaps no other event of the 20th Century and perhaps of all recorded human history so murdered God as did the Holocaust. In fact, the Holocaust was a powerful factor in the sudden rise of the Death of God Theologians in the 1960s. In his book entitled Night, Jewish author Elie Weisel writes of his first night in the concentration camp of Buchenwald. There he saw the bodies of little children going up in smoke from the crematories. “That was the night,” he writes, “which murdered my God and my soul, and turned my dreams into dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never!" The German Nazis had murdered God for Elie Weisel and made it impossible for him to believe that his God, who was dead, was going to raise him up on the last day.
God murdered by ritualists
Who are the murderers of God? Karl Jung, the father of modern psychology, masterfully describes the deadly day of his first Holy Communion which was supposed to be a great moment in his young and bourgeoning religious life.
I awaited the day with eager anticipation, and the day finally dawned. There behind the altar stood my father in his familiar robes. He read prayers from the liturgy. On the white cloth covering the altar lay large trays filled with small pieces of bread which came from the local baker whose goods were nothing to brag about. I watched my father eat a piece of the bread and then sip the wine which came from the local tavern. He then passed the cup to one of the old men. All were stiff, solemn, and it seemed to me uninterested. I looked on in suspense, but could not see nor guess whether anything unusual was going on inside the old men... I saw no sadness and no joy. Then came my turn to eat the bread which tasted flat, and to sip the wine which tasted sour. After the final prayer, the people all pealed out, neither depressed nor illumined with joy; rather their faces seemed to say, “Well, that’s that." In a minute or two the whole church was emptied.
Only gradually in the course of the following days did it dawn on me that nothing had happened. In addition, I found myself saying, "Why, that is not religion at all. It is an absence of God; the church is a place I should not go to. It is not life which is there, but death" (Memories, Dreams, Reflections).
The day of his very first Holy Communion proved fatal for Jung; it proved to be the day of his very last Holy Communion! Those rote ritualists with their passionless prayers and ho-hum homilies murdered God for Jung and made it impossible for him to believe that his God, who was dead, was going to raise him up on the last day.
A murdered God raised up by a Samaritan
It is man who murders God and puts Him in the grave. However, it is also man who raises God from the dead. A man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho and was waylaid by robbers and left half-dead. Along came a Jewish priest and a Levite. With monstrous cruelty and indifference they passed him, and thereby murdered God for the poor man. But along came a Samaritan who stopped to pour the oil of compassion in his wounds, then hoisted the man’s dead weight upon his beast of burden and hurried him off to the nearest end where he paid for his care and cure. The Samaritan raised up a dead God murdered by a Jewish priest and Levite, and made it possible for the poor man to believe that a living God would raise him up on the last day.
A murdered God raised up by a priest
It is man who murders God and puts Him in his grave. However, it is also man who raises God from the dead. On 9/11, Usama bin Laden murdered God for New York City and put Him in his grave. On 9/11 Franciscan priest, Fr. Mycal Judge, raised God from the dead. Judge was one of four chaplains for the New York Fire Department. The story of his death in the line of duty was one of the first to come out of that apocalyptic event. Almost immediately legend sprung up around his death. He had taken his helmet off to give the last rites to a dying fireman when suddenly debris came crashing down upon him. He died there on the spot, and his body was carried off to a nearby church, and there was laid upon the altar.
Mychal had an encyclopedic memory for people’s names, birthdays and passions. He knew everyone from the homeless to Mayor Giuliani. Though he was a true New Yorker, born and raised in the city, he lived on an entirely different plain of priorities than most New Yorkers. He was non-acquisitive. He was non-grabby. He was utterly unselfish and uncomplaining. No wonder then that his entire funeral was televised from start to end. And when they held a memorial service for him, an endless flow of priests, nuns, lawyers, cops, firefighters, homeless people, rock-and-rollers, recovering alcoholics, local politicians and middle age couples from the suburbs streamed into Good Shepherd Chapel on Ninth Ave in Manhattan, an Anglican church, to do a memorial for a Roman Catholic priest.
For New Yorkers Fr. Mychal raised up a God murdered by 911, and made it possible for them to believe again in a living God who would raise them up on the last day.
A murdered God raised up by lively liturgists
It is man who murders God and puts Him in his grave. However, it is also man who raises God from the dead. Karl Jung speaking of the lethal liturgy of his first Holy Communion, writes, “Why, that is not religion at all. It is an absence of God; the church is a place I should not go to. It is not life which is there, but death." Listen to a remarkable e-mail account of a living liturgy which was a whole light year away from Jung’s lethal liturgy
"My husband and I were in Milwaukee for the weekend on a getaway from Indianapolis. We spent our first trip together in your city five years ago and returned for a much-needed vacation. We have a three year old and suffered a miscarriage at 12 weeks in July. We needed some time to get away and celebrate each other and heal from our loss. It was a very therapeutic trip for us which ended in a fabulous experience at your beautiful church. We had walked the streets of Milwaukee and passed by your gorgeous church and decided to celebrate mass with you on Sunday. We had intended to get up for the 9am mass as going to the 10 am would put us on the road a bit later with the time change back to Indy. I insisted with my husband that we attend your church instead of waiting to go in the evening at home. I truly feel it was God’s will that we celebrated with you at Old Saint Mary’s."
"I so enjoyed the service. Father was absolutely fabulous, his sermon was out of this world, the choir was phenomenal, the lector was dynamic and the beauty of your church was just so stunning. It was a pivotal moment for us, especially me. I lighted a candle after Mass for our lost baby and I am looking forward with hope to our family’s future. I know now that God has bigger plans for our family – bigger than we even realize and I know we are blessed. Gratefully…. “
That indeed is a whole light year away from Jung’s lethal liturgy which dismissed a crowd with faces which were neither depressed nor illumined with joy, but which simply seemed to say, “Well, that’s that!” If that woman’s God was for the moment murdered by her miscarriage, lively liturgists of celebrant, homilist, choir and lectors raised Him up from the dead for her, and made it easier for her to believe in a living God who would raise up her little angel and her on the last day.
Conclusion
A favor repaid
Friedrich Nietzsche said that God is dead, and that He was murdered by man. He’s right. The Jewish priest and Levite murdered God for the poor man dying on the road to Jericho, when they passed right by him. The Nazis murdered God for Elie Weisel’s in the concentration camp of Buchenwald. The ritualists murdered God for Jung on the day of his first Holy Communion.
Nietzsche also said that God is dead and remains dead. There he is dead wrong! God does not remain dead, for the Good Samaritans and the Mychal Judges and the lively liturgists of this world bring God back to life. And God, whom man has brought back to life, promises in return to bring man back to life on the last day.
1] Diaspora is a Greek word meaning dispersion. Originally it referred to the settling of scattered colonies of Jews outside Palestine after the Babylonian exile. It has now come to mean the migration or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland or parish!
[2]] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!
