Excellent Links on Pentecost + 25 – Cycle C

Let me start with Energion author Bruce Epperly, who blogs at The Adventurous Lectionary. I always find his perspective on these texts interesting and challenging. Overall, he describes this lectionary as dealing with the authority of prophets and world spiritual leaders.

We can experience inner authority by aligning ourselves with God?s vision of the future, and while we can?t know the exact nature of everlasting life, our vision of eternity is intended to be lived out fully in this lifetime. Jesus shares his authority by reinterpreting a puzzling question in a new and creative way.

I think his perspective on the passage in Luke, regarding the woman who was the wife of seven brothers successively, to be particularly interesting:

Eternity is about experience and a sense of divine presence, not chronology, whether this involves Jesus? Second Coming or our own post-mortem journeys.

Be sure to read the whole thing.

In a bit of a contrast, my wife Jody titles her discussion of the passages When We All Get to Heaven. But when you get to her conclusion, perhaps the difference in perspective is not as great as it first appeared:

As my granddaughter reminded me, I have much to do here yet. God has given me a race to run, a mission in His Kingdom. But it?s a good thing to take time to consider and imagine what heaven will be like and joyfully look forward to seeing my LORD and the cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1) who have gone before me.

Bob Cornwall, another Energion author, focuses on the question most congregants are likely to ask: Will there be marriage in heaven? He titles his post No Marriage in Heaven? Oh My!, thus also catching the probable attitude of most of the questioners. But the Sadducees, he contends, despite the form of their question, were not primarily interested in marriage as such, but rather with security. How will we be secure in the coming kingdom?