Introduction

The past shapes our understanding of the truth. It enables us to make judgement. However, we live in the present, and God is with us in the present. This reveals the continuity of God’s love which gives us hope for the future.

 

Context

Revelations of the past continue to inform the American Presidential election.

The UK government refuse an inquiry into the so-called ‘Battle of Orgreave’.

Earthquakes continue to batter Italy.

 

Reflection

Jesus resists the temptation to make judgement based on history. He deems it irrelevant that the woman has been married seven times. His emphasis is on the present and the hope for the future.

Just how challenging this approach is shown in the continuing saga of the American Presidential election, and in the demands for an inquiry into the so-called ‘Battle of Orgreave’. Both of these stories show how important the past is. In the case of the American election it sheds light on the characters of both candidates. In the demands for an inquiry into Orgreave, the campaigners call themselves the truth and justice campaign ­– and that in itself is telling. Is it possible to live in the present without making judgements about the past? Does the past enable us to understand the truth for today?

It is worth considering that Jesus was responding to a specific question, and a somewhat unbalanced question at that? Maybe his response is an appeal to redress the balance; not to ignore the past but rather to concentrate upon the present.

There is a danger that dwelling on the past can diminish our present and give no hope for the future. If the woman in the Sadducees’ question had thought about it, fear of seven husbands in heaven might have prevented her remarrying and thus might have robbed her of present happiness.

This passage is also about God being active in the here and now. It is scant comfort to the victims of the latest Italian earthquake that God was present with the victims of the Pompeii volcanic eruption nearly two thousand years ago. What is important is that the living God is present, active and comforting now to those who are suffering today.

Furthermore, there is immense power in the very end of verse 38: the words ‘to him all of them are alive’ indicates clearly Jesus’ conviction that there is a resurrection. If death is irrelevant all will live and be children of God. This not only shapes our present life but also gives us an abiding hope for what is to come.

All three news stories quoted are appropriate subjects for prayer. They are not easy. Views on the American election and the demands for an Orgreave enquiry will differ. Yet it is of paramount importance to seek the love of the Living God to bring wisdom, compassion and grace into all these present situations.

 

Prayer

This could be used as a prayer of confession, or as a closing reflection to a sermon.

 

Forgive us, Lord, for when we look to the past and refuse to live in the present.
Forgive us, Lord, when we only see you active in Bible days, and ignore your amazing love for today.
Forgive us, Lord, when – depressed by the past – we see no hope for the future.

You are the God of yesterday, and we ask that you remould us.
You are the God of today, and we ask that you be with us.
You are the God of all that is to come, and we ask that you inspire us,
now and always.
Amen.

 

Questions

• In making decisions should we be influenced more by what people have done, or by what they are promising to do?
• What does resurrection faith mean to you? 

 

Action

Make a list of anyone you know who will have a vote in the American election. Pray for each one by name that they will have wisdom to know how to cast their vote.

 

Young people

Play a game of ‘past, present, future’.  Each person should write on separate pieces of paper something they would change in the past, something they would like to do today and something they hope for in the future. Read out the results, and try to identify the authors. Conclude with a prayer thanking the living God for all that God has done, all that God is and all that God will be.

 

 

Stuart Wild is Superintendent Minister of the Manchester Methodist Circuit.

 

 

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