Scripture
Luke 20:27-38
(Click the verse above to see the entire reading)

“Now he is God not of the dead, vbut of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”   —Luke 1:38

Devotion
Resurrection Life
(click on the title above to listen to the podcast)

There’s something about today’s Gospel text that feels pretty familiar.

No, not because the question about marriage laws is anything remotely close to our experience these days, but because the question about what the resurrection will look like is one we have all pondered at some point or another.

Anyone who has lost a loved one has wondered what life after death will be like.

We have our own questions related to this:
What will it look like?
What will I look like?
Will my dog be there?
Will everyone be there, or only the people I love?
Will I be the same?
Will my loved ones be the same?

Jesus is asked a similar kind of question today – and despite the difference in motivation the basic foundation of this question is our need to understand and know. So that we can have comfort.

So that we can trust that losing our loved one is not the end.

And Jesus responds by reminding us that those details are not the point of the resurrection, and while that’s not completely satisfying – it is the truth.

Jesus wants us to know that resurrection is a promise kept.

He says “Now God is not a God of the dead, but of the living, and in God, all are alive”

What. A. Promise.

And you know what? That life begins not when we die, but at the font.

When we are given new life in Christ.

Yesterday we said the names of those who have died this year, who understand the glory of a promise kept in ways that we cannot… and it was hard and sad.

And yet there was hope.

We also said the names of those baptized into our community of faith and the life of Christ.

Promises kept – promises begun.

All in one day.

Now that’s good news.

Questions to Ponder or Discuss
1. What are some questions about resurrection you have had?
2. What would it look like to spend your time and thoughts and energy on your new life now instead of the life to come?
3. What might it look like to live a fully resurrected life here and now? How is this different than the way you normally live?

LIVE IT!
Take a moment today or tonight and go put a cross with water on your forehead. Remind yourself that you were and are and always will be a child of God, and that in your own baptism you were joined into the death AND the resurrection of Christ.

New life is yours now. Go live it.

Natalia