Hi everyone,

Because of the events of the past week and today being All Saints Sunday, I can’t help but think about how fragile life is. While there are days that just seem to drag on forever, overall life can be pretty short. And when I hear about people I know who have died, I always wonder what my last interaction with them was like, and how I treated them or made them feel.

This is something that I teach my kids often. They sometimes ask me what happens to us after we die (obviously they know I’m a pastor so I guess they think if anyone knows, it’d be me?), and I tell them that we can have beliefs on what happens, but it’s more important for us to see what is happening now in our lives and how our actions affect that.

There’s a saying, “live today as though it is your last” and that sounds fun and all, but I flip it around and say, “live today as though it is their last.” Friends, family, acquaintances, people in general. If they were to die tomorrow, would you be ok with your last interaction with them?

There’s another saying, “Don’t let the sun go down on your anger” (this one’s actually from the bible), and I’ve been trying to live by that. It isn’t always easy, as I can get really angry, but I think it matters because our lives matter. Just like my kids’ lives matter, our friends’ lives matter, and all those that we’ve loved and lost, their lives matter as well.

So let’s treat them as such.

These are the readings for next week:
Job 19:23-27a
Psalm 17:1-9
2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17
Luke 20:27-38
And a video of those readings being read:

This is one of the gospel lessons that really annoy me. Not because it’s hard to make heads or tails of it, but because this trap that the Sadducees are trying to put Jesus in is just so poorly thought out and executed. It’s like they think they’re cunning and they got him now, but Jesus, in typical Jesus fashion, leaves them in the dust.

The thing is, all this resurrection talk and what happens after we die, it might be interesting and thought provoking and can maybe even giveus hope as we’ve all lost people that we want to see again. All that aside I think it’s just as (if not more) important to talk about what happens now when we’re still alive. At least, that’s what I hear Jesus telling the Sadducees as he knocks over their flimsy trap.

“[God] is God not of the dead but of the living, for to him all of them are alive.” (vs 38)

This tells me that our lives matter. The lives of the saints matter. And the lives of even those we don’t like matter. What happens later matters too, I guess, but why live for that when we can make a real difference in people’s lives now? And when we believe that, like really believe it, then I think how we treat others will be different. How we see ourselves will be different. And I think we in community will change for the better.

Peace be with you all. May your week be full of hope and love!