Today’s Readings: Psalm 150; 1 Chronicles 16:8-22; Mark 12:18-27; Acts 28:23-31; Psalm 105:23-45
One of the most common questions pastors face – especially in moments of crisis – has to do with the afterlife. The questions about the afterlife generally fall into one of two categories. First, lots of folks are worried about where their departed loved one might be. Second, lots of folks want to know whether they will be reunited with their loved one upon their own death. In each case, the primary focus is on ourselves and our loved ones. Today’s Gospel reading as paraphrased by Eugene Peterson in The Message suggests that perhaps we are focusing on the wrong thing. “As it is with angels now,” Jesus is quoted as saying in regards to the Sadducees questions, “all our ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God” (Mark 12:25 from The Message). That paraphrasing is a powerful invitation to shift our primary focus from ourselves and our relationships with other human beings to our relationship with God. So in what directions do your thoughts regarding the afterlife run? Do you focus on an image of the afterlife based primarily upon yourself and your needs, or have you opened yourself to a broader set of possibilities? Til next time…
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1 comment:
My own sense of the afterlife is that I will no longer be necessary me in some sort of discreet way, as I used to think until , perhaps the last 8 years. Now I think that i will become pat of the field of enery--with possibilty, of which I have no proof, thaat I may emerge again in some different form or different time or different "field." I have had experiences where I have been contacted by my dead mother-not in words, but through insects and spiders. They show up when I am distraught or pondering some idea and I am always surprised-soemtimes its a praying mantis , that I notice out of the corner of my eye that has waited patiently on the side door steps to the kitchen-this happened perhaps 6 months ago, when Iwas concerned about my difficulties with memory. She appeared to me as a spider in the bedroom of our family cottage in Michigan, which i will be traveling top next week and thus miss your your arrival to our WHCC church.I'm sorry to miss that, but I will be where all the history of my family is invested for 5 generations, and it is always a sacred time for me to be there despite the fact that I will be freeezing (50 degrees inside cottage). A few years ago my mother (I knew it was she,, after a few minutes) came to me as a spider that went up and down her "thin 'string'" I know that's not the word-for it-she hung in front of my face, then chase her way back toward the ceiling and then down again. this went on for 45 minutes, and I new within a few of those minutes that it was she-my mother was sending me a message-that she was still with me in one way or another-it was the bed and room that she slep in the last year before she died. I'm sure you did not expect such a lengthy reply, and it was probably not the kind that you would have expected, and perhaps not the answer to your question-but there it is, at least I made a comment--from your future congregant who met you the first night during the meet and great and talked quite a while with you and especially with Mike. I am interested in Quantum Physics from a spiritual point of view and I have had a number of experiences that make me feel that from time to time the scrim that separates the future from the presnt pull open enough that the futre leaks in-at least for me, because I have already experienced it before anybody else-like my husbad , for example. I have been concerned regarding these instances, but apparently this happens to some people and it has to do with quantum fields. Having not studied Physicas at all, but having watched PBS and read some folks like Fred Wolfe, a number of years ago, i find I am subject from time to time, unbidden paranoral experiences. Ths is the first time I have written about it-and it turns out to be in this little box-so I have no way of getting copy for myself of what I said. my e-mail addres is betsynoorzay@gmail.com If there is any way to send my message back to me, i would like to have it. I realize that is rather presumptous, but as I am having issues with my memory I would like to know what I thought and put into words. Betsy Stock Noorzay (WHCC Librarian)
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