Sunday Devotion: 10 November 2019, Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday Devotions
God is ever present
Main readings: Haggai 1.15b-2.9; Psalm 145.1-5, 17-21 or Psalm 98; 2 Thessalonians 2.1-5, 13-17; Luke 20.27-40 [Job 19. 23-27a; Psalm 17.1-9]
Supplementary Readings: Psalm 96; Titus 1.15-2.10; Zechariah 10.6-12; Psalm 17.1-9; Luke 20.41-21.4
“Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.” (Luke 20.38)
Early one Sunday morning, I had a phone call from the spouse of a patient whom I had been supporting over five weeks in palliative care, informing me of his wife’s death. I quickly joined him at her hospital bedside, as he was alone, having no family with whom to share his grief. He had no belief in a God, but I was able to assure him of God’s love and living presence with both him and his departed wife.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is challenged by some Sadducees, a religious sect at the time who denied the resurrection. Jesus’ response reassures us that we are all children of the living God and, if we are worthy, we will be brought to a joyful resurrection. In our daily lives, we experience the cross when we grieve, and the resurrection when God’s presence comforts and heals us.
As we look back over our lives, we recall ‘God moments’ – moments when we encountered God in the liturgy, in a sunset, in music, in nature, or in the love of a child. God is also a ‘listening presence’ in crisis, grief or despair. All he asks is that we are responsive to his presence.
Our God walks beside us, sharing in our sorrows and joys. We have His promise of a resurrection, so let us live so that all may see the living God manifested in our lives.
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