There came to him some Sadducees, those who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the wife and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and died without children; and the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife."
And Jesus said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to him." And some of the scribes answered, "Teacher, you have spoken well." For they no longer dared to ask him any question. Luke 20:27–40 (RSV)
Jackie and I had the conversation that most folk will have at some point in their lives. We talked about where we should be buried when the time comes. We grew up in central Iowa, Ellsworth, and Jewell in Hamilton County. Jackie's Dad is buried there, as will her Mom be. My folks moved near Indianola after I graduated high school and are buried there.
Though our roots are in the flatlands of central Iowa, we both agree that Garnavillo in Clayton County is our home. When we fall asleep in the Lord, we will await the resurrection here.
I can never understand how the Sadducees could reject the resurrection. God has created life as a wonder of His love. In Christ, we know that the years we have here are a prelude to the life to come. The fullness of who we have been created to be arrives on the day we are called from the grave.
The hymn appointed for the service of Compline, Prayer at the Close of the Day, contains this verse:
Teach me to live, that I may dread The grave as little as my bed.
Teach me to die, that so I may Rise glorious at the awesome day.
'All Praise to Thee, My God, This Night' LWB 278
We have chosen our bed for our sleep until our Lord calls us to our life in the Kingdom. We know that wherever the hour of death finds us, for us, it will be only the briefest of nights of sleep. Christ Is Risen! He Is Risen, Indeed!