The God of the Living

Never before have we had access to so much information.

And yet I don't think there's been a time in history where people were more hungry, more starved for truth.

You know, never before have we had access to so much knowledge.

Have we had the ability to generate so much in the way of knowledge?

And yet there are so many people who feel like they cannot know anything for certain.

Who remain perplexed about the deepest questions.

What is life all about?

Who are we?

Why are we here?

What is all this for?

We have access to all of this information and knowledge.

It's all at our fingertips.

It's a click away.

And yet people are longing to know what is real.

And I think this is in part what we see when we look at the Sadducees as they are described in Luke chapter 20.

Luke 20 · chapter mention

These were the intellectual elites of the day.

They were incredibly knowledgeable.

They were powerful.

They were very well read.

They were very well read.

They were very well educated.

They were extremely confident in their access to knowledge.

They ran the temple.

They shaped public theology.

They thought they knew God and how God worked.

And yet as we're going to see, when they had the opportunity to stand face to face before the Son of God, they failed to recognize it.

So how could they know so much about God and yet not recognize God when they stood face to face?

That's a question that we're going to explore this morning.

What we're going to see is that faith and belief are not just about having access to the right information.

It's not just about having enough evidence.

It's not about being intellectually convinced.

There are actually obstacles to faith that unless they are removed will prevent us from ever actually knowing and having a relationship with God, no matter how much information about God we might have.

So this is what we're going to be looking at in more depth this morning as we look at Luke chapter 20.

Luke 20 · chapter mention

Let's pray and then we will open God's word together.

Our Lord, Heavenly Father, thank you for this morning.

Thank you for this time.

Thank you for your word.

We now pray and ask that in your mercy, through your grace, and the power of your spirit, you would enable us not only to understand your word but to encounter you in your word.

Because you are the one we need to see, you're the one we need to hear.

And it's in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, the living word, that we pray.

Amen.

So first of all, I want to look at these obstacles.

What are these obstacles to faith?

Where do we see them in the text?

This requires giving a little more background about the situation.

As I said, the Sadducees were the religious elites of the day.

However, even though they were religious leaders, they weren't very religious.

They were in some ways the equivalent of modern people in the way they thought about God and the supernatural.

They believed in God, yes, but beyond their belief in God, they didn't really believe that there was much outside of what we can see and hear and touch.

In some ways they were more close to a kind of materialism, scientific or philosophical materialism, as we might call it today.

They didn't really believe much in the supernatural.

They didn't believe in angels.

They didn't believe in divine providence.

And they very clearly, as the text says, didn't believe in a resurrection life that follows death.

And we know from history that they would come up with these kind of absurd scenarios to illustrate the absurdity of the idea of the resurrection, which is what happens here in Luke chapter 20.

Luke 20 · chapter mention

They're in a group of people.

They're rivals.

The Pharisees are present.

And so the Pharisees did believe in the resurrection.

And so the Sadducees see this as an opportunity to trap Jesus with one of these absurd scenarios.

And so they present a scenario that has to do with an ancient custom from ancient Israel called the Leveret marriage.

And this is originally a custom that is then regulated in Deuteronomy 25 by Moses.

And this is a practice that essentially says that if a man marries a woman and that man dies and they don't have any children, that it falls to the brother of that man to marry the widow.

And that sounds very odd by today's standards.

But we need to understand that in this ancient world, this was really all about maintaining justice.

It was designed to protect widows from poverty and isolation.

It was designed to keep the land and the inheritance in the family where it belonged.

And so it was meant to be about justice and mercy.

The Sadducees, though, take this situation and they turn it into a kind of trap.

So they say, well, Jesus, how about this scenario?

What if you have seven brothers and the first gets married and then he dies and the second then does his duty and marries the wife and then he dies and they all get married to the same woman and die and nobody has any kids?

Later in the resurrection world, if they're all going to come back, what happens when that woman's walking along and she encounters all seven of these brothers alive and well?

Whose wife is she going to be?

And they're not really looking for an answer.

They're trying to trap Jesus.

Either he has to deny Moses and the practice of the leverant marriage or he has to deny the resurrection.

And ultimately, their goal is to mock the idea that anybody would believe in something like the resurrection, to just mock that as being absurd.

And here is where we really begin to see the obstacles that prevent the Sadducees from truly knowing and understanding and having a relationship with the living God.

The first obstacle we see is the obstacle of arrogance.

They're extremely arrogant.

Mocking people who don't share your beliefs, mocking people who disagree with you is, among other things, a sign of arrogance.

We see that all over the place in our culture.

We see it in religion, which is our focus this morning.

You also see it a lot in politics.

You know, not just I disagree with you, not just I see things differently or I support different policies, but a kind of mocking of people who don't agree with us on the big questions.

You see it in all kinds of places.

Because when you mock somebody who disagrees with you, what you're really saying is, not only do I disagree with you and think your views are wrong, but I actually think that you're so wrong and so off base that you're not even worthy of basic dignity and respect, right?

That's arrogant.

But I would suggest that's not the only way arrogance shows up in our lives.

Because any time human beings assume that if something falls outside our ability to understand it, it must therefore not be true, there's an inherent arrogance to that.

Because what we're really saying is that things that are real, we should be able to understand them and comprehend them.

And if my mind can't understand and comprehend it, it can't possibly be real.

We're making ourselves into the kind of arbiters of what is not only true, but what is possible.

That's a pretty grandiose view of yourself.

So that's arrogant.

Anytime we assume that our worldview is the only possible way to see things, that's arrogant.

So Charles Taylor, the philosopher, talks about the way we hold our beliefs, the difference between a spin and a take.

And people who have a take on things understand that their view is legitimate, but it's not the only way to see things, and that there are other ways of seeing things.

That even if they're not true, they're valid.

You understand how that person arrived at that set of conclusions.

But a spin view, and ignore, he's really fond of odd labels that don't always make sense.

But the spin way of holding your views is to hold your views in such a way where you say,

this is the only legitimate way to see things, and anybody who disagrees is either crazy or an idiot.

Right?

There's only one way this could possibly be made sense of.

Right?

And when you hold your views that way, there's an arrogance to that.

Because you're essentially saying, I am, again, the only reasonable perception rests with me.

And we see this emerging in different contexts, in different ways, in different kinds of people.

There are non-religious versions of this arrogance, and there are more religious versions of this.

It's arrogance.

There's a certain kind of arrogance to committed atheism.

So we're not just talking about agnostics or people not sure what they believe,

but people who will go all the way as to say, I am fully convinced that there is no God,

and I'm not open to the possibility of there being a God.

Or if you encounter non-religious people who would sort of mock and see religious people

as being intellectually weak for believing in things that cannot be proven.

Because ultimately, that's ignoring a very stubborn fact, and that is that atheism requires

every bit as much faith as theism.

You're committing yourself to believing something about the world and about the non-existence of God

that can't ultimately be proven.

So either way, you have a faith commitment that you're making.

But to hold that view and to say, I'm not even open to the possibility of there being a God,

there's an arrogance to that.

But I would also say that I think that there's an enormous amount of this kind of arrogance

that is very prevalent among religious people.

You know, the fact is, we can have biblically sound doctrines,

biblically sound beliefs.

But the question is, how do we hold those beliefs?

And how do we view people who hold to different beliefs?

You know, and I know this is true everywhere.

Speaking for myself and the circles that I travel in,

because I am a, generally speaking, theologically conservative Orthodox Christian,

most of the circles I travel in, most of those people are theological conservatives.

And I can speak for my own tribe here and just admit that within that community,

it's not uncommon to encounter a fair amount of smugness,

a fair amount of contempt toward people who are viewed as being too progressive

or people who hold to very different views

or people who come out of different traditions or denominations.

And if I'm really honest, you know, you see this popping up in the same church from time to time.

You'll have people who, there's a kind of smugness or contempt

toward people who you may disagree with even over secondary issues.

And it's very easy, and I've seen this in my own heart,

it's very easy when you're looking at another denomination or another tradition.

It's very easy for that smugness to start out as a kind of humor,

but then it very quickly can kind of go off the rails and escalate into full-on contempt.

And by that, I mean just kind of devaluing people who come out of another faith tradition.

So it's no longer about let's look at the Bible and figure out what is actually true

and what we actually believe.

It's more of a kind of judgment or perception of the people who hold those views, right?

A devaluing of them, right?

And it's so easy for that to happen.

You see it all the time.

That's arrogance.

The point of that is that it's possible to have biblically sound doctrine,

but at the same time, your heart is very far away from God.

And this is something that if we're here and you're a Christian,

we really should pay attention to this.

You can have all the right doctrines.

You can be able to point to all of the texts in the Scripture that justify everything you believe,

and you can be on the money in your beliefs,

and yet your heart can be very far from God

because this kind of arrogance is like a wedge between us and the heart of God.

It's a wedge.

So this is an issue that we see in the Sadducees.

The second obstacle comes right along beside the first.

So the first is arrogance.

The second is ignorance.

And arrogance and ignorance, that is a deadly combination.

Jesus' response to them is essentially this.

Even though you spent all your time studying Scripture,

and by the way, they really only focused on the first five books of the Bible,

Moses, they considered themselves to be experts in Moses,

and they had a kind of wooden literalistic way of interpreting the books of Moses.

And so Jesus, it's no coincidence that Jesus brings up the example of Moses, right?

Because what he's essentially saying is,

you guys go around talking like you're experts in Moses,

and that you know everything about Moses,

and you've studied these books, and that's your whole deal.

And yet, at the end of the day, you have no idea what this text actually means.

You're missing what's right in front of your face.

And he's exposing their ignorance.

And based on everything we know about the Sadducees,

they didn't study Scripture in order to ultimately know and have a relationship

and be close to God.

They studied Scripture because they wanted to be the smartest people in the room.

Their mastery and expertise on these texts

was one of the ways they maintained status and superiority in their culture.

And their focus was primarily around maintaining status and power.

And maybe you've been in a church or a culture like this

where your knowledge of the Bible is its own kind of status symbol.

Imagine that on steroids.

So that's what it was like for the Sadducees.

They were the experts.

They were the final word on Moses.

And they really did a lot.

Pretty much anything and everything they did was connected to their desire for power,

including the fact that, as you may know,

Rome was the occupying force.

Rome occupied Israel.

They were the bad guys.

Well, the Sadducees had sided with the Romans.

So people hated them.

That's why there's not monuments that celebrate the legacy of the Sadducees.

Nobody liked them.

Because they did this naked power grab

and sided with the occupying force.

So their study of Scripture was about maintaining status.

And so the point is this.

Just as it is possible to have biblically sound doctrine

and yet have a heart that's far from God,

so it is possible to spend all of your time studying the Scriptures

and to be ignorant of their meaning at the same time.

You can be an expert in the Scripture,

be able to quote it off the top of your head

and to be fully ignorant of its meaning.

And a lot of that comes down to motive.

Right?

A lot of times in church you hear sermons and say,

we should study Scripture more.

Absolutely.

But it's also important to ask, why?

What is the point of studying Scripture?

Because there are people who spend a lot of time studying Scripture,

but for different reasons.

Like there are some people like the Sadducees

who study Scripture simply because they want to be

the smartest people in the room.

You know, you're the person who,

whenever there's a question in Sunday school,

whenever there's a debate, right,

when you're at your small group

and somebody's trying to lead a Bible study,

and you're the person who,

you have to have all the answers.

And you're studying Scripture is kind of like,

you know, loading up bullets

so that you can be fully loaded,

locked and loaded, ready to go,

so that when that opportunity comes,

bam, see, I'm the smartest person in the room.

Some people study Scripture purely

out of a desire to accumulate knowledge.

You see that a lot in academia.

People have no relationship with the Lord at all,

but they spend a lot of time studying Scripture

because in the world of academia,

in the world of scholarship,

that could be a means of personal advancement.

You know, we used to call,

we used to jokingly call seminary, cemetery

because it's very easy

when you're studying Bible and theology

on an academic level,

it's very easy for your faith to dry up

because it starts to not be about

having a relationship with the Lord.

It starts to be about that paper

that you have to write

or that test that you have to take.

Or you begin to go down

these esoteric rabbit holes

of people debating

how many angels can dance

on the head of a pen kind of issues, right?

So it can very quickly become

a kind of cemetery experience

if you're not careful

and if you don't keep the focus in mind,

what's it really about,

having a relationship with the Lord?

Some people study Scripture

because they already have in mind

the conclusions they want to draw.

And so the Bible is really just a means

to justify that preconceived,

predetermined end.

One word for that is eisegesis.

You're reading your own ideas

and preferences and agendas

into the text.

Right, so these are ways

that we can spend a lot of time

and energy studying the Bible

and yet our hearts can be very far from God.

It's what's going on with the Sadducees.

The central aim of Scripture, friends,

is to bring us into relationship

with the living God.

That is why we have this gift of the Bible.

And if we're not reading Scripture

with a desire to know

and be in relationship with God,

if we're not sitting down

and opening up this text

and saying, God,

I want to hear you through your word.

I want you to speak to me.

Just as I might sit down with my wife

and say, I want to know you better.

I want to understand

what makes you tick.

I want to understand

what's going on in your heart

and what you love

and what you care about.

Right, if that's not the way

we approach the Scripture,

then we're missing something

very central to why

God has entrusted them to us.

Don't forget how Satan

tempts Jesus in the wilderness.

He quotes Scripture.

Knew it by heart.

These are the two obstacles

preventing the Sadducees

from knowing and having

a relationship with God.

It's a deadly combination

of arrogance and ignorance.

And what you see again and again

in the Scripture

is that arrogance plus ignorance

equals spiritual blindness.

Arrogance plus ignorance

equals spiritual blindness.

You can have all the right doctrines.

You can have the whole Bible memorized.

And yet, if arrogance and ignorance

are issues in your heart,

you're not going to have

any real relationship

with the Lord.

So for all of us,

as I said earlier,

who are Christians,

to the extent that either

of these things is true of us,

we need to be on guard.

If we are inclined

to hold our beliefs

in ways that engender smugness

toward people who disagree,

or if our goal in studying the Bible

is anything other than knowing

and having a relationship with God,

we need to be very careful with that.

Now, how does Jesus respond?

Here's Jesus' response.

You know, we don't see this

in Luke's Gospel,

but if you compare,

the same story shows up

in Matthew and Mark.

And in their versions of the story,

Jesus responds to the Sadducees,

and he says,

you are in error

because you do not know

the Scriptures

or the power of God.

He's diagnosing the problem.

He's saying, in other words,

in order to remove

these heart obstacles

and have a relationship with God,

you need two things.

Number one,

you need to be humbled

by God's power.

You need to be humbled

by God's power.

And number two,

you need to rightly understand

God's Word.

Don't just know what it says,

but understand what it really means,

what it's really pointing to.

So I want to look at

each of those in turn.

First of all,

you need to be humbled

by God's power.

In order to have

a relationship with God,

you have to be humbled.

In their arrogance,

the Sadducees assumed

that the resurrection life

would be just like this life,

right?

Because they're imagining

that reality has to conform

to our expectations.

Otherwise, it can't be true.

And so that's why

they come up

with this absurd scenario

of all these resurrected

husbands, brothers,

kind of walking around

trying to figure out

who's married to whom.

And Jesus essentially exposes

how small-minded that is.

He's essentially saying,

you vastly underestimate

who God is.

And you vastly

and tragically underestimate

how big this world is.

And you vastly underestimate

the life that is to come.

It's a failure of imagination.

In your arrogance,

you don't realize

how profoundly small-minded

you actually are.

And he goes on

to give us this glimpse

of the fact

that the resurrection life

is going to be so much more

than any human being

can possibly fathom.

He says there's no longer

going to need to be marriage.

There's no longer going to be

a need for childbearing

because there's no longer

going to be any death.

And it's a way of saying

that even the best relationships

that we experience now

in this life,

the best friendship,

the best marriage,

right,

the best family

with the best kids,

even that is just

the tiniest glimmer

of the life

that will one day be

and of that

which will be true

for all people.

Even the best marriage

in this life

pales in comparison

to the average

normal relationship

that will exist

between you

and every other human being

as well as with God

which is profoundly comforting

to those of us

who aren't married

or who find ourselves

in hard, difficult marriages

or who struggle

with loneliness.

Jesus is saying

the norm

in the life to come,

the norm

will be so much greater

that when we look back

marriage will look like

the tiniest little preview.

It'll be just

the tiniest glimmer

of normative daily life

for people

in the age to come.

And he says

we need to be humbled

by that reality.

It's beyond our ability

to imagine.

This reminds me

of this wonderful parable

from Henry Nowen.

If you've ever read the book

Our Greatest Gift

and Henry Nowen

he sort of imagines

in this parable

twins

a brother and a sister

who are in the womb.

So they're waiting

to be born

and they're talking

to one another

because there's no one else

and they're having

a debate

about whether or not

there is such a thing

as life after birth.

So here's where it starts.

The sister said

to the brother

I believe there is

life after birth.

Her brother

protested vehemently.

No, no

this is all there is.

This is a dark

and cozy place

and we have nothing

else to do

but cling to the cord

that feeds us.

The little girl

insisted

there must be something

more than this dark place.

There must be

something else

a place with light

where there's freedom

to move.

Still she could not

convince her

twin brother.

After some silence

the sister says

hesitantly

I have something

else to say

and I'm afraid

you won't believe

that either

but I think

there's a mother.

Her brother

became furious.

A mother?

He shouted.

What are you

talking about?

I've never seen

a mother.

You've never seen

a mother.

Who put that idea

into your head?

As I told you

this place

is all we have

why do you

always want more?

This is not

such a bad place

after all.

We have all

we need

so let's just

be content.

The sister

was quite overwhelmed

by her brother's

response

and for a while

didn't dare

say another word

but she couldn't

let go

of her thoughts

and since she

had only her

twin brother

to speak to

she finally said

don't you feel

these little

squeezes?

every once

in a while

they're quite

unpleasant

and sometimes

even painful?

Yes

he answered

what's so special

about that?

Well

the sister said

I think

those squeezes

are there

to get us

ready for

another place

much more

beautiful

than this place

where we'll

see our mother

face to face

don't you think

that's exciting?

the brother

didn't answer

he was fed

up

with the foolish

talk of his

sister

and felt

that the best

thing

would be

simply to

ignore her

and hope

that she

would leave

him alone

a child

in a womb

cannot

possibly

fathom

cannot

possibly

imagine

that there

would be

any such

thing

as life

after birth

a child

in a womb

cannot imagine

what it would

be like

to run

through a

field

cannot

imagine

what it

would be

like

to dance

under the

stars

a child

in a womb

cannot

fathom

what it

would be

like

to taste

chocolate

or to

see

the Alps

for the

first time

or to

listen to

a symphony

or to

swim

in the

ocean

a child

cannot

fathom

in the

same way

we cannot

possibly

fathom

the resurrection

life

we simply

know

that it

will be

orders

of

magnitude

greater

than

this

life

a child

in the

womb

cannot

fathom

the

concept

of a

mother

right

because

their

mother

is all

around

them

you might

say

in her

they live

and move

and have

their being

cannot

fathom

what it

would be

like

to meet

that

mother

face

to

face

and so

it is

friends

with

God

and the

point

is this

the key

to faith

is having

the humility

to recognize

that if we

really and truly

are dealing

with the

God of

the universe

if we're

dealing with

the God

who created

space

and time

if we're

dealing with

the author

of existence

itself

there are

going to be

many mysteries

that go

way beyond

our ability

to comprehend

and you say

well does that

mean that we

can't be

certain of

anything

we can't

know

anything

absolutely

not

but here's

the point

faith is

not about

having

100%

certainty

on all

of your

beliefs

it's not

about having

100%

certainty

faith

is a

willingness

to stake

your life

on what

you believe

being true

it's not

about having

100%

certainty

that it's

true

it's about

a willingness

to stake

your life

on it

being true

and that

is a

very

different

thing

because

you can

do that

while

having

doubts

right

you say

where do

you see

that

well look

at the

father

whose son

is demon

possessed

and he

cries out

to Jesus

and he

says I

believe

help my

unbelief

he's

filled

with

doubt

no

certainty

there

but based

on everything

he knows

he's willing

to throw

himself

at the

feet

of

Jesus

right

the

point

is this

it's

not

the

quantity

of our

faith

that

saves

us

it's

the

object

of

our

faith

and a

willingness

even

filled

with

doubt

to

throw

yourself

at

the

feet

of

Jesus

is

all

it

requires

and I

think

sometimes

this

desire

for

100%

certainty

is really

a desire

to not

have to

rely

on faith

to not

have to

throw

ourselves

at the

feet

of someone

greater

than

ourselves

it's a

desire

for control

to manage

rather than

to surrender

so we

need to

be humbled

by the

power

of

God

and the

second

thing we

see here

in Jesus

response

is that

we need

to rightly

understand

God's

word

even

though

the

Sadducees

claim to

be

experts

on

Moses

Jesus

says

you

have

no

idea

what

you're

talking

about

it's

right

in

front

of

your

face

I'm

right

in

front

of

your

face

and

you're

missing

it

you know

when

Moses

encounters

God

in

the

burning

bush

God

refers

to

himself

by

saying

I

am

the

God

of

Abraham

and

the

God

of

Isaac

and

the

God

of

Jacob

he

doesn't

say

I

was

their

God

when

they

were

alive

they

worshipped

!

I

am

their

God

in

other

words

they're

here

with

me

right

now

worshipping

and

praising

and

celebrating

I

continue

to be

their

God

because

they

continue

and

the

Sadducees

were

ignorant

of the

fact

that

the

death

is

for

eternity

from

the

very

beginning

and

that

death

is

an

aberration

from

that

norm

death

is

not

a

part

of

the

plan

for

all

time

it's

a

symptom

of

a

world

broken

by

human

sin

and

rebellion

and

of

course

the

Sadducees

completely

missed

the

fact

that

God's

plan

is

ultimately

to

overcome

death

once

and

for

all

as

the

prophet

Isaiah

writes

in

chapter

25

God

will

swallow

death

forever

and

as

the

Lord

God

will

wipe

away

tears

from

all

faces

and

of

course

this

is

ultimately

all

pointing

to

and

will

ultimately

be

found

in

Jesus

Christ

himself

in

the

chapters

that

follow

Luke

Luke 20 · chapter mention

chapter

20

Jesus

is

going

to

be

arrested

he's

going

to

be

mocked

he's

going

to

be

tortured

he's

going

to

be

executed

and

it

seems

as

though

death

had

the

final

say

the

final

word

until

some

of

Jesus

his

disciples

some

women

go to

the

tomb

and

the

unthinkable

has

happened

the

tomb

is

open

and

it's

empty

and

Jesus

is

nowhere

to

be

found

and

they

realize

that

all

of

this

unfolding

story

of

scripture

was

ultimately

meant

to

culminate

here

in

the

truth

that

we

proclaim

every

Easter

that

Christ

is

risen

!

disciples

encounter

him

a little

bit

later

in

Luke's

gospel

on

the

road

to

Emmaus

and

he

sits

with

them

and

he

opens

the

scriptures

and

he

shows

do

you

want

to

know

how

to

understand

scripture

and

to

know

what

it

actually

means

well

the

key

is

this

it

was

always

and

forever

about

me

every

page

every

sentence

every

word

from

Genesis

to

Revelation

is

ultimately

about

and

pointing

to

and

will

always

about

me

that's

the

puzzle

piece

in

the

middle

that

makes

the

whole

thing

fit

together

so

in

order

to

rightly

understand

God's

word

that's

the

key

we have

to

understand

it

was

always

about

Jesus

all

along

and

then

we

realize

that

the

promise

for

us

is

that

one

day

just

as

Jesus

rose

from

death

God

will

raise

us

up

and

then

he

will

renew

and

restore

this

world

that

the

resurrection

is

just

the

beginning

but

simply

knowing

this

is

not

enough

as

Jesus

says

in

verse

35

only

those

who

are

considered

worthy

will

take

part

in

the

age

to

come

but

this

is

the

good

news

of

the

gospel

the

good

news

of

the

gospel

is

he

does

not

say

only

those

who

prove

themselves

worthy

he

says

only

those

who

are

considered

worthy

those

who

are

counted

worthy

by

God

and

that's

where

the

gospel

begins

to

emerge

as

our

greatest

hope

that

the

way

to be

found

worthy

comes

not

by

proving

our

worth

to

God

but

actually

by

confessing

our

unworthiness

to

God

and

then

crying

out

for

the

mercy

that

God

offers

through

Jesus

Christ

to

make

us

worthy

right

to

cleanse

us

and

restore

us

to

what

we

were

created

to

be

which

of

course

happens

through

the

death

and

resurrection

of

Jesus

and

the

promise

of

the

gospel

is

that

for

all

people

who

come

to

Jesus

in

faith

and

repentance

they

will

be

saved

and

we

will

dwell

forever

together

in

eternity

because

our

God

is

not

the

God

of

the

dead

he

is

the

God

of

the

!

let's

pray

Our

Father we

thank you

that you're

the God

of the

living

and that

you

desire

to make

us

alive

spiritually

alive

and that's

what we're

here for

we're here

for life

we're here

to taste

the

life

that you

offer

to receive

it

and be

nourished

by it

and even

now as we

pray these

words we

ask that you

would be

preparing our

hearts

to come

and receive

that life

through the

table

Lord

that as we

receive you

we would

receive that

life Lord

that you

would make

us

continue to

make us

more fully

alive

more fully

human

in anticipation

of the

age to

come

we pray

this in

Jesus's

name

Amen