Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

The Rev. Phil Brochard The sermon reflects on All Saints and All Souls traditions—especially this year’s ofrenda—as ways of making the hope of resurrection tangible. It connects the congregation’s questions about the afterlife with the Gospel story in which the Sadducees challenge Jesus using an exaggerated scenario about a widow marrying seven brothers. Their real goal is to mock belief in resurrection. Jesus responds by meeting them within their own scriptural framework, pointing to God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—living beings to God. His teaching doesn’t describe the mechanics of the afterlife but emphasizes that we will be known by God and that earthly structures like marriage cannot contain the fullness of intimacy and joy in the life to come. The sermon concludes that our identities remain, our relationships matter, and nothing will hinder the deep communion God intends for us after death.