All Saints Sunday
Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm 24
Revelation 21:1-6a
John 11:32-44
Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you
from the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end. Amen
God is at work,
on a vast cosmic scale
and in the intimate moments of heartbreak.
This is the witness of our readings for this morning
as we observe the festival of All Saints,
the day we set aside in the church year
to remember and honor the lives and love
of those who have died,
a time grieve and give thanks
even as we place our hope in God
who has promised a future beyond death,
a future that God has enacted in God’s own self.
“It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”
says the one seated on the throne in Revelation
How can it be done? We wonder
as we look around and still see the old Jerusalem
fraught with division,
and people who hunger and mourn,
and tears that still flow.
Or maybe on a more personal level
we are with Mary and Martha
who confront Jesus saying
“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
implied in the statement are the questions
“Where were you?”
“Why didn’t you come when we needed you?”
And here at Lazarus’ tomb
Jesus’ two realities collide,
his reality as the Son of God
and the reality of his humanity.
Out of the first
Jesus tells Martha that she will see the Glory of God,
that her brother’s death
and Jesus’ calling him out of the tomb
will reveal God’s Glory,
and indeed it is this sign,
of Jesus bringing the dead back to life,
that will bring many to faith in Jesus
and terror into the hearts of the authorities
who will initiate the plot against Jesus’ life,
this plot which will bring him to the cross
where Jesus will die
and in three days rise again
defeating death,
bringing about abundant life.
That’s the reason Jesus waited to come
until Lazarus was well and truly dead.
And at the same time,
Jesus the human
knows the pain and grief of Martha and Mary
at losing their brother,
Lazarus was Jesus’ friend too,
and he knows the truth of the sisters’ statement,
he could have prevented this,
but he didn’t,
and at the tomb of Lazarus
Jesus begins to weep with the other mourners,
even knowing the big picture
doesn’t take away Jesus’ own grief in the moment.
It is okay to grieve in the present
even as we place our hope for the future in God.
The two can and do overlap.
Just like beginnings and endings overlap,
just as God’s salvation has already been completed
and has not yet come to its fullness
just as our lives overlap with those of our loved ones
each of us with our own beginnings and endings.
It’s messy and hard for us linear thinking humans,
but it is true
Which is why it is so important
to take a moment each year
to acknowledge our complex reality,
the colliding of past, present, and future.
As one commentator I read this week observed: “All Saints invites us to look forward into God’s good future while giving thanks for the faithfulness of God’s servants of the past. “ (https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/all-saints-day/commentary-on-isaiah-256-9-6)
And I would add
it allows us to give thanks for God’s faithfulness in the past
as witnessed through the lives of God’s faithful servants,
a faithfulness that we trust will continue in the future
especially the future the God promises,
a future where the shroud of death
is not only lifted but destroyed
because God has swallowed up death,
a future where the first things have passed away
and there is no more death
or mourning or crying or pain.
This is God’s work,
the swallowing up of death,
the making all things new
and even as Jesus is at work
on the grand cosmic scale
that is so big as to be incomprehensible,
even as he has already done it
and is still doing it
in a time line that doesn’t make a lot of sense,
Jesus is also still with us
in our lives and at the tombs of our loved ones
where he weeps with us
because this is really who our God is,
one who cares for even the most intimate details of our lives,
who loves us so much
the God became one of us,
who envisions an eternity
where the home of God is among mortals
because our God is Immanuel, God with us
our God is the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end
and everything in between
who has been faithful and will continue to be faithful,
who sets a feast before us
inviting us all to partake of the feast of salvation.
Gathering us around God’s banquet table
The table where past, present, and future collide
Where all the saints gather
I imagine it as a circle around the table
Those of us still here form one half of the circle in front of the table
And around the back, completing the circle, though unseen
Are the saints who are with Jesus
Who join the feast across time and space
As we are all united and reunited
In the body and blood of Jesus Christ
Given for the sake of the world
Given for the sake of our lives.
all together we proclaim:
“This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” Amen
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