All Saints Sunday

November 3, 2019

What God Promises

Revelation 7:9-17

The Multitude from Every Nation

9 After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. 10 They cried out in a loud voice, saying,

“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

11 And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 singing,

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might
be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

15 For this reason they are before the throne of God,
    and worship him day and night within his temple,
    and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
16 They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
    the sun will not strike them,
    nor any scorching heat;
17 for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
    and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Message

Grace and peace to you from Christ our risen Lord. Amen.

Today we remember those who have died this past year

  

We do so in order to honor them as their lives gave witness to the grace of God.  We do so to openly lament the loss that we feel and to cry out to God.  Grief is not something that goes away it just changes shape as the years pass.  Loss of a loved one and the pain that brings is on the top of the lists of stresses. 

But there are other losses that deserve our notice and call for comfort:  people moving away, slowly losing a loved one to Alzheimer’s; loss of job, loss of dignity.  There are other losses that deserve our notice and attention:  struggles with illness of both body and mind –dreams deferred, hopes dashed, diminished independence.

How do we respond to death and loss especially on this All Saints Day?  What is God up to amidst the daily difficulties as well as the larger losses in our lives?  What does God promise?

First of all a saint is not simply a person who has died in the faith.  No, we too are the communion of saints – a community of God’s people who have come through ordeals great and small.  God has claimed us as God’s very daughters and sons.  Our identity is not wrapped up in what we do, but we are wrapped in God’s grace. 

Secondly, the early church’s tradition was to baptize in a large body of water – a pool, or a river.  Partially, if not totally naked in the water immediately following the baptism a white robe would be put on the person who had just been baptized.  So we are wrapped up in Christ.  This way of thinking about baptisms intensifies God’s promise.  We are clothed in Christ – we have put on Christ. 

What does God promise?  God promises an indelible identity sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ, forever.  No one or nothing can take away that primary identity. God names and claims you as his own.  Visible to the eyes of faith we all bare the mark of God grace.

We are never alone:  When Pastor Frank Moyer died several years ago.  He had pancreatic cancer.  At the encouragement of his family he tried to abate the cancer with chemo therapy.  It was too much.  So he decided to stop the chemo.

Frank then sent out an email – inviting colleagues to his house every Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM.  It was ‘Tuesdays with Moyer.’  I was one of the colleagues present for several Tuesdays.  We talked theology and we talked about his death.  It was moving.  These sensitive conversations included laughter - mutual uplifting of one another…a companionship into death…the communion of saints in action!

God promises to wipe away every tear from our eyes.  God does that through us – through being present with one another in losses great and small. 

We experience losses to which there can be no explanation – losses that defy logic and cannot answer the question ‘WHY?’  One of the petitions in the funeral rite goes:

“Help us, in the midst of things we cannot understand to believe in the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection to life everlasting.”

God promises that we will not be facing our losses and even death itself alone.  God is a ‘God with us’ – in with and under all of life.  God permeates our existence.  In God we live and move and have our being.  With eyes of faith we are often able to see God at work in the midst of things we cannot understand.

Aaron, Rabbi Kushner’s son, died from the premature aging disease, progeria.  Rather than blame God, Kushner put his lament in writing the well-known book:  When Bad Things Happen to Good People. It is a book that has helped thousands of people.

The Biblical God is not a God who pulls the strings of suffering.  God does not author the suffering and losses we experience in life.  When a child dies it is not because God wants another angel in heaven.  The ‘Whys’ of disease and tragedy remain unanswered. 

And so we struggle.  When we struggle with doubt or fear we are not letting God down.  Doubt and fear are not the opposite of faith.  God is often more vividly present to those in doubt and fear. 

Martin Luther struggled with doubt and fear.  Through his experience of being banned by the state and the church he entered into a deeper faith relationship with God. 

Luther contends that not only are preaching and the sacraments ‘marks’ of the church, but struggle is also a mark of being the church.

So when we struggle with loss or live on the edges of doubt we are not being faithless. When we wonder if God is out there – this is not a failure or lack of faith but evolves into a profound faith as we continue to wrestle with the deep questions.

The Beatitudes in Matthew’s Gospel are a testimony to the fact that God blesses those in the midst of struggle.  That God will be present in the midst of our struggles that indeed God walks with us – is a companion to us along with the communion of saints.

Being a Christian does not make us immune from the pain and losses in life.  God makes no promise that we will go through life unscathed.  Instead God promises to be with us through it all.

Faith recognizes that God is especially present to us in our needs and difficulties: 

Blessed are the poor in spirit…

Blessed are those who mourn…

Blessed are the meek… 

God knows the grief that weighs us down.  God knows the depression or addiction that oppresses us.  God knows the challenges we are facing and the uphill struggles we are contemplating.

As individuals and as a church God is with us.  Christ knows our struggles.  Christ knows our grief.  He bore them on the cross and he bears them even now.

What does God promise?

God promises to be with us.  God is in, with, and under all of life.  God promises that there will be something more on the other side of our losses.  Through the power of the Spirit God is indeed among us forever transforming death into new life.

Amen