Sermon: All Saints, Sunday November 5, 2017
St Petri
Psalm 34:1-10,22
1 John 3:1-3 We are God’s children
Matthew 5:1-12 The beatitudes

Revelation 7:9-17
9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:
‘Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.’
11 All the angels were standing round the throne and round the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, 12 saying:
‘Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honour
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!’
13 Then one of the elders asked me, ‘These in white robes – who are they, and where did they come from?’
14 I answered, ‘Sir, you know.’
And he said, ‘These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore,
‘they are before the throne of God
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne
will shelter them with his presence.
16 “Never again will they hunger;
never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat down on them,”[a]
nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb at the centre of the throne
will be their shepherd;
“he will lead them to springs of living water.”[b]
“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”[c]’
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+7%3A9-17&version=NIVUK>

 

With Rodney Rosenzweig’s unexpected death and funeral this week I found myself reflecting again on funerals. How often I have stood with others around graves and pondered what life and death are really about.

We stand around the grave as the coffin sits suspended for our final words of thanks, respect and prayer before it descends into the ground…. And there is a moment to think.

This is the end. This is final. This is the sting of death. Like a bee sting at a picnic, it interrupts my life. It is uncomfortable, even painful. Because of the story and the love, it hurts. It is multi-layered. Experience tells me that some don’t leave this graveside with comfort and peace. Some leave with regret and a lot of pain. Whatever the case, there is no coming back from this moment for the one we love or for those of us left behind to keep on living.

And then there is a moment of deep questioning. What becomes of this loved one? What becomes of me? What becomes of human beings? What are human beings, and is God really mindful of us?

Some say no. If this is how it ends, then either rail against God if he even is, or, just give in to this death and give up on God.

Shall we rail against a distant God who is either some watchmaker who sets the world going but now is not involved and does not spare us the pain of this? Or should we rail against a powerless God who can’t stop this inevitable end and its pain?

If so, how do we rail? How do we protest?
Some say we should make the most of everything before this comes. Live life to full according to yourself.

This can be done in a couple of ways. One is to the way of endless busyness and the pursuit of valued items and achievements. Accumulate, consume, use, benefit, build self and self-things for self. In a more noble form, build for those close. Work, accumulate, establish, set up the kids and the family for the future with this life you have, so when this time comes for your grave, they will continue on with things.

The other way to protest is to simply give up on God. If the sum of my life will be in that little dash between the date of birth and date of death on my headstone, then what was all the hard work, the accumulation and consuming, the ticking off the bucket list the patience in trouble, the joy and everything else about me mean anyway? It all seems to come to nought… This is the way of resignation to the all-conquering forces of nature and any hope for the Divine.

I have met these responses in many people. I have found them within myself at times. Death’s dark vale has its effect, especially when the coffin is to be lowered into the ground.

What will bring respite? What will change the game, not only raise the spirit but actually change my body and spirit when the Pit looms large?

What if instead of going down into the grave someone actually came up out of the grave? What if a dead man did that? What of a dead man lifted off the pall on the coffin? More to the point, what if the person who sprang up from the grave for all to see was a real person still – a living, breathing human being…still? And what if the person was still so human as to eat fish, drink water and have scars on his body that another man could touch. And most importantly, what if this once dead man is alive and still speaks to us now – at the grave and right here?

I feel my body and soul rising……

I am interrupted by a stunning new possibility. It may be possible to rise from my grave? That box and that hole or curtain may not be the last word on my life or anyone else’s life. Death may not be the end of my loved one, the end of me or any human being. If a human being has come up from the grave, then maybe we all can? The grave may not be the most complete thing, the dead end it seems to be.

But who and how and can I believe this?

No and yes. No, you cannot make this belief up from your own thinking. But yes, you can possess this belief if received as a gift from above – a gift from that one who sprang up from the ground with scars and words and enlightening power; a gift from the many who have followed in his footsteps and have trampled down death in his power and have been gathered to him in wonderful light and life. Could you receive this gift of faith in the human Jesus crucified and risen for love of the loveless, and life for the lifeless on this All Saints Day?

9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:
‘Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.’

The Lamb is the man with scars: The Lamb is now the Shepherd of his vast community that exists beyond their death. The throne is what he received for his crowning work – the breaking of death’s strong bands over you.

Here the true Paschal lamb we see
Whom God so freely gave us
He dies on that cursed tree
So strong his love to save us!

(Martin Luther Christ Jesus lay in death’s strong bands”)

This great death and rising, this great assembly and singing is now, not only future.

So let us keep the festival
Where the Lord has invited us
Christ himself the joy of all
The sun that warms and lights us

(Martin Luther Christ Jesus lay in death’s strong bands”)

Despite the grave and the desperation we sometimes feel, we live in the feast of the palms in this vast crowd. We wear the white baptismal robe drenched in his sacrificial blood by virtue of his grace and power and decision alone. We are his holy ones because he has made us his holy ones.

We still have to stand around graves and watch coffins with loved ones lowered, but the tenor of this is so very different than before. The Lamb, the throne, the multitude of people from everywhere and every type are with us. They are the great cloud of witnesses urging us on to our risen end – not in the ground or behind the curtain but around the throne and the Lamb and the song.

The Lamb speaks as the coffin is lowered and the people feel death but are not overcome by it… This is who we are: Saints, holy ones in Jesus…. And this is our now and our never ending;

‘they are before the throne of God
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne
will shelter them with his presence.
16 “Never again will they hunger;
never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat down on them,”[a]
nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb at the centre of the throne
will be their shepherd;
“he will lead them to springs of living water.”[b]
“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”[c]’

This is our life in Jesus and it is so much better when the grave is not final!