All Saints’ Day

All Saints’ Day A TEARLESS ETERNITY 11/2 & 5/06

“In Holy Baptism our gracious heavenly Father liberates us from sin and death by joining us to the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Thus begins our celebration of Holy Baptism. “When we were baptized in Christ Jesus, we were baptized into his death.” Thus begins our funeral service. References to “death” in the two liturgies that mark the beginning of our spiritual life and the conclusion of our earthly life…What is “death”? I’ve heard death is “traveling through life without a destination, existing without purpose, spinning in circles, killing time.” I heard death is “to breathe our last without knowing who we are, whose we are, and why we were.”

I do not like the arbitrariness of death as it barges into our lives. We say people die “unexpectedly,” when, perhaps, dying is something we do well to “expect”! I dislike death for separating me from those who are nearest and dearest to me on earth. It takes much painful growing to develop a lifelong relationship with a spouse, only to have it end “before its time.” The bonds between parents and children, between brothers and sisters, between friends seem too precious to be ended willingly or gracefully. Yet, denying death and dying does not make it go away! Not a one of us can ultimately outrun death. We are just not that fleet of foot, and, what’s more, the older we get the slower we become. When we confront death, or the death of someone we dearly love, upon what do we fall back?

To trade this life, bittersweet as it is, for something totally unknown requires strong faith and trust in something or Someone far greater than I! I can only fall back on the incredible notion that in Jesus Christ, God is sharing the worst with us. In Jesus, God learned what it means not only to live, but to die, as a human being. In Jesus, God goes to the grave for us and with us! God has taken an incalculable risk in the Incarnation…the life and sacrificial death of His only begotten Son. God risks that people may (and do) reject His gift…that people will be introduced to Jesus and respond to God, the giving Father: “No thank you!” I have come to accept that anything less than a living and eternal relationship with God, through Jesus Christ, is inadequate to the awesome task of learning to die…and the awesome task of learning to live!

Saint Augustine said: “Thou made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until we find our rest in Thee.” Nearly 9 out of 10 Americans claim a belief in God… about half of them are affiliated with a congregation in their community and about ¼ of them are in worship on any given week. One author wrote: “We who spend so little time exploring a relationship with God today, long for one which lasts forever. What in the name of heaven are we going to do with all of that time? We are like a boy who never calls on his girlfriend before they get married!” Part of our human problem is that we invest more in longer life than in loving God. Many on this earth, maybe even some within the hearing of my voice, demonstrate greater interest in continuing an eternal relationship with family, friends, or a family pet, than with God.

Death is a journey from which no one has returned to give us a report. Yes, I know about the resurrection of Jesus and Jesus’ raising of Lazarus from the dead. But, neither Jesus nor Lazarus offered much detail regarding their 3 or 4 days after death! The resurrection is not like extra innings in a baseball game, nor sudden-death overtime in a football game, nor a “shoot-out” in a soccer game. The resurrection is a new life, a re-creation of all that we are and know…not a continuation of all that we are and know! “See, I make everything new.” (Rev. 21:5) …“for the old order of things has passed away.”(Rev. 21:4) As much as I dearly love life on this earth; as much as I love you living saints with whom I share this journey; as much as I cherish my family, I pray that life after death is not a continuation of life after birth! The sadness, the sickness…the broken bodies and barbaric greed…the injustice and insensitivity…the hatred and hurt of this world must ultimately be brought to an end…either before our Lord returns—as we pray in The Lord’s Prayer---or more likely when our Lord returns, as we believe He will!

Through one of the great hymns we sing: “O Joy that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to thee; I trace the rainbow through the rain And feel the promise is not vain, That morn shall tearless be.” This “tearless eternity” is promised to us through the Scripture lessons we share in worship this week. Isaiah prophesies that God “will swallow up death forever…the Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces.” (25:8) God reveals to John, as recorded in our reading from Revelation: “{God} will wipe every tear from their eyes…there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (21:4) God’s promises are solid and, in life and death, we are secure! Do you believe this? I did not hear your response! So, until death do us part, let’s live like it! AMEN