All Saints 2024

Notes
Transcript
Jesus Wept
Jesus Wept
35 Jesus began to weep.
One of the verses of our reading for today - those powerful words. Jesus began to weep.
When last did you weep?
With sadness, with joy, with frustration?
Perhaps just unexplained - a build up of tension and anxiety.
Released in a flood of tears.
We’re not sure what to do with these big emotions.
We need them.
But they leave us feeling a little unsettled.
Out of control.
And I suppose - they expose our humanity.
Our fragility.
All Saints / Reformation Sunday
All Saints / Reformation Sunday
In the Christian Calendar The Sunday at the end of October / beginning of November marks two festivals - Reformation Day - and All Saints Day.
On 31 October 1517 Martin Luther famously nailed 95 Theses on indulgences to the door of the castle church at Wittenberg.
His ‘Theses’ came to be regarded as a manifesto for the reformation of the Catholic Church.
Among Luther’s Theses were assertions like:
The Bible is the supreme authority in the Christian religion.
Faith leads to salvation
Humans can only attain heaven after death through faith in God, not by doing good works on earth.
Indulgences are immoral
The pope has limited power
One of the main abuses of power in the Catholic Church of Luther’s day (And I’m putting it simplistically) was really a play on our fear of death and dying.
What if I die and fall into eternal punishment?
For the Catholics of Luther’s Day - you might need to get forgiven. And to get forgiven you would need a priest to pronounce forgiveness… and perhaps you would need to pay a fee or perform penance to earn your place in heaven.
The church enriched itself greatly - the famous saying that Luther used to critique Tzetzel (A great fundraiser of the time) was:
When a coin in the coffer rings a soul from Purgatory springs.
We are a people who are easily frightened - especially when faced with death and dying.
Fear of Death
Fear of Death
Unfortunately - religion - has in many ways abused our fear of death.
I heard a lot of sermons at the Methodist Church I attended as a teenager… They said something like - if you step out of the door and get run over by a bus today - what might happen to your soul.
On this ‘All Saints Sunday’ we read some powerful scriptures that reflect the promises of hopefulness which we can cling to. We can know - that those who have died - and we who will die - need not fear.
The theatre of halloween is meant to remind us of our fear of death - and poke fun at it. So some of the scriptures to comfort us.
Scriptures like Revelation 21:4 / Isaiah 25:8 help to allay our fears. Fears for ourselves and for those whom we know have gone before us:
8 he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
Revelation draws heavily on the Old Testament scriptures - Revelation 21:4 - basically echoes Isaiah 25:8 ->
4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”
In scripture - the end of death as we know it is announced. For those people who heard the preaching of Tzetzel who would tell people that if they didn’t give enough money to the church their souls would be in anguish.
To those who are harassed by mediums and spiritualists to appease their family who have died before them.
There is this promise.
That those who have passed are in the care of God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ - and Christ himself.
They have no want or need.
Even their tears are wiped.
Mourning and crying is no more - for the first things have passed away.
Luther
Luther
In Luther’s day - all the fear of death and dying was largely as a result of a church that taught salvation through works.
Luther re-discovered scriptures emphasis of salvation by faith - not through works.
As expressed in Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
Comfort / Complaint
Comfort / Complaint
But here is the problem.
We’re still anxious.
How can we take hold of this promise that God has made?
How can we trust in the prophecy of Isaiah - repeated in Revelation?
Can we know that we will be saved?
The answer comes to us in the life and person of Jesus.
And so John 11 - comforts and disturbs us all at once…
John 11:32-44
John 11:32-44
Especially John 11:35
35 Jesus began to weep.
Jesus’ weeping was caused by the death of his friend - Lazarus. The tension surrounding his death. Perhaps also the beginning of the last leg of his journey to the cross.
John 11:33 (NRSV)
33 …he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.
Is it comforting to know that Jesus - like us - can be disturbed in spirit, greatly moved?
I tried to think if I had ever seen my own father in such a state. If I think of the times I have found myself in such a state…
Disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.
Those moments in my life were times of great pain and anguish.
Difficult times.
It is hard to imagine - that Jesus - the Word of God - the Son of God - One With God - could experience such vulnerability with us.
But there it is.
36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
On one hand - people see Jesus’ great pain at the loss of a beloved friend.
And I’m sure its not just the loss of a beloved friend that breaks him - but the sight of his other friends hurt by the same experience.
And so at the same time - in the midst of the comfort of knowing that Christ weeps with us - is the complaint:
37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
We know what will happen next.
But while we don’t know. At this point in the story.
We can feel the tension and anxiety that we all feel in the midst of mourning and in fear of death.
What could we have done?
How could we have changed the course of events?
Weeping and Why?
Weeping and Why?
The tension of pain and confusion. Of uncertainty.
But on this occasion something different will happen.
39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.”
We know that Christ will ask for the stone to be removed - he will cry out to Lazarus to come forth - and Lazarus will come out wrapped in strips of cloth.
But the problem of death and dying won’t be for ever solved.
But what Jesus is doing is pointing to Isaiah 25:8 just as Revelation 21:4 will also point to Isaiah 25:8 -
Isaiah 25:8 (NRSV)
8 he will swallow up death forever.
As Jesus prays for Lazarus to be raised his words appeal to the Father to help - not for himself - but as Jesus says:
42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.”
So that they (the crowd) may believe that you (God) have sent him (Jesus).
The prophecy and the promise is being fulfilled.
Our understanding of death and dying is being turned upside down.
All things are being made new.
This great miracle of Lazarus’ resurrection will cause the temple authorities to clamp down on Jesus - forcing him into hiding.
It is the beginning of the end - so to speak.
Death Still Frightens Us
Death Still Frightens Us
The reality - is as much as we learn about God’s plan to undo the curse of death that entered into the world as a sort of act of mercy.
So that we would not be bound to live forever in this fallen state.
[[ If we follow Genesis 2:17
17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
And Genesis 3:22
22 Then the Lord God said, “See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—
The story of Genesis introduces death as an antidote to living forever in sin and brokenness - and promises / anticipates a restoration - a solution. That comes to us in Jesus. ]]
Although we know that Christ defeats death… announcing its defeat in raising Lazarus.
Embodying the defeat of death in his own resurrection on the third day and his appearance to many who would believe - and even stake their lives on their belief.
Their sight of the risen Jesus overcame their fear of death.
—->
Although we know all of this…
Death still causes us to reel.
And although Jesus knew all of this, he began to weep.
Promise
Promise
But Isaiah promises:
8 he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
Death destroyed
Tears wiped away
All our disgrace taken away.
Revelation Foresees
4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”
We can trust in this promise.
Because of Jesus.
Because he lived with us - so much as one of us that he wept with us.
But also - because he died our death - like us - he was buried.
Because he raised the dead - like Lazarus - confirming the promise of Isaiah - inspiring the promise of Revelation.
And he himself was raised - as Paul would later say:
Colossians 1:18 (NRSV)
18 …he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.
All Saints / Reformation
All Saints / Reformation
So here we are on this All Saints / Reformation Sunday.
To remember those who have died - and showed us the life of Jesus.
To celebrate the freedom we have in the reminder - Salvation is not through works but by grace / through faith.
That we can celebrate the assurance of God’s grace to us in death - and the promise of life hereafter in Christ.
New creation is coming:
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them;