Sermon for the Twenty-First Sunday After Pentecost (Observing the Feast of the All Saints)
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. Today’s Epistle grows dearer to me—as it likely grows dearer also to you—every time we bury a fellow Christian: We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep… Encourage one another with these Words. With these Words, God does not forbid our grief. Grief is inevitable. Those of you who have experienced it also know that grief never goes away in this life. Tears dry up; strong emotions pass; memories sweeten with time; but grief never goes away. Simply be sure that you do not grieve as others do, who have no hope. Dear Christian friends, Carol Pendergraft; Harold Sommers; Lorena Holtzen; Bee Morris; Gene Ahern; Joseph Engels; Mary McGinnis; Loy Palecek; As many of you undoubtedly know, these are a few of the fellow Christians we have lost over the past decade. But they are more that. They are also the ingredients of our grief. Certainly we each could add other names to the mix. All Saints’ Day is their day. Today we remember and we pray thanks for the Christian faith our God gave to them, so that they “will always be with the Lord.” All Saints’ Day is OUR day. Today we discipline and chastise ourselves in the Christian faith that our God has given to us, so that we will not “grieve as other do, who have no hope.” Alice Sommers; Kelly Ramey; Lois Wittrock; Doris Tracy; Eirane Holsten; Merlin Brinson; Their funerals were hard, even frightening, but the funerals were not the hardest part. Christian funerals are steeped and saturated with the Living Words of Christ. In those Words, our Lord’s sweet promises of resurrection and life dull the bitter taste of death. The best Christian funerals move our attention away from our dead and they redirect our eyes toward the living Lord Jesus Christ, that is, toward the One who gave His body as a purchase price the bodies of those whom we love and must lay to rest. Their funerals were hard, but not the hardest part. From where I stand, the visitations are the hardest part. Visitations are not usually about the comforts of Christ. Most of the time, visitations are about the comforts that people give to one another. Sometimes the people who attempt to comfort us simply do not know the right things to say. They mean well. They try. But when they try to comfort us without the Words of Christ, they inadvertently tempt us instead. In particular, they tempt us to grieve as though we have no hope. Just think about some of the hopeless, Christless words you hear at funeral visitations, all of them spoken with sincerity and love. Think of how these words tempt you to grieve as though you have no hope: · Sometimes people say, concerning our dead, “He or she will live on in our hearts.” No. If my grandmother or your wife lives on in our hearts, than neither my grandmother or your wife have any hope. Thanks be to God! Our Christian dead live in a much holier, much more permanent place than our hearts or our memories. Our dead now live before the face of God, “before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:10). · Sometimes people say, concerning our dead, “He or she looks good. The funeral home did a good job.” No. The best cosmetics in the world still cannot hide death. Our dead do not look good. They look different in a way that is not good. Our dead will not look good until they hear “a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.” One that day—the last, great day of the Lord’s appearing—on that day we will ALL look finally good and none of us a moment before. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. … Just as we have borne the image of [the First Adam] the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of [Jesus] the man of heaven (1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 49). · Sometimes people say, as they point to the bodies our dead, “He or she is no longer there. The body is just a shell.” No. The body is not just a shell, and salvation does not consist of escaping the body! The salvation Jesus won for you and for your dead is the miraculous cleansing of the sin-corrupted body. Jesus’ blood has washed you free of every sin that diseases and pollutes the body. Jesus’ resurrection promises you and your Christian dead a resurrected body, free of “every weight, and sin which clings so closely” (Hebrews 12:1). The bodies of our dead were not merely a shell. The bodies of our dead were the creative handiwork of our God. They were divinely knit together in the secret of the womb. God the Father knew their shape and form and silhouette in detail before their birth. Today we celebrate All Saints’ Day, but maybe we should not think of today as a day for our Christian dead. They need no such day! Jesus is now with them in a better way than He is with us. Because they are now with Jesus, They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 7:16-17). Until Christ returns, All Saints’ Day will remain OUR day. Today we must set aside our sorrows, if only for a little while. Today we must discipline and chastise ourselves in the Christian faith that our God has given to us. We must require ourselves to rejoice, precisely so we will not “grieve as other do, who have no hope.” Dwight Whan; Vernon Holsten; Otis Boeck; Earl Miller; Edna Sigman; Janet Holst. These are the ingredients of our grief, but they shall not be the shape of our grief. God has shaped and fashioned our grief into form our Lord’s cross and tomb. We believe that Jesus died and rose again! Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. … For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Encourage one another with these words. _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list [email protected] http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
