Advent Lutheran Church

"Communion of Saints -You are Never Alone (All Saints Sunday)"

            Before I was a pastor, I used to do a lot of international traveling to plan meetings and conventions for my organization.  Often I would arrive the night before I met my local contacts, and would go down to the restaurant in the hotel and find a nice quiet table for dinner.  Now, I don’t know if this still happens in Europe, but it seems like the Captain or the Host would always come over and try to “fix me up!”  Not with a date, but with some nice older lady or other business woman who might also be dining alone.  I would always decline, and feel very grown up and independent, very capable of traveling and dining alone.  It has only been as I age and I recognize how important it is to have a companion for the daily routines that I have begun to rethink those decisions.  Imagine the stories I would have heard from those women of the world.  Imagine the friendships that might have ensued! 

            All Saints Sunday is a day that we celebrate the Church, and the community in Christ that it represents.  First and foremost, we recall Jesus’ resurrection those many years ago, but also the promise that we, too, will be raised into eternal life.   On this day, we remember the Saints who’ve gone before us - and hear a word of life in the face of the inevitability of death - just as we are experiencing Autumn and the dying of the earth, the onset of winter, we know there is Spring.

            It is also a celebration of (as the Apostles Creed calls it) “the Communion of the Saints.”

Holy Communion draws us to the table with the saints “of every time and every place,” and it means we do not eat – or work - or live in isolation.  Nor, when we come to this rail, do we pray only for ourselves but for Christ’s church: not as we see it - divided, disagreeing, human - but as God sees it, “united as One in Christ.”

            Our gospel story today is the “Raising of Lazarus.”  It should be very familiar, especially since we just heard it at the end of last Lenten season.  The story is in a different setting today, however, as we ponder it with its meaning for this All Saints day.  It’s sort of like the person who reads the end of a mystery novel first because too much suspense might ruin the story!  We have the story of the raising of Lazarus, so that once we are confident of the promised ending, we might be better prepared to participate in the story.  And Jesus not only raised Lazarus from death, he also modeled for us how to grieve, and how to share in the grief of others.

             How many of you noticed the dialogue between Jesus and Mary?  If you know this story well, you know that Mary said exactly what her big sister, Martha had already said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died!”  First Martha, then Mary, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  You know, for almost every death, there is one common, human response:  “if only.”  If only we had come sooner, if only I had taken his keys; if only the diagnosis had been given a few months earlier; if only I had done a better job of caring.  It is hard to imagine a loved one dying without guilt surfacing somewhere in some form.  Yet, it is a common, predictable response to one of the most consuming human emotions - grieving.

            And how did Jesus deal with the death of his loved one?  How did he react to the great disturbance in his spirit and being deeply moved?  What did Jesus do?  He wept.  He did not respond to their “if onlys,” nor did he offer excuses for his absence or tardy arrival, nor did he try to console them with reasons or theological explanations.  He simply stood with them and wept.  He allowed Martha and Mary to have their emotions and their faith at the same time - to ask questions when they already knew the answers - to feel deep sorrow when they believed in joy.

             Jesus stands with us the same way.  When we doubt, when we question, when we cry out at God in anger, Jesus is still standing there.  And in his time, he’ll call out New Life.

            The work of the Church is the work of the saints.  One of the critical parts of the Lazarus account is what Jesus tells the disciples to do:  “Take that stone away! Unbind him, and let him go.”  Jesus calls Lazarus forth from death into life, and we are called to remove the obstacles!

What sadness - when the church becomes the obstacle, and binds rather than loosing, entombs rather than letting in the light.

             In our independent, very capable, self-sufficient world, the church stands as the invitation to the only true relationships – relationship with God, and with God’s greatest gift:  God’s people.  “Joyful, engaging, creative, communal, faithful people,” working against culture - to take away stones that block, to untie whatever binds, to let the captives go free.  THAT is the work of the Saints; of Christ’s church.  And we do not do the work of God alone.

            It is a wonderful vision in our reading from the prophet Isaiah today—it’s like A Great Parade.  I can just see God, “the great lover of human beings, out for a promenade - renewing community, ending oppression and violence, ending up at a great feast of rich food and aged wines.”  What a sight!  And look!  Right behind God is Lazarus, Martha and her sister Mary; Peter, James and John; Paul and Barnabas and Timothy, Martin Luther, and all those who have entered into the Church Triumphant since All Saints 2008.  We remember:  (the 2009 All Saints List was read to the tolling of the bells.)  Amen.

 

 

References:  Luke Bouman, Valparaiso University and David Jones, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

 (In Lectionary Homiletics, Vol XX, No. 6 p.41-2)