Advent Lutheran Church

"The Other Side of Death - All Saints Sunday"

 

A minister friend told me about a graveside funeral. The family requested that a soloist sing as a part of the service. The soloist was contacted, and he was told that the family had requested that he sing "Jingle Bells." Well, this was a first for him, but he got himself ready. At the appropriate time, he began to sing: "Dashing through the snow, in a one horse open sleigh, o'er the fields we go, laughing all the way..." This gifted tenor closed by singing the familiar chorus with great gusto and enthusiasm. After the service, the widow made her way to the soloist, thanked him, and then confessed, "As you were singing, it dawned on me. My husband's favorite song was not 'Jingle Bells.' It was "When They Ring the Golden Bells." As someone who is in the business of life and death, I can tell you that there are often times when the best intentions of those left behind go awry in unusual ways.  But regardless, when we gather to say goodbye, even those simple missteps can help us make some kind of sense when we ponder death at the loss of a loved one.

            Last week, Pastor Roger took as his main theme for Reformation Sunday, “Sin.”  Today, the main them of All Saints is “Death.”  Can you even contain your enthusiasm for what might come next Sunday? Actually, as Christians, death is simply the transport vehicle to take us to the other side which we like to think of as eternal life or everlasting life or life after death.  If we use church words, we might speak of salvation, Resurrection, or Heaven.  The Bible is relatively quiet about heaven, choosing to speak more clearly and more often about “the Kingdom of God,” which is “already” here but “not yet” fulfilled.  In fact, Luther used these phrases to describe our situation, existing between the “already” and “not yet” of the kingdom’s fulfillment in time. 

            It can be confusing, attempting to interpret and apply the Bible in these mysterious areas, and so often times we fill in the gaps with what we learn through culture.  In the past few decades there have been a number of best-selling books that have added images and ideas about heaven to our cultural understanding.  And when one of these books comes out, many of you read them, and then ask Pastor Roger or me what we think about them.  So today, I’d like to offer three mini book reviews on some of these books.

            The first, Embraced by the Light, published in 1994 by Betty J. Eadie, gave us one of the first looks at the Light and the Tunnel.  These two images seem to have stuck, as many who have reported out of body experiences have described just such a vision.  And while this picture of the road to heaven got some “traction” in the cultural imagination, the book itself has not lasted so long.  In fact, a copy of it sat most of the summer on our “give away” table this past year.

            The second book might have a bit more credence as it was written by a Baptist pastor named Don Piper in 2004.  Piper, while trapped in his car following a horrific accident, wrote about his 90 minutes in Heaven:

“I wasn't conscious of anything I'd left behind and felt no regrets about leaving family or possessions. It was as if God had removed anything negative from my consciousness, and I could only rejoice at being together with these wonderful people… They looked exactly as I once knew them —although they were more radiant and joyful than they’d ever been on earth.”

So, perhaps, once in heaven, our departed loved ones might NOT spend their time looking down on us all!  This could be incredibly good news for those who have regrets about relationships or worry about “what mom is thinking about all this…” Instead, there is total involvement with God and God’s people, and seeing God face to face.  Imagine that.  No responsibilities.  No regrets. Just reunion.   

Finally, one that I know many of you have read, the recent (2010) Heaven is for Real – Todd Burpo.  It is the story of Todd’s 4 year old son, Colton, who had a vision during an emergency appendectomy.  Colton amazed everyone with his stories about his time in heaven.

First, he says that everyone had wings.  In scripture, the only winged creatures are called angels, literally, messengers of God.  So, sorry to say, there is no Biblical evidence that people who die become angels.  Colton also reported that he visited the throne room of God.  And sure enough, God was seated in the center with Jesus at his right hand, just as we profess in the creeds.  When asked who was seated at the left, Colton said, “Gabriel!”  Maybe.  However for those of us who are Trinitarian minded, we might be looking for that left hand seat to be occupied by the Holy Spirit, as in Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Now, I don’t doubt that Colton  had a vision, but still, he tells it through the eyes of a 4 year old Christian little boy.

            So what DO we know?  Today’s gospel lesson is the foundation of Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.  It is the famous “Beatitudes” or “Blessed are you’s” from Matthew.  These blessings are not like our “God bless him,” or “Bless her soul…” but is deeply rooted in the Jewish understanding of the word.  Blessing in Hebrew is esher, meaning, literally, "to find the right road."  “Blessed is the one” who (finds the right path…) and what we KNOW is, finding the right path brings joy to God.  And, we know that God loves us so much, that even though we are already are saints through our baptism, we have also been given the freedom to deny our identity and to walk away from his grace.  We can choose not to be the persons, (saints) that God calls us to be.  But when we claim our identity and find the right path, there is rejoicing in heaven.

That reminds me of Chris, who came to Advent late in his life from Germany.  Chris had been a Nazi soldier in World War II and he had killed during the war.  He carried that guilt with him for decades, not being able to forgive himself or accept God’s forgiveness, until he came here and befriended Pastor Roger.  Through that friendship here at Advent, Chris finally accepted God’s grace.  I remember him saying, “Maybe I haven't changed my personality, but I now am under new management." Chris was a saint, and so are you.

Today, we began and will end our worship with a great hymn of the faith, “For All the Saints.” It is a victory song, a song that celebrates our entry into the Church Triumphant, where we will all see God face to face.  To conclude, I’d like to share with you a poem some of you may have heard, but I think it is appropriate to introduce the reading of this year’s All Saints list.

 

GONE FROM SIGHT - HENRY VAN DYKE

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side, spreads

her white sails to the moving breeze and starts for the blue ocean.

She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck of

white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other. 

Then, someone at my side says, 'There, she is gone'.
 
Gone where?  Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,

hull and spar as she was when she left my side.
And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight

to her destined port.  Her diminished size is in me -- not in her.
 
And, just at the moment when someone says, 'There, she is gone,'

there are other eyes watching her coming,

and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, 'Here she comes!'

 

So we pause to give thanks for those faithful who have entered the Church Triumphant before us, who have showed us by their witness how to live as people of God, who have passed their faith on to us in person, or in story…those who are “gone from our sight…”  We remember:  Reading of the 2011 All Saints List.

-          Introductory story as told by The Rev. Dr. Bill Bright (UMC – Atlanta)