All Saints forever
All Saints 2024
November 3, 2024
Fr. Tim Nunez
May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
I only ever got to do this one time. About the same time Good Shepherd began its relationship with El Buen Pastor in Honduras 13 or 14 years ago, the parish I served began having mission trips to a school in Tegucigalpa called El Hogar which serves orphans and children from the worst poverty.
El Hogar has three campuses: an elementary school where we stayed and spent most of our time, an agricultural school where 7th to 9th graders learn contemporary farming, animal husbandry and how to farm-raise tilapia, and a technical school where they learn electrical work, carpentry, machine work (making tools and parts) and automotive repair.
The technical school was led by a guy named Lazaro, which is the Spanish version of Lazarus. So when we got there and I saw him for the first time walking towards us but at a distance, I cried out in Spanish, “Lazaro, come out!” He lit up with a big smile and we became instant friends. I saw him and his sons many times in the ensuing years.
Jesus raised Lazarus just before he made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and it is clearly in part a foreshadowing of his own resurrection, although different because Lazarus was raised back to a human body and a human life. Jesus rose in a new body to eternal life. Lazarus was four days dead before Jesus raised him and Jesus was raised by God on the third day. This incident and the resurrection demonstrate God’s power over death itself.
Victory over sin and death is the gift God secured for us in Jesus. It shines a bright light to dispel “the shroud that is cast over all peoples” as the Lord shared through Isaiah. It brings a great deal of comfort as we miss our loved ones and friends.
We especially remember those who died since All Saints’ Sunday last year: Paul Bieber, Pat Cain, Patsy Draper, Tim Graddy, Bob Harmon, Mike Landes, Clem Newbold III, Vince Pickett, Fleet Ryland, Veronica Small-Roy and Charles Sykes, who we will inter immediately after our service today.
We count them among the “great cloud of witnesses,” the full communion of saints, the universal Church, which includes all Christians around the world, those we know and don’t know, those who have gone before and those yet to come. They are represented by these crosses bearing the names of those who have touched and influenced our lives.
This raises a question: What has the Lord shared with us about death? What has he promised?
We find throughout the Old Testament promises from God that are well-represented in our passage from Isaiah this morning. He will swallow up death forever. He will wipe away the tears from all faces. He will take away the disgrace of his people, from all the earth. Disgrace, the awful shame of our sin, is to be taken away by grace. We are saved by grace, the gift of God.
These are most comforting words. But the question arises. We die, then what? There are a couple of realities which the Lord shares with us that we may have difficulty grasping and which defy concrete explanation. Theologians have been studying and writing on this for centuries. I’m giving you my best summary, but you have to hold it like you’d hold a bird, firmly but not so as to crush it. We’re talking God here and we are merely human, after all.
The first reality rests in what Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43) Let’s note that he said this to the thief who asked to be remembered when Jesus came into his kingdom, not the one who taunted him!
The word paradise comes from a Persian word for a walled garden, imparting a place of beauty, safety, peace and contentment. It evokes a sense of complete healing, a complete restoration of the first garden, Eden itself where humanity is with God without shame or fear.
And, since Jesus goes there while his body is in the tomb and the thief’s body apparently gets buried also, this appears to be a spiritual place and largely drives our perception of heaven – as limited as we are. Most Christians are quite happy to stop there. “We get to go to heaven? Sign me up!” Any of us would take that deal all day, and I suppose we have. But that’s not all.
The second reality rests in the “Day of the Lord.” I’m not talking about Sunday. I’m talking about the Judgment Day, the end time. This has roots in the Old Testament in what we call apocalyptic passages from the prophets, particularly Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel and Malachi.
Matthew, Mark and Luke record Jesus talking about it with signs including wars, darkness, famines, natural disasters and judgment, separating the wicked from the good. Paul and Peter reference it in their letters.
Ultimately it is described in what we commonly call The Book of Revelation, but its full name is The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John. It’s important to remember that is Jesus doing the revealing. John is just recording it for us. It’s also worth noting that the Greek word for “revelation” is apocaluptw or apocalypse. This book is so ingrained in our very roots that apocalypse gets translated as revelation!
Towards the end of his witness to the End Time, Jesus shows John the new earth, for the first heaven and first earth have passed away. Then God lowers the New Jerusalem, the new creation, and God dwells with his people. Again, he will wipe away every tear and death will be no more. No more mourning. No more crying. No more pain. The first things have passed away and he makes all things new.
The Revelation to John is slam full of symbolism that is wild and difficult to understand. It is also wonderfully comforting and terrifying. We really want to be on the right side of that judgment!
This is the promise Jesus won for us, the certain hope we may rely upon that death is not an end. Our yearning to be with Our Lord and our loved ones is secured by the One who created us and loves us more that we realize. With all the saints. True life that includes now.
Come out!
AMEN!