Keep Me In Eternal Life

Sermon by Fr. Steve Easterday for Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Lake Wales, 11/9/2025, Proper 27, Year C, Job 19:23-27a, Luke 20:27-38, “Keep Me in Eternal Life”

Come Holy Spirit, come. Come as the Fire of Love and burn in our hearts. Come as the Wind and cleanse our souls. Help us see our need of you. Help us turn to you. And make us holy. For our greater good and your greater glory, in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

To begin this sermon, I would like to call your attention to a short phrase that we hear every Sunday. Most of you have probably heard it so often that it just washes over you, without you thinking about it. Please find a Prayer Book in your pew and turn to page 360. After the “Confession” you see what is called the “Absolution.” The priest says, “Almighty God have mercy on you, forgive you all your sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen you in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, keep you in eternal life. Amen.” The part I want you to notice is the very last part, the little phrase where the priest prays that you will be “kept in eternal life.” The point here is that eternal life comes to us in the present moment. You are in eternal life right now!

You can see the same understanding a few pages later in the prayer book on page 365. There towards the top of the page on 365, are the words for distributing Holy Communion. Often the priest or eucharistic ministers will say, “The Body of Christ. The bread of heaven.” Or, “The Blood of Christ, the cup of salvation.” But if you look just above that on the page the alternate words to use are, “The body or blood of our Lord Jesus Christ keep you in everlasting life.”

And that is what I pray for you, whenever I give absolution or communion, that you will be held in the present moment in eternal life, in everlasting life.” --- Now… a few years ago, I preached on this idea that eternal life is an ongoing reality, and a good friend who heard the sermon wrote a meditation it. Her name is Patricia Oetting and she said this:

I hear that prayer [after the confession] at every Sunday Eucharist. I focus much on the mercy and forgiveness part, and I am ever so grateful for the grace and love bestowed on me , once again, by our generous Lord. I felt a bit strengthened and hoped that I would be 'good'. But in all honesty, I did not get the the full impact of the power of the Holy Spirit keeping me in eternal life. I felt a bit embarassed recently when I heard our priest emphasize how he most fervently did intercede that the Holy Spirit would keep us all, keep me, in eternal life !

She went on to write… When I was young I more or less thought that we were born, spent some time here on this earth, and then we died, and passed into the next life, eternal life. Ah, but as I have aged and gained a bit of wisdom I realize that we are IN eternal life from the moment we were loved into existence by our Creator God. This thing called 'eternal life' is being lived NOW. Imagine that… the priest is interceding for us to be 'kept in' this eternal life. To be "kept" in it!

In our Gospel reading today, the Sadducees, unlike Patricia, did not believe in eternal life at all. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection and so they tried to trap Jesus by asking him a question that included a lot of death… seven deaths in fact. Jesus refused the question and said that resurrection people cannot die anymore, because “they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.” And then Jesus finished by essentially saying that just as Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are alive in God, though they died long ago, so we can be alive in God… In this life and the next, we are children of God.

Basically, Jesus is saying that these guys have their perspective all wrong on life and death. So how do you get your perspective right? To get the answer, let’s turn to the prayer book once again. Please turn to page 491, and let’s read the middle paragraph on that page together:

“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth. After my awaking, he will raise me up; and in my body I shall see God. I myself shall see, and my eyes behold him who is my friend and not a stranger.” Did you recognize this as the Job reading that you heard a little earlier this morning? It is the same reading from Job chapter 19. You might have missed it, because there are a few subtle changes from the old Prayer Book translation to the newer Bible translation. The Bible version says that your Redeemer is “on your side,” whereas the Prayer Book says your Redeemer is “your friend and not a stranger.”

The book of Job is all about how suffering can be an obstacle to God. The story of Job is one you may have experienced even if you have never heard of this book or read it. Job was a good man who tried to live in the right way, but he lost everything, almost everything. He loses his children, his wealth and his health. And then he loses his "so-called" friends who blame him for his troubles. The one thing that Job does not lose is his faith in God. He curses the day he was born, but he continues to turn to God and ask him why? why? why? But even in his depression, Job refuses to give up on God. In some of the most powerful words in the whole Bible Job says, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord." Job, keeps turning to God. Job keeps blessing God, even though he argues with the Almighty quite a lot. What he eventually discovers is that while he cannot *understand* the reasons for his suffering, what he can experience is the presence of God and that changes everything.

And this is really what it means to be kept in eternal life. If you keep turning towards the presence of God even on the worst days, then eventually you become a friend of God through Jesus Christ. And this friendship with God is like any other solid friendship, in that you won’t always agree with what God wants of you, but that does not spoil the friendship. It just makes it deeper. Hardship shared by friends creates great trust, and also gives great comfort.

For me, being kept in eternal life means simply talking to Jesus every day, many times a day, about what I believe is possible and what I hope for in life. My prayers reflect my deepest convictions and desires. My experience, over many years, is that Jesus as my friend is very much a Good Shepherd encouraging me and nudging me to change directions to get to the green pastures or still waters that are possible in my life. Oh, sometimes I get an answer much stronger than a nudge. Sometimes I get a poke with that rod or staff, because sometimes I need that. Mostly, however, my life of faith involves very everyday kinds of decisions, that gradually move me in the right direction.

What I want you to see today in these readings is that in the end, if you are living this day-by-day friendship with Jesus, then going to heaven becomes in a sense, just another day with Jesus. → I had a very good friend who told me as he approached the end of his life on earth, that he thought of death as simply passing through a gate from one field to another. On both sides the Good Shepherd is your friend and helps you know where to go and what to do.

So my prayer for you truly is that you be kept in eternal life, and that you truly know that your Redeemer lives, and moreover that you know Jesus, your Redeemer, as a Friend. Amen.