Revelation

Transcribed from the sermon preached November 7, 2012 

The Reverend Max Lynn, Pastor

Scripture Readings: Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9

Our Call to worship proclaims, the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them…for though in the sight of others they were punished, their hope is full of immortality.  Their hope is full of immortality.  This is a bold claim.  Hope itself is full of immortality.  So immortality is not just out there beyond death, but here and now in the hope that resides within us. 

It has been a heavy week.  Hurricane Sandy devastated the East Coast.  It has been horrible to watch the aftermath.  So much destruction.  Meanwhile the election madness is at a fever pitch.   I am flabbergasted at the level of ignorance, vitriol and propaganda.  The divisiveness is frightening.  And life goes on for the rest of us: work, school, relationships, health concerns and death of loved ones.

Today we celebrate All Saints Day – when we give thanks for the lives and resurrection of those faithful who have gone before. All of our scripture readings make reference to eternal life.
In the Hebrew Scriptures, much of the trouble the Israelites get into appears to be the result of God’s punishment.  They have gone wrong, taken a wrong turn, and God is going to let them know.  Prophets often see God using the superpower nations, and natural disaster to do his punishing work.  But just as often, especially in the New Testament, the faithful suffer unjustly precisely because they remain faithful.  Yet punishment and righteous suffering are not the only two biblical possibilities for why suffering and death happen.  Often, suffering or death appear unexpected and folks die neither because they are exceptionally good or bad, but because death is a part of life. Thankfully in Christ, so is resurrection.

There is a certain natural law, which governs the universe, and ignoring it will result in suffering.  Use tobacco and we shouldn’t be surprised if we get cancer.  Learn the value of hard work, and we are more likely to enjoy the fruit of our labor.  Figure out how to fit in with our environment rather than exploit it without thought, and the environment and our space in it will be more likely to remain stable and supportive over time.  There are always earthquakes, droughts and floods, yet now our rising population and consumption threatens the ecosystem upon which we depend.  We are increasing the propensity for destructive weather and ecosystem demise.  We would not claim God is punishing the person whose house is washed away, but we can see that the laws of God are calling us to pay attention and change, or a greater number of people will suffer.
In the same way there is a tipping point for empires, a point where too much oppression, too great a gap between rich and poor, and even too much freedom without a moral compass will lead to a breakdown, leaving the empire with too many enemies, vulnerable to other nations and less able to respond to crisis.  Clearly too there is a limit to the amount of violence and war a society can sustain over time, there is a limit to the amount of resources we can divert from care of people to killing of people and still be able to thrive and even function adequately.   The more we push those limits, the more likely things will fall apart.  “Lord you are my God,” proclaims Isaiah, “for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.”  Plans formed of old says Isaiah.  There is an order to the created universe that bends toward justice.  It existed before we came on the scene and will exist after we have gone.  It is the vision of God, the Alpha and the Omega.  God is a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in their distress… When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter rainstorm, 5the noise of aliens like heat in a dry place, you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds; the song of the ruthless was stilled.  This poetic prophecy doesn’t specify the city, so it can be both the corrupt Jerusalem and Babylon, which was sacked by the Persians.  Either way, through plans formed of old, the poor do not remain oppressed forever, and the oppressors receive justice, whether it is at the hands of those they have oppressed or not.
But the really good news is this: the goal and standard are set: God intends prosperity for all people, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow… And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever.  Tears will be wiped away; disgrace is taken away from all the earth. 
So there is a judgment that comes from disregarding the laws of God, consequences for sinful actions, consequences for hurting others and ourselves. We are free to choose to ignore the laws of God, the laws of the created order all we want, and suffer the consequences.  Yet the vision of God includes redemption, for all peoples, including those who have just suffered consequences for their own actions and especially for those who have suffered for no cause of their own.  Both the tears and disgrace from the suffering at the hands of others and the suffering as a consequence of our own sin is taken away. This is a vision of the way it should be. This is our goal, our marker.     
The vision is so beautiful that it sustains us even in the midst of hardship and death.  The fear of death hangs over us and drives our desperate actions, which lead to war and oppression and injustice.  Yet if death is not our greatest fear, if our motivation is not the fear of death but the beauty of God’s vision for life, then we can live and act in a whole new way.  This is the beauty God intends, and we get to be a part of the plan; we get to live as if this is the way the world should be, the way the world will be, because it has been declared of old by the Alpha and the Omega.  This is an eternal vision that includes all people and taps us into a life beyond death.  
With this vision we are given the hope to live now as it should and shall be.  We can answer vitriol with love and hope and clear thinking.  We can work for bold change; we don’t have to be held captive by the momentary afflictions of weather, disease or fearful, hateful or greedy people, or our own darn mistakes or faults.  We can’t keep God down; the vision is before us, among us, out in front of us.

This vision of life, the way it is when we are open to see, the vision of the way life should and will be is a gift of the Spirit, the Spirit of God within us, and the Spirit is eternal.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus embodies this vision, embodies the Spirit.  His way is the Way.  His Way is the way of life, the life that though it dies, lives again.  I am the resurrection and the life. He, who believes in me, though he will die, will live again.
Yesterday at men’s breakfast we talked of unexpected things in life.  Someone shared how unexpected it was to have a debilitating back.  Another shared how even though we know it in theory, the reality of growing old and facing death is more than he expected.  Another shared how unexpected this vitriolic political climate is.  Still someone else shared how his mother and father died unexpectedly and they were not able to be present. 
In John’s gospel we learn Lazarus is dear to Jesus. As the brother of Mary and Martha they were no doubt close family friends.  Lazarus dies while Jesus is in Jerusalem for a festival.  And as the political climate is very volatile, a vitriolic group picks up stones and threatens to kill Jesus.  Jesus says, “I have shown you many good things that my father sent me to do.  Which one are you going to stone me for?”  They want to stone him for blasphemy, for claiming he is the Son of God. But he quotes Psalm 82, “Give justice to the weak and fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and destitute.  Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked… I say,” and this is the part Jesus quotes, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless,” the psalm goes on, “you shall die like men, and fall like any prince.”
So then Jesus hears of the death of Lazarus, and yet doesn’t leave for two more days to go to Bethany.  When he finally arrives Martha heads out to meet him and says, “If you would have been here, he would not have died.”  He is deeply moved.  If you remember, this is where Jesus wept.  I wonder all the reasons from which tears came.  John’s Jesus is fully confident and self aware of his divinity, and show confidence that he will save Lazarus.  So why the tears?  Why is he deeply moved?  Is Jesus touched by Martha’s comment?  Does he also feel bad for being somewhere else, for being off arguing with the stubborn while his good friend died unexpectedly?  Surely his tears are for love but does he also show that while in our physical body we cannot be all places at all times, that unexpected tragedy may cut our relationships short. That hurts.  We are sons of the Most High but will die like men, and fall like any prince.  Or is the resurrection such that it doesn’t erase the pain and reality of death in this life even as it overcomes and surpasses it?  We can assume that even as Lazarus escapes death this time, he will, like all of us, die if from nothing else, old age.  If Jesus is the Way, the resurrection and the life then crying and being deeply moved is part of the resurrection and the life, part of the Spirit of God within us.  
The fears, being deeply moved at the loss of life, is part of the love, nurtured in relationship that lives even after death.  How beautiful is that!  A deeply moving cry can connect us with the eternal love and grace of the Living God.  And yet, even as we may be tempted to keep our tears going as a sign of our ongoing love for the one we have lost, we are called to rise up and move forward with faith and hope, assured that the Spirit of the living God who was in our beloved rises and shines like sparks through the stubble.  For whether our beloved or we who remain left things undone, could not undo mistakes we had hoped to overcome, or did not complete things we intended to say and do - that we might by our efforts finally arrive together to that banquet table vision of perfect peace and harmony - even though our work has been left incomplete, God’s grace and love are complete.   And they lift us up and carry us forward to that great feast. 
So as we celebrate All Saints Day, we give thanks that by the grace and forgiveness of the Christ, we face life and death with great confidence and power, with a vision even now of the eternal love of God in the world, in the people who risk love with us for the greater vision of the Eternal God. 
3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; 4he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” 5And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.”
Reinhold Niebuhr in the Irony of American History writes:  Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.

Nothing, which is true or beautiful or good, makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith.

Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love.

No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.”