When Thanksgiving Isn’t Enough

Delivered November 18, 2012

1 Samuel 1:4-20; 2:1-10

Sometimes Thanksgiving isn’t enough. I am not talking about the food. Thanksgiving dinner is always more than enough! Indeed it is always too much! I am talking about giving thanks. That might also sound like a strange thing for a preacher to say on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. What I mean is that just giving thanks is not enough. Do not misunderstand me. We can’t give too much thanks to God. Everything is a gift from God, and we could give thanks from now until the day we die and not give thanks enough. I am saying that we need to do more than give thanks … even at Thanksgiving. The story of Hannah in the OT book of I Samuel illustrates this. Let me tell you the story of Hannah.

Hannah was the mother of the prophet Samuel, who was a very important figure in OT history. Samuel lived around 1000 BC according to traditional dating – over 3000 years ago. He was the person who transitioned Israel from a loose confederation of 12 Hebrew tribes living in the Holy Land to a unified nation under a monarchy. He was the last of the so-called judges of the OT. These were not judges in the way we think of purely judicial figures, although they also fulfilled that function. These were charismatic leaders of the various Hebrew tribes – people like Gideon, Samson and Deborah. Samuel was the last of these inspired tribal leaders. As the last of the judges, Samuel appointed the first of the kings who would rule Israel for the rest of the ancient history of Israel. He appointed Saul to be the first king and then David to be the second. Our scripture lesson this morning is about the events leading up to Samuel’s birth.

A man named Elkanah had two wives. This was a time when polygamy was practiced by the ancient Hebrews. Mormons get a lot of attention for their controversial practice of polygamy in the US back in the 19^th century, but they were just following an OT pattern. Elkanah had two wives back in biblical times and no one thought it strange. The book of I Samuel opens with these words: “Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim Zophim, of the mountains of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah …. And he had two wives: the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.” That sets the scene for our story. It was very important to have children in those days. Childbearing was seen as the primary function of women in ancient Hebrew society. Only the exceptional woman would have a career or become a leader in society outside the home. There were such women, but they were very rare. Consequently not to have children was seen to be a disaster. Hannah was looked down upon by the other wife of Elkanah because of her childlessness. The story says: “And her rival also provoked her severely, to make her miserable, because the Lord had closed her womb.”

Elkanah was an enlightened polygamist for his day. It didn’t matter to him if Hannah had children or not. He still loved her. Indeed he seemed to love her even more than his other wife, the mother of his children. The passage says that he loved Hannah and used to give her gifts – more than to his other wife, which probably made the other wife Peninnah even more angry, and caused her to take it out on Hannah. Bullying is not a modern phenomenon; it happened right here in this story. And Hannah was miserable as a result. Verse 7-8 says, “So it was, year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, that she provoked her; therefore she wept and did not eat. Then Elkanah her husband said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?” For Hannah giving thanks for what she had was not enough. This brings me to my first point.

I. Thanksgiving is not settling for the status quo. Hannah could have been satisfied with what she had. That is what her husband was suggesting she do. She could have taken his advice and thanked God for the blessings that she enjoyed and not concentrate on what she didn’t have. She had a good husband who loved her very much and treated her well in a time and age when that was not always the case. Elkanah provided for her and the household; she was not hurting financially. She was healthy. Why not focus on these good things?

I saw an interview with Joni Eareckson recently. She is the well-known Christian woman who has been a quadriplegic for over forty years due to a diving accident in her youth. In spite of her physical limitations, she sees her life as blessed. She has lived far longer than most people do in her condition; she has had a successful career and helped many people. She has a devoted husband, and she is a well-known artist and an author of inspirational books; she speaks around the world to churches and Christian groups. She has a very positive attitude toward life. She is one of those people who focus on the good in life and not the bad. Now on top of all her ongoing physical problems, she was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. She had surgery and chemotherapy, but cannot tolerate the recommended radiation because of her frail body. So she is not cancer free. But her attitude toward the prognosis is that this cancer is her “ticket to heaven.” She said, “Lord, is this cancer my ticket to heaven? Because I sure am tired of sitting in a wheelchair and my body is aching. And I’m so weary. Could this be my ticket to heaven?” But she didn’t give up. Tada says her Christian faith has given her the strength to fight. She says, “I decided to not let cancer overwhelm me, I decided to overwhelm cancer with a shoring up of an attitude that would trust God in the midst of this and not doubt Him.” What an attitude! Both to see cancer as a blessing in the form of a ticket to heaven, if that is God’s will, but not surrender to the disease – to also be willing to fight the cancer, if that is God’s will.

In our story Hannah was all fight. She was not surrendering to childlessness. From out perspective we would say that if for some reason it was biologically impossible for her to have kids, she could still have a good life. But for her this wasn’t enough. She wouldn’t quit. She wouldn’t compromise with the limitations of her body. In verse 8 her husband seeks to comfort her in her sorrow and says, “Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?” And Hannah’s unspoken answer is “No.” “I love you, but I want the ten sons too! Or at least one son.” She loved her husband, but she wanted kids and would not settle for a “No” not even from God.

She reminds me of the women in the parables of Jesus in Luke 18. “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. 3 Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ 4 And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, 5 yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’” This is the type of attitude Hannah had. And it is the type of attitude I want to highlight this Thanksgiving Sunday. To thank God does not mean to settle.

One of the classic texts used on Thanksgiving Sunday is often I Thessalonians 5:18 “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” And it is a great verse and I have preached it a number of times at Thanksgiving time. But it does not mean that you have to accept the way things are. It does not mean that the will of God is for things to stay the way they are. You can thank God and still work and pray fervently for things to change. In fact I think we have to do both.

II. This brings me to my second point. Thanksgiving prayer is pouring out your soul to God. That is what Hannah did. In the story she is at the House of God at Shiloh. She had offered her sacrifice to God and participated in the sacred meal. But she lingered in the tabernacle praying after the meal. She had some things on her mind that she wanted to talk over with the Lord. Verse 10 says, “And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish.” The next verse tells us what she was praying about; she was asking for a son. Meanwhile the high priest Eli sat nearby watching Hannah pray. She was praying silently but fervently with great emotion. Eli, not used to seeing the fervent prayer of a righteous person (to use the apostle James words) thought she was drunk on wine. Verse 14f says, “14 So Eli said to her, “How long will you be drunk? Put your wine away from you!”15 But Hannah answered and said, “No, my lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor intoxicating drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. 16 “Do not consider your maidservant a wicked woman, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief I have spoken until now.”

She is pouring out her soul before the Lord. That is true prayer. On Thanksgiving Sunday preachers tend to talk a lot about prayer, especially offering prayers of thanks. This is good, but they can sometimes be not very intense prayers. The prayer of Hannah was pouring out one’s soul before the Lord. Real prayer is not the half-hearted utterances. It is not the trivialized formality that is so often voiced over the Thanksgiving table, if indeed there is any type of prayer at all offered over Thanksgiving dinner. I don’t even like to think about how many Thanksgiving dinners will be served this week across this nation where there will be no prayer at all offered before the meal. If you are hosting a Thanksgiving dinner, even if you have relatives who do not believe in God and scoff at religion, I encourage you to give those nonreligious family members a sample of prayer at the Thanksgiving dinner along with their potato and gravy. Give them the opportunity at least at one meal in the year to hear the name of God uttered in genuine reverence. But I also encourage you to go beyond table grace this Thanksgiving and spend some time alone in prayer that Thanksgiving Day. Take a good chunk of time to pray like Hannah and pour out your soul.

Hannah’s prayer was an emotional prayer. Verse 10 says that” she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish.” Verse 16 says, “out of the abundance of my complaint and grief I have spoken….” I don’t suggest you make that your table grace into  a prayer of “bitterness of soul” and weeping in anguish” or you might not get an invitation to Thanksgiving dinner next year. But it is certainly appropriate to pray in private on Thanksgiving morning or Thanksgiving evening or even Thanksgiving eve. Thanksgiving prayer is pouring out one’s soul to God.

III. Third, Thanksgiving prayer brings peace. Verses 17-18 “17 Then Eli answered and said, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him.” 18 And she said, “Let your maidservant find favor in your sight.” So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.” There is a peace that descends on us when we pray. The old hymn says: “O what peace we often forfeit. O what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.”  Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” In our story Hannah said her piece and then in return received a word of peace from Eli and the peace of God within her heart. 

IV. Fourth and finally, Thanksgiving sees prayer answered. Traditional prayers of thanksgiving ask for nothing from God. That is good. In fact that is said that praise and thanksgiving are the purest for s of prayer. Too often our prayer is all about what we want God to do. It is shopping list, or even worse it is a complaint list. When we give thanks we are not asking for anything. We are thanking God for what God has already given to us. There is a certain sense of freedom and liberation in that type of praying. That is how our story ends.

It begins with Hannah asking for something – in this case a son. And it ends in praise and thanksgiving for answered prayer. Hannah receives a son, and in return she thanks God.  is theme of Chapter 2, which is Hannah’s prayer. I am not going to read the whole prayer  for you again, but I want to read how it starts off:

“My heart rejoices in the Lord;
My horn (strength) is exalted in the Lord.
I smile at my enemies,
Because I rejoice in Your salvation.

² “No one is holy like the Lord,
For there is none besides You,
Nor is there any rock like our God.

Thanksgiving is a response to answered prayers. It is not just thanking God for all his gifts that come unasked to us. It is also – and perhaps especially – a response to answered prayer. We are quick to ask for something from God when we are in need – when an emergency arises and we cry out to God in pain and anguish – like Hannah did. But what about afterwards?  So many times I have prayed with people for help in all sorts of trouble. And so many times those prayers are answered. But also so many times those these answered prayers are not followed up with thanksgiving prayers. Let’s remedy that today and this Thanksgiving week. Take time to bring to mind the times in your lives when you have asked God for help and God answered you. It is a very helpful exercise to do. Then thank God for all the answered prayers. Like Hannah, pray a prayer of thanksgiving. That will be enough this Thanksgiving. 

Enough to Eat

Delivered November 11, 2012

1 Kings 17:8-16; Mark 12:38-44

Our two scripture passages this morning center on women. Interestingly they also center on poverty and hardship experienced by these women. This situation is as true today as it was in biblical times. For all the talk of the economy in this recent election, it is women who continue to bear the brunt of the ongoing hard economic times. I heard one third party candidate say in a presidential debate that the poverty rate in the US is the highest since 1965. During an election you never know how accurate candidates statistics are. The most recent figures I could find were from the US Census Bureau for 2011. A report based on that data written by Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, reports that the overall poverty rate in 2011 was 15.0 percent. This represents 46.2 million people living in poverty in 2011. The data indicates that there were 16.1 million children (persons under 18) living in poverty in 2011. The child poverty rate was 21.9 percent. For African-American children, the poverty rate reported today was 37.4 percent for 2011. The rate for Hispanic children was 34.1 percent. For non-Hispanic, White children the rate was 12.5 percent. Children living in female-headed families with no spouse present had a poverty rate of 47.6 percent, over four times the rate of children in married-couple families (10.9 percent). The poverty rate for people age 65 and over was 8.7 percent. In 2011, 6.6 percent of all people, or 20.4 million people, lived in deep poverty (had income below one-half the poverty threshold.

What all those statistics add up to is that many more women are living in poverty, compared with men. As usual, things are worse for older women; twice as many women over 65 are living in poverty, compared with men. Single mothers are having the hardest time.

The reason I start this message off with these figures is not to continue the political banter over whose fault this economic situation is and who has the better plan to fix it. We are all tired of that political blame game, and I for one am glad the election is over. I mention these figures to illustrate the fact that our scriptures lessons are as relevant today as they were thousands of years ago. Both of them focus on women; both are single women. Both are widows. Both were living in poverty. Furthermore both exhibited extraordinary courage, virtue, and faith in extraordinarily difficult times. This morning I want us to look mostly at one of the stories – the Widow of Zaraphath, and what it has to teach us today. I will make mention of the other story as it illustrates this one.

The prophet Elijah was instructed to go north of Israel to what is present day Lebanon to a widow who lived in a town named Zarephath, which is on the coast about 35 miles from present day Beirut. The important point here is that this woman was not a Hebrew, and yet Elijah was instructed to go to see her. For the Jews she was an outsider, a minority group, and as such experienced much harsher poverty, as do minority groups today according to the census figures. In Israel Hebrews tried to make a provision for the poorest, but many people fell through the social safety net. Outside of Israel – as in Zarephath near Sidon, there was no provision for the poor, especially for widows, since the economy as in most societies focused on men, even as they do today.

The woman in our story was a widow with a young son. She was at the end of her economic rope when Elijah walked into town.  Our story says, “So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink.” And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” So she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”  She was literally down to her last meal when the prophet approached her. She was gathering firewood to prepare a last supper before laying down with her child in her bed and waiting to die of starvation.

This is exactly when Elijah appeared. v. 13-16 “And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.’” So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke by Elijah.” There are three points that this story presents.

1. First is the face of Poverty. This poor woman’s face has the expression of despair. Desperation exudes from this bible passage. The woman is in a pitiable situation. Repeatedly the account stresses the small portions that she had. When Elijah arrives, he asks for “a little water in a cup” and “a morsel of bread.” He is asking for tiny amounts, even though he must have been quite thirsty and hungry after making that journey from Judah to Sidon. But even this request was more than she had. She replied that she only had enough flour to hold in one hand and a little oil in a jar. She only needed to collect a couple of sticks of firewood to build a fire small enough to prepare this tiny meal. The food was not enough to keep them alive. She was going to prepare the meal and then lie down with her son and die. As we read this story, our hearts ache for her situation.

There are people today all over the world in exactly this situation.  According to Bread For the World, “The world is facing a hunger crisis unlike anything it has seen in more than 50 years. 925 million people are hungry. Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes. That's one child every five seconds. There were 1.4 billion people in extreme poverty in 2005. The World Bank estimates that the spike in global food prices in 2008, followed by the global economic recession in 2009 and 2010 has pushed between 100-150 million people into poverty. We face a hunger crisis unlike anything seen in more than 50 years.”  I don’t know about you but one of the things that bothered me about this recent election and especially the four debates was how little talk there was of the poor. There was a lot of talk of the middle class as both parties positioned themselves to get their votes – our votes. If you believed the debates and commercials, you would think this was all about the middle class and taxes. There was also talk of the wealthy, but usually scornful talk. But there was little talk of the poor, either in our country or around the world. Yet the poor are the ones most in need and most mentioned in the scripture when it came to economics and morality. That is why it is so good that we are observing Blanket Sunday next Sunday which raises money for the poorest, for those for whom something as simple as a blanket can make a real difference.

What this portion of scripture does is focus our attention on the poor - not by giving us figures and statistics, but giving us one example of one woman and child living in poverty. It communicates the sense of despair in their lives. Probably all of us at some point in our lives have been in a position when the lack of money was very stressful and worrisome, when we did not have enough to pay the bills and we wondered about our financial future. But I for one have never worried about starving to death. I have never been done to my last cup of flour or worried about watching my child starve to death. Imagine being in that situation. According to the United Nations about 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes. This is one person every three and a half seconds. This Bible story puts a face onto that.

2. Second, this story talks about Sharing Resources. These three people who have nothing are sharing with each other. The story starts off in verse 8 “Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” Elijah was told to go to this poor widow and that she was going to provide for him! That is a crazy idea when seen from a purely material point of view! This woman could not provide for herself and her child, much less another mouth. How was she going to provide for this wandering Hebrew prophet? Didn’t God know she had nothing to share? Of course God knew she had nothing. That is the whole point.

A lot of people in this country think we don’t have enough to share. I know people – not in this church by the way - but I know people who give nothing to charity of any type. I think we might be surprised how many people give nothing – or almost nothing – to charity. Why? Because they do not feel like they can afford to give. They feel like they do not have enough for themselves even though they may have tens of thousands of dollars in the bank. Compare that to the example of this woman in our story. She literally had next to nothing. Yet when she was asked to share with someone who had even less, she did! What an extraordinary story! It shames me and challenges me.

We find the same type of woman in our gospel lesson of the widow’s mite. 41-44 “Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.” It says she put in her whole livelihood – all she had to live on. Most people would say that she needed to get herself a good financial advisor. That is was being duped by those greedy religious leaders to give what she could not afford. Perhaps we feel like quoting Ben Franklin’s famous saying (often mistaken for scripture) “God helps those who help themselves” or perhaps Charles Dickens’ proverb, “Charity begins at home.” But Jesus did not scold this poor widow for being financially careless or foolish or a drain on society. He praises her! He calls his decuples together and uses her as an example of how they are to give! I will be honest with you – this is beyond my understanding. But it is clear that both our OT and NT lessons challenge us to share, to reach beyond our fear that we won’t have enough.

3. Third, this story teaches that the Lord will Provide. The Lord told Elijah that the Lord would provide for him through the poverty of this widow of Zarephath. And the Lord told the woman that the Lord would provide for her through the prophet. It sounds like circular reasoning, but it works in this story. The question is: does it work in the real world? Does it work in our lives? Or is this no more than a religious fairy tale, no more likely to happen in real life than Jack & the beanstalk’s magical beans? I pride myself on being a realistic person. So I say, “What about those 25,000 people who die every day of hunger? Does the Lord provide for them? Maybe Ben Franklin is right! Maybe it was a stupid thing for that widow to throw in all her money into the temple treasury when she needed it more. She obviously could use it better than the temple ministers! That is where my mind goes, and I suspect I am not the only one who has a mind that wanders in that direction.

But when it comes down to it, I have to respond to these biblical stories based on where I am and not based on where other people are. I am not in the situation of Elijah or the widow of Zarephath or the Jerusalem widow with the two mites. Neither am I in the situation of a person in Somalia desperately hungry. I am in my situation right here in Sandwich, NH, with my financial reality. You are in your real life situation here. You know what your resources are. So let’s put aside the theoretical scenarios and ask, “Will we trust that the Lord will provide for us in our situation here now?”  Is the Lord calling us to provide for others who are in much more desperate situations? I think the answer to both of those questions is clearly, “Yes!”

The Lord will provide! The Lord provided for Elijah and the widow and her son in their situation. I am not going to get into the issue of miracles and how the bin of flour was not used up and how the jar of oil did not run dry. It is a story! Don’t dissect it as if it were a newspaper account or a scientific experiment! The point is that the Lord provided in his own way. And the Lord will provide for us in his own way in our circumstances in our time. We can either trust that the Lord will provide for us or we can live in fear that we will never have enough. I choose to live in faith rather than fear. I choose to believe that one of the main ways that the Lord provides is through other people like in this story, and I am one of those people. The Lord has provided for me through other people – through you actually and other churches I have served - and I pray that the Lord can provide for other people through me. And if everyone in the world – even if everyone in the Western world, maybe even every American did that – there would no longer be 25,000 dying of hunger every day. There would be enough for all. 

Everybody Dies, But Not Everybody Really Lives

Delivered November 4, 2012

Revelation21:1-6; John 11:32-44

                                                                                                  

This is All Saints Sunday. The word “saint” is simply the biblical word for Christian believer. In Roman Catholic nomenclature, saints are spiritual superheroes – the gold medal winners of the religious life. But in the Bible, the word “saint” simply refers to ordinary Christians. All Saints Day is November 1, the day after Halloween “All Hallow’s Eve.” All Saints Day is often combined with All Soul’s Day on Nov 2 and celebrated on the following Sunday. All Saints Sunday is the day we remember those who have died. It is the day of conflicting feelings, especially if the loss of a loved one is recent and the emotions still strong.  It is a day to contemplate mortality and the hope of immortality.

The title of my message this morning comes from the 1995 movie Braveheart, starring Mel Gibson.  Scottish hero William Wallace, who led the Scots in the First War of Scottish Independence, is imprisoned and facing imminent execution. Isabella of France, wife of Edward, prince of Wales visits him, begging him to confess and swear allegiance to the king, with the hope that he might receive mercy. Wallace refuses, saying, “If I swear to him, then all that I am is dead already.” Isabella says, “You will die. It will be awful.” William responds, “Every man dies, not every man really lives.” Of course the real William Wallace never really said any such thing, but it makes a memorable movie quote. And it has a certain profundity. It echoes the themes of our Biblical text for today both from the Gospel of John and the Revelation of John.

I. The first theme is Everybody Dies. As the old cliché says, the mortality rate for human beings is still 100%. This is something we know with our heads, but doesn’t sink into our hearts until we face our own mortality or the mortality of one close to us. In our Gospel Lesson for today we have the story of Lazarus. Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha were three of Jesus’ closest friends. People often don’t think of Jesus as having friends, but the truth is that even preachers have friends, even though we have to be very careful not to play favorites in congregations. Jesus loved Lazarus. I think that Lazarus might have been Jesus’ best friend. At Lazarus’ grave, Jesus cries. The people who witnessed this display of emotion remarked, “See how he loved him.” Yet Jesus did not stop Lazarus from dying. This upset Lazarus’ sisters. At the gravesite both Mary and Martha scold Jesus for not arriving in Bethany earlier to heal him. They both say to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

It is a sentiment familiar to many of us. We believe that Jesus is the Great Physician, that he can heal any disease. Indeed we quote the opening words of Psalm 103 “Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! ² Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: ³ Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, ⁴ Who redeems your life from destruction….” We believe that God can and will heal. I preached a whole sermon a few weeks ago on healing prayer. And most – of not all of us – can tell stories of how we have been healed through the power of God and medical science from all sorts of diseases. But the reality is that one day we will not be healed. One day some disease will get the upper hand and we will die of it and the disease will be listed on our death certificate as the cause of death. Everybody dies. Mary and Martha complain to Jesus saying that if he had been there, their brother would not have died. But the truth is that Lazarus would have died in any case. Jesus knew that, which I why he did not come running to the rescue when he heard Lazarus was ill. People would not have understood how Christ could have let one he loved so much die. But we know it happens every day to faithful saints. Everybody dies.

Mortality defines the human condition. Everything that has a beginning has an end. Our scripture passage in the Book of Revelation says that even earth dies and the heavens die. It says in verse 1 of Chapter 21, “the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.” The universe is mortal. It had a beginning. Scientists have discovered this now; they didn’t always know this. But now it is universally accepted that the universe began 13.7 billion years ago in what is called the Big Bang. The earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago. Everything that has a beginning has an end. The earth will die. Stars have lifespans, and our sun is no exception. And earth will be consumed and will die as our sun ages. The Bible talks about the earth dying in fire and so does science. We have gotten to a point where science and scripture agree in matters of the beginning and end of the earth. Revelation says that not only the earth but also the heavens will die. Scientists also say that the universe will die, although they aren’t so sure how. Everything dies. Everybody dies.

II. But that is not the end of the story. The Bible has another theme: Everything will be made new. Verse 5 “Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” Verse 1: “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. The heavens and the earth will pass away, but they will be remade as something entirely new and different. That is something that scientific cosmologists also theorize about but cannot prove conclusively. They talk about the possibilities of multiverses and black holes giving birth to new universes, but it is simply speculation. But the prophet of Patmos, the author of Revelation, traditionally identified as the apostle John, inspired by God, saw beyond the end of this universe, the end of this earth, and the end of our human lives.

He sees the death of death. Verse 4 “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Even death passes away. It is an amazing idea. In the chapter before ours – chapter 20, Revelation talks about death being thrown into the Lake of fire. “Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire.” In the Bible hades is sometimes translated hell, but it is better understood as the Sheol of the OT, the shadowy abode of Death, often translated simply the Grave. Here is death and the grave, and hell (if you prefer that translation) being destroyed by fire. Everything dies; even death dies.

But in its place is something new emerges. Our passage says in verses 2-3 “Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.” The old Jerusalem, the earthly city which is the capital of the modern state of Israel is destroyed with the old earth, but in its place is a New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation is a symbol for the eternal dwelling place of God’s people.

The Book of Revelation is all symbols. Some people develop some really weird scenarios about the future using the rich imagery of Revelation. But we have to always remember that we are dealing with symbolic pictures. The book is an art gallery, more like what they call a graphic novel these days. It is like a comic book filled with fantastic creatures, numbers, and colors. We can’t take it all too literally. The idea of the New Jerusalem doesn’t mean that we are eternally going to live in a giant cube with pearly gates and golden streets, which is the way Revelation describes it. But it does mean that we are going to live.  It clearly teach eternal life. It teaches that the dead are not eternally gone.

That is what we celebrate on All Saints Sunday. That is why we remember those who have passed away and recite their names. Eternal life is an extraordinary claim to make these days. It goes against the teachings of the materialistic and humanistic philosophy which dominates our culture. We live in a very secular society where the prevailing worldview is that the only thing that exists is the material world. It reduces human beings to nothing more than our animal bodies. The assumption is that when we die, we are gone for good. No continued existence, no heaven. As John Lennon sang, “Imagine there's no heaven.  It's easy if you try, No hell below us. Above us only sky.”  It is easy for Americans and Britons to imagine this because it is the default philosophy of Western culture in this post-Christian age in which we live.

But as Christians we hope for something more than a plot in a cemetery. Those who hold to a secular worldview will see any talk of heaven as wishful thinking, a vestige of ancient superstition which we have now outgrown as a human race - a nice fairy tale to tell children, like Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy, but nothing more than that. How do we know that they are not right? I will tell you how we know. We know because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We are told that the resurrection of Jesus is a religious fiction - nothing more than an ancient fable made up by the early Christians 2000 years ago. We are told that at best the resurrection was a hallucination by the first apostles, which got handed down as fact. We are told that no intelligent educated person in our enlightened 21^st century can be expected to believe such superstitious nonsense. Obviously, we are told, the dead do not come back to life.

That is true for every case but one. I am not talking about near death experiences and CPR and things like that. I am talking about resurrection. No one who was really dead for days has ever come back to life never to die again – except for Jesus of Nazareth. That is what we believe. Could we be mistaken? Could I be wrong, and therefor misleading you? Of course. We must never underestimate the power of self-deception. People believe some really weird things – especially in the area of religion. Mormons believe that Joseph Smith found some golden plates buried in upstate NY and translated them into the Book of Mormon by staring into a hat with seer stones and then the golden plates ascended into heaven. Mormonism teaches that Native Americans are descended from ancient Israelites. The historical basis of Mormonism has been scientifically proven wrong; we know genetically that American Indians are not Jews. We have one of the other manuscripts from which Smith later translated one of their sacred books – The Book of Abraham. It turns out to be an Egyptian funerary text and says nothing like he says it does. But millions believe the Mormon gospel, including a man who might become president.  I am not taking sides in the presidential race here; I am just talking about his religion.

Isn’t the resurrection of Jesus in the same category? Many say it is. But if you examine the evidence it not the same. As unlikely as it sounds at first hearing, when it comes to historical science, it is reasonable to believe that Jesus rose from the dead based on the historical and literary evidence we have. And our own experience of the risen Christ as living Spirit is consistent with that testimony. Again, could we be wrong? Of course! But when the case is examined objectively without bias, I think that it is more likely that the skeptics are wrong at this point.

Our hope for a new life beyond death is founded on the historical resurrection of Christ. The scriptures are very clear on this point. The apostle Paul writes in I Corinthians 15 “14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. 20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.´

The apostle Paul lays it all out there. It is all or nothing. He says that if Christ did not rise from the dead then those who has passed away before us have perished forever. If Christ did not rise from the dead our faith is futile, and the atheists are right. If Christ has not risen from the dead, Paul says that we are of all men the most pitiable. That is strong language. Make no mistake about it; the apostle is right. As Christians our fate is tied to that of Jesus Christ. One way or the other we are going to be like him. If his body is dust in an unmarked grave somewhere in Judea, then we are good as dead forever. If Christ did not really rise from the dead, then neither will we. But if the scriptures are correct and Christ did really rise from the dead – not metaphorically or in the apostles’ imagination but in fact. If the tomb was really empty on Easter morning, then so will our tomb be on that day when the new heaven and new earth are born.

That is what I am betting my life on. I have no other hope. I do not trust in myths of reincarnation or the stories of people who have had Near Death experiences. I am not saying they didn’t experience something real. It is just that I have no way of knowing for sure if these are genuine experiences of heaven or just hallucinations produced by a brain shutting down from lack of oxygen. In either case I do not trust in psychological or spiritual experiences. I do not even trust in my own spiritual experiences. My faith is not based on subjective experience. My faith is based on Jesus Christ.  That he really did rise from the dead and therefore that confirms his teachings about who he is and how we can share in his immortal life.

Our hope for eternal life as Christians stands or falls with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is the cornerstone, the keystone. Without Christ the whole structure of Christianity collapses. The resurrection of Jesus is the beginning of the new heaven and new earth – the new creation in which all things will be made new. As the risen Christ is now, so shall we be. Everybody dies. Even Jesus of Nazareth died. But he rose from the grave and he lives. And whoever trusts in him truly lives – not just physically but spiritually. Everybody dies, but because of Christ’s victory over death, through faith in Christ we can really live.