Delivered November 4, 2012
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 21st century can
be expected to believe such superstitious nonsense. Obviously, we are told, the
dead do not come back to life.
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.
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