All Saints’ Sunday
November 4, 2018
Revelation 21:1-6a; Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9; John
11:32-44
Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ-q7wgqGgU
(video from the evening service)
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| Candles lit at the morning service in memory of those who went home to Jesus in the past year |
Did anyone study Latin in school? Any guesses as to what
“triduum” means? The prefix “tri-” means three; “diem” is days. When there is a
set of three holy days in a row, the old church referred to them as a triduum.
We only have one such set left in our Protestant calendar, the triduum that
happens at Easter, with Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. There
used to be more triduums that were observed in the church, including one that
happened this past week. What we now celebrate as Halloween on October 31 and
All Saints’ Day on the first Sunday in November used to be a triduum called
Allhallowtide. “Hallow” is from an Old
English word for saint. The first day, All Hallow’s Eve, was a day of
preparation, and has since been shortened to Halloween, using the Scottish word
“e’en,” which means “eve,” or, the day before. The second day was All Hallow’s
Day, a day to remember the saints and martyrs of the church. The third day was
All Souls’ Day, a day to remember all who have died. This holy triduum worked
all right back in the Middle Ages, when it started. However, then the Catholic
Church started filling the calendar with saint’s days, that allhallowtide
became less important as saints were getting remembered year round. Then when
Protestantism started, along with the belief that all of God’s people are saints, we combined All Hallows and All
Souls to All Saints, which means we remember all of God’s people who have gone
before. Rather than keeping it to a strict date of November 1, we moved it to
the first Sunday in November.
While my husband loves the idea that Halloween started
out as a church holy day, I love having an intentional time to remember those
who have gone before and that we belong to a church much larger than we can
ever see, with all of God’s people who have lived and served faithfully over
two millennia. The local church is a bit like Doctor Who’s TARDIS in that way,
it’s a lot bigger than it looks and it extends throughout time. And that is
good news. It’s why God can say that he’ll wipe away every tear from our eyes. That
exact same promise is in both the Old Testament prophet Isaiah and in the last
book in the New Testament, Revelation. Before this week, I had not paid as much
attention to that particular promise. But then I saw it emphasized in the
liturgy for this morning – our opening prayer and an idea for children’s time.
The promise is that “God will wipe every tear from your eye. There will be no
more death or mourning or crying or pain or suffering, for the old order of
things has passed away.”[1]
God will wipe every tear from your eye.
The Mexican tradition of Allhallowtide is called Dia de Muertos,
or the Day of the Dead. There, on October 31st, you make your altars
with pictures of your relatives who have passed. On November 1st,
it’s believed that the adult spirits come back to visit, and this is what’s
shown in last year’s best animated movie, “Coco.” Miguel wants to play guitar
so badly that he steals a guitar from a mausoleum and suddenly he can see all
the visiting spirits, which usually mortals can’t see. Finally, on November 2nd,
you go to the cemeteries and decorate the graves of your relatives. There was
another animated movie, also loosely based on Day of the Dead, that came out in
2014, called “The Book of Life.” One of the main characters is voiced by the
Mexican actor, Diego Luna. Diego Luna lost his mother when he was only
two years old, but he says that celebrating the Day of the Dead every year
saved him from many years of therapy.[2]
The holiday let him focus on remembering his mother rather than agonize over
his loss. The Day of the Dead is a formal version of what many of us do
around the birthday or death day of a loved one who has passed. We cook
their favorite food. We watch their favorite movies. We tell
stories about them. It is good for us to talk about and remember those
who have gone before us. It helps us deal with our grief. It’s a
healthy way to grieve. This is God wiping every tear from your eye, every tear
that’s related to mourning and pain and suffering and agony. There are tears of
joy, but those are a bit different from tears of sorrow and anguish. I don’t
think God dries out your tear ducts. The act of someone else wiping away your
tears is an act of comfort, and that’s what God offers. Not that you become any
less human or more stoic, but that those who grieve will be comforted.
And you know what else is comforting? Holding hands. We
don’t often read from the Apocrypha in the Protestant church, but this passage
from the Wisdom of Solomon is included in the readings for All Saints’ Day and
because it’s comforting, I included it this morning. It begins by saying “The
souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch
them. In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure
was thought to be a disaster, and their going from us to be their destruction; but they are at peace. For though in the
sight of others they were punished, their hope is full of immortality.
Having been disciplined a
little, they will receive great good, because God tested them and found them worthy of himself; like
gold in the furnace he tried them,
and like a sacrificial burnt
offering he accepted them.” God holds
the souls of the righteous in his hand. God holds the saints in his hand. It’s
like that promise and reassurance from Isaiah, “Do not fear, for I am with you,
do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I
will uphold you with my victorious right hand.”[3]
God holds us in his hands. It’s like the kids’ song, “He’s got the whole world
in his hands.” “He’s got you and me, brother, in his hands. He’s got you and me
sister, in his hands. He’s got those who’ve died and gone before us, in his
hands. He’s got the whole world in his hands.” Those in heaven are safely held
in God’s hand.
And
God will hold your soul in his hand, too. This is the lesson reinforced in our
Gospel reading. Jesus is friends with this family, the sisters, Mary and
Martha, and their brother, Lazarus. The sisters send word to Jesus that Lazarus
has gotten very sick. They expected Jesus to come right away, but he didn’t. He
took his sweet time such that by the time Jesus got to their house, Lazarus had
died four days earlier. Martha very self-righteously says, “Jesus, if you’d
been here my brother wouldn’t have died.” They then have a great theological
conversation, which includes Jesus’ great statement, “I am the resurrection and
the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and
everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” Then they go and find
Mary, who says the exact same thing as her sister, “Jesus, if you’d been here when
you were supposed to be my brother wouldn’t have died.” And Jesus, who will
wipe away every tear, cries with Mary. Then he asks, basically, to exhume
Lazarus’ body. The ever practical Martha says something to the effect of, “Dear
Jesus, you can’t be serious! Don’t you know dead bodies stink worse than
skunks?” Jesus says, “Yes, I know. Trust me.” And he calls, “Lazarus,
come out!” And out comes Lazarus. Mike drop.
God
is more powerful even than death. This is the good news for we who trust Jesus.
Not even death can separate you from God’s care. God’s always got his people
safe in his hands. When Paul lists all the different things that can’t keep us
from God’s love, death comes first! At the end of Romans 8, Paul writes, “For I
am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither
the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[4]
God is more powerful than death. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he quotes
from the Old Testament prophet Hosea. Through Hosea, God says, “I will deliver
this people from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where,
O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?”[5]
And the line in Isaiah just before the promise to wipe away all tears says God
“will swallow up death forever.”[6]
Paul combines both of those to say, “the saying that is written will come true:
‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin
is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ.”[7]
Us, you, me, Ms. Mary, Ms. Virginia, Ms. Zeddie, all those saints, that great
big cloud of witnesses who surrounds us. We’re not in this by ourselves. The
church triumphant is with us, whether we remember that or not. Today’s a day
set aside to make sure we do. We are safely held in God’s hand, too, in life
and in death. Thank you Jesus!
[1]
Isaiah 25:8; Revelation 21:4
[3]
Isaiah 41:10
[4]
Romans 8:38-39
[5]
Hosea 13:14
[6]
Isaiah 25:8a
[7] 1
Corinthians 15:54-57
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