All Saints

November 7, 2021
All Saints
 
Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm 24
Revelation 21:1-6a
John 11:32-44

Please pray with me,

May the words of my mouth and the mediations of all of our hearts be acceptable and suitable in your sight, O God, our rock, our strength and our redeemer.  Amen.  

In her book Bravey, Olympian Alexi Pappas writes, 

“I think this is called grief, feeling and even embracing your painful feelings.  Pain needs to see itself in the mirror and be felt before it can go away.  When I feel sad and I hold it in, I feel completely alone.  But when I let it out, I let go of all pretenses.  I’m just a human, which is comforting because it means that I’m not alone.  It’s good to grieve.” (p. 84)

It’s good to grieve.  

There, I said it. 

I give you permission to grieve.  

The losses you are experiencing this very minute or the ones that you have experienced throughout the course of this ongoing pandemic.  

The losses have been deep and different for each and every one of us.  

We, as individuals and as a community of faith are grieving.  

We are grieving the loss of jobs, the death of loved ones, broken marriages, a pandemic that has brought too much death and division, a change in how church once was and how it will continue into the future and the loss of ‘normal life’ as we once knew it.  

So, yeah, grieve.  It’s been more than just a challenging year plus, it’s been full of stress and change, uncertainty and challenges, all seemingly without a built in break to pause, reflect and begin to heal from all of this.  

So, let’s take today as just a moment, in the middle of it all to stop.  To grieve.  To remember.  To acknowledge that what we are experiencing is real and hard and painful and there is no quick journey through this experience and sometimes it’s exhausting!  

We find ourselves to be bone tired, yet we are unable to give the heart and mind the rest it truly needs.  (Joy J. Moore)[1] Because in this time of pandemic, we have not been able to escape death….it has entered into our homes, into our lives, into our congregation…so how do we find rest in that?  Or where do we find rest?  

It seems like it’s not possible to find the space to stop, to rest, to begin this process of healing because we are expected to just keep going…

So where do we go?  

To the foot of the cross, friends…that’s the only place we can go in this moment.  

And the foot of the cross is where we meet Jesus in our gospel lesson today.  

We join Jesus as he hears about Lazarus’ death.  

And in that moment, Jesus weeps. 

Jesus weeps.   

It’s not a sentimental moment…it’s deeper than that.  

Jesus is weeping…at the death of Lazarus.

Jesus is weeping for himself and what is to come.

Jesus is weeping for the reality of death in general, because he knows death causes separation that is beyond fathomable.  

Jesus weeps for what death does in our lives and what death brings.  (Karoline Lewis)[2]

Let me say that again, Jesus weeps for what death does in our lives and what death brings.  

Here in this moment - God, present in Jesus, is bearing the weight of the world, and all he can do is weep.  

That, dear ones, is our God…in human flesh and blood, feeling our feelings, knowing the brokenness that death will create in our world…and right alongside of Mary…and us…weeping. 

I don’t know about you…but for me, in this moment, I find incredible comfort.  That the God we know and love, the one who created you and me, is present with us in this moment of grief and sits with us and weeps.  

God weeps with us and for us, for the death in our lives, for death in our world.  

In that moment the God of the whole world…is human…and lives into our grief and vulnerability.  

In that moment, God - in Jesus - is present in our grief….and is vulnerable….just like we are.  

So in this place of grief and vulnerability….the foot of the cross, if you will, is where God shows presence and power.  

And that in that grief and vulnerability God has power over death.

In that grief and vulnerability God has power over death!  

Because Christ is Risen!  He is risen indeed!

That’s what I’ve got, dear ones.  

That where we are today….we are not alone.  

God has met us in this place. 

God meets us in this place.

 

And sits with us…and weeps with us…and shows us that this is NOT the end.  

That death IS NOT the end!

There is joy beyond the weeping.

There is hope beyond the hopeless.

There is life beyond death.

I know, sometimes it hard to get past this individual or communal moment.  Sometimes, as I mentioned earlier, we need to make time for these moments to see and name and acknowledge this grief and pain and death.  

But let us do that as a community of faith and be reminded through the presence of one another, that God is here…with us…today.  

And as our journey continues, as we move forward with God beside us, our future is hopeful and hope filled because God is there in it all.  

God is here….in it all.  

Thanks be to God, because this is not short or simple journey.  This life and all the pain and grief we experience in it…takes time.  

Alexi Pappas agrees, as she writes, 

“All pain takes time.  Some hurt fades quickly, but other times it lingers like the glop of powder stuff at the bottom of a mug of hot chocolate.” (p. 84) 

You, me, us, we are all in different phases of this pain and grief.  

All of us move through grief and pain differently than others.  

Some more quickly, some more slowly…and for some, well many of us, it returns and resurfaces in unexpected ways.

So this is your pastor reminding you all, to be gentle with one another.  

As we, a community of faith, have experienced death so personally this year, be gentle with one another.  You may not understand how and why some of us are more tired, or more sad or more joy filled, or more hopeful or more distressed.  

So please, dear ones, be kind and gentle to one another. 

May the comfort Christ brings to us…be extended to one another…in presence, in weeping, and in love.  

As Christ is present with us now, let us be present for one another.  

And now may the peace, which surpasses all understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, and let all God’s people shout, amen.  

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[1] Not a direct quote, but this is how I heard her reflect on this text on the Working Preacher Podcast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe5wbbV4Cu8

[2] Working Preacher Podcast - Link in footnote above.