To All the Saints ~ Revelation 7:9-17 ~ All Saints' Day

Our table for four had become a table for three…

Grandma was gone.  This was the reality my dad and I faced two weeks ago during our visit to my grandfather.

Grandma was always the queen of conversation, particularly at mealtime.  Her cheerfulness and unmistakable belly laugh made it a joy to be in her presence.  But her death had changed things—and certainly not for the better.  All throughout the week, an uneasy silence fell upon us.  It reminded us that life was better when she was alive. 

One of the greatest tragedies of human existence is that we suffer loss.  We’ve all lost people we love; and their deaths leave us burdened with sorrow and pain.  God created us to be in relationship with others.  So when someone we love dies, we are literally left broken.  Time does not heal all wounds when it comes to the death of a loved one…

But death is not the only kind of loss we suffer in life…

With illness and old age we lose the freedom to live the way we want to live.  We lose our independence—and have to rely on others to care for us.

We suffer the loss of relationships due to divorce and conflict.  People we care about hurt us—and we hurt them…

Economic hardships rob us of careers and income; life savings are lost; homes are foreclosed.

Hopes and dreams for the future crumble beneath our feet…

We as a congregation have even suffered losses.  Our pews aren’t as full as they used to be.  Our brothers and sisters have died.  Some have moved away; others have joined other churches—or stopped coming to church altogether. 

Loss strikes us in more ways than can ever be named.  But regardless of what the loss may be, the experience of loss impacts every aspect of our being.  We suffer our losses physically, emotionally, spiritually, and socially.  We realize that life will never again be “normal” as it was before.  Loss thrusts us into a reality we never want to face—and very often, there’s nothing we can do fully gain back what we’ve lost…

So what are we to do?  All too often, we hear all these clichés that people either say to us or that we say to ourselves; things like “it could be much worse;” “put on a happy face;” “look for the good;” “it’s all part of God’s plan;” “get over it and get on with life…” 

But God’s way isn’t about pretending that all is well when we’re not well.  God isn’t “well” with the state of this world. Poverty and hunger are not part of God’s plan for the world; it isn’t well with God that we sin against God and each other…  And God certainly doesn’t see the good in your suffering.  Loss tears us apart.  God’s not fine with that.

So God became a human being—to do something about sin; to do something about suffering; to do something about loss.  Christ came and entered into the ordeal that is life on this earth.  He came to turn the tide—so that this world, that God created and that God loves so much—would not be lost.  Christ’s death and resurrection marked the beginning of the end for all the forces of chaos and evil that wreak so much havoc on everything and everyone that God created.

Therefore, we don’t have to help ourselves.  We don’t have to wander helplessly through the darkness trying to seek Jesus out like some buried treasure…  We simply open our arms to Jesus—because comes to us.  He comes because we belong to him.  He comes as someone who’s experienced everything we’re going through.  He comes to us as a risen Savior, so that we can live in the hope of his resurrection.  Jesus comes to be our shepherd, to lead us to a future in which suffering and sin are no more.  So even as our losses cut deeply into the fabric of our being, they’re not permanent.  God will one day wipe away every tear from our faces.  We who are battered and broken will be made whole again.

This is the good news for us on this All Saints’ Day.

But the greatest challenge is believing the good news—especially when everything suggests that the good news is nothing but fantasy.  We need God’s help to believe—and we must seek it where we know it can be found.  In the midst of our busy and chaotic lives, we need to be still and allow for God’s Spirit to speak to us.  We need to express our sorrows and our fears to God in prayer, even though God knows our every hurt.  We need to hear God’s promises again and again in the Gospel.  We need Christ’s presence in the Sacrament to nourish and sustain our faith. We need Christ’s presence in the fellowship we share as baptized brothers and sisters. 

It is so tragic that in these times of turmoil and uncertainty, fewer and fewer people are fleeing to the refuge of Christ’s presence in his church.  We’re literally turning our backs on Jesus Christ when we need him the most.  Real and lasting hope cannot be found anywhere else.  We can lose everything in this life, but if we have Christ’s hope, we have all we need to make it through.  But without hope, all is lost.  “When hope ends, life ends.”

With so many of God’s children suffering so much need and such great losses, we need to be a people who say “I’m here for you because Jesus is here for you.”  Believing in God’s promises cannot just be a matter of the head.  We believe with the whole of our being—and we express that faith with what we do.  We all know people who desperately need our gifts of compassion.  We all know people who do not know Jesus Christ.  We all know people who don’t attend church.  We all know people who need to hear our personal testimony of the hope that is ours in Christ.  God sends us to these people.  Don’t worry about what you’re going to do or what you will say.  God will help you every step of the way.  And if you can’t think of anyone right now for whom you can show Christ’s love, God is going to put someone in your life. 

Saints don’t become saints by what do, but by what Jesus Christ does for them.  That is what we celebrate today as we remember those who have died.  We are celebrating Christ.  We’re celebrating the people Christ has redeemed.  And we’re celebrating God’s grace that has makes us saints in the waters of baptism.  We are all saints because Christ has died for us, and because we have eternal life in his resurrection.  We are saints because our hope is in Christ. 

And we live as saints by holding fast to God’s promises, even in the midst of our greatest pains and losses.  As saints, we live in hope—and we share that hope with all who are in darkness. 

It is by God’s amazing grace that we will live as God’s saints forever.