All Saints

1 November 2009

Gospel John 11.32-44

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

Jesus wept.

Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days.”

Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

Sermon

Tomorrow we observe All Souls. The Common Worship service is called Commemoration of Faithful Departed. Today is All Saints. Last year we observed All Saints and All Souls together. For many years, in the church year both were observed together, but from 1980 with the ASB they were once again separated.

The two are similar but not the same. Tomorrow we remember all those loved ones who have died. We express our hope that we will one day be reunited with them. We are not praying for them – they are in the keeping of a loving God – but we pray for ourselves and each other.

The saints are special people who have set an example for us to follow by the way they lived their lives, and perhaps also by the way they died. They may be well-known figures who are beatified – called by the name of Saint – or they may be more ordinary folks who have helped us in our journey of faith, whether parents, leaders, friends, or spiritual advisers. Whatever their role, it was meaningful and important to us, and we look back on their lives and what they meant to us in our formative years with gratitude and thanks.

Before the word ‘Christian’ came into common use, members of the early church were known as saints. In his letter to the Romans, for example, Paul writes to those who are loved by God and called to be saints. He refers to the church in Corinth as the congregation of the saints. Ephesians begins with the words Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus. Christians in the churches of Colossae and Philippi are called by the same name.

Today as we celebrate All Saints, we are thinking not only of those special people whose examples we can follow, but also you and me. The saints of Cheddington and Mentmore.

When thinking about what to say today, I wondered why this particular reading from the gospel of John had been chosen. What does it have to do with the saints?

Beginning with the turning of water into wine in chapter 2 John’s gospel is constructed around a series of signs performed by Jesus. The raising of Lazarus marks a turning point . Why? Because the miracle demonstrates Jesus has power even over death, and death is the most frightening aspect of our life. It can seem so final. It is the great unknown. Death robs us of our very existence in this world.

Only God has power over death, so by raising Lazarus, Jesus is showing his divine nature. At the same time, this very act angers the religious leaders. From this point, they plot to kill him ‘for the sake of the whole nation.’

The bystanders and even Martha herself ask why Jesus could not have healed Lazarus. Why did Jesus delay so long before coming to him? For them, like us, the fact that Lazarus did actually die and was buried 4 days demands from us a shift in faith. A shift from believing in Jesus as a healer to believing in him as Son of God.

Before this, no one had any conception of Christ as ‘the resurrection and the life’ – someone who had power over life and death.

At the same time, this event shows Jesus at his most human. He is distressed at Martha’s grief. He weeps himself – it’s the shortest verse in the Bible. He is ‘deeply moved and troubled’ – the Greek words imply anger.

What is Jesus angry about? Surely not their lack of faith. Who could have expected Jesus to bring Lazarus back to life after 4 days in the tomb? Was he angry at the power death has over us all, including Lazarus of course? If so, Jesus demonstrates that the power of death is not final, using only 3 words: “Lazarus come out.” He shows his power over what we all fear most.

This is why this single incident appears in the lectionary for All Saints Day. Until now, death has been the enemy. Hand in hand with death is sin, brokenness, despair, and division. ‘Why did he die so soon?’ ‘Why did she linger in pain so long?’ These are the sort of questions we hear often at funerals.

The message of All Saints is a partial answer. Death is no longer the enemy it was. Death is no longer only a cause for grief, but restores us to the image of the God who created us.

Death remains the greatest threat to our imagination, purpose and value. The fight is not over but the war has been won.

Death is still a fearsome frontier, but for some people, the constant march of medical science can spare us to live a bit longer and to witness to our faith in this world for a while yet. I myself am a case in point, who a few years ago might not still be alive but for the developing skill of a surgeon.

Lazarus actually hosts a meal in chapter 12, but like him however long we live we still face our own mortality in the end. Just as Jesus called Lazarus back with those 3 words, so God calls us to be with him in his nearer presence. Through our own baptism, when we die to sin and are resurrected with Christ, so through faith we are called by Jesus out of the tomb of sin and death, and like Lazarus we are untied from the bonds that held us captive to serve and witness to the Lord who has saved us from the dead.

Amen