Promises to Believe In!*

ALL SAINTS’ DAY - YEAR B 
Isaiah 25:6-9

Psalm 24
Revelation 21:1-6a
John 11:32-44
(homily given at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, New Harmony, IN)

Today

The feast of All Saints

Came just at the right time this year

I need to be reminded that ours is a God of Life

I need to remember that the God Jesus came to reveal 

Is… just…bubbling over with LIFE

The readings are so rich in imagery

Imagery of Promises

Isaiah… 

Now that is an image worthy of the food channel!

Rich food…dusty wine bottles perfectly aged
and bone marrow…all the rage I hear

I like that promise

And from Revelation

Another glorious image

not at all the LEFT BEHIND sort

no…it goes in the opposite direction
“I saw the Holy City…

coming down…”

God…tenting…with us

Setting up camp with us

Everyone welcome and safe

And echoing Isaiah…tears, sadness…gone 

Again…What a promise

How believable are these promises?  

How are we able to believe in such promises?

The only way…

It seems to me that the only way

Is that we have experienced...
a foretaste

Think of all those meals

…Large family ones

…Intimate romantic ones

…eating McDonalds in the car with a distraught child

…Ones in hospital rooms

NOT to mention the Eucharist

In all these meals

We have surely tasted…a foretaste…a nibble…

            of the richness, the intimacy, the safety, the comfort

            that Isaiah is painting for us

Yes…I believe we have…

            

And tears wiped away for ever?

How can we believe such a promise?

Haven’t we had a foretaste of that as well?

At one time or another

…someone has reached out a thumb

…so small…so simple

Or at times we have been the one on the wiping side

            gently picking up that tear 

It didn’t stop the sadness

But it communicates so much 

So much with no words at all

…It is when we remember those foretastes

that we find that we can believe

Some days,

Are harder than others

And those foretastes give us words:

“That is a PROMISE I can believe in…

         not just because I want to 

but because I have…in fact…tasted it”

My friends this is not ONLY a festival 

which paints for us 

glorious images of a glorious future

It is, in fact more importantly, a promise for our present.

John’s gospel loves the present tense

…remember all those present tense

            I AM statements…things are happening NOW

Just before we pick up the story today

Jesus tells Martha 

I AM the resurrection and the life…here…now…

Mary’s very real grief…is NOW
“if only…if only…

How many times have we shared in that?

“If only…

And Jesus weeps…now

And then there is Lazarus

Four days dead…really really dead

Jesus calls his name

“Lazarus come out”

And Lazarus hears his name being called

            …the really really dead guy hears his name!

But it isn’t just about Lazarus…is it??

Jesus isn’t done yet

He turns to the bystanders…

He gives them very clear instructions:  

“Unbind him and let him go”

Resurrection…the biggest promise of all!

Have we had a foretaste of that!??

I think we have…some of us more intensley than others

But haven’t we?

Some of us have felt four days dead

…deader than dead

…In the tomb…big stone…no light

And something happened

Something happened

…Jesus called us by name and we heard

He called us to life

…and we stood up and walked out of that tomb

And some of us have…at times
found ourselves standing around the tomb

Standing there…Not sure what to do

And WE heard our names 

“Cindy, Rose, Charlie, unbind him

Go on…unbind him”
and again something happened

…Jesus called us by name and we heard

He called us to life

…and we took to unbinding our neighbor

My friends we have tasted Resurrection

On this Festival day

We don’t deny the reality of loss, grief and sadness

But we boldly proclaim

The promise of God revealed in Jesus Christ

That the world is being made new

We believe because 

We have tasted the promise 

We didn’t come here by accident

We came because believing is hard 

Because death, like junk food, leaves a stubborn taste in the mouth;)

…and weirdly…sometimes… I find myself liking it 

A teacher of mine once said  

That church…what we do here…the liturgy

Is the place we come to get in the mood

To get in the mood to become a saint

That just sounds smart

That’s a mood I’d like to be in more often!

In a moment we will read our list of names

This is our tradition for All Saints Day

But we don’t just read them

We pray them

And as we do 

As we read lets keep the promise...right here…in our mind’s eye

Let. 

Us. 

Pray.