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All Saints’ Day Lesson: Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9
November 1, 2009 Psalm 24
The Rev. Karen Evans Epistle: Revelation 21:1-6a
St. James’ Church, Marietta Holy Gospel: John 11:32-44
I speak to you in the Name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
As many of you know, I had a surprise last weekend. Our daughter Sarah came to visit and brought our nineteen month old grandson with her. Our grandson’s name is Bo. Bo’s arrival basically changed our lives for days. Those of you with little children know exactly what I mean.
Bo came into our house with a completely different vision of what was there, and an imagination that was astounding. He transformed how we saw things and how we lived for a few days. One of the first things he noticed was a nightlight that we keep on the upstairs landing. He discovered that you could turn it around, and then instead of the light being down, it would go up on the walls and the ceiling. Of course, he also discovered that you can pull it out, which we did not like, so we carefully taught him how to put it back in. He took it downstairs where there was much more light and then he could not see anything; he did not like that very much.
He also found the cane I used before my hip surgery. For a while he dragged it around. Then he decided it would make a good baseball bat. At that time it moved up to the mantle above the fireplace for the sake of our shins and the TV screen.
The fireplace screen became a transparent hiding place. The big teddy bear that belonged to Bill’s mother was a snuggle pillow that was just about as big as he was. And, a box of cards and some party favors from Christmas past turned out to be more fun than any toy he brought with him.
For four days, our lives, ordinary, workaday, routine lives, were transformed by a new spirit and a new vision in our midst. That is what we celebrate on All Saints’ Day – not grandchildren – but the transformation of our ordinary lives into something alive, dynamic and joyful, through the grace of God given in Christ Jesus.
Our first lesson today is part of what is best described as sort of a courtroom argument. The main issue in the Book of Wisdom is about core values, such as justice, righteousness and the question of immortality. In the beginning of the book, the wicked argue that in the end death takes everyone. All are punished and debased, especially the righteous, so why strive to live a moral and upright life? Why strive for justice? Why not “eat, drink and be merry” at the expense of others, if the only alternative leads to death and destruction?
Today’s passage is the argument against those assertions. Far from being the tragedy they predict, there is a deeper reality at work which the wicked and the foolish do not see. “The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,” and nothing can touch them at the core of their being. They are at peace because they know that God is faithful to the promises God has made and so, “their hope is full of immortality.”
Using an image from the story in Exodus, when God transformed the people from runaway slaves to a great nation through the “testing” and leaning time in the wilderness, so the writer of the Book of Wisdom says that so the souls of the righteous are transformed by what appears to be hardship, but is really a time of purification and refinement. That is the transformation that brings us into union with God. “The faithful will abide with him in love, because grace and mercy are upon his holy ones, and he watches over his elect.”
This passage looks at tragedy, pain and death, and does not try to diminish them or their impact on our lives. But they should not be seen as punishment, destruction, or as the end of it all, either for the person involved or his/her loved ones. For the righteous and just, it is the way to new and fuller life in union with God and others, whether in this world or the next.
Our Gospel lesson for today takes those ideas and translates them, moves them, into a new plain. Lazarus, Jesus’ friend and the brother of Mary and Martha, died. When Jesus finally came to where they lived, he met Mary and accompanied her and the mourners to Lazarus’ grave.
In our lesson today, there are two things that are going on. One is to make sure we understand that Lazarus was truly dead. The Jews believed that the spirit lingered for three days after death and then left for Sheol. Martha pointed out to Jesus that it was now the fourth day -- no more spirit – and would be expected of an unembalmed body, the smell was sickening.
The second thing that was going on is that the words in our lesson that talk about Jesus being “disturbed” and “moved” are words that show anger. Was Jesus angry with death? Or, was he angry with people who had given up Lazarus as dead?
Earlier, Jesus had said to Martha, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha expressed the pious understanding of the day. “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day,” which she really did not understand.
Jesus’ response to her was, “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.”
Lazarus may have been a smelly corpse in a grave, but Jesus is the bringer of life and the one who will share the glory of God with those who believe. Jesus transformed Lazarus, not from a corpse into a resurrected body, nor did he return him to the way he was before he got sick. Jesus brought him out of the tomb to a new life. It was a life that would see death again, but it was a life that would never die.
The important thing about the glory of God that Jesus shared in this story is that it transformed Lazarus on both sides of the grave. However many years he lived after Jesus ordered him to come out, Lazarus lived as a changed man. And when he died, he continued to live that same life everlastingly.
Today we celebrate the saints. The saints are those who believe and have been transformed by and to the life that Jesus offers. Some of them are here in this room. Some of them are alive in our world. Some of them are remembered for the things they have done and the ways they have lived – both examples and lessons for us in how to live fully in the grace of God. And, some are not so well known, but are part of that fellowship of those who share the life we have in Jesus Christ.
Whoever they may be, they invite us to be transformed through the glory of God, and to find the fullness of life that is in Jesus Christ, now and for ever. Amen.
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