All Saints
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series IX, Cycle B
Object:
Theme of the Day
How Christ makes us saints.
Collect of the Day
Acknowledging that God has knit His people together in One body, petitions are offered that the faithful might follow the saints in lives of faith and commitment and know the inexpressible joys prepared for those who love Him. Doctrines of Sanctification (construed as a work of God), church, and Eschatology are emphasized.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 24
* A Psalm attributed to David; a liturgy on entering the sanctuary, perhaps used in connection with a procession of the Ark of the Covenant. Since Hebrews believed that God is present in the Ark, John Wesley suggests that the Psalm could be about Christ entering the church (Commentary on the Bible, p. 279).
* An acknowledgment of the Lord as creator (vv. 1-2).
* Grapples with the question of who shall be admitted to the sanctuary (v. 3).
* The answer to the question is given: Only those with sufficient moral qualities (vv. 4-6).
* The choir outside the gate requests entrance, so that the God of Israel in the Ark may enter (vv. 7-10).
Sermon Text and Title
"Death Is Swallowed Up in Christ"
Isaiah 25:6-9
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To proclaim a celebrative tone that death and sin cannot have the final word in the lives of lost loved ones (the saints).
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* See First Lesson for Easter.
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* See this section for the First Lesson, Easter. Especially see the last quotation by Martin Luther in the Theological Insights of the First Lesson for Easter. This appreciation of the sinfulness of those whom Christ saved bespeaks the total dependence of all the saints on grace.
* Martin Luther offers other comforting comments about death:
… the dying of a person is not death, but a sleep, yea, from His [Christ's] point of view none of those who have lived and died before our time are dead, but are all alive, as those we see standing before us; for He had concluded that all shall live, yea, He holds them in His hand… Therefore it is not difficult for Christ in the hour when body and soul are separated, to hold in His hand the soul and spirit of man, even though we ourselves neither feel nor see anything….
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 3/1, p. 358)
* The famed saints (canonized by the Catholic church) are no less sinful than we are, Luther claimed:
About what you personally have and are you should be humble, for you are nothing but a maggot sack; but of Christ's goodness you cannot be proud enough and must say: Though I were ten times as filthy as I am, yet I have the blood which cleanses and sanctifies me, and it cost Christ as much to redeem me as to redeem Saint Peter. They (the well-known saints) were in the depth just as deeply as we were, and we are exalted as they were.
(What Luther Says, p. 1248)
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* See the first bullet point of this section for the Gospel, Easter 3, on the uncertainty of many Americans about eternal life.
* In a Gallup poll of a decade ago only 7% of teenagers claimed the fear of death was their greatest fear. But when we realize that terrorist attacks claimed the #1 status as the greatest fear and war was in the top ten (both fears culminating in death), the poll actually reveals that over 2 in 5 of these now twenty-somethings fear death.
* Findings of neurobiology have suggested that human beings are the net sum of encounters they have with others and their environment, and that in these interactions there is an interaction of biology and culture in the brain. Its neuroplasticity entails that new brain connections emerge with each new interaction we enjoy, accounting for our individuality. The soul might then be described as the organizational structure that makes this unique pattern of brain connections and other experiences possible. Such a construal allows for the affirmation of individuality, while allowing us to affirm we all have a soul. It also breaks with dualism, since on these grounds, in harmony with Hebraic thinking, the soul is intimately related, inextricably connected to our bodily, biological functions (Kelly Bulkeley, ed., Soul, Psyche, Brain, p. 192).
* The theory of relativity developed by Albert Einstein has bearing on the issue of the length of time loved ones are separated in death or the length of time it will take until the Resurrection. Einstein posited a reality (the speed of light) at which all time is simultaneous (Analen der Physik 17:891-921).
It is a logical move to posit the divine reality as the location of the speed of light (God as the light of the world [John 8:12]), so that in His presence all time is simultaneous. Luther and earlier theologians spoke of the divine time in this way:
… you must not calculate how far life and death are apart, or how many years may pass while the body is wasting in the grave, and how one after another dies, but endeavor to grasp the thought of Christ… For He does not calculate time by tens, hundreds, or thousands of years, nor measure the years consecutively, the one preceding, the other following, as we must do in this life; but grasps everything in a moment….
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 7/1, p. 359)
For this affirmation by Augustine, see Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 7, p. 190.
5. Gimmick
Death: The grim reaper; the ultimate separation from loved ones; the final judgment on the meaninglessness of life.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Our lesson testifies that the Lord will swallow up death forever (v. 7b). Though it may not have been intended by the author, we Christians understand this as a promise of the resurrection, of eternal life. This is basic Sunday school affirmation. But can we believe it? Does it make sense?
* It seems to me that many of the polls lie. Although the majority of senior citizens appear to believe in eternal life and fear of death is not on the front-burner for our youth, I know many people who fear death. (Consider Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights and the first bullet point of that section for the Gospel, Easter 3. There are qualifications about that data which support my intuitions.) Ask the congregation if they welcome death.
* Why are there so many tears at funerals if we don't fear death? Is it just because we will miss the loved ones? Aren't the tears also because there is that gnawing fear that this might be the end, the final leave-taking, because this really is the end for that loved one? No, death is scary.
* We Christians do have good news. The Lord will swallow up death (v. 7b). That's why all our tears will be wiped away (v. 8b). That promise is not just for the most spiritual among us, not just for the super-religious. It is for us all. Cite the last bullet point in Theological Insights. Also consider the last two bullet points of Theological Insights for the First Lesson for Easter.
* No matter how deep we have fallen; no matter what the sin; no matter how unworthy we might feel, the promise of eternal life, of the resurrection of the body, is for you.
* Tell stories of characters who have committed sins, infidelity, shady business deals, destructive gossip, and the like. Then proclaim that they still have the promise of eternal life. Indicate how if they die in faith it is not out of the question that Benedict Arnold and Enron's Ken Lay, that Mark Sanford and Bernie Madoff, Miami's infamous cocaine queen Griselda Blanco, or even we can taste eternal life. What a reassuring, comforting word (but a humbling one too, since we will not be getting eternal life on the basis of the lives we have lived).
* Because of Christ (and only because of Him, not because of our good lives), the words of the ancient Roman philosopher Seneca ring true: "The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity."
* But how? How can we make sense of this reality in light of all the philosophical and scientific suspicions about the existence of souls? Note the suspicions. Medical science has found no souls. Many of the characteristics attributed to souls seem attributable to the cellular connections observable by neurobiologists. Besides, biblical scholars have indicated that large segments of the Bible (esp. the Old Testament) do not teach the existence of a soul, for the ancient Hebrews believed in a harmony of our physical and rational properties (Gerhard von Rad, Old Testament Theology, Vol.1, p. 153). After all, none of us has seen a soul or experienced what we think is our own soul apart from the body. So could it be that when they put us in that grave that will be it for us?
* Review the third bullet point (up to the quotation) of Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights. Explain how the soul might be described as the organizational structure that makes this unique pattern of brain connections and other experiences possible. The soul, then, is what makes all memory possible. It is our memories. What then becomes of it in death?
* Use the second bullet point of Theological Insights to describe how in death we sleep securely in the arms of Christ. Not singing songs up there in heaven. Just sleeping peacefully. How long? How long is a whole night when you are sleeping soundly and securely in the arms of a loved one? The evening, the millennia, just fly in the arms of God.
* What of the soul? Is not the body decomposing in the ground? Keep in mind what the soul is -- all our memories of what happened to us. Where are they? In God! For Him, all that happens in the universe has been taken in by Him. Because for God all that has ever happened is happening to God right now, simultaneously. Cite and expound the last bullet point in Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights. Note the ties between Einstein's theory of relativity (all time happens simultaneously at the speed of light) and this vision of all things happening simultaneously in God. This is how we can understand the Second Lesson's reference to God as beginning and end (Revelation 21:6). Beginning and end are in Him.
* If all that has ever happened is happening now for God, then all that is the soul, the organizational structure of our brain connections preserving all that has happened to us, is in God. Right now we are already in God. But so is the soul of everyone (dying in Christ) who has ever lived! Right now these structures of all our brain connections function in Him. They live in him now as much as they did when they lived! Encourage the congregation to feel the comfort, feel the joy that the souls of loved ones are functioning, living through the experiences right now just as we are. We and they are not alone, not isolated, from each other, for we all exist right now in God.
* At this very moment our grandparents are being born and celebrating our births, our unborn grandchildren may be marrying. All that waits is the actual resuscitation of our bodies, when we will truly see each other again. Death has indeed been swallowed up by God's eternal reality.
7. Wrap-Up
Encourage parishioners to contemplate these images: Souls not as ghosts, but as organizational structures of what we have done (not the brain, but what organized our brains as they have become) forever in the mind of God, never forgotten, never abandoned, never isolated from loved ones and others. And someday these brain structures and dynamics will get a better version of our bodies and brains. That's the promise of eternal life. And as we wait, remember how our God tells time, for then you'll never need to feel isolated from loved ones, never alone. Just now our worship service is transpiring simultaneously and in the presence of the creator, of Jesus' miracles, of distant ancestors, and your parents' union. Death has not divided us; it never will. For all God's saints are still one after all.
Sermon Text and Title
"All Things Made New!"
Revelation 21:1-6a
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To announce the good news that Christ has overcome evil and that in the end all will be made new (Future Eschatology), that what scars us today will soon be gone (Justification by Grace). This newness is a saintly existence that can orient our lives today (Sanctification).
2. Exegesis
* An Apochryphal book of the late first century expressing hope for salvation after a world-ending new creation. Although parts of the book may predate the fall of Jerusalem, it is likely that it achieved its present form during the reign of Emperor Domitian between 81 and 96 AD. Christians were being persecuted for refusing to address him as Lord and God.
* Written by John (1:1, 4, 9; 22:8), whose identity is not clear despite the tradition's identification of him with the disciple. The book's Semitic Greek style suggests that its author was Jewish. It is the report of seven (the mystical Hebrew number for fullness) dreams. It relies heavily on eschatological images of the book of Daniel and other Old Testament texts (see 1:7 [cf. Daniel 7:3]; 1:12-16 [cf. Daniel 10:5-9]; 3:10 [cf. Daniel 12:1]; 10:5-7 [Daniel 12:6-7]).
* Main Sections: (1) Prologue (1:1-8); (2) Preparatory vision and letters to the seven churches (1:9--3:22); (3) Vision of the glory of God and of the lamb and the opening of six seals (3:23--7:17); (4) The Seventh Seal, demonic plagues, and the measuring of the Temple (8:1--11:19); (5) Vision of the woman, the child, the dragon, and the two beasts (12:1--14:20); (6) The Seven Bowls of the wrath of God (15:1--16:21); (7) The fall of Babylon (representing a prophecy of Rome's fall), dirges and praise, and Christ's victory (17:1--19:21); (8) The binding and loosing of Satan, final conflict and judgment, and vision of the New Jerusalem (20:1--22:5); and (9) Epilogue (22:6-21).
* Central Themes: (1) Visions receive divinely authorized interpretation (1:1; 17:1-8; 21:9ff); (2) Recurring themes of seven revelations; (3) Conflicts between a righteous minority (followers of Christ) and a wicked majority are understood in an ontologically dualistic manner, as a clash between God and Satan; and (4) After a period of intense conflict, God prevails and creates a new reality to reward the faithful.
* The text portrays a vision of the new creation (predicted by Isaiah 65:17; 66:22) following the final judgment transpiring after the binding of Satan, reign of the martyrs, and a final conflict.
* The New Jerusalem coming from heaven is described as a mother. (Perhaps this is a reference to the church [Galatians 4:26].)
* Hymns of praising paragraphing Ezekiel 37:27 and Isaiah 25:8; 35:10 follow (vv. 3-4). They convey God's presence and the overcoming of all evil and mourning He brings.
* All things are made new (v. 5). As beginning and end, God gives the water of life (v. 6).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* A depiction of Future Eschatology, a vision providing comfort for the faithful in the present (Sanctification), for all evil is overcome (Justification by Grace and Classic View of Atonement).
* The early church theologian Tertullian claims that our text demonstrates that all things were created by God out of nothing, that they shall come back to nothing for the first heaven and earth pass away (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 496).
* John Wesley speculated that the new heaven and earth described in the text would manifest in a day when creatures would not have to kill other creatures in order to sustain themselves (The Works of John Wesley, Vol. 6, pp. 294-295). But a more glorious change, he contended, will come over human beings:
As there will be no more death, and no more pain or sickness preparatory thereto; as there will be no more sorrow or crying. Nay, but there will be a greater deliverance than all this; for there will be no more sin. And, to crown all, there will be a deep, an intimate, an uninterrupted union with God… a continual enjoyment of the Three-One God, and of all creatures in Him!
(Ibid., p. 296)
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* See First Lesson.
* According to a 2006 Pew Research Center survey, nearly 1 in 5 American Christians do not believe in Christ's second coming.
5. Gimmick
What's life like for saints? Our Second Lesson gives us an idea. What a magnificent vision.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* John's vision is that he saw at the end of time a new heaven and a new earth (v. 1). With God and Jesus there is a new start. The whole created order will be not just transformed, not just improved, but made brand-new. This is God's style.
* Fresh starts are nice. They give us a chance to bury the hatchet, to get around mistakes and regrets. God's promise is that at the end of time we will get that kind of fresh start, when all the wounds, all the heartaches, all the failures will matter no more.
* This is a comforting vision for the future. In heaven, those failures, those regrets won't matter. But how about today? How about all the things we wish could be buried and forgotten now in the present?
* The great New Testament scholar of the last century Rudolf Bultmann offered a profound comment:
Eschatological preaching views the present time in the light of the future and it says to men that this present world, the world of nature and history, the world in which we love our lives and make our plans is not the only world; that this world is temporal and transitory, yes, ultimately empty and unreal in the face of eternity.
(Jesus Christ and Mythology, p. 23)
* With this insight, everyday life can look a lot different for the faithful. All the mistakes of the past are empty and ultimately unreal. For us saints of God it is like L.M. Montgomery wrote in Anne of Green Gables: "Tomorrow is fresh, with no mistakes in it."
* Ask the congregation to name for themselves what they wish they could take back, do over again. Suggest some possibilities: Lost love, unkind words, stalled career, shattered marriage, bad parental relations, lost friends, time lost, opportunities missed, and unrealized dreams. In eternity they don't matter! Everything will be new.
* But now we can live that way in the present. When it comes to these regrets and bad steps, when it comes to the bad things in life, we need no longer be paralyzed and wounded by them. We can live like the medieval mystic Meister Eckhart advised: "Be willing to be a beginner every single morning."
* Nineteenth-century English novelist Mary Shelley offered a similar perspective, which only Christians enlightened by John's view of the end time can really make their own: "The beginning is always today."
* The next time members of the congregation feel that they are paralyzed by the mistakes and wrongs of the past, keep in mind John's vision, that the old passes away in the world for the new, that we are on the way to a new heaven and a new earth. There is no need to be bound by the old hurts, missteps, shattered relations and dreams. Ultimately they won't be around much longer.
* Note the quote by John Wesley in Theological Insights. God plans a new reality for His saints in which there will be no more crying or sorrow -- just an uninterrupted union with God. That saintly existence we can already enjoy today, enveloped by the reality of God everywhere we go and in all we do.
7. Wrap-Up
Repeat the previous bullet point. Note to the congregation that the awareness of the new heaven and the new earth can change our lives, can make the coming week different. (Suggest that much may be changing in the election booth this week.) By God's grace, a hint of heaven is available right here on earth as we find that all the sins, missteps, regrets, don't matter, don't need to trap us and determine the future. For we are being enveloped with all the saints instead in the arms of a benevolent, caring God of fresh starts.
Sermon Text and Title
"A Holy Bunch"
John 11:32-44
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
The proclamation of the sainthood of the faithful, but with the awareness that such a status is a sheer, undeserved gift (Justification by Grace construed as Forensic Justification). An awareness that the church is the communion of saints is also developed.
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* The concluding portion of the story of the raising of Lazarus (the brother of Mary who later anointed Jesus [12:1-8]).
* The action begins after Jesus' arrival in Bethany and learning that Lazarus had died and was buried (vv. 17-22). Jesus had reassured Lazarus' sisters Mary and Martha that their brother would rise, because He is the resurrection and the life believers would live (vv. 23-26).
* Martha confesses faith in Jesus' messiahship and summons Mary (vv. 27-30). Mary goes to meet Jesus and others who had been comforting her go with her (v. 31).
* Mary laments Lazarus' death when greeting Jesus, expressing confidence that He could have saved her brother (v. 32). Her weeping led Jesus to weep (vv. 33-35). This leads to gossip among onlookers -- some claiming the tears revealed Jesus' love for Lazarus and others claiming a miracle worker like Him could have kept Lazarus alive (vv. 36-37).
* Greatly disturbed, Jesus goes to the cave where Lazarus was buried. Jesus has the stone before the tomb rolled away (vv. 38-40a).
* After Jesus thanks God for hearing Him, Lazarus rises (vv. 40b-44).
* Some witnessing the miracle believe (v. 45). Others conspire with Pharisees, chief priests, and the Sanhedrin in nearby Jerusalem, who begin to fear a Roman backlash to these miracles (vv. 46-48). In John's account, the decision to put Jesus to death is a function of giving life to Lazarus.
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text witnesses to Future Eschatology (Lazarus' resurrection), Justification by Grace, and insofar as the works of Lazarus and his sisters were not enumerated, our unworthiness to receive these blessings (sin). Righteousness and holiness are portrayed as sheer gifts. The Communion of Saints (the church) and the nature of sainthood are also implied in the fellowship between the living and the dead established by the dead Lazarus' relationship to those who live.
* John Calvin perceived a certain lack of gratitude portrayed in Mary's, Martha's, and the crowd's laments regarding what Jesus might have done for Lazarus prior to His arrival: "Men have always been ungrateful to God in the same manner, and continue to be so. If He does not grant all our wishes we immediately launch into complaints" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVII/2, p. 442).
* The Reformer also explains how God overcomes this, by providing glimpses of God from the saints' perspective: "But as men can never free themselves from gross imaginations, so as not to form some low and earthly conception about God, unless when they are raised above the world, Scripture sends them to heaven…" (Ibid., p. 445).
* Martin Luther commented on how sainthood is not precluded by sin and noted what sainthood really is:
But we say that the real saints of Christ must be good, stout sinners who are not ashamed to pray the Lord's Prayer… They are not called saints because they are without sins or have become saintly through works… But they become holy through a foreign holiness, namely, through that of the Lord Christ, which is given to them by faith and thus becomes their own.
(What Luther Says, p. 1247)
We are all saints, and cursed is he who does not want to call himself a saint. However, you do not owe this to yourself but to the will of God, who would be your Father. To call yourself a saint is, therefore, no presumption but an act of gratitude and a confession of God's blessings.
(Ibid.)
Also see the last bullet point in this section for the Gospel, Pentecost 18.
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* A 2009 Parade magazine found that 2 out of 3 Americans expect to connect with dead loved ones when they die.
5. Gimmick
Note that today is All Saints. But what is a saint? Who are the saints of the church?
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* To be sure no one is left out, ask all saints present to raise their hands.
* After a pause, make it clear that everyone should have raised their hands. Those (like yourself) who raised their hands are by no means claiming to be perfect -- for saints are not perfect.
* Use quotes and leads in the last bullet point of Theological Insights.
* An appreciation that saints were sinners was noted by the late nineteenth-century American journalist Ambrose Bierce: "Saint: A dead sinner revised and edited."
* Tell the gospel story. Nowhere in the Bible do we learn whether Lazarus or his sisters were holy or moral. Insofar as he was raised, it seems we have another testimony that being a saint does not depend on how well you live. That is a good thing, or we would all flunk.
* The first two lessons for the day sketched visions of the end, again without reference to what must be done to receive such a saintly existence. Martin Luther's point seems borne out by these texts. Sainthood is not determined by your way of life. Sinners can be saints.
* This point was affirmed by Robert Louis Stevenson: "The saints are sinners who keep on going."
* What makes us saints? God bestows holiness on us, a kind of a foreign holiness. You might say that we are reckoned holy, kind of like we are reckoned righteousness. (See the fourth and eighth bullet points of this section for the Second Lesson, Reformation, for elaboration of the concept of Forensic Justification presupposed here.) We are saints in God's eyes, though still sinners -- simultaneously saints and sinners.
* Anyone who believes in Jesus is a saint. Invite the congregation to raise their hands if they believe Jesus died for their sins. Then announce that all raising their hands are saints. But it is not just those assembled who are saints. Any throughout history who have believed in Jesus are saints. This is a day for remembering them all; a day to stop and give thanks for the lives of dear friends and loved ones who have died in the faith.
* This theme of the unity of the saints is suggested by the Gospel Lesson. When Jesus brought Lazarus back to life there was a sense in which He created a fellowship between the living (Himself, Mary, and Martha) and the dead (Lazarus). The creed makes this point in identifying the church as the "Communion of Saints."
* Reflect on this point: To speak of the church in this way is to say that forever and ever that holy bunch of Christians will be together, in all times and places, united in praise. As we praise God now, our deceased beloved ones, our unborn great-great-grandchildren do too.
7. Wrap-Up
How can we praise God collectively this week with all the saints? Use the last Luther quote in Theological Insights to affirm that simply by calling ourselves and all the faithful "saints" we praise Him. And to think that when we affirm our sainthood we are not alone, not separated from our loved ones who in their sainthood are not far away. Death has not separated each of us from them. God makes sure His holy bunch sticks together! The next time we feel worthless or question the direction of our lives, remember the company that you have and that in God's eyes we are all saints!
How Christ makes us saints.
Collect of the Day
Acknowledging that God has knit His people together in One body, petitions are offered that the faithful might follow the saints in lives of faith and commitment and know the inexpressible joys prepared for those who love Him. Doctrines of Sanctification (construed as a work of God), church, and Eschatology are emphasized.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 24
* A Psalm attributed to David; a liturgy on entering the sanctuary, perhaps used in connection with a procession of the Ark of the Covenant. Since Hebrews believed that God is present in the Ark, John Wesley suggests that the Psalm could be about Christ entering the church (Commentary on the Bible, p. 279).
* An acknowledgment of the Lord as creator (vv. 1-2).
* Grapples with the question of who shall be admitted to the sanctuary (v. 3).
* The answer to the question is given: Only those with sufficient moral qualities (vv. 4-6).
* The choir outside the gate requests entrance, so that the God of Israel in the Ark may enter (vv. 7-10).
Sermon Text and Title
"Death Is Swallowed Up in Christ"
Isaiah 25:6-9
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To proclaim a celebrative tone that death and sin cannot have the final word in the lives of lost loved ones (the saints).
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* See First Lesson for Easter.
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* See this section for the First Lesson, Easter. Especially see the last quotation by Martin Luther in the Theological Insights of the First Lesson for Easter. This appreciation of the sinfulness of those whom Christ saved bespeaks the total dependence of all the saints on grace.
* Martin Luther offers other comforting comments about death:
… the dying of a person is not death, but a sleep, yea, from His [Christ's] point of view none of those who have lived and died before our time are dead, but are all alive, as those we see standing before us; for He had concluded that all shall live, yea, He holds them in His hand… Therefore it is not difficult for Christ in the hour when body and soul are separated, to hold in His hand the soul and spirit of man, even though we ourselves neither feel nor see anything….
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 3/1, p. 358)
* The famed saints (canonized by the Catholic church) are no less sinful than we are, Luther claimed:
About what you personally have and are you should be humble, for you are nothing but a maggot sack; but of Christ's goodness you cannot be proud enough and must say: Though I were ten times as filthy as I am, yet I have the blood which cleanses and sanctifies me, and it cost Christ as much to redeem me as to redeem Saint Peter. They (the well-known saints) were in the depth just as deeply as we were, and we are exalted as they were.
(What Luther Says, p. 1248)
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* See the first bullet point of this section for the Gospel, Easter 3, on the uncertainty of many Americans about eternal life.
* In a Gallup poll of a decade ago only 7% of teenagers claimed the fear of death was their greatest fear. But when we realize that terrorist attacks claimed the #1 status as the greatest fear and war was in the top ten (both fears culminating in death), the poll actually reveals that over 2 in 5 of these now twenty-somethings fear death.
* Findings of neurobiology have suggested that human beings are the net sum of encounters they have with others and their environment, and that in these interactions there is an interaction of biology and culture in the brain. Its neuroplasticity entails that new brain connections emerge with each new interaction we enjoy, accounting for our individuality. The soul might then be described as the organizational structure that makes this unique pattern of brain connections and other experiences possible. Such a construal allows for the affirmation of individuality, while allowing us to affirm we all have a soul. It also breaks with dualism, since on these grounds, in harmony with Hebraic thinking, the soul is intimately related, inextricably connected to our bodily, biological functions (Kelly Bulkeley, ed., Soul, Psyche, Brain, p. 192).
* The theory of relativity developed by Albert Einstein has bearing on the issue of the length of time loved ones are separated in death or the length of time it will take until the Resurrection. Einstein posited a reality (the speed of light) at which all time is simultaneous (Analen der Physik 17:891-921).
It is a logical move to posit the divine reality as the location of the speed of light (God as the light of the world [John 8:12]), so that in His presence all time is simultaneous. Luther and earlier theologians spoke of the divine time in this way:
… you must not calculate how far life and death are apart, or how many years may pass while the body is wasting in the grave, and how one after another dies, but endeavor to grasp the thought of Christ… For He does not calculate time by tens, hundreds, or thousands of years, nor measure the years consecutively, the one preceding, the other following, as we must do in this life; but grasps everything in a moment….
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 7/1, p. 359)
For this affirmation by Augustine, see Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 7, p. 190.
5. Gimmick
Death: The grim reaper; the ultimate separation from loved ones; the final judgment on the meaninglessness of life.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Our lesson testifies that the Lord will swallow up death forever (v. 7b). Though it may not have been intended by the author, we Christians understand this as a promise of the resurrection, of eternal life. This is basic Sunday school affirmation. But can we believe it? Does it make sense?
* It seems to me that many of the polls lie. Although the majority of senior citizens appear to believe in eternal life and fear of death is not on the front-burner for our youth, I know many people who fear death. (Consider Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights and the first bullet point of that section for the Gospel, Easter 3. There are qualifications about that data which support my intuitions.) Ask the congregation if they welcome death.
* Why are there so many tears at funerals if we don't fear death? Is it just because we will miss the loved ones? Aren't the tears also because there is that gnawing fear that this might be the end, the final leave-taking, because this really is the end for that loved one? No, death is scary.
* We Christians do have good news. The Lord will swallow up death (v. 7b). That's why all our tears will be wiped away (v. 8b). That promise is not just for the most spiritual among us, not just for the super-religious. It is for us all. Cite the last bullet point in Theological Insights. Also consider the last two bullet points of Theological Insights for the First Lesson for Easter.
* No matter how deep we have fallen; no matter what the sin; no matter how unworthy we might feel, the promise of eternal life, of the resurrection of the body, is for you.
* Tell stories of characters who have committed sins, infidelity, shady business deals, destructive gossip, and the like. Then proclaim that they still have the promise of eternal life. Indicate how if they die in faith it is not out of the question that Benedict Arnold and Enron's Ken Lay, that Mark Sanford and Bernie Madoff, Miami's infamous cocaine queen Griselda Blanco, or even we can taste eternal life. What a reassuring, comforting word (but a humbling one too, since we will not be getting eternal life on the basis of the lives we have lived).
* Because of Christ (and only because of Him, not because of our good lives), the words of the ancient Roman philosopher Seneca ring true: "The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity."
* But how? How can we make sense of this reality in light of all the philosophical and scientific suspicions about the existence of souls? Note the suspicions. Medical science has found no souls. Many of the characteristics attributed to souls seem attributable to the cellular connections observable by neurobiologists. Besides, biblical scholars have indicated that large segments of the Bible (esp. the Old Testament) do not teach the existence of a soul, for the ancient Hebrews believed in a harmony of our physical and rational properties (Gerhard von Rad, Old Testament Theology, Vol.1, p. 153). After all, none of us has seen a soul or experienced what we think is our own soul apart from the body. So could it be that when they put us in that grave that will be it for us?
* Review the third bullet point (up to the quotation) of Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights. Explain how the soul might be described as the organizational structure that makes this unique pattern of brain connections and other experiences possible. The soul, then, is what makes all memory possible. It is our memories. What then becomes of it in death?
* Use the second bullet point of Theological Insights to describe how in death we sleep securely in the arms of Christ. Not singing songs up there in heaven. Just sleeping peacefully. How long? How long is a whole night when you are sleeping soundly and securely in the arms of a loved one? The evening, the millennia, just fly in the arms of God.
* What of the soul? Is not the body decomposing in the ground? Keep in mind what the soul is -- all our memories of what happened to us. Where are they? In God! For Him, all that happens in the universe has been taken in by Him. Because for God all that has ever happened is happening to God right now, simultaneously. Cite and expound the last bullet point in Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights. Note the ties between Einstein's theory of relativity (all time happens simultaneously at the speed of light) and this vision of all things happening simultaneously in God. This is how we can understand the Second Lesson's reference to God as beginning and end (Revelation 21:6). Beginning and end are in Him.
* If all that has ever happened is happening now for God, then all that is the soul, the organizational structure of our brain connections preserving all that has happened to us, is in God. Right now we are already in God. But so is the soul of everyone (dying in Christ) who has ever lived! Right now these structures of all our brain connections function in Him. They live in him now as much as they did when they lived! Encourage the congregation to feel the comfort, feel the joy that the souls of loved ones are functioning, living through the experiences right now just as we are. We and they are not alone, not isolated, from each other, for we all exist right now in God.
* At this very moment our grandparents are being born and celebrating our births, our unborn grandchildren may be marrying. All that waits is the actual resuscitation of our bodies, when we will truly see each other again. Death has indeed been swallowed up by God's eternal reality.
7. Wrap-Up
Encourage parishioners to contemplate these images: Souls not as ghosts, but as organizational structures of what we have done (not the brain, but what organized our brains as they have become) forever in the mind of God, never forgotten, never abandoned, never isolated from loved ones and others. And someday these brain structures and dynamics will get a better version of our bodies and brains. That's the promise of eternal life. And as we wait, remember how our God tells time, for then you'll never need to feel isolated from loved ones, never alone. Just now our worship service is transpiring simultaneously and in the presence of the creator, of Jesus' miracles, of distant ancestors, and your parents' union. Death has not divided us; it never will. For all God's saints are still one after all.
Sermon Text and Title
"All Things Made New!"
Revelation 21:1-6a
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To announce the good news that Christ has overcome evil and that in the end all will be made new (Future Eschatology), that what scars us today will soon be gone (Justification by Grace). This newness is a saintly existence that can orient our lives today (Sanctification).
2. Exegesis
* An Apochryphal book of the late first century expressing hope for salvation after a world-ending new creation. Although parts of the book may predate the fall of Jerusalem, it is likely that it achieved its present form during the reign of Emperor Domitian between 81 and 96 AD. Christians were being persecuted for refusing to address him as Lord and God.
* Written by John (1:1, 4, 9; 22:8), whose identity is not clear despite the tradition's identification of him with the disciple. The book's Semitic Greek style suggests that its author was Jewish. It is the report of seven (the mystical Hebrew number for fullness) dreams. It relies heavily on eschatological images of the book of Daniel and other Old Testament texts (see 1:7 [cf. Daniel 7:3]; 1:12-16 [cf. Daniel 10:5-9]; 3:10 [cf. Daniel 12:1]; 10:5-7 [Daniel 12:6-7]).
* Main Sections: (1) Prologue (1:1-8); (2) Preparatory vision and letters to the seven churches (1:9--3:22); (3) Vision of the glory of God and of the lamb and the opening of six seals (3:23--7:17); (4) The Seventh Seal, demonic plagues, and the measuring of the Temple (8:1--11:19); (5) Vision of the woman, the child, the dragon, and the two beasts (12:1--14:20); (6) The Seven Bowls of the wrath of God (15:1--16:21); (7) The fall of Babylon (representing a prophecy of Rome's fall), dirges and praise, and Christ's victory (17:1--19:21); (8) The binding and loosing of Satan, final conflict and judgment, and vision of the New Jerusalem (20:1--22:5); and (9) Epilogue (22:6-21).
* Central Themes: (1) Visions receive divinely authorized interpretation (1:1; 17:1-8; 21:9ff); (2) Recurring themes of seven revelations; (3) Conflicts between a righteous minority (followers of Christ) and a wicked majority are understood in an ontologically dualistic manner, as a clash between God and Satan; and (4) After a period of intense conflict, God prevails and creates a new reality to reward the faithful.
* The text portrays a vision of the new creation (predicted by Isaiah 65:17; 66:22) following the final judgment transpiring after the binding of Satan, reign of the martyrs, and a final conflict.
* The New Jerusalem coming from heaven is described as a mother. (Perhaps this is a reference to the church [Galatians 4:26].)
* Hymns of praising paragraphing Ezekiel 37:27 and Isaiah 25:8; 35:10 follow (vv. 3-4). They convey God's presence and the overcoming of all evil and mourning He brings.
* All things are made new (v. 5). As beginning and end, God gives the water of life (v. 6).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* A depiction of Future Eschatology, a vision providing comfort for the faithful in the present (Sanctification), for all evil is overcome (Justification by Grace and Classic View of Atonement).
* The early church theologian Tertullian claims that our text demonstrates that all things were created by God out of nothing, that they shall come back to nothing for the first heaven and earth pass away (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 496).
* John Wesley speculated that the new heaven and earth described in the text would manifest in a day when creatures would not have to kill other creatures in order to sustain themselves (The Works of John Wesley, Vol. 6, pp. 294-295). But a more glorious change, he contended, will come over human beings:
As there will be no more death, and no more pain or sickness preparatory thereto; as there will be no more sorrow or crying. Nay, but there will be a greater deliverance than all this; for there will be no more sin. And, to crown all, there will be a deep, an intimate, an uninterrupted union with God… a continual enjoyment of the Three-One God, and of all creatures in Him!
(Ibid., p. 296)
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* See First Lesson.
* According to a 2006 Pew Research Center survey, nearly 1 in 5 American Christians do not believe in Christ's second coming.
5. Gimmick
What's life like for saints? Our Second Lesson gives us an idea. What a magnificent vision.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* John's vision is that he saw at the end of time a new heaven and a new earth (v. 1). With God and Jesus there is a new start. The whole created order will be not just transformed, not just improved, but made brand-new. This is God's style.
* Fresh starts are nice. They give us a chance to bury the hatchet, to get around mistakes and regrets. God's promise is that at the end of time we will get that kind of fresh start, when all the wounds, all the heartaches, all the failures will matter no more.
* This is a comforting vision for the future. In heaven, those failures, those regrets won't matter. But how about today? How about all the things we wish could be buried and forgotten now in the present?
* The great New Testament scholar of the last century Rudolf Bultmann offered a profound comment:
Eschatological preaching views the present time in the light of the future and it says to men that this present world, the world of nature and history, the world in which we love our lives and make our plans is not the only world; that this world is temporal and transitory, yes, ultimately empty and unreal in the face of eternity.
(Jesus Christ and Mythology, p. 23)
* With this insight, everyday life can look a lot different for the faithful. All the mistakes of the past are empty and ultimately unreal. For us saints of God it is like L.M. Montgomery wrote in Anne of Green Gables: "Tomorrow is fresh, with no mistakes in it."
* Ask the congregation to name for themselves what they wish they could take back, do over again. Suggest some possibilities: Lost love, unkind words, stalled career, shattered marriage, bad parental relations, lost friends, time lost, opportunities missed, and unrealized dreams. In eternity they don't matter! Everything will be new.
* But now we can live that way in the present. When it comes to these regrets and bad steps, when it comes to the bad things in life, we need no longer be paralyzed and wounded by them. We can live like the medieval mystic Meister Eckhart advised: "Be willing to be a beginner every single morning."
* Nineteenth-century English novelist Mary Shelley offered a similar perspective, which only Christians enlightened by John's view of the end time can really make their own: "The beginning is always today."
* The next time members of the congregation feel that they are paralyzed by the mistakes and wrongs of the past, keep in mind John's vision, that the old passes away in the world for the new, that we are on the way to a new heaven and a new earth. There is no need to be bound by the old hurts, missteps, shattered relations and dreams. Ultimately they won't be around much longer.
* Note the quote by John Wesley in Theological Insights. God plans a new reality for His saints in which there will be no more crying or sorrow -- just an uninterrupted union with God. That saintly existence we can already enjoy today, enveloped by the reality of God everywhere we go and in all we do.
7. Wrap-Up
Repeat the previous bullet point. Note to the congregation that the awareness of the new heaven and the new earth can change our lives, can make the coming week different. (Suggest that much may be changing in the election booth this week.) By God's grace, a hint of heaven is available right here on earth as we find that all the sins, missteps, regrets, don't matter, don't need to trap us and determine the future. For we are being enveloped with all the saints instead in the arms of a benevolent, caring God of fresh starts.
Sermon Text and Title
"A Holy Bunch"
John 11:32-44
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
The proclamation of the sainthood of the faithful, but with the awareness that such a status is a sheer, undeserved gift (Justification by Grace construed as Forensic Justification). An awareness that the church is the communion of saints is also developed.
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* The concluding portion of the story of the raising of Lazarus (the brother of Mary who later anointed Jesus [12:1-8]).
* The action begins after Jesus' arrival in Bethany and learning that Lazarus had died and was buried (vv. 17-22). Jesus had reassured Lazarus' sisters Mary and Martha that their brother would rise, because He is the resurrection and the life believers would live (vv. 23-26).
* Martha confesses faith in Jesus' messiahship and summons Mary (vv. 27-30). Mary goes to meet Jesus and others who had been comforting her go with her (v. 31).
* Mary laments Lazarus' death when greeting Jesus, expressing confidence that He could have saved her brother (v. 32). Her weeping led Jesus to weep (vv. 33-35). This leads to gossip among onlookers -- some claiming the tears revealed Jesus' love for Lazarus and others claiming a miracle worker like Him could have kept Lazarus alive (vv. 36-37).
* Greatly disturbed, Jesus goes to the cave where Lazarus was buried. Jesus has the stone before the tomb rolled away (vv. 38-40a).
* After Jesus thanks God for hearing Him, Lazarus rises (vv. 40b-44).
* Some witnessing the miracle believe (v. 45). Others conspire with Pharisees, chief priests, and the Sanhedrin in nearby Jerusalem, who begin to fear a Roman backlash to these miracles (vv. 46-48). In John's account, the decision to put Jesus to death is a function of giving life to Lazarus.
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text witnesses to Future Eschatology (Lazarus' resurrection), Justification by Grace, and insofar as the works of Lazarus and his sisters were not enumerated, our unworthiness to receive these blessings (sin). Righteousness and holiness are portrayed as sheer gifts. The Communion of Saints (the church) and the nature of sainthood are also implied in the fellowship between the living and the dead established by the dead Lazarus' relationship to those who live.
* John Calvin perceived a certain lack of gratitude portrayed in Mary's, Martha's, and the crowd's laments regarding what Jesus might have done for Lazarus prior to His arrival: "Men have always been ungrateful to God in the same manner, and continue to be so. If He does not grant all our wishes we immediately launch into complaints" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVII/2, p. 442).
* The Reformer also explains how God overcomes this, by providing glimpses of God from the saints' perspective: "But as men can never free themselves from gross imaginations, so as not to form some low and earthly conception about God, unless when they are raised above the world, Scripture sends them to heaven…" (Ibid., p. 445).
* Martin Luther commented on how sainthood is not precluded by sin and noted what sainthood really is:
But we say that the real saints of Christ must be good, stout sinners who are not ashamed to pray the Lord's Prayer… They are not called saints because they are without sins or have become saintly through works… But they become holy through a foreign holiness, namely, through that of the Lord Christ, which is given to them by faith and thus becomes their own.
(What Luther Says, p. 1247)
We are all saints, and cursed is he who does not want to call himself a saint. However, you do not owe this to yourself but to the will of God, who would be your Father. To call yourself a saint is, therefore, no presumption but an act of gratitude and a confession of God's blessings.
(Ibid.)
Also see the last bullet point in this section for the Gospel, Pentecost 18.
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* A 2009 Parade magazine found that 2 out of 3 Americans expect to connect with dead loved ones when they die.
5. Gimmick
Note that today is All Saints. But what is a saint? Who are the saints of the church?
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* To be sure no one is left out, ask all saints present to raise their hands.
* After a pause, make it clear that everyone should have raised their hands. Those (like yourself) who raised their hands are by no means claiming to be perfect -- for saints are not perfect.
* Use quotes and leads in the last bullet point of Theological Insights.
* An appreciation that saints were sinners was noted by the late nineteenth-century American journalist Ambrose Bierce: "Saint: A dead sinner revised and edited."
* Tell the gospel story. Nowhere in the Bible do we learn whether Lazarus or his sisters were holy or moral. Insofar as he was raised, it seems we have another testimony that being a saint does not depend on how well you live. That is a good thing, or we would all flunk.
* The first two lessons for the day sketched visions of the end, again without reference to what must be done to receive such a saintly existence. Martin Luther's point seems borne out by these texts. Sainthood is not determined by your way of life. Sinners can be saints.
* This point was affirmed by Robert Louis Stevenson: "The saints are sinners who keep on going."
* What makes us saints? God bestows holiness on us, a kind of a foreign holiness. You might say that we are reckoned holy, kind of like we are reckoned righteousness. (See the fourth and eighth bullet points of this section for the Second Lesson, Reformation, for elaboration of the concept of Forensic Justification presupposed here.) We are saints in God's eyes, though still sinners -- simultaneously saints and sinners.
* Anyone who believes in Jesus is a saint. Invite the congregation to raise their hands if they believe Jesus died for their sins. Then announce that all raising their hands are saints. But it is not just those assembled who are saints. Any throughout history who have believed in Jesus are saints. This is a day for remembering them all; a day to stop and give thanks for the lives of dear friends and loved ones who have died in the faith.
* This theme of the unity of the saints is suggested by the Gospel Lesson. When Jesus brought Lazarus back to life there was a sense in which He created a fellowship between the living (Himself, Mary, and Martha) and the dead (Lazarus). The creed makes this point in identifying the church as the "Communion of Saints."
* Reflect on this point: To speak of the church in this way is to say that forever and ever that holy bunch of Christians will be together, in all times and places, united in praise. As we praise God now, our deceased beloved ones, our unborn great-great-grandchildren do too.
7. Wrap-Up
How can we praise God collectively this week with all the saints? Use the last Luther quote in Theological Insights to affirm that simply by calling ourselves and all the faithful "saints" we praise Him. And to think that when we affirm our sainthood we are not alone, not separated from our loved ones who in their sainthood are not far away. Death has not separated each of us from them. God makes sure His holy bunch sticks together! The next time we feel worthless or question the direction of our lives, remember the company that you have and that in God's eyes we are all saints!
