All Saints’ Day B
John 11:32-44
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen.
For
our Gospel reading on All Saints’ Day this year, we hear about one of the most
dramatic miracles that Jesus performs. This miracle, or “sign,” as John’s
Gospel calls it, appears only in John, and is the last sign Jesus performs
before his own resurrection. In fact, that is part of its purpose – to point
Jesus’ disciples, and us by extension, toward the even more impressive defeat
over death that is yet to come. It is a story wrought with human emotion, a
story many of us can put ourselves into as we see the characters – even Jesus –
experience everything from sadness and sympathy, to anger and betrayal, to
bewilderment and doubt.
It is in the midst of all this emotion
that Jesus performs this most dramatic sign: he raises Lazarus from the dead.
But on this All Saints Day, it is not so much the fact that Jesus raises
Lazarus from the dead that impresses me; it is the way in which he does it.
There are two phrases, there at the end, that make this so interesting. He
first calls out to Lazarus, “Come out!” and then he says to the rest of the
community gathered, “Unbind him!”
Why
is this so compelling? Because here, in Jesus’ most dramatic miracle, he is
actually asking for the people’s participation in it with him. Those gathered –
they are the ones who complete the
miracle for him. Don’t get me wrong – Jesus certainly has the power to heal,
comfort, feed, bring to life… he has done it before. But here, toward the end
of his ministry, he asks us to participate in that project with him. Because
being a part of the Christian community means that even in the midst of the
variety of emotions we experience, we care for each other, we live the life of
Christ for each other, we complete God’s work alongside each other.
As
I was recovering this week from my surgery on Monday, I spent a good chunk of
time watching the first season of the TV show, LOST. For those unfamiliar with
the show, it is about a group of 40-some survivors of a plane crash, who have
ended up on a strange island in the middle nowhere. Of course in the first few
episodes they are mostly just trying to survive, each man and woman for him or
herself, until someone comes to save them. But as time goes on it becomes clear
that no one is coming. It becomes clear to them that every man for himself is
not going to allow them to survive. The only way they will be able to survive
is if they pool their resources, draw on each other’s unique gifts, and care
for each other. Although the show so far has very few explicit religious
themes, this overarching theme that becomes so essential to their survival is
exactly what Jesus in this story, and indeed the Christian witness as a whole,
has to say: we are a community that must take care of each other.
Today
is All Saints’ Day. On this day each year, we remember those who have died in
the past year, those saints who have blessed our lives and have gone on to the
Church Triumphant. But I think this story about raising Lazarus from the dead
urges us to think about those saints still here on earth – you and me.
That
word, saint, is I think often misunderstood. Maybe we associate “saint” with
Catholicism, and say, “We Lutherans don’t believe in saints.” Or maybe we think
that saints are only those who have died. But what Luther actually advocated
was that all of us here on earth are already saints, even as we are still
sinners. That is one of Luther’s buzz phrases: “we are simultaneously saint and
sinner.” We cannot keep ourselves from sinning. That is our human nature, and
we will always fall short. But even as we are sinners, we have also been
declared holy – and that is what a saint is. Not self-declared holy, of course.
Nothing we do makes us holy – that’s why Luther stresses that we are also
always sinners, even as we are saints. Rather, we are holy because of God’s
work in our baptism, because God makes us holy, God declares
us holy.
So,
since we are all saints, and this is All Saints’ Day, let’s talk a bit about
what it means to be a saint, what it means to be holy. In our Gospel, Jesus
shows us that living a holy life means participating in the miraculous work of
God. We find many ways to do this in the church. Just last week Bethlehem and
St. Martin came together for a workday at Maggie’s Kids. Over the course of a
few hours, we washed and organized their tables and chairs for their annual
Thanksgiving dinner. We cleaned out some other areas and got their stoves ready
for cooking. We also cleaned outside, repairing their chain link fence,
removing litter, trimming bushes from around the fence, and raking and sweeping
the parking lot. We also completed some repairs to the foundation and
parking lot area and the side door threshold, with the help of one of the kids
and a neighbor. Maggie’s Kids serves the children in one of the roughest
neighborhoods in Rochester, providing them after-school care, tutoring, snacks,
and clothing. To be a part of that in such a hands-on way truly felt like we
were participating in God’s miraculous work, and living into our identity as
saints on earth.
We’ll have many more opportunities
to participate in God’s work as the holidays approach – by collecting items for
Christmas stockings, food for pantries, gifts for the Angel Tree, coats for
Open Door Mission. Also through Bible study, as we learn more about God’s work
throughout history, and prayer, as we hold up many people in need. One
important way we participate in God’s miraculous work and live into our
identity as saints is one we also lift up today, and that is in our financial
giving. This church has a lot to offer, and a lot to give thanks for, and
giving of our treasures is one essential way for us to participate in the work
Bethlehem/St. Martin does. We will have an opportunity toward the end of
today’s service to offer this participation and give thanks for it.
But I also want to stress that
being saints, and participating in God’s holy work, do not only happen on
Sunday morning, or at special events. Anything that has been set aside for
God’s work, anything that is done in faith and with godly intentions, is holy.
This certainly includes the things we do here – from Communion and Baptism and
hearing the Word to service projects – but it is also things that you do every
day. You are saints, you people of God, and whether you are lending an ear to a
distressed colleague, or helping lead a Scout troop, or buying lunch for a
stranger who doesn’t have enough money, or carefully deliberating over what
candidates will best serve those in need in this country as you make your way
to the polls this week… If God is at work in your actions to heal, comfort, and
restore, then you are participating in the miraculous, saving work of Christ.
Today, like every day of the
Christian life, is a day of thanksgiving. We give thanks for the witness of the
saints, for all those people who have touched our lives. We give thanks for the
saving work of Jesus. We give thanks that Jesus asks us to participate in that
work, telling us to “come out” from our fears and sin and to “unbind” those who
find themselves still captive to fear and death. We give thanks for the many
blessings and gifts in our lives – our selves, our time, and our possessions.
And we pray that God would show us ever new ways to live in thankfulness, to lead
holy lives, to be the saints that Christ calls us out to be.
In the name of the Father, and the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment