The Final Word

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday November 4, 2012, the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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Isaiah 25:6-9

Psalm 24

Revelation 21:1-6a

John 11:32-44

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

Hurricane Sandy was born on October 22^nd. It was birthed in the warm waters of the Caribbean where it quickly amplified from low pressure system to tropical depression to tropical storm. Two days later it became a hurricane as it plowed into Jamaica. We don’t hear much about the tropical days of Sandy anymore. In the southern parts of the continent Sandy took 70 lives in Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, and Bermuda. There are still 21 Haitians missing too.[1]

From there, I don’t have to tell you much about the path of the storm. It pretty much paralleled the Atlantic coast until taking a sharp left into southern New Jersey. Every bit of Sandy brought its share of terror to the East Coast just before Halloween. Only a category one Hurricane, Sandy’s sheer size was perhaps the most devastating part of what is now called a Super Storm. In total, 24 states bore Sandy’s wrath. From Florida to Maine and west to Wisconsin, Sandy’s trod across our country. By the time the storm left the US and entered Canada, an additional 110 people were killed in the path and the wrath of the storm.

Among those 110 souls, some were related to the storm’s aftermath. Some were injured and killed by fire and electrocution that followed.

One especially devastated community, the Belle Harbor neighborhood in Queens, New York City faced its third major travesty of the century. This neighborhood is the home of many of New York’s Bravest, the Fire Department of New York. Many firefighters from this neighborhood perished in the World Trade Center collapse in 2001. This is also the site of the crash of American Airlines flight 587 on November 12, 2001. This brought the loss of all 260 aboard and five more on the ground. Just two months after 9/11, this community was devastated again. Eleven years later, it faced its third in Sandy.

It’s not difficult to add up the losses of life for a mathematician. On an old time adding machine counting the dead is as easy as pulling a crank. On a spreadsheet, it’s as easy as a little data entry and setting the SUM command properly. I don’t want to count. I don’t want to know. Numbers don’t lie, but numbers don’t bleed, and there’s too much blood right now. Terror, error,[2] tempest; there’s too much blood and not enough time to reflect on the lives of the saints lost in any of these tragedies.

When we think of “the saints,” we think about people like these people, those who are among the “Church Triumphant.” That’s true as far as it goes, but there’s more.

The good news is that Jesus knows our tragedies. He knows our tragedies because he has shared our tragedies. The eleventh chapter of John is a glorious story. Mary and Martha sent a messenger to Jesus saying, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” Jesus sends the messenger back with a word, “This sickness will not end in death.” Technically speaking, this is true. Jesus continues, “No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” So he decides they would spend a couple extra days where they were before heading to Bethany.

You know what happens; Jesus tells the disciples that Lazarus sleeps. They think that’s a good thing because he needs his rest. I imagine the head-slap or face-palm when Jesus tells them, “No, Lazarus is dead.”

They reach Bethany where Mary meets them in mourning. Jesus was moved and troubled by what he saw. He saw the souls Lazarus touched walking with Mary. He wept along side her.

Alongside Mary, Jesus wept.

Alongside all who were there, Jesus wept.

Jesus commands the men to move the stone from in front of the tomb. Martha at the tomb warns that there will be a bad odor since their brother is four days dead. Jesus reminds them that if they believe they will see the glory of God. Calling to the Father, he declares what comes next will happen so that all those with ears to hear will know that the Father called the Son to this place and time.

With that, Lazarus comes from the grave and Jesus tells the people to take off his grave clothes and let him go.

Hear the promises of the Lord heard from the lips of the prophet Isaiah:

Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces,

and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,

for the LORD has spoken.

It will be said on that day,

Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.

This is the LORD for whom we have waited;

let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

This is what we are promised in the words of John the Revelator. 

And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

“See, the home of God is among mortals.

He will dwell with them as their God;

they will be his peoples,

and God himself will be with them;

he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Death will be no more;

mourning and crying and pain will be no more,

for the first things have passed away.”

And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.”

These foresights were made by the Spirit through the lips of the prophets. We hear the Lord will wipe the tears from his disgraced people. We hear that the Lord will come so that we may rejoice and be glad in his salvation. In John’s gospel, we receive this example of how God has worked in the lives of the people. Christ lives through the Word. Christ is the living Word. Christ lives in the lives of the Saints. Christ lives in those who have passed, and those who will come in the future.

So what is the final word? The final word is that we are all reconciled through Christ to God. Through Christ, families are reconciled. Through Jesus, people are protected from a society that would allow them to be victims. Through the power of the Father, announced by the voice of Son, the Lord brings life where there was death. Through Jesus, our grave clothes are removed and more. We are loosed from the ties that bind, from death that wraps us in its mitts. We see this through the family of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary.

So what’s the final word? The final word is that the fully divine Lord our God, the Lord of lords, knew what was needed. He knew what he needed to do so that the people would know the Father hears the Son. This work was so that the people would see the glory of God. The final word is shared so that they would know it was the Father who sent the Son. This is the Lord’s cry at the tomb.

The final word is that the fully human God incarnate, Immanuel, God with us, mourned the loss of his friend’s life. Christ’s final word is that since he was as we are, he knows our pain, our loss, and our disappointment. He knows our trouble not because he sees it from afar, but because he shares it alongside us. Christ’s final word is that the fully human Jesus of Nazareth weeps in the face of the pain and sorrow of the human condition—a condition he shares. A condition he restores to its proper place. We see this as Jesus wept. We see this as Lazarus rises from the tomb.

So what’s the final word? Christ’s final word is that he is concerned with us every day. Christ’s final word is that neither the little deaths we face everyday nor the death from which both Lazarus and our Lord experienced and arose will defeat him. Christ’s final word is not just that he removes our death clothes, but he unbinds us from our shrouds continuously. As Jesus unbinds Lazarus, he shows us how he will free us.

Earlier I said that when we think of “the saints” we think about those who are among the Church Triumphant. I also said that’s true as far as it goes. As we celebrate All Saints’ Day, not only do we celebrate the lives of the saints of this congregation who have gone to meet Jesus, we celebrate all of the saints, living and dead; yes, living and dead.

In our tradition, we know that we have sinned. At the same time we believe that by grace through faith we have been made saints. Like I have said before, this is one of the “now and not yet” moments of our faith. We are saints who still sin. There’s something that can only be reconciled by the Lord.

Jesus shares the joy of relationship with the Father with us. Christ’s final word is that life eternal begins now. It neither ends nor begins with our passing into the unearthly communion of the saints.

God’s final word is that the Christ is the Alpha and the Omega. God is the first word of the good creation and the last word reconciling the fallen creation. God’s final word is that all this is comes from the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit.

We live in a world with great pain, yes we do. But, we also live in a world where the Lord is our God and Jesus is the Christ. Celebrating All Saints’ Day, we are called to mourn those who have passed. As the saints, we are called to celebrate the joy of what we all share in, by and through the Lord our God.

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[1] Hurricane Sandy, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Sandy, retrieved November 3, 2012.

[2] The National Transportation Safety Board attributed the disaster to the first officer's overuse of rudder controls in response to wake turbulence released by a Japan Airlines Boeing 747-400. from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_587, retrieved November 3, 2012.