Celebration of All Saints

Readings – Isaiah 25: 6-9; Psalm 24; Revelation 21: 1-6a; John 11: 32-44

Our readings today lead to a four-part sermon; they lead from Psalm 24 to Revelation to St. John’s Gospel and finally to Isaiah.

Psalm 24 declares the truth woven throughout the entire course of Holy Scripture; it is the foundation stone of our faith.

The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world and all who dwell therein, for it is He who founded it upon the seas and made it firm upon the rivers of the deep.

All three Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Islam and Christianity declare that the earth is God’s place, God’s creation, and we are a part of it, not all of it, just part of it.

Part II In our branch of faith not only is God our Creator, we know God came among us—in the flesh, as Jesus of Nazareth, born in Bethlehem of Judea, son of Mary and Joseph. Revelation bold states see, the home of God is among mortals. [God] will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them…

While the fullness of time is not yet complete, the Holy Spirit continues to live among us. The Holy Spirit is in our midst as our Advocate and Guide.

Part III is from the Good News according to St. John, the last of the four gospels to be written. The author knew the trials and challenges of the earliest church. In that way he is the closest to our times, and so he wrote with a clearer eye of the ages to come. St. John shares with us the last miracle of Jesus which took place in Bethany, the home town of sisters Mary and Martha, just outside of Jerusalem. In that setting St. John gives us the model of our ongoing ministry.

Unbind him, and let him go.

It is so easy to lose this important event among the other Gospel stories. For St. John this is clearly the most crucial for him, and for us who follow. Jesus calls out to the tomb after the friends and family of Lazarus have rolled away the stone at the entrance.

Unbind him, and let him go.

This is to be our action; this is our ministry as the people of God, as the current-day saints. As the family and friends of Lazarus did in ancient Bethany, so we are to do wherever our life’s journey takes us. We are to unbind; we are to unwrap, we are to set free, our sisters and brothers through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The strips of cloth that bind us are many so I will just name a few.

Violence, war, poverty, disease, oppression, hunger, despair, racism, sexism

The confining bindings are what keep our sisters and brothers from full flowering as the people God created them to be.

Part IV In many ways we are contemporaries of the prophet Isaiah. The final consummation and feast of the Lord God of hosts with a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of aged wines strained clear has not yet arrived. As we gather today, we get a foretaste.

We are here in the presence of Jesus. We are among the current-day saints. We give praise and thanksgiving to God. We receive the blessing of bread and wine, of body and blood.

We are enriched and transformed by God’s love.

And then we are dismissed back into the world.

For words to live by as the current day saints, let us hear again the advice of the prophet Micah (6:8) It is quite simple:

Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, and don’t take yourself too seriously — take God seriously. The Message: