Sermon delivered on All Saints’ Sunday, November 3, 2013, at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Columbus, OH.

If you would like to hear the audio podcast of the sermon, usually somewhat different from the text below, click here.

Lectionary texts: Isaiah 25.6-9; Psalm 139.1-11; Revelation 21.1-7; Psalm 23.1-6; John 11.17-27.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today I want to speak a real word of hope to you because death under any circumstance is hard, isn’t it? While we as Christians should not fear death, neither should we be complacent about it or try to whitewash it. When death strikes, it makes us angry and indignant, the way Jesus was at Lazarus’ tomb (cf. John 11.38) because death is our enemy. As Paul reminds us, it is the last enemy to be destroyed (1 Corinthians 15.26). Death robs us of our human dignity and it separates us from our loved ones, at least for a season. But O how long that season can be! Not only that, it is doubly hard to stand by and watch those we love grow increasingly infirm to the point of death. It sucks the energy right out of us and like Martha in today’s gospel lesson we want to throw our hands up in the air and ask in desperation why God allows this to happen.

But if you paid attention to our gospel lesson, you notice that Jesus gave Martha and us a much more satisfactory answer to her “why” question about evil and death. Jesus did not answer her question directly. Instead, echoing Psalm 23, he acknowledged that while evil and death still exist in God’s good but fallen world, he had come to destroy their power over us. That is why Christian funerals are so important. They serve to remind us that for those who are in Christ, evil and death do not have the final say because of God’s great love for us expressed in the death and resurrection of Jesus. As Paul reminds us in his letters to the Romans and Colossians, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ because God bore the punishment for our sins himself so that we could be reconciled to him and enjoy life and peace in the way God intends for us (Romans 8.1-3; Colossians 1.20-21). God’s love for us in Christ is so great that even death itself cannot separate us from it or from God’s life-giving presence.

We see tangible signs of God’s love for us in Christ in the various symbols that are part of today’s service. First, we see the lighted paschal candle at the altar. It is the great visible symbol that reminds us of the pillars of cloud and fire that represented God’s presence with his people as he led them out of their bondage to slavery in Egypt and remained with them during their wilderness wanderings despite their stubborn rebelliousness (cf. Exodus 13.20-22; Numbers 14.13-16). This serves to remind us that even in death God continues to lead Betty and that God always remains faithful to us, even when we do not always remain faithful to him, so that we can trust his promises to us that in the cross he has conquered sin and death and that resurrection and new life in God’s new creation is Betty’s destiny (and ours), not death.

Second, we remember that Betty’s casket was covered by a pall with its emblem of the cross. This serves to remind us that when Betty was baptized she was buried with Jesus in a death like his so that she could also be raised with him and share in a resurrection like his (Romans 6.3-5). The pall that covered Betty’s casket reminds us that while her mortal body has died and was buried, even now she is in the direct presence of the Lord of life as she awaits her new resurrection body that is patterned after his. Of course, the light of the paschal candle also reminds us of Jesus’ resurrection and the new life it promises for those like Betty who live and die in him. That’s why believing in Christ’s bodily resurrection is so important because we be-lieve that eventually we will have a body like his when he comes again in great power and glory to consummate his victory over evil, sin, and death, and usher in his promised new creation.

Paul tells us about the nature of our promised resurrection body in his first letter to the Corinthians and it is worth our time to see what he has to say. Paul tells us that unlike our mortal body that is subject to disease, decay, and death, the resurrection body with which we will be clothed will be like Jesus’ resurrected body. It will be a spiritual body, that is, it will be animated and powered by God’s Spirit instead of being animated and powered by flesh and blood. This means that our new body will no longer be subject to all the nasty things to which our mortal body is subjected. Whatever that looks like—and surely it will be more beautiful and wonderful than our minds can comprehend or imagine—it will be impervious to death and suited to live in God’s promised new creation, about which our OT and epistle lessons speak.

When the new creation comes, the dimensions of heaven and earth will no longer be separate spheres for God and humans respectively and which currently only intersect. Instead, as the writer of Revelation reminds us, the new heavens will come down to earth and the two will be fused together in a mighty act of new creation so that evil will be banished and we will get to live in God’s direct presence forever. There will be no more sorrow or sickness or suffering or death or pain or evil of any kind. We will be reunited with our loved ones who have died in Christ and get to live forever with our new body and limitless new opportunities to be the humans God created and always intended for us to be. As I listened to Sarah describe her mother’s struggle with her infirmity and weakness during the last weeks of her life and the grief this produced in those who loved her, I couldn’t help but stop and give thanks for the promise of new creation because it represents the very opposite of what Sarah and her family and friends were witnessing in sorrow.

This is our hope and promise as Christians and it is the only real remedy to our grief and sorrow. Please don’t misunderstand. I am not suggesting that we should not grieve. That would be cruel nonsense. You don’t love a person for an entire lifetime and then not grieve her loss when death claims her. But as Paul reminded the Thessalonians, we are to grieve as people who have real hope and not as those who have none at all. And of course Betty had this hope. When I went to administer last rites to her, even in her infirmity and suffering you could see the joy in her eyes and in her smile—whenever I saw Betty, she always had that smile. It’s hard to smile, let alone have joy, when your body is shutting down and failing you, but Betty had both, a powerful testimony to the love of Christ and her faith in him.

I want to close by telling you a story that powerfully sums up our Christian hope.

In 1989 Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma, wife of Emperor Charles of Austria died. She was the last Empress of Austria, Queen of Hungary, and Queen of Bohemia—one of the last members of the storied House of Habsburg. Her funeral was held in Vienna, from which she had been exiled most of her eventful life. After the service in St. Stephen’s Cathedral, her body was taken to the Imperial Crypt, where some 145 Habsburg royals are buried. As the coffin was taken to the Crypt, an ancient ceremony took place. A herald knocked at the closed door, and a voice responded, “Who seeks entrance?” The herald answered, “Zita, Empress of Austria, Queen of Hungary.” From within came the response, “I do not know this person.” The herald tried again, saying, “This is Zita, Princess of Bourbon-Parma, Empress of Bohemia.” The same reply was heard: “I do not know this person.” The third time, the herald and pallbearers said, “Our sister Zita, a sinful mortal.” The doors swung open.  (Source)

And this is the point. The hope and promise of resurrection and new creation is ours, not because we are deserving, but because of who God is, shown to us most powerfully in Jesus Christ our Lord. That’s why we can rejoice today, even in the midst of our sorrow. Because of her faith in Jesus who loves her and has claimed her, the doors of heaven have swung wide open for Betty and she is enjoying her rest until the new creation comes. And that, of course, is Good News, not only for Betty Ruth Chapman, but also for the rest of us, now and for all eternity.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.