Thank God for Their Lives
Thank God for Their Lives
Revelation 21:1-6
Dr. D. Robert chance
1”Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Introduction…
This is one my favorite Sundays of the entire year. It is a time of remembrance and celebration and most importantly a time of honoring the lives of those we have known and lost in the past year.
It is impossible, I believe, to celebrate All Saints Day without recalling and giving thanks for those who have been a part of our lives –family members, mentors, friends, neighbors, and all people who were gifts of God to us and who now live in his eternal kingdom.
In the scripture this morning, the Bible tells us a new heaven and a new earth that unlike anything we know in this world. John describes the new heaven as Holy City beautiful and idyllic. It is a place where God dwells with me and lives with them in a full and evident sense of the word. It is a place where there are no tears, no more death or mourning or pain and the old order of things has passed away.
The Bible tells us that this new heaven is a place where God has made everything new. It is a place where water from the spring of life is given, without cost. God tell us this is trusty and true and we can count on it.
All Saint’s Sunday isn’t traditionally a part of the worship tradition of the Christian Church but we have taken it and adapted it and made it even better, even more meaningful and joyful. It is a Sunday when we are invited to not only remember those we have lost in the past and in particular the last year but to name them and in so doing to honor them and most importantly of all to celebrate their lives and their entrance in this wonderful kingdom of God’s eternity.
I Perhaps the first thing to do on All Saints Day is to remember them and give thanks to God for their presence in our lives. It is a day of remembering.
Take a look, once again, at the bulletin insert where we have listed the names of our loved ones who passed away this year. Read their names, to yourself, as we have already read them aloud. Sacred memories come to mind for everyone of them.
Every once in a while I will riding along in the car and almost as a matter of habit, pick up the cell phone and try to call Johnny Wade. John and Esther were neighbors and great great friends of ours for over 36 years. They were there the day we moved into 4709 Listra Road and they were there the day we moved out of the neighborhood. More importantly, they were there for everything in between. They helped us raise our family. They were great friends for our whole lifetime here. John used to get up at 5:00 AM and leave for work long before I ever got up so somewhere along the way he started putting my paper on my front porch. I used to leave him a “tip”, saying I had the oldest but best paper boy in the area. I’ll never forget the time I looked across the street and he was asleep in one of those lounge chairs. He used to like to wiggle a Kleenex over my nose whenever he saw me asleep in a chair so the devil and I figured this was the time to make things right. I snuck across the street; quietly tip toed past John and his lounge chair, took the hose off the front of his house and gave him a good old Christian baptism. As he hooted and hollered at me, I kept trying to convince it was my Christian duty to try and save his ornery soul. Esther was there for one of the most important times in our lives and played a huge role in our being able to make a special place for our first grandson and without her help it would have been harder. Good friends like John and Esther are hard to come by. I keep thinking the world; at least my world is a smaller place without them.
We knew Nick Adenhart since he was a little leaguer throwing big league stuff. We met his family at Family Camp, years and years ago and formed an instantaneous and genuine bond of friendship. Nick was always an up and coming young super star in the world of baseball and we watched and tracked with interest as he worked himself all the way up to the majors and finally reached what was to be sure and certain stardom with the Los Angeles Angels. We got the tragic call on the day after his 2009 major league debut (April 9, 2009) that he had been killed in an automobile accident, within hours of pitching six beautiful, scoreless innings against the Oakland Athletics. Nick and his family will always be a special part of our family and always will be.
Marguerite Orebaugh was a long term member of the church, mother of Howard, wife of Walter and along with Walter traveled all over the world, living the life of a State Department wife and mother. She lived to a ripe old age and Howard, Suzie and broke birthday cake with her on the day of 100th birthday.
Peggy Speidel was a long time friend and member of the church. She and George shared most of what life had to bring with us over many years. Even after she and George moved over to Manassas Peggy and her children and grandchildren continued to be a significant part of our lives. I will never forget being with Peggy on some of the saddest and some of the happiest days of life. My, how she loved dogs – and George (no connection intended).
Lucy Wachtman was a kind and gentle soul who was a dear heart and is sorely missed around the church. She always sat with Ed, right over there – in the same place almost every Sunday. She died and we buried her way back in the mountains of West Virginia, west of Covington, Virginia. I’ll never forget the long and sad processional along the narrow and winding roads, each turn becoming more and more isolated until we finally arrived at one of the most beautiful little cemeteries I’ve ever seen atop a mountain peak, just a few feet below heaven.
II. Today is a day to celebrate and to honor each person with whom we are honored and have been honored to share life with. It is a day of honoring.
Each of the people listed are special. We could tell stories about all of them. In fact, I’ll invite anyone to share one short and simple memory about anyone listed and not yet mentioned – if you would like to – just keep it short please.
These people are special. They are gone but not forgotten. They will forever be a part of our lives. As long as we who knew and loved them are here on this old ball of ground called the earth are alive they will live on, at least in a certain way.
We should continue to remember them. We should continue to tell their stories. We should continue to lift our glasses and have a toast in honor of them.
More than an obligation, this is our privilege.
But, it’s also a day to give thanks and remember all of those whom we have known and who have been a part of the journey of life with us, whether they died this year or last year or the year before or long ago. We give thanks for those who had a powerful presence and witness in our lives and this is one day when we are not only invited to remember the saints but to thank God for them.
It is not possible to live without thinking of them and being grateful for them. Of course they weren’t and we aren’t “saints” in the usual sense of the word. If being a “saint” means being perfect or possessing extra ordinary powers then none of these people or any of us will ever make it into the lexicon. But that’s what I mean by “saints”, nor is what is meant when we refer to “All Saints”. We mean, just ordinary, human folks whom God has blessed us with and who have been a part of our life. Saint making isn’t our accomplishment – it’s by virtue of being a creation of God. They are and we are saints by virtue of being connected in baptism to the holy one, Jesus Christ and to the Holy Spirit.
But saints aren’t perfect. As Martin Luther pointed out, we are simultaneously saints and sinners.
So the saints of God that we remember and give thanks for today include the family member who always manages to rub us the wrong way, the high-maintenance friend who often seems to need more than we can give. It includes the people in the church who sometimes are downright difficult to live with. It includes all of God’s children – those who agree with us and those who don’t. It means that when we find out years after their death that some of those we’ve placed on high pedestals have clay feet, it doesn’t make them seem less saintly but only more human.
All of us less-than-perfect people, living and dead and are part of the communion of saints. In our imperfections we give witness to the lavish love of God, who receives us by grace and knits us all together in one holy church, the body of Christ.
III. But today is more than “just” a time of memory. It is also a day of celebration – a celebration that because of Jesus Christ the saints we have lost this past year have entered into that wonderful kingdom of God called heaven.
Today is certainly a day of memory, but it is so much more than just a time of memory. Even people who have no faith, even people who could care less about the church have great memories of their loved ones. They tell stories, just like we do.
The difference, found in the scripture reading for today is that we believe there is more than just this world. This life, life as we know it, may have ended but because of the great love and sacrifice of Christ we enter into God’s eternal kingdom following our death from this world.
And God’s kingdom is a grand and wonderful place. It is as said, earlier, a beautiful place where there are no tears, no pain, no death, and no anguish.
I can’t really say I have any personal experience of it but I have the faith and trust and confidence in God’s word. John was told “write these words down – for they are trustworthy and true” – and I believe that.
I don’t know what heaven is like exactly but whatever it is like God is there and that is enough for me.
Today, we celebrate that while we lost our loved ones and yes, our world is smaller, they have entered God’s heavenly kingdom and our loss is heaven’s gain.
Without that faith, without that belief my memories would be too empty and too painful.
With faith in God, with our faith in heaven and in God’s ultimate love and care hope can be.
Jesus calls us out by name from death to life and gives us daily a new beginning – that’s what we celebrate for John and Esther and Nick and Marguerite and Peggy and Lucy and Carl and Eleanor and John and Florence and for everyone we have ever lost. Jesus gives us life eternal in a new beginning, too much for us to fully see and understand, except in metaphor and that applies to us as well.
Faith in life eternal. Faith in life beyond this life. Faith in God’s eternal promise and God’s eternal kingdom – this is what we celebrate today.
Closing…
As people of faith we believe that The Lord will come down from heaven, we will be raised, and then we will be with the Lord forever. 1 Thes 4:13-18 We believe that God will raise us up by His power. 1 Cor 6:14 We believe that He will raise our bodies to life through the Spirit of Him who dwells in us. Ro 8:11-13 We will be made alive because of Christ. Jn 11:24-27, 1 Cor 15:20-26
Today is a great day to be reminded and to remind ourselves to be thankful for those with whom we share life in this world, and to celebrate that when life in this world comes to an end – for whatever reason and in whatever circumstances and at whatever age we are ushered into eternal life in God’s abiding presence.
(TO ARCHBISHOP WILLIAMS,
MARCH 11, 1891.)
CLEAR as the sky of early morn
On this thy festal day, With starry gems o’er its vast expanse
Shining in bright array,
Thus be thy memory’s record fair;
Be all life’s clouds dispelled; And only the gems of thy life’s reward
Upon its tablet held.
May this bright, peaceful consciousness
Greatly thy life prolong.
Of a life nobly spent the memory is
Eternal, clear, and strong.
(Songs of the Life Eternal and Other Writings, by Edward R. Knowles, Harvard Class Library)
What is today?
• It is day of remembrance… a day of memory.
• It is a day of lifting up by name, those we have lost and of honoring them.
• And most importantly of all, it is a day of faith and celebration.
1”Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”