This sermon was preached at Glenwood and Canoe Ridge Lutheran Churches, Decorah, Iowa, on November 4, 2018. It’s based on Isaiah 25:6-9, Revelation 21:1-6a, and John 11:32-44. If you’d prefer to listen to it, find it at https://soundcloud.com/stacey-nalean-carlson.
Isaiah 25:6-9
6On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. 7And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; 8he will swallow up death forever. 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. 9It 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.
Revelation 21:1-6a
I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; 4he 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.”
5And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6aThen he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”
John 11:32-44
32When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35Jesus began to weep. 36So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
38Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” 40Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” 41So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Make a feast. Destroy the shroud. Swallow up death forever.
Wipe away the tears. Take away the disgrace. Save us.
Our reading from Isaiah this morning paints a powerful picture of God’s saving work in the world. The Lord of hosts, our God, is determined to save not just a select few, but all people for whom death is an overwhelming reality.
The shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations, God will destroy. God will wipe away the tears from all faces. The disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth. The Lord of hosts will welcome all people to a table filled with rich food and well-aged wine.
This God, who brings about salvation with a word, is intent on saving all creation, intent on saving us, intent on saving you.
Are you hungry today for something more than fast food and a frenetic pace?
Are you scared by the thought of your own mortality? Do you wake up at night panicked by how fast time is passing you by?
Are you grieving for the ones who knew you and loved you so well? The ones you wish you could still pick up the phone and call?
Are your tears falling for the ones who died before you could forgive? Is your grief tinged with regret?
Are you disgraced today? Ashamed? Burdened? Overwhelmed?
God is intent on saving you.
God’s home is with you.
The one who created you, dwells with you. The one who formed you, feeds you. The one who calls you, comforts you. The day is coming when death will be no more. When mourning, and crying, and pain will be no more. Can you see it, even now? Can you believe it, even now?
Just before our assigned gospel reading, earlier in the story, it isn’t Mary but Martha who expresses her sorrow and anger to Jesus: Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.
Grief and belief can stand side by side.
Anger and trust can exist together.
Jesus says to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?
She said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe. But that did not keep her from questioning Jesus when he called for the stone to be taken away from the tomb of her brother. Lord, he has been dead four days.
Death is real and obvious and in your face.
Resurrection is just as real—and far more powerful— but so much of the time it’s harder to see, harder to trust, harder to believe.
If you can’t see it today, it’s okay. Your doubt in the face of such sorrow will not prevent Jesus from acting. Your anger will not prevent Jesus from acting. Your disillusionment will not prevent Jesus from doing what he came to do. Lazarus, come out!
Our God brings about salvation with a word.
Jesus, God’s word made flesh, comes to dwell with us, to make our life—and our death—his own, to call us all out from our tombs of sorrow and suffering, death and despair.
Jesus, God’s word made flesh, is deeply moved by our weeping, by our mourning, by our suffering in the face of death. He doesn’t stop at calling Lazarus out from his tomb. He doesn’t stop at bringing resurrection hope to Mary and Martha. He goes on to the cross. He goes on to his own tomb. He takes on death—once and for all—and God raises him. God raises us all. God swallows up death forever.
Resurrection is real, even now. On this All Saints Sunday, we pray God would help us to see it, to cling to it, to proclaim it. We pray, even, that God would help us become resurrection—become part of the creation of a world where all people know themselves as beloved of God, as saved, as called out from their tombs, unbound and set free to be; a world where death has no power; a world where love wins out over all hatred and fear; a world where all are welcome at the wedding feast, raising their glasses to toast the God who sets a table big
enough for all the world.
This we pray. Amen.