preached by Rev Greg Wooley in Osoyoos on October 27 and Oliver on November 3.
On this morning when we
consider the lives of the faithful departed – those whose lives are known by
many, and those who are less well known but personally touched our lives – we’ve
heard two powerful readings from scripture.
Each of these is both intimately personal, and consequential on a global
scale, reminding us that the same God whose glory infuses all of creation is
also filled with love for each being, intimately and personally.
Both readings use the
beautiful image of God wiping away all tears, Mama God reaching in with
tenderness, whether the tears are from sadness, loss, grief, uncertainty, anguish,
or even embarrassment or shame. Both
readings also speak of God’s powerful, decisive actions to make things new,
pictured in the book of Revelation as a new heaven and a new earth and by the
prophet Isaiah as a holy banquet on mountainside where death itself is
defeated. That interweaving of God’s compassionate
concern for our personal pain, and God’s redemptive actions for all creation, is
well-placed on this day when we think of the devout whose faith has shaped our
faith.
Our two readings today, while
presented in dreamlike, seemingly futuristic language, were both written to
specific communities in tumultuous times, who needed hope right then. Isaiah 25
was most likely written in a time just before the Babylonian exile, when it was
clear that Israel would be overrun and the people sent away. Amidst this pending expulsion Isaiah lifts up
God’s desire for wholeness by presenting an image of a lavish banquet where all
have come together. The of the Book of
Revelation, meanwhile, was writing directly and specifically to early Christian
communities, and for them lifted up God’s desire for wholeness, promising that
the hardships they were facing were known to God and were being confronted by
God. And while these readings were
addressed to specific communities in a given time and place, my belief is that
they speak to our day as well.
That’s a lot to take in all
at once! So I want to unpack things a
bit, in these readings which present both God’s intimacy and God’s engagement
with the world’s brokenness, by considering the image of God wiping away all
tears from the eyes of those who suffer.
Shannon and I are still really
new here – this is only our ninth Sunday with you. With that being the case, you’ve not yet
heard much of our backstory, but one part of my story shapes how I hear these
readings. In the year 2010, the family of four I grew up in was still
intact. My Dad had been in dementia care
for a couple of years, but Mom was still in our family home in Regina and my
only brother, eleven years older than me, lived nearby. But then in September of 2010, Dad died, and
four years later, in 2014 Mom died in February and my brother died three months
later - and our family of four dwindled to one – just me. November is a month filled with family
birthdays, anniversaries and bittersweet milestones, so the absence of my
parents and brother are very present to me at this time of year.
When I hear the words, then,
promising that “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” I hear those
words personally and can attest to their truth.
I have experienced divine love when sadness and worry and uncertainty
and grief pay uninvited and unexpected visits.
Through the direct experience of God’s love, and through the thoughtful
support and kindness of family and friends, neighbours and parishioners, I have
experienced holy hands and hearts bringing me comfort. And when I think of others who are carrying the
burdens of chronic illness or grief, or if I imagine people in this world today
whose general, ongoing life circumstances are truly horrific, it renews my
faith to know that God’s love reaches to them, as God has done to me. God moves
in with words and actions of love, for all who suffer.
The readings from Isaiah and
Revelation recognize that in addition to the hard times we go through in our
personal lives, there are massive things afoot at a global, even cosmic scale. Much
human suffering is caused by injustice, by the inequitable distribution of
wealth and influence, by rivalries and bigotry and nationalism and a lack of
concern for the planet on which we live.
The selfish, ego-driven ways with which we humans inhabit this planet are
180 degrees removed from the ways of wholeness and balance intended by God. And both Isaiah and Revelation draw a picture
of a newly constructed world where God’s glorious balance rules the day, where
the needs of those who have struggled their whole lives are attentively met,
where the stain of human ridiculousness has been scrubbed clean.
Both of these readings may
seem so idyllic in their portraits of a new reality that they suggest an escape
from earth, distracting us from the present with pie-in-the-sky promises of a
heavenly future. But I can tell you from the summer ministry internship that
Shannon and I spent in the Philippines back in 1987, that the farmers and
factory workers and fisherfolk that we met recognized the transformative power
of Christ as tangible, forceful, and daily.
For some, yes, it was mostly the hope of heaven that kept them going,
but for others, the struggle against the forces that made life hard for them
and their communities that moment was the core of their faith in God. When we returned to Vancouver after the
internship we did about thirty customized presentations in worship services and
fellowship halls and Church basements, and we would often end our presentations
with an image and quote from Isaiah 65, very similar to today’s reading:
“’They will do no evil or harm in all My holy
mountain’, says the Lord.”
When scripture speaks of such
a drastic new way, new realm, new world, it’s only natural that it would evoke
anxiety amongst even the most casual reader of scripture. I’d like to present you, though, with a
somewhat different way to approach the word “new”. Lutheran Pastor and online
Bible commentator Brian Stoffregen writes that the words in Revelation 21 about
a new heaven and new earth use the same word for NEW that is used when Jesus
talks about a “new” commandment that he is giving, which is in reality an old
commandment used with new vitality. Sometimes new means brand-new but it can also
mean “renewed”. To illustrate, Brian
uses this analogy: “we watch a lot of home remodeling shows, when an old house
with many problems goes through a make-over. The rotten wood and bad wiring are
replaced. Faded rooms are repainted. Old appliances, furnace, and air
conditioner are replaced with more efficient ones, etc. The old is transformed
into something new, while retaining much of the old structure”. And then he continues, “Once all of the
rotten and evil is removed from earth and heaven, they will become something
new and different from what they had been…. The new is not something entirely
different from what was old”, not demolished but rather totally renewed,
rebuilt according to God’s initial plan.
When dealing with apocalyptic
writings like the book of Revelation, in addition to this knowledge that God’s
goal may well be complete renewal, not violent destruction, I find it helpful
to focus on the who and the why rather than the what and the when. The details of this new heaven and new earth
– the what and when and where and how this new creation will supposedly happen,
have no choice but to stress us out; but the who and the why
behind this new reality are well known to us: our beloved God is the who, and
God’s transformative love is the why. Things
as they are, are broken, as life is horribly challenging for some and laughably
easy for others. That imbalance is not
God’s intent for life and the risen Christ calls us to open ourselves to the
interior reno work that can help our lives express God’s desire that all God’s
beloved children can experience life in all abundance.
Revelation and Isaiah give us
two sets of love-infused promises: promises of a world renewed, creatively crafted
by God to harbour justice and peace. And
within that global agenda is the nurturing God, caring, loving, wiping away the
tears from the eyes of those who have been crying for any reason at all. These may seem like very separate agendas,
but on this All Saints Sunday I wish to bring forward something that helps us
integrate them.
Over my years of ministry, I
have been blessed by the lives of the devout, whose actions for a better world
have been coupled with a sturdy faith. In
today’s prayers, we will bring such people to mind, and I’d like to give the
final word in today’s sermon to a woman whose scholarship, wisdom and grounded
faith have been a blessing to a lot of people for a long time.
Some of you will be familiar
with Fr. Richard Rohr and the Centre for Action and Contemplation. One of the
leaders there has been Dr. Barbara Holmes.
Barbara died last week, and her obituary notice contained a link to an
online sermon she preached four years ago.
In her own words, here is how she combined her connection with the God
who wipes away every tear from our eyes, with her understanding of the earth-shaking
cosmic nature of the Holy:
“I,
for one – and I think we each have to work this out for ourselves – I trust the
promises of the Divine One when he says, ‘Remember, I am with you always, even
to the end of the age. Well, the end of the age I am speaking of is a personal,
as well as geophysical reality, for each of us faces the ending of a world as
we complete our earthly journeys, one by one.
“Death,
for me, is only frightening when we imagine our lives as a dash between the
birth date and the death date. That’s
something to be concerned about, if that’s all it is. But if we’re one with all of creation – if
our bodily systems include stars long gone, the breath of God, tiny
interconnecting particles of energy – if we are embodied universes, then all
will be well when the journey is complete.” To me, that speaks of the Saints – and of the
God who comforts us when our souls ache – and the vision of a world transformed”.
With thanks to Barbara Holmes
for her faith, with thanks for the saints in your lives and the influence you
have made in the lives of others: may God’s big actions of a world enlivened
and renewed, God’s personal love for you, and the lives of the faithful
departed who went before us, shape our lives with hope and purpose, as
individuals and as Church. Thanks be to
God, Amen.
References consulted or
cited:
Erickson, Amy. https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/all-saints-day/commentary-on-isaiah-256-9-2
Holmes, Barbara. ”Death is
not the final word.” A Sermon/Presentation from 2021. https://youtu.be/mW9UkBv7eT0?si=eszHHbS3w1-kI-ej
Peterson, Eugene. Reversed
Thunder. NYC: Harper, 1990.
Stoffregen, Brian. https://mailchi.mp/c23c35b9ed58/gospel-notes-revelation-211-6?e=ac0c055952
Thiessen, Heather Anne. https://hermeneutrix.com/2024/10/15/studying-isaiah-25-1-10/
© 2024 Rev Greg Wooley,
Osoyoos-Oliver United Church Pastoral Charge
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