A Second Chance

Sermon John 11:32-44  November 1, 2015 All Saints Day

A Second Chance

Today is November 1, 2015.

We have started a new month and in two months this year of 2015 will come to an end. The next year will begin and we will be on to the next year of beginnings.

We go from day to day, month to month, year to year, around and around, cycle after cycle, season after season.

Our lives move from one beginning to one end and then another. In this cycle of beginnings and endings we witness the joys of birth and experience the sufferings of loss. The church calendar acknowledges all our beginnings and endings with celebrations throughout the year in the same we experience the life. All Saints Day is an important day for the church to celebrate.

It allows each of us to come together in unity and rejoice in the lives of those we have loved and lost and yet continue to remember. It helps us as the church to know that the beginnings and endings of those precious to us remain with us in ways that mold us from day to day.

We recognize the importance of the cycle of life so much so that it has even appeared in movies for children such as the Disney movie the Lion King where the song Circle of Life was introduced:

From the day we arrive on the planet
And blinking, step into the sun
There's more to see than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done

There's far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found
But the sun rolling high
Through the sapphire sky
Keeps great and small on the endless round

It's the Circle of Life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love

Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle
The Circle of Life.

Perhaps this song was a hit because of the music that Elton John composed to make it popular or perhaps the words ring true for all of us we hear them again. Our lives form a circle, a cycle that moves through our time here on earth and into our time in heaven.

So on this day of remembering the people we have loved and lost, we honor their memories. We do this not reopen wounds or stir up long settled grief. But, we do this because grief is a human experience. We name the elephant in the room. We take hold of grief and allow it to happen here in this sanctuary. And while grief is something we have lived through alone and in loneliness, here in the church we join together in the solidarity of our experiences, our memories, and our unity with Christ. We have a second chance and a third and fourth, from year to year to join in the unity of remembrance.

Here in the gospel lesson from John, Jesus enters the place where his friend Lazarus has died. We witness the raw suffering of one who has learned about the death of a dear friend. Jesus who has walked among so much pain and disease and hunger now breaks down and weeps at the tomb of his friend. Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah has entered into the human experience of suffering. Jesus, God with us, has come to the moment of loss and personal grief.

It is deeply personal.

And in this moment we too enter in with Jesus.

In this moment we enter the fullness of God with us as we witness Jesus among the people who are mourning.

He is there with Mary and Martha as they struggle to understand why Jesus was absent when they needed him.

He is there with the crowd as they struggle to come to grips with life without Lazarus.

He is there feeling as helpless as they do in their grief.

He has truly been with us in all of our moments for he too has experienced them.

SO, Jesus, in the depth of grief, cries out to Lazarus to come out. Jesus cries out to claim that even in this life God has the final word.

Even here on earth God has victory over death.

Jesus calls Lazarus out to remind us as we remember those long gone that God has claimed them and God has called them out.

And in the cycle of the church we call them out year after year to remember them as the saints of God. We call them out in the sacred space of the sanctuary of God.

Their lives are holy and our hearts renewed.

I was watching a clip from a PBS awards celebration where Fred Rogers was being honored for his years of service to public television. Many people came out to honor him and to share the joy of his gift through the show Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. Fred Rogers responds to the crowd who has paid him homage with a speech about his service in the television industry. He invites the crowd to think about the future and how they can make an impact in the television in the age to come.

“How do we make goodness attractive?” He asks.

“By doing whatever we can to bring courage to those whose lives move near our own. By treating our neighbor at least as well as we treat ourselves and allowing that to inform everything we produce.

Who in your life has been such a servant to you?

Who has helped you love the good that grows within you?

Take ten seconds to remember those people who have loved us and wanted what was best for us in life.

Those who have encouraged us to become who we are now.

No matter where they are either here on earth or in heaven, imagine how pleased those people must be to know that you thought of them right now.”

We have this day to remember the One, Jesus, who is with us always.

Imagine how pleased he is to know we have thought of him.

And as we gather at the Table of our Lord we remember and we rejoice in the power of the resurrection and the power and wonder of the gift of life as we cycle and circle through from this life to the next. Amen.