All Saint's Sermon

If you have already read this post, read again. I edited it because I noticed that last part of my sermon was missing. woops. sorry!!

So I was asked to preach this past Sunday at church because it was All Saint's Day. For those of you who don't know what All Saint's Day is it is always the day after Halloween and it is when the Christian church remembers all those who have passed. Anyway I thought I would post my sermon here for those of you who were not able to hear it. The lessons for the day were Isaiah 25: 6-9, Revelation 21:1-6a and the Gospel Reading was John 11:32-44

The Sermon

This is the day the Lord has made!
Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Rejoice? Hmm is that really something we feel like doing today. Maybe you do. Maybe you feel like rejoicing and remembering those who have passed. But maybe you don’t. Maybe today is a day that you feel sad, angry or alone. What we just said together is something that I say every morning with my son Raider. It all began the night my husband Ben was diagnosed with cancer. This was probably the worst night of my entire life and looking back on it worse than even the night he died. We went and sat in the dark sanctuary at our church and prayed. I couldn’t stay focused on anything because a song was playing over and over in my head. So as we were praying I began to sing, this is the day; this is the day that the Lord has made... When I was done Ben said to me, Sing that to me every day and don’t let me forget to rejoice in the days that I have. So that is what I did and have continued to do each day. Even when rejoicing was the last thing I wanted to do. And in all honesty even though I sang those words I did not rejoice and was not glad in it, but at least I could pretend.

So how is it that we rejoice in the day that the Lord has made when it seems to be the worst day ever. In the Gospel today Mary sure wasn’t rejoicing. Instead she was angry with Jesus. She says to him “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” She is pretty angry with him for not being present. Isn’t that how we often feel when bad things happen. Angry with God because he is not near and because of this must not care for us.

But when you continue reading you see that next it says, “When Jesus saw her weeping…he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.” We have a tendency to blame God for everything that is painful in life and believe that he doesn’t care. Isn’t it comforting to know that we do not have a distant God who just sits back watching us suffer in pain, but instead have a God who hears us crying and is greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He experiences the pain and suffering alongside us.

So the gospel says that when Jesus learned about Mary’s grief Jesus was moved. Well what was he moved to do. Well we find out in verse 35. This verse has always been one of my favorite verses and I tried to use it for my confirmation verse but my pastor wouldn’t allow it, he said it was too short. The verse is this “Jesus wept”.

This is what Jesus was first moved to do through compassion and love for Mary. He weeps with her and this is what he does with you. Jesus weeps and cries out with you in all your pain and sorrow. This verse shows us how human Jesus was and that he understands our pain and is there with us. He knows that the death of Lazarus has brought sadness and pain and he cries out. He also knows that he must do more than just weep.

Jesus sat with Mary and cried and then he did more. Instead of just staying in the pain and sadness he gets up and goes. He goes to the tomb and restores the life of Lazarus. He restores Mary’s heart, He restores her faith and he shows the world that God is with them in their pain and He is the source of all restoration.

Jesus came to earth to be with you, to share in your joys and sorrows, to walk the road that you walk and then he died so that you could experience true communion with Him. He died so that you could know the Father’s love. He died to give you an everlasting hope. He died to restore your life. He comes and he weeps with you and then he does more by dying on the cross to bring you life.

Life here on earth is full of many joys each day to rejoice in but it is also full of many sorrows and sometimes those sorrows seem to overshadow any joy that we may have. But God promises to take those sorrows and turn them into joy. I’ve been listening to this song a lot lately and part of the lyrics go, “when all seems lost and we are thrown and we’re tossed, we remember the cost; we’re resting in the shadow of the cross. Some days that is all you can do. Just sit at the foot of the cross weeping. But as you sit there you remember all that the cross is and all that happened there. Your weeping is turned into joy.

The cross is our perfect example of how God takes our sorrow and turns it into joy. I believe the worst day in the history of the world was the day that God died on the cross. All hope was lost and I can only imagine the feelings of sorrow, anger and loneliness felt by those who were there, but three days later we have Easter. Our sorrows on Good Friday are turned into joy on Easter and God continues to do this everyday. He restores the broken and makes it new. God never leaves anything as is. God does not let you stay in your tears, No he does more he restores your life and will bring you a reason to rejoice in the day that the Lord has made.

I am going to leave you with something that was left on my blog the day that Ben died and has stuck with me ever since. “The sting of death still packs a lot of power. But God promises a time when all of the tears will be wiped away and death will be no more. There is hope even in the midst of grief. Jesus Christ is with you, holding you up when you can't stand.”