"All Alive, Most Sincerely Alive" - Sermon for All Saints Sunday 2015

Sermon:

Text:

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who calls to us.

         One of my favorite movies is The Princess Bride, in it the hero Wesley tries to save his true love, Princess Buttercup from the evil prince of the land, Prince Humperdinck. But, in trying to do so Wesley is captured and attached to a large machine that “sucks” all of his life away. His friends rescue his body and as their only hope bring him to Miracle Max, who tells them they’re in luck, “It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do.

What's that?

Miracle Max: Go through his clothes and look for loose change.

         Now, in our lesson for today Lazarus is all dead. Totes deceased. Kicking up the daisies. As Martha says, “It’s been four days, he stinks.” She has sent word well in advance hoping that Jesus would come, but he didn’t. He stayed two days longer where he was, and then started the trip to Bethany. And when he arrives at the beginning of our lesson, Martha falls at his feet saying, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

         But, he did. He’s dead. The four days in our text, is not some random day, after four days Jewish Tradition has it that the person is definitely dead, no sleeping, no fake death, dead, dead, dead. In the words of the Coroner from Wizard of Oz talking about the squished Wicked Witch of the West, “And she's not only merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead.” Lazarus is all dead, most sincerely dead.

         And Jesus still has them open the tomb, and even though they all protest, He stinks! It’s been four days! They do what Jesus tells them to do. They take away the stone from in front of the tomb.

         Jesus prays and calls out, Lazarus, come out! And he comes out. His hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped. Unbind him and let him go.

This is a text of pure grace.

         Lazarus doesn't do anything. All that happens is Christ arrives, loves them all, and calls Lazarus’ name.

         He is deader than dead, he stinks, he’s wrapped, and Christ calls to him. And he is raised. That is grace, when we are deader than dead, and Christ calls to us, we too are raised.

         Theologian Robert Capon said the only requirement for resurrection is to be dead. That we don’t have to worry about all the other things in life. Things that make us stink. If it’s the wrongs we’ve done to others, the sins we commit everyday. Those are the things that linger on us, that stink, that smell, that offend others.

         Or is it the things that bind us, our self-doubts, our fears, our anxiety. All the things that hold us back, that keep us from being who God has created us to be.

         God calls to us, and says, those things will not last. God will wipe our tears, mourning and crying and pain will be no more.

         All the things that oppress you will not last.

What will last is Christ’s call of your name. The name that was called in Baptism, as it was this Wednesday as I baptized a college student at the Luther Center, Madi, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Madi, child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever. In that same way Christ calls our names.

         I want you to take a second to share your name with the person on your right, and also to hear the name of the person on your left. Together we are now going to say the others name. one, two, three, Dawn.  Now, share with the person on your left. And again, one two three, Paul.

         Each moment, Christ is calling your name, Christ is calling all of our names. At times it is simply a comforting feeling, at others it is a call that saves us. Because, even if our world is not currently ending, the world is ending everyday for someone.

At the Luther Center on Wednesday Shadoe, the Interim Campus Minister, shared a story from Tibet. A woman had just lost her husband and was forlorn, her world was ending. She went to the wise man and told him about it. He said, take a bowl and go around town and have those that have never experienced death put rice into it for you. A week goes by and she returns, the wise man stops her and says, turn your bowl up side down, and when she does not a grain falls out.

         We’ve all experienced loss, we’ve all experienced grief, at times all of our worlds have seemed to end, we’ve stunk, we’ve been bound, and Christ still calls our name. At times it is simply a comforting feeling, at others it is a call that saves us. Because, even if our world is not currently ending, the world is ending everyday for someone. And everyday Christ calls our name, meeting us in the moment of that pain and grief.

         That is what today is about, All Saints Day. When celebrate and give thanks for the lives of those who Christ has called, who no longer live in this world, but instead live in the next. Christ has called their names. And we also give thanks for those whose name has been called in baptism this year, one with us as the saints still on earth, who have been washed clean and heard their name called.

Because when Christ calls our name, we are no longer dead, we are alive, and we are not just mostly alive, we are all alive, we are most sincerely alive, we are eternally alive through Christ our Lord.

Amen.