SUNDAY of ALL SAINTS

November 6, 2011

Text: Revelation 7:9-17

Pastor Dale G. Bauer

Two things are for certain: death and taxes. Maybe you’ve heard these eight words before. I know I did when I was growing up.

Taxes are for certain. I’ve paid federal taxes on April 15 for every year of my entire life since my first job at 16. I just got my property tax bill on my house. Whenever I buy almost anything, I pay gross receipts taxes on what I buy. Much of the gridlock in Washington these days is about taxes, who pays them, and whether to raise or lower them. Even the suggestion of a flat tax doesn’t eliminate taxes. About the only people I know who don’t pay taxes are the Greeks, and their government and economy are about to collapse. Romans 13, Scripture, admonishes us to pay taxes.

Death is for certain, too, even though we don’t want to hear about it and in its presence, we euphemize it in hushed tones. When Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, died earlier this month I, like you, saw excerpts from his commencement address at Stanford. He talks about death, after receiving his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, and then what seems like a reprieve (video clip shown).

When I heard his words for the first time, I was taken by his unabashed acknowledgement hat we all do die. Scripture is also cear that we die. In Genesis, the consequence of Adam and Eve’s actions is that they are thrown out of the Garden of Eden and lose their immortality. It is in Romans, again, that we are reminded that the wages of sin is death.

That doesn’t mean we don’t try hard to deny it. I am a Baby Boomer, and we have worked hard and spent a lot of time and money trying to turn back aging and avoiding the inevitable. I once heard a Billy Graham sermon on the denial of death. He pointed out that we try to find words to avoid it. People “pass away,” they don’t “die.” We put them in a “casket” rather than a coffin. People are not “buried” but “put to rest.” And not in a “cemetery” but a “memory garden.” But death, like taxes, is for certain no matter how we try to soft-peddle it.

But there is another certainty for people of faith. It is resurrection. We celebrate it at Easter. We include in our baptismal rite. We confess it in our creedal statements. We proclaim it at funerals and memorial services. It is Jesus himself who says, I am the resurrection and the life. We get images and metaphors of it in the book of Revelation, where God’s people are gathered around the throne of God.

It is a word we use often in our lives of faith, and it has a very specific meaning. If you read the Bible in the language it was written in, Greek, you find the word we translate as resurrection, anastasis. It simply means, “again, standing up.” It is dramatic: death puts us down, literally. It is Christ Jesus who himself was “again standing up” who promises all the faithful to be “again standing up.” That’s the power of these words:

... there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and people and languages, standing before the throne and before the lamb. (Revelation 7:9)

Today we honor the saints of the church. In our creeds, it is called the Communion of Saints. These are the people who have lived and died, and are living, and one day shall live in the love of God in Christ Jesus. They all have the promise of resurrection. Today we affirm the life and work of all God’s saints and we affirm the promise of resurrection.

Philip de Neri, a sixteenth-century Italian mystic and priest, was one day crossing the campus at a university. He struck up a conversation with a student studying law. When you complete your course, Philip asked, What then do you plan to do? Why, the student replied, I shall seek to build a wide reputation. And then? Philip asked. The student answered, I shall seek promotion to high office, earn money, and become rich. And then? asked Philip. I hope to settle down and live in comfort, wealth, and dignity. And then? asked Philip. And then? And then? The student stammered, I suppose I shall die. And with passion in his voice, Philip asked, And what then?

The student made no answer and turned away.

And then? The Communion of Saints will be again standing up, as certainly as death and taxes.

Amen.