All Saints' Sunday

November 4, 2018

Have you ever had anything brand new?  So you know that awesome feeling, right?

Sitting on your brand new couch that doesn’t sag...

Watching a movie on your brand new tv with a crystal clear sharp picture...

Driving that brand new car without all the squeaks rattles...

Powering up your brand new computer and watching it process at lightning fast speeds...

Or my favorite, pealing the plastic of that brand new iPhone....

Or even that new relationship...you just know it’s forever....

But, then after some time...

That couch starts to sag

That TV starts to give a fuzzy picture

That car starts to squeak and rattle

That computer slows

That iPhone was all too quickly replaced with a newer model

And that boy or girl of your dreams quickly becomes what nightmares are truly made of....

That’s just how it goes, right?  Luckily for us these are all ordinarily disposable or replaceable things.  We don’t plan on having the same iPhone, computer or car forever.

But what about the things that aren’t replaceable?  There’s only one I can think of...and that’s life.  Life as in my life and your life, and the life of this planet we call home.  Sure we can “create” and “extinguish” life, but try as we might, when my or your life comes to an end, there will be no changing that or bringing us back.

There are two perspectives on death.  We talked last week about the first person...knowing death is closing in on you personally.  I don’t know this perspective.  I know we’re all “dying” as it were, but let’s face it...barring anything catastrophic, I am planning on getting another 50 years out of this body; and with that, the perspective I can see at this point is a fistful of should have’s.  For everybody under about 28 years old, listen up.  Whether you know it or not, your bodies are new.  And like that new car, new computer or new phone, ENJOY the newness.  When I graduated high school there was this columnist who wrote this commencement speech that was then turned into a song that we know as the “sunscreen song”.  Know what I’m talking about?  It dispenses quips of advise to this younger (just graduating) generation, beginning with the importance of wearing sunscreen.  At 18 years old, it went right over my head because I was invincible.  But, now, 20 years later, I wish I would have worn sunscreen, I wish I hadn’t messed with my hair so much, I wish I had been kinder to my knees and I wish I had taken the advise of my elders...because now I’m left with funny looking freckles on my shoulders and knees that pop and grind...and let’s not even talk about getting up out of the floor....

I think we are having the same should haves with our planet too...I can remember as a kid, on morning TV, seeing shots of Los Angeles rush hour and the smog that engulfed the city.  In our later years we have seen the error of our ways, and have put in place regulations and limitations...trying to make our planet, our home last longer.  Anti-littering campaigns also became popular in the 80’s.  We realized that the life of this planet was as fragile as our own lives...but still, knowing this, we continue to fall short.  We continue to pollute our bodies just as we continue to pollute our planet.  To recall the song I just spoke of...we continue not to wear sunscreen.

So with all this gloom and doom and aging and wearing out of not only our bodies but also our home, and the just downright scary nature of death itself...where does that leave us?  Well, for those of us that profess faith, we are left with hope.  Christian hope, to use the term theologians have coined. 

We know that the day we professed faith and accepted Christ as Lord, our eternal lives began in that instance.  And while our bodies may break down until one day they eventually collapse, we have something better waiting on us.  A new body.  A body that won’t have achy knees, or high blood pressure, or diabetes, or any of that.  My new body won’t need a myriad of metal hardware to keep my chest cavity open...which means I’ll be able to breathe without pain and I won’t be able to feel the rain coming.  And when we get there, in this Christian Hope, we will be in a new Heaven and a new Earth, just as it was shown to John in the Revelation, and all things will be new.  And we have this hope because of Christ’s victory over sin and death...

New bodies, a new home...in what we as United Methodists refer to as Church Triumphant...reunited with the saints who have gone on before us.

What a glorious homecoming that will be, because of the many who have gone before us.  So today, on this All Saint’s Sunday, we take a moment, and we think about the saints who hold meaning in our lives.  The saints who raised us, who took us in when we were a mess, the saints who passed no judgement on us.  The saints who showed us love.  The saints we miss.  The saints who left too soon.  The saints that, without them, we wouldn’t be sitting here today.  Maybe it’s your mom, or your dad.  Maybe it’s a spouse, or a child.  Maybe it’s a friend, taken too soon.  

O blest communion, fellowship diving!  We feebly struggle but they in glory shine!  Yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.  Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.