A, Commemoration of All Saints - 1 John 3:1-3 "It is Finished"

1 John 3:1–3 (ESV) See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.  And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

“It is finish!” That is the cry of Jesus on the cross!  It is the joyful confession of those who have gone before us and are now worshipping around the throne of God outside of time!  It is finished!  What is finished?

When something is finished, it implies that at one time it began, it endured, and ended.  When something is finished it also implies something new has begun.

Not so much today, but in past times, there was an institution known as a “finishing school”.  It was a place where well to do families sent their daughters to become ladies.  Grooming and deportment of young girls prepared them to hold themselves appropriately within the social circles they were expected to mix.

One can imagine there would be an opportunity for comedy to occur in seeking to finish a rough diamond of a girl into a prim and proper lady.  Plays and movies like “My Fair Lady, Nanny McPhee, Bridget Jones’s Diary, The Sound of Music, and Pretty Woman, all are stories about such “rough diamonds” being polished with all the drama and comedy one would expect with the transition of a person from one lifestyle to another.

With much drama and comedy, God seeks to finish us as his children.  In fact, the creation in which we live, the bodies in which we breathe, and the society in which we seek to survive, is God’s finishing school.

Like the movies our lives don’t always follow a simple, rags to riches script!  There are many setbacks and deviations in our stories.  Some are God directed, some are from our own misdirection, and then some come about from the deception of others.

The movie, My Fair Lady, is one such movie!  Actress, Audrey Hepburn, plays a poor Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, who becomes the centre of a wager by Professor Henry Higgins, that he could make her “well to do” and pass her off as a duchess at an embassy ball.

Most known for the phrase made popular by the movie, “the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain!” Eliza practises these words to polish her speech!  And there is comedy when she relapses back to her Cockney ways amongst the dignitary at Ascott racecourse, as she inappropriately calls out, “Come-on Dover, move your bloomin’ a_ _ _ (hind quarters)!”   Eliza proves not to be completely finished, as Higgins had hoped her to be!

This movie comes from a play called Pygmalion.  One can understand, looking at the name, why they changed the name to My Fair Lady.  Similar to the story of Pinocchio, Pygmalion in Greek mythology is where a sculptor falls in love with the female ivory sculpture he has finished, in rejection of the young female prostitutes around him.

We are in God’s finishing school!  He seeks to put to death the deeds of our old sinful nature.  This is an all of “this life” project!  In fact, this life is not really life, rather it is the prelude to the life that God originally intended for us and gives us after the resurrection.

In reality this life is not life, but death!  Where the world puts their trust in this life with the hopeless reality of death to come, those who believe and trust Jesus Christ, exist in this finishing school, having the old self killed off, and finished, waiting patiently in hope of the life to come.  This is life with Jesus Christ, the Almighty Father, the Holy Spirit, the angels, archangels, and the whole company of heaven.

St John sees the whole company of heaven in his revelation as one of the elders tells John just who the company is, clothed in white robes…

 “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.  They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.  For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:14–17 ESV)

Those who have gone before us, who are in Christ, spur us on!  They urge you on, in the knowledge that they are with Jesus by no effort of their own, but by the great love of our Father in heaven!  They have finished and have been finished in Jesus Christ alone!

When were they finished?  They were finished in baptism, they were finished when Jesus cried out from the cross, “It is finished!”, bowed his head and died.  Their finishing became an unhidden reality in Jesus’ resurrection, in their resurrection, in the resurrection when this life bound by time is finished!

Yet, here we are, still in this existence we call “life”!  But it is a penultimate or second last life!  It is the night before the sun rises on the new eternal day!

It might appear that we are not quite finished!  Like Eliza we fall back into the old ways of our old Adam!  We become sculptors of ourselves, taking the tools out of God’s hands, only to fall in love with the self, or despair of what we cannot create!  What becomes apparent is we cannot finish ourselves!  Or we exist knowing our finish is a sham, trying to fool others, but only fooling the foolish self within!

But despite not being finished in this world, we, like those who have finished their earthly time, are finished too!  How can that be when it seems God has not finished finishing us for eternity?

God has given us the finishing requirement for eternity, and life with him, in our baptism!  When Jesus cried out, “It is finished!”, on the cross, “and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:30), he gave up his spirit for you, and me!

Jesus was the perfect sculpture of humanity, incarnate, created, in Mary.  Sent in love by God the Father, who loves you so much, he sent his only beloved Son, so that “right now” we are God’s children, God’s beloved children, even though we only see it through faith in God’s word of promise.

Hear again the promise, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.  And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”  (1 John 3:1–3 ESV)

God is no Pygmalion!  He did not keep his Son for himself but sent his beloved Son to conquer death and finish death, for you, his beloved.  Today we remember those who have conquered death in their baptismal death and have now victoriously been raised from the second death.  Let your remembrance of these perfected saints in Christ, spur you on in this earthly finishing school, and heavenly hope in eternal life after resurrection!

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.  In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”  (Hebrews 12:1–4 ESV)

But if you are required to shed you blood, praise God!  He who has been finishing you through the blessedness of repentance and forgiveness of sin is about to welcome you into his eternal presence!

Blessed are the finished, blessed are those being finished, and blessed are those who will be finished, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, they are the children of God.  Amen. 

C, Commemoration of All Saints - Rev 14:12-13, Lk 6:20-26, Eph 1:11-14 "When Death Looms Large"

During times like today, the celebration of All Saints, or when attending a funeral, one’s thinking about life and death is heightened.

At this time all peripheral issues are moved off the table.  We think about our loss, and we ask ourselves, “What has become of our dearly departed loved one?”

This can be a time of great grief and great joy, all mixed together into one.  Sadness and loss blended with remembrance and joy! 

Amongst the confusion of emotion, questions of, “Why?  How?  Where?  What?” all sit unanswered as the reality of life and death looms large, pushing all other things off the agenda.

At some point during our search for answers to questions about life and death we ponder our own mortal reality, the hidden reality of the future.  What will happen to me?  What will my death look like?

This reality bears too much for some to consider.  The inability to control one’s future reality, sends them scurrying back into their peripheral world, away from what they cannot control. 

Are you one of those who hides in the busyness of day-to-day distractions, controlling things and others, working so you don’t think about your mortality?  Busying yourself, trying to forget you’re just a mere blip in a sea of eternal something?  

When life and death issues loom large in the face of one’s transience, one’s transitory human state, some are led to ponder things transcendent, spiritual, and the like.  Knowing control is not an option once death arrives, some turn to the greatness of someone or something else. 

Within Christendom, that someone or something else is the Lord Jesus Christ.  Sent by God the Father, he entered humanity’s culture of death—your blip, your reality, your uncontrollable deadly state—to bring an eternity of light and life.   

Have you ever found yourself asking, “Will I go to heaven?  Is there really a heaven and a hell?  Is God real?  Is Jesus the Son of God or is he just a person who claimed to be ‘the Son of God’?  Should I take back control and turn away from God’s promises?  That is, if God is real, and, if his promises are really true?”

For some, the transcendence of God’s love, seems too much for them, since the mere blip of their transient reality seems too small, unimportant, or dark, for God to shine the greatness of his love on them.

All at some time struggle with some sort of thoughts and feelings like these. 

As God’s children we should expect this kind of testing.   Why?  Because we are told to expect all sorts of trials and tribulations that tempt us as they did Jesus.

In fact, Jesus told his disciples, and he says to you,   “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.  “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.  “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!  Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.”   (Luke 6:20–23 ESV)

But with this Jesus also warns his disciples and us who chase after peripheral things and not the kingdom of God, saying, “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.  “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.  “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”  (Luke 6:24–26 ESV)

So, hearing the blessings and woes, one is tempted to use their own knowledge to decide where they stand, “blessed or cursed”.  But Jesus spoke the beatitudes and the woes for a greater purpose.  He seeks to propel you to the cross, to his cross, to your cross of death, to not only seek his kingdom and his righteousness, but to believe it and receive it too.

In seeing one’s good name, laughter, fullness, and richness, one will also see the reality of one’s poverty, hunger, tears, and rejection.   A knowledge of one’s blessings and curses, goods and evil, must give way to seeking a knowledge of Jesus Christ, if we are to have any hope of going to heaven. 

With his word, Jesus leads us from a knowledge of ourselves to a knowledge of himself, exchanging our cross of death and destruction, with his cross of death and resurrection.

As we ponder our brief transient life here on earth, in the reality of God’s transcendence over all things, God calls us to endure.  But not to endure in the temporary peripheral things of death.  Rather, he sends the Holy Spirit to lead us to his eternal word and revive us in what he promises us in it. 

John relates to us in Revelation what God’s will is for us, saying, “Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.  And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labours, for their deeds follow them!” (Revelation 14:12–13 ESV alt) 

Here there is a “yes” from the Holy Spirit who concurs, that dying to the self, and resting in Jesus’ faithfulness, is the best good work which he produces within.

Paul also calls the Ephesians, and us, to see that our destination is a preordained inheritance sealed by the Holy Spirit, who leads us to hope in Jesus.  Saying… 

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,  so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.  In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,  who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.  (Ephesians 1:11–23 ESV)

At times when death looms large, let the Holy Spirit lead you to hear the word of truth.  Let the Holy Spirit clear all the peripheral issues off the table and impress on you the guarantee of your inheritance with all who have been hallowed, with all the saints.  Amen. 

B, All Saints - Revelation 21:1-6a "Temporary Tears"

One cannot help but notice in the readings today the mentioning of tears. In Isaiah 25 we're told, "The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth." (Isaiah 25:8)

Then in Revelation 21 the same is said, "He will wipe every tear from their eyes." And in the Gospel of John we hear of many mourning over the death of Jesus' friend Lazarus. "When Jesus saw her (Mary) weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 'Where have you laid him?' he asked. 'Come and see, Lord,' they replied. Jesus wept." (John 11:33-35)

Our tears, other people's tears, and Jesus' tears! Tears are caused by hardship. Tears of deep sadness, tears from pain, tears of torment, tears of relief — tears come as a result of the turmoil we face on this earth.

Jesus was not immune from the tears we shed. He too cried. Jesus cried here at Lazarus' death, he cried over Jerusalem as he marched into the city on Palm Sunday, and he shed bitter tears as he prayed and placed himself under the submission of God's will just prior to his crucifixion in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Also contrary to Christmas Carol tradition, Jesus as an infant would have cried as he experienced the ebbs and flows of human behaviour.

The human ability to shed tears is so common in our lives. Even the most hardened individual knows what it is to shed tears. And even more, we all experience the emotions which undergird and cause tears to well in our eyes.

Tears come as release allowing restoration to occur. When one holds back tears they usually do so to the detriment of their own health. It is healthy to cry even if the situation which causes us to break down is far from healthy. A big cry, as painful as it might be, is good for the soul.

Tears reveal our weakness. Perhaps this is why men try to suck up their tears. A person's tears also reveal weakness in others too. Children learn very quickly how to "turn on the tears" to get what they want from mum and dad; especially when in public.

Jesus' tears were human tears too. He was weak, his human flesh suffered, but not as a result of what he did. Jesus bore the frailty of human weakness, yet he did not succumb to the weakness he bore. Jesus' tears came as a result of our weak will against sin. He suffered seeing what sin does to us in our weakness.

Our weakness moved Jesus to take the toughest stand one could take against our weakness. And surprisingly this was to become our weakness on the cross. Our tears became Jesus' tears. Where one would expect our Saviour to stand tough and tall over the turmoil and tears of sin, Jesus came down to take our toil and tears on himself. A weak and wretched man, a body beaten and broken, tears shed till no more could be shed.

But tears are temporary for those whose trust is in the Lord. Our tears take us to the foot of the cross. Our tears and weakness teach us to trust Jesus. Where do your tears take you?

When we fail and the weakness of our will wreaks havoc in our lives and the lives of those we love, let your tears take you to Jesus. Let your tears testify to the glory of God. Let God recall you and refuel you with faith and hope to carry on in these days of weakness and tears. Let our tears be tears of relief and joy as we rest in Jesus' forgiveness.

Don't be like Judas and those whose tears lead them into greater terrors of weeping and gnashing of teeth! But rather, let your tears lead you to offer up prayers to God as sweet and fragrant offerings before him, seeking his mercy and therefore giving him glory.

Like a car which leaks oil and needs to be taken back to the manufacturer for modification, we too will be recalled to our maker. But we will be made better than new!

Like a car our leaking weakness will lead us to break down in death, which is the primary cause of all our tears. But our trust in Christ's death and resurrection will also allow God to lead us through our tears and sin and death into something new, something better, and something more everlasting than the temporary tears we toil with now.

Temporary tears will be replaced with permanent perfection. We and God will be together forever! Nothing will separate us from him ever again. In this place of perfection we hear…

"Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. (Revelation 21:3b-6a)

The good news for you and for me is that when we abide with him and uphold what he has written in his word, holding it as trustworthy and true, our temporary tears are but a watery veil of what is already our reality.

And that reality is this: God is making us his new creation. He has done it, he is doing it, and he will do it! It was finished at the cross and our baptism! It is finished, right now in this moment! And it will be finished in our death and resurrection recall where we finally see the reality of what we have already been made — saints made holy and right before our Holy Father, Son and Spirit!

Jesus Christ's work is done at the cross and in believing we already have the victory in he who is our beginning and end, our Alpha and Omega. Amen.

A, All Saints - 1 John 2:28 - 3:3 "We are All Saints"

If I was to inform you that you had ten minutes left to live, what would be important to you? If you were going to die in ten minutes what would go through your mind? How would the things you have done in the past and the things you are doing now impact the way you might react to this shock news?

On hearing of your imminent death would the ‘church things’ you have been doing bring you comfort or distress, would they reassure you and give you peace, or would they cause you to doubt or even resent God?

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he is revealed we may have confidence and not be put to shame before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who does right has been born of him. See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. (1 John 2:28 – 3:3 NRSV)

Here John encourages us to abide, remain, or stand, in Jesus; to hold onto him, his Word, and the promise he makes to us in his Word. The only way we will have confidence and not be put to shame when he is revealed is to abide in him, hold up as truth what he gives to us as truth, and hang onto the things he puts in place for us now, so we might be with him forever. We know when we have been doing these righteous things we can boldly say we are children of God; brothers and sisters of Christ our Saviour.

If you found you had ten minutes to live, would you trust in the things Jesus has done for you, or would you guilt yourself over the things you think you should have done?

Today we celebrate All Saints day. We remember those who have gone before us and are now continually celebrating around the throne of God together with the angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven. God calls us to see that we too are a part of that company. We have been rescued and although Christ has not been revealed to us, face to face, and we still live and struggle in the reality of this world, we are called to see our reality is also unseen and that we too are gathered around Christ as a result of abide in him through the means he has given us.

This is why John says to us, ‘See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.’ If you found you were to die in ten minutes, God calls you to trust in what he has given you and who he has made you to be, not what you might do in the minutes remaining.

In fact we do already know just who Jesus is! Jesus reveals himself to us in his Word, he continually sends the Holy Spirit to direct us and open our eyes to him when we hear the Word. So through faith we know of his hidden presence with us in this world; our view into the unseen realm is the Word of God.

But there are many who do not know Jesus or his Word. They live by sight and not by faith. They don’t know God’s Word thinking they don’t need to hear, read or study it, and subsequently don’t see the hidden reality of Jesus. So they neither abide in him, trust him, nor do they know him, the Holy Spirit, or our Heavenly Father.

Instead of trusting Jesus, when death approaches, some think they might be able to broker a deal might with God, saying, “If you save me God, I’ll do whatever you want, I’ll be a good person for the rest of my life.” Maybe you too have been tempted to trust in yourself and try this kind of approach?

But we know an even greater deal has already been signed and sealed by God. If you trust in Jesus Christ, if you abide in him, if you receive him through the Word of God, then he, the Word made flesh saves you for free. Just say you did find out you were going to die in ten minutes. God calls you to trust in this free salvation, which cost God the Son his life on the cross.

Christ is hidden by the curtain of eternity and we have access through the Word of God to see Christ behind that curtain and trust that we are God’s Children. The same can be said of us too; Christ is hidden in you so when Jesus returns you will finally see who you are with your very own eyes.

The Word of God will be needed no longer because everyone will see him in his glory. Faith and hope will be no longer required because the object of your faith and hope, Jesus Christ, will stand in front of us and wipe away all your tears and your sinful nature – which is the cause of all our tears. And having the veil of your sinful nature wiped away and removed once and for all, you will we see your true self.

We will see exactly who we are in Christ, having abided in his Word and trusted in his means of salvation, through the work of the Holy Spirit. This will be the final result of our entering eternal life at baptism through Christ’s promise in his Word. When Jesus is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.

But while we are here we live in two worlds; the seen world, and the invisible world only seen through faith. As we wait on God the Father to take us home, we place our hope in his Son, Jesus Christ, and the things he gives us in his church. And these things let us look through the curtain of eternity as Christ comes to us in his Word and in the bread and wine.

Take a glimpse at yourself through the glasses of God’s Word. See that in you — lives Christ; see the holiness of God hidden behind the veil of sinful flesh. And as we come here into this place each time, see through the curtain of eternity into the timeless realm outside of space. See yourself around the throne of God with all those who have been purified by abiding in the things Jesus calls us to trust.

Just like those saints who are now made holy by the righteousness Jesus gave them, place your hope in these righteous acts too, in which Jesus calls you to abide. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

If you found out you were going to die in ten minutes, trust in the fact you have already died in your baptism and in ten minutes you would pass through the curtain of eternity into life and celebration forever with God and all the saints. Amen.