What is “All Saints Day” about?

Sunday is All Saint’s Day… The New Testement Reading from the Lectionary this year is Revelation 21:1-6. It got me thinking about a few things. Take a read of the passage first…

Revelation 21: 1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,‘See, the home of God is among mortals.He will dwell with them;they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; 4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes.Death will be no more;mourning and crying and pain will be no more,for the first things have passed away.’ 5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ 6 Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

Ever since I started leading bible studies, and teaching people about the scriptures Revelation has been one I tried to side step. There are a great great number of questions surrounding the book, and a great number people with answers to those questions. Attempting to navigate the murky waters of Revelation is something that is difficult, and yet somewhat inevitable. Ask any Bible study leader who has ever been daring enough to ask a group of teens which book of the Bible they would like to study next. The cry of the masses is almost inevitably “Revelation.” Revelation captivates us.

It has been the inspiration of some of the most powerful and alluring works of art in history. Many of you I’m sure have seen images of Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment” behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel. This image is both inspiring and terrifying. In it the martyrs are called to Christ’s side while the Damned are carried off in heaps by demons to Hell.

It has also inspired works a little less then grand. I remember when I first took a Job as a youth leader I had to clean out the office of the minister who had worked there before me. On one of the book shelves was a collection of Movies about Revelation, which were set of course in “modern” times. From the look of the actors it seemed that the “Mark of the Beast” must have been getting a bad perm. And of course for better or worse many of us are familiar with the “Left Behind” series that was popular a few years ago.

I used to watch broadcasts of people who had theories about how current events were actually a fulfillment of prophesies in Revelation. I thought they were funny, until I realized that sometimes their messages were used to justify some very ugly things. As captivating as the book of Revelation is there are those who misuse it to manipulate others and promote their own agenda. I have also known others who have become obsessed with the images in revelation. The book becomes a series of puzzles to unravel that consume them. Their hope becomes the quest to understand the signs of the times, and the Gospel can often get lost in the hunt.

This weekend the New Testament reading is a passage in revelation that is one of my personal favorites. I like it partially because it’s easier to understand. There are no beasts with horns hand heads and crowns. I don’t have to try to figure out who the whore of Babylon. The message is actually something you can hang your hat on.

In Revelation 21:1-6a there is a Hope revealed which is the hinge upon which the rest of the book seems to turn. There are many troubles in Revelation but at the end God sets things right. In the passage we see several things:

-There is a New Creation ( the terminology of “a New Heaven and a New Earth” show the breath to the new creation. It extends to everything!)
-The Heavenly Jerusalem comes down (dressed as a bride many scholars view this image at the Church and place it in contrast to the church presented at the beginning of the Book. An imperfect church at the beginning, a perfect church at the end)
-God Dwells or “Tabernacles” with his people
-God Comforts
-Death is done away with (AND there is life in Christ seen in 6b)

This passage gives me a great hope… and who wouldn’t find hope here. Someday things will be right again. There is great suffering here, but things won’t always be that way. One fine morning when this life is over I’ll fly away!

But there is something interesting in this passage. I didn’t pick up on it for a long time. No one flies away… in fact we don’t go up the New Jerusalem comes Down, and God lives here.
That sounds scarily like what Jesus tells us to pray in the Lords Prayer
“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”

Look at Revelation 21: 1-6a. Seriously LOOK AT IT! Is there anything listed there that cannot be realized in some way today?

There is a bizarre tendency in the church to take our hope in Christ and relegate it someplace where we never taste in our lives. Why do we do it?

Look at the passage
Do we experience New Creation?
Do we experience God’s Comfort?
Do we experience life in Christ?
Does God dwell with us?
Is the Church bringing heaven to earth in any ways today?
Has death been done away with?

We believe in life that is so full that those who are a part of it are never overcome by death. That is why we celebrate All Saints Day on November 1st. On this day we celebrate the lives of those who have known that life in ages and generations before us, and take up the call to live the life of a Saint today, that is to LIVE RESURRECTION!

Revelation 21 offers us great hope, but do we see that hope as a calling?

The funny thing about Saints is we can so often abstract them in the same way we abstract Revelation. So often when I think of Saints I imagine a person who has access to some life beyond me. I imagine they have somehow tasted something I will never be able to touch myself. By calling someone a saint we can create a barrier between their life and ours. Maybe this is why Dorothy Day once said, “Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed that easily.”

Saints give us great Hope, but do we see their life as a calling?

The Gospel for this weekend demonstrates that Jesus took the hope of resurrection as a reality that was being realized by his very life. In John 11 we read the story of the Death of Jesus’ friend Lazarus. When he arrives at his home he promises his sister Martha that Lazarus will rise again. Like us Martha assumes resurrection is something “one fine morning” She says, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” But Jesus has a different perspective. The same hope we see in Revelation was something Jesus lived. He spoke and Lazarus was raised from the dead!

Now do I take this seriously? Do I take this seriously with my life? Am I living Apocalypse Now. In my real life? Lazarus was raised from the dead! …. I’ll say it again, Lazarus was raised from the dead!

I can try to make excuses about how It’s all well and good for Jesus but I’m just a man, but then Jesus has the audacity to come back three chapters later and say “anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these”

Our Hope in Christ is a Calling… a real calling… for real days, like today.

Are we willing to ask the question, “what ‘greater things than these’ do you have for me?”
Revelation 21 convicts me because it shows me what God’s desire for the Church is. When the church is on earth these things happen. It’s so easy for us to go to church and experience the word of God. We gather and celebrate the resurrection in everything we do from the Church year, to the Lord’s Supper, to Baptism. We sing and pray about the resurrection, but we leave it there. We leave the resurrection in the church.

I am more guilty then anyone of this. Revelation shows us an image of the perfect church. Let it inspire us to say “LORD LET US LIVE OUR HOPE IN YOU!”

We all know people in need of Comfort…
We all know communities in need of New Creation…
We all know places of Death…
We know the loneliness of this world first hand…

We have a hope that can change that.

So, May the God who dwells in his New Creation make his home in every part of your lives… Amen