[Propertalk] All Saints' Day - Part 1

[Robert P Morrison]

Here's Part 1

	THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY ALL SAINTS’ DAY, 2015

	THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON 3:1-9 1st NOVEMBER, 2015

	REVELATION 21:1-6a PSALM 24

	JOHN 11:32-44

	 On just about any other occasion, to read such a list of names as we
will in a few minutes would be depressing.

	 This is not to say that we take the death of our family members and
friends lightly. Far from it. But to read it in the context of the
weekly celebration of the Eucharist o which is and will always be the
Liturgy of Resurrection – to read it in the context of this Liturgy
is to emhasise how important is the earthy life and death of those we
love.

	 Certainly our eyes may tear up at one or more of the names. But
there’s probably a hint of triumph to it, a hint of enormous relief,
based on the opening words of of the first reading: “The souls of
the righteous are in the hand of God.” There’s nothing more than
we can ask, really. Well, yes, we can ask that we can be with our
loved one. But that will come. It WILL come, we needn’t have any
fear about that.

	 Everyone reacts differently to the news of someone’s death, and
the discussion of it. When the death is unexpected, perhaps when
we’ve lost track of someone or been estranged or separated from her
or him, it can hit us hard. Conversely, we can be rocked equally
severely after someone with whom we’ve had a very close relationship
of trust and affection dies.

	 It’s not as if we expect that we and everyone else will live for
ever. It’s just that we’d like life to be long, to be relatively
pain and stress free, and to be peppered with laughter, and
appreciative satisfaction, and at least a few deep relationships with
those on whom we know we can depend, no questions asked.

	 And this is exactly what the old and new covenants offer us. “The
souls of the righteous are in the hand of God.” Nt just for some
point way down the road, but always. God is there; God is here, right
now, and never leaves our side.

	 Mary didn’t see it quite that fully. It’s funny how their
household has been described by the Gospel commentators in terms of
Mary and Martha. That says a lot about them. They must have been very
strong and active in the village. They must have been known at least
in the surrounding neighbourhoods. But why was their name coupled with
Lazarus’ name only from the point of his illness and death? It makes
us wonder who he was.

	 Did he travel? Was he gone from Bethany most of the time? Was he
good to his sister and neighbours, or was ne obnoxious? Was it that,
of the three of them, only Mary and Martha responded to Jesus’
teaching and invitations?

	 We know nothing about Lazarus, beyond his address and sisters’
names. He may have been unimpressed by Jesus. He may have ridiculed
what he thought was his sisters’ gullibility. He may have been a
member of the scribal or pharisaic groups, or been working as their
spy. We simply don’t know. But it would seem a safe assumption that
he didn’t accept or trust Jesus since his name didn’t come up
before this.

	 But none of that mattered to Jesus. Of course, He cared for Mary and
Martha. It seems that He’d put Himself out for them just as they
would for Him. So Jesus responded to the death of their brother. Yet
it wasn’t a, “Well, I’m really sorry, but you know that he was
really such a snot.” Jesus didn’t say, “It’s a pity. If only
he’d shown even the tiniest spark of interest.. But he didn’t, so
there’s nothing I can do about it.” No. Jesus simply went to the
tomb. He walked with Mary and Martha. He walked into all the dark and
cruel pain to meet Lazarus where he was, whether or not he was
surrounded by stench.

	 It’s interesting that, at least in certain parts points in
history, religious artists depicted gravesites as being in an area of
rocky, jagged, threatening cliffs. Look, for instance, at the ikon of
Jesus confronting Lazarus, as shown in today’s bulletin. 1 There’s
nothing inviting about that area. Yet Jesus went – He went into the
place where He would become ritually unclean, thus unable to
participate with others in any of their religious or secular events.
He went, and isolated Himself from others, so that He and Lazarus
could be together.

	 Actually, I find cemeteries peaceful. Certainly, they’re usually
quiet! They can be great places for contemplation about what’s going
on in one’s life. Unlike in other societies and other ages, I and
many others have no problem walking through them, last night
notwithstanding. However, they DO serve as reminders of the temporary
nature of this life, adding to the discomfort people used to feel
there, and leading to their being off-limits except in case of a
burial.

	 Perhaps it’s the idea of the frailty of this life, of the painful
separation from others; perhaps it’s the whole idea of the
disruption of relationships that convinces artists and ikon writers to
depict death and burial with such jagged darkness and discomfort. And
perhaps the artists DO search out the deepest parts of our hearts and
souls so that they can show the pain, the dis-ease, the whole mixture
of emotions we fee; at separation – and possibly our fears about
what’s going to happen to us.

	 Yet Jesus had no hesitation about going there. Jesus had no thought
of skipping His OWN pain. He wept at what He saw in the faces and
voices of Mary and Martha, as they couldn’t quite grasp that “the
souls of the righteous ARE in the hand of God.”

	 Even Lazarus – even us – no matter how much we may resist making
commitments, no matter how tissue-paper-thin our faith may seem
sometimes.

	 Jesus comes to us, no matter where we are, no matter how faithless,
how frightened, how flummoxed we may be. Jesus makes His way over
every imaginable rock and crevasse until He stands in front of us, and
says, “Come out! Let me unbind you. Help one another to unbind each
other, cutting away absolutely everything which keeps you and e from
understanding what life’s about, and from enjoying life fully.”


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