Christopher Thomas
Sermon for The Feast of All Saints, Year B – 11/7/21
Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9
Psalm 24
Revelation 21:1-6a
John 11:32-44
I AM. I AM. I AM.
Immortality
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the softly falling snow.
I am the gentle show’rs of rain
I am the fields of ripening grain.
I am in the morning hush,
I am in the graceful rush of far-off birds in circling flight
I am the starshine of the night.
I am in ev’ry flower that blooms
I am in still and empty rooms
I am the child that yearns to sing:
I am in each lovely thing.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there, I did not die.
- Clare Harner Lyon
I am Resurrection and I am Life, says the Lord.
Whoever has faith in me shall have life,
even though he die.
And everyone who has life,
and has committed himself to me in faith,
shall not die for ever.
As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives
and that at the last he will stand upon the earth.
After my awaking, he will raise me up;
and in my body I shall see God.
I myself shall see, and my eyes behold him
who is my friend and not a stranger.
For none of us has life in himself,
and none becomes his own master when he dies.
For if we have life, we are alive in the Lord,
and if we die, we die in the Lord.
So, then, whether we live or die,
we are the Lord’s possession.
Happy from now on
are those who die in the Lord!
So it is, says the Spirit,
for they rest from their labors.
For, I AM.
Not I was. Or I will be. NO! I AM!
I am Resurrection, and I am Life. Do you believe?
How could this be? How can this be? How will this be, that death has been forever conquered? Because, to be honest, Jesus, to all of my earthly senses, Easter lilies aside, death looks, and feels, and smells, and tastes, and touches, like THE END. And so, can it possibly be true? Do I dare believe? Do I pin my hopes, and my dreams, and my aspirations on this one singular sensation, “I AM?”
And yet, “I AM.”
I am, you are, we are all, past, present, and future, swallowed up into that day, into the great good news that Mary and Martha witness as their beloved pierces through the diaphanous veil, leaping from one side, emerging from the other. The love expressed in the gamut of emotion as Jesus, our Jesus, frustrated and angry, sad with the sense of loss, knowing the sway death holds over his beloveds, even his own grief, cries out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” “Unbind him, and let him go!”
Jesus knows, “I AM.”
“Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.”
Jesus knows, “I AM.” Jesus is, “I AM.”
This “I AM,” this calling, is for them, which means it is for us.
What can this possibly mean, “I AM?”
“I AM the Resurrection and I AM the Life!”
“I AM a thousand winds that blow.” “I AM in the morning hush and the graceful rush of far-off birds.” I AM in your joys and in your sufferings. I AM in your nights and in your days. I AM in your hopes and dreams and I AM in your disappointments. I AM in your closets and in your emergings. I AM with you when you enter this world and I AM with you when you pass into the next.
Never, not once does God or Jesus say, I was, or I will be. There is no nod to chronological time. Incarnation and eschatology, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, come together in the fullest sense of “I AM.”
On this day, you have dutifully and lovingly provided the Church with a list brimming full of all those who know, eschatologically speaking, the fullest sense of “I AM.” These people KNOW “I AM.” They knew it, all along. They lived their lives as though they knew “I AM” was their reality. They lived their lives as though they believed “I AM” were truth. And they are doing so, even now.
What does it mean, to live as though I, you, we, know “I AM” is reality (not past or future, but now)? What does it mean to live as though the Eternal is now, because God is? What does it mean to live as though death has absolutely no power over our days? What does it mean to live as though we belong, in life and in death, to God?
The answers to these questions lie in this list. These names will tell us everything single thing we need to know, about how to live as though eternity is now. When I look at the names that I put on this list, they speak to me daily, moment by moment, when I am willing to listen to and listen for them. They are whispering and they are screaming and crying out to me, “Christopher, come out!” “Throw off your grave clothes!” “Live as though you believe ‘I AM the Resurrection and I AM the Life!” “Because I AM!”
I bet your people are telling you the very same thing.
What does it mean to live as though you believe that eternity is now, that you know “I AM the Resurrection and I AM the Life,” that “I AM” is in fact, “I AM?”
- Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?
- Will you persevere in resisting evil, and whenever you fall into sin (separation), repent and return to the Lord?
- Will you proclaim by your words and your deeds the Good News of God in Christ?
- Will you seek and serve Christ in ALL persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
- Will you strive for justice and peace among ALL people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
When you know that “I AM the Resurrection and I AM the Life,” when you know that the eschaton is now, you live your life through the lens of your baptismal covenant. You start your morning and evaluate your day’s end based upon these five questions. The saints that I love and know did.
They were not perfect. Far from it. But they lived “baptismally-covenanted” lives.
Are we living “baptismally-covenanted” lives? The greatest honor, the greatest gift that we can give to those we love who have gone before us and those who will come after is to do just that.
For when I sing the songs of the saints of God, I intend to be one too!
And I will, with God’s help!
Will you?
Amen.
