October 30, 2011 "After the Tribulation"

Revelation 7:9-12
Matthew 5:1-12
When my father died, someone in the church gave me very sage advice: “People are going to insist on telling you all kinds of stuff. They have a need to say it, but you are in no place to receive it. So give yourself permission to not have answers right now, recognizing that the purpose of therapy is to spend years figuring out what is our stuff, and what stuff is projected from other people, and whether any stuff has meaning.”

Ancient Judaism had a tradition of sitting SHIVAH for two years after a loved one dies. Gathering at each Sabbath with those who know you, with those who will tell you the truth, gathering for a meal. Because at the times of death, we are so overwhelmed by emotions by disruption to our lives we are off balance, and with good friends, it takes a full two years to unpack and sort out, finding new balance so we can go on.

There are certain celebrations like Christmas Eve and Easter, in which you want to gather the whole tableau, hearing the shepherds filled with awe and wonder, the angels singing Glori in Excelses Deo, the wisemen on bended knee adoring mother and child. Or the witnesses of Easter's Resurrection with Mary being consoled, Peter and the beloved disciple breathlessly staring into the empty tomb, the visitors to Emmaus, the soldiers frozen in fear, the Roman Centurion having proclaimed “surely this was the Son of God.” We experience crescendo upon crescendo of majesty. There are other occasions, like All Saints, in which we proceed far more slowly, turning over everything we thought we knew, because the images are not the philosophical constructs of Paul, or the narratives of Abraham or Moses but VISIONS of Imagination.

Pidge and Marne Dowley each died earlier this year. Marne was blind and had been failing for some time, she seemed close to death's door, with Pidge waiting on her lovingly. Then suddenly he had a stroke and was gone. Suddenly, Marne rallied and had several months in which she cared for their estate and their children before she too passed. I recall stopping in one day, as she sat beside the fireplace. She inquired of her pastor, “What is Heaven like?

Trying to be a good counselor, I asked why she asked... And she retorted “Because I want to know if that's where I really want to go.” I recall describing that most of life seems a puzzle to me, and that I believe, when I die, God will reveal that the complex puzzle I thought I had been working to solve, really amounts to only one small piece in the puzzle of history and humanity. I also recalled a Robin Williams Film in which after he dies Heaven and Hell are like living inside a lush series of paintings, where anything we imagine can be tangible and real.

Tragically, we have been afraid of what to do with The Book of the Revelation in the 21st Century. Hollywood has grasped it's images, and in one film after another, from The Exorcist to The 7th Seal to Indiana Jones, we have made the images terrifying. In the last section there was guarantee that the Holy Number of 12 times 12000 of each of the 12 tribes of Israel scattered as they once were to the Diaspora, all would be brought home. Everyone known and expected and counted upon. But just as our Choir's Anthem had this marvelous counterpoint between the dirge of numbering each who has died and the celebration at the resurrection for ever more, Revelation shifts to a vision of All the Saints that are beyond numbering. And while there robes had been filthy and saturated with blood at endurance of suffering life, they have made them white as snow. The text is specific here that while usually in reference to resurrection we identify a passive voice that “GOD raise up Jesus” here the emphasis is active, that the saints each had a role in their own salvation, in there making their robes/ our robes clean.

What would those white robes feel like, soft as silk, or freshly laundered and stiff with outdoor air? What would be the feel of the blood of the Sacrificial Lamb? How does it feel to stand in the presence of God, not alone like Dorothy before the Wizard of Oz, but standing with an entire population of people all of whom love the Lord? How awesome to imagine the one who was sacrificed for us, becoming our shepherd!

How quickly we bury our words... “All The Saints Had a Role In Their Own Salvation.” What do we mean by salvation anymore? There are certain words like Evangelism and Morals and Salvation, which in the mainline Church became passe for a time. We are a self-satisfied people who despite Inflation and Recession, and constant Wars, live a pretty good life. Are our values, the priorities of our lives based on account balances or on the salvation of our souls? DO we even worry about the immortality of our souls?

Whenever a person dies a chill runs up a preacher's spine and should, as we wonder what words to say. How do we encapsulate in a few moments all that this person represented to others and in their own salvation? Mary Soderberg, Ed Belinski, I read through the list of names and for each recall their identity as so and so's mother, their father, their wife, 2 year old Cameron. While others have had all kinds of interpretations about Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, representing one like Moses bringing the Law to the People from the Mountain... what I hear in the Beatitudes this morning is discerning what is really of value. Would I want to be outed by Jesus looking out and saying “Blessed are the Poor in Spirit,” “Blessed are those who Mourn, Blessed are the Humble.” But regardless of whether I wanted to be identified or not, what he offers is clarification about what life and death is really all about. A searching for the Kingdom of God, a desire to be comforted, the promised land, righteousness being satisfied.