Sermon: “Hope-Filled Grief”
A Sermon Delivered
by
The Rev. John D. Painter
at
Centenary United Methodist Church
Metuchen, New Jersey
November 6, 2005
(All Saints’ Sunday)
Text: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words. —1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (NRSV)
“We do not grieve as those who have no hope,” says Paul to the Thessalonians. Yet we still grieve. Elsewhere Paul calls death “the final enemy.” And when that enemy touches our lives—snatches from our loving grasp those whom we love—we grieve. Grief is normal, natural.
Psychologists speak of “grief work.” And that’s just how it feels, doesn’t it? It is hard, tough work. “The hour of lead,” is how Emily Dickinson named grief.
And it isn’t just in the days afterward. Grief goes on. The way I figure it, in a congregation, on any given Sunday, easily 99.9 percent of us are in grief over someone or something. That’s why we sometimes weep at funerals of near strangers. That’s why we occasionally avoid funerals. Grief keeps coming back at odd times, grabbing us from behind, and throwing us into deep sadness. Loss has so many tentacles that hold us in their grip.
I remember well standing in the greeting-card aisle at the pharmacy in early May 1993, a little over three months after my mother’s sudden death from a stroke. I was grazing through the Mother’s Day cards looking for just the right one for my wife, my aunt, and…. Suddenly I was overwhelmed with the realization that I would not need to purchase a card for my mother for the first time in over four decades. The tears began to flow, and I thought I would need to abandon the cards I had picked out and leave the store. As I recall, that was the year I purchased an extra personal card for my mother-in-law.
That was also the moment when I believe my grief finally surfaced—more than it had in the weeks since Mom’s death—and the moment that marked the beginning of my journey toward healing.
Paul says we grieve. Truly we do. Yet, we do not grieve “as those who have no hope.” Hope of what?
Here’s what we Christians hope. We hope that the same God who raised Jesus from the dead, will raise us as well. We hope that just as Christ ventured forth from the realm of death into life, so shall he take us along with him.
Our hope is not unfounded, not wishful thinking. Our hope for the future is based upon what we know of Christ in the present. In Romans 8, Paul says that nothing will ever separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ. If our experience with Christ has taught us one thing, it is that our God longs to be with us, will do almost anything to be near us, and will go to any lengths to have us.
That is the story that we recite and celebrate every Sunday here in church: in the ancient Hebrew Scriptures; the prophets; the Law and the Commandments; the Psalms; the Gospels of Jesus’ birth, life, teaching, death, and resurrection—God seeks us. When Jesus was resurrected, what did he do, first thing after he was raised? He came back to us, to his disciples who had betrayed him.
That is the basis of our hope. We are confident that the God who has gone to such extraordinary lengths to be close to us in life, will not cease those efforts in death. Therefore, we do not grieve as those who have no hope.
We believe that the same God who so pursued us, and reached out to us, and sought us in all the days of our lives will not cease to pursue us, reach out to us, and seek us even in death. Our hope is not in some vague and wishful immortality of the soul; or in the expectation of some eternal spark that just goes on and on; or in reincarnation; or in some other assumption that we have within ourselves about immortality. Our hope is that the love of God is stronger than the devastation of death; that ultimately, nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ. God, having gone to such great lengths to save us and have us in life, will continue to claim us even in death. That is why we do not grieve as those who have no hope.
This is the hope that we experience on Sunday in church. Having experienced, on so many Sundays, Jesus coming to us, being really present to us in Word and Sacrament, we hope for and count on his presence with us forever. Our hope is not that we are immortal, not that some eternal spark lives on in us, surviving death. Our hope is that we will, by the work and will of God, be with Jesus forever. Death, the final enemy, has been defeated. So think of Sundays as “dress rehearsal” for eternal life. Think of our experiences of Sunday worship as our way of loving Jesus now, so that we might love him forever, and praise God for all eternity.
“[B]ecause I live, you also shall live” (John 14:19b, NRSV), Christ tells his followers in the Gospel of John…at their final meal together. And that’s why we have hope. Encourage one another with these words: Because I live, you also shall live.
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PRAYER
Lord God, giver of life, we thank you for the gift of life—for beautiful spring and fall days, for the change of seasons, and the bounty of earth’s goodness. We thank you for life.
Because we love life so much, we also fear and hate death. Death robs us of those
whom we love, takes from us the joys of their presence, and throws us into great grief.
Lord, help us to follow you in life and in death, to have faith that your love continues to hold us even when death takes us; that you shall rescue those whom we love from the devastation of death; that you will raise us again to life.
In the resurrection of Jesus you defeated death, triumphed over the powers of evil, and established your reign. Give us grace to believe in your triumph and cling to your power in death, in life, and in life beyond death.
Lord, help us to comfort and to encourage one another with this Resurrection hope. Amen.
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