Atom“Grieving with Hope”
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 otehrs do who have no hope…”
The other day I was visiting with someone and I said, “You know, as a middle-aged man, I think that…” And I caught myself. Middle-aged? Did I really say that? How many 104 year-old-men do you know? Even though Grandma Dutton lived to be 96, it is probable that I am well beyond the middle of my life. We conceive of ourselves as going on forever and ever. Yet the truth of it is that we do not. And the Bible readings often invite us to come to grips with that truth…as they do today.
I was also reading in a devotion this week where the author suggested that in some ways Sunday worship might be considered preparation for a crisis. The young women in Jesus’ story were not prepared when the bridegroom returned and there was a crisis. Part of the calling of the church is to help us prepare. And one of the preparations we are always making is for grief. Even though we may not be actively grieving now, someday we will. Pastor Dave and I were adding up the funerals we have had in this congregation in the past year – because it has felt like a lot. We came up with 27. It has been a lot. And these are only the funerals we have had here in this place. Many of you have had losses in your families and funerals that have not taken place here at First Lutheran. And Dave and I have noticed, as pastors, that at times of death and grief, some people are at a distinct disadvantage. They have not prepared for the inevitable crisis. They lack the images and resources for coping with this event. Others, through years of careful attentiveness to life’s important questions, find within themselves the resources of faith that they need in time of crisis.
We know that crisis’s will come. There is no question about that. The question is, “Will we be prepared when they come?”
That being said, I offer to you again the reading from Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians. If there was one passage in the Bible that I would be tempted to read at all funerals, it would be this one. Those of you who have attended funerals that I have led know that I often do. It is so powerful in its affirmation and its helpfulness in time of crisis.
“We do not grieve,” says Paul, “As those who have no hope.” We do grieve at death, even when the one who leaves us has lived to the age of 90. In another place Paul calls death, “The final enemy.” And when that enemy touches your life – snatches from your loving grasp those whom you love – you grieve. You feel sad, bad, empty, lonely. Grief is normal, natural, and the way God made us.
Psychologists sometimes speak of “grief work” and that is how it feels, doesn’t it? It is hard, tough work. “The hour of lead,” is how poet Emily Dickinson named grief.
And it isn’t just in the days immediately afterwards. Grief continues. The way I figure it, in a congregation on any given Sunday, easily 99.9 percent of you are in grief over someone. That’s why we weep at the funerals of near strangers…or why some of us avoid funerals. They remind us of our own losses. Yet even if we try not to think about it, grief keeps coming back at odd times, grabbing us from behind, and throwing us into deep sadness. A week or so ago, I was feeling particularly tired, and I thought, “What is going on here? Why is today so hard to get through?” And I remembered, “This is the week of my Mom’s birthday.” Even when I wasn’t conscious of it, my heart was still grieving the fact that we wouldn’t be celebrating this year. It is normal. It is natural. And it does not go away in a matter of weeks or months or even years.
“Yes,” says Paul we grieve – even Christians. But…we do not grieve “as those who have no hope.” Hope of what?
Here’s what Christians hope. We hope that the same God who raised Jesus from the dead, shall 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.
And our hope is not merely 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 separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ. If our experience with Christ has taught us one thing it is that God longs to be with us, will do almost anything to be near us, will go to any lengths to have us.
That is the story we recite and celebrate every Sunday here in church. IN the ancient Hebrew Scriptures, the prophets, the law, the commandments, the psalms, in Jesus birth, life, teaching, death and resurrection, God sought 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 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, seek us even in death. And our hope in death is not in some vague and wishful immortality of the soul, or expectation of some eternal spark that just goes on and on, reincarnation or other assumption that we have within our selves immortality.
I was listening to a radio interview some time ago and the woman on the show said, “I believe that when you die, it’s like energy being released into the atmosphere. When we die, our essence, our spirit just goes on and on,” she said. Energy released into the atmosphere? I don’t know about you, but I don’t find that particularly comforting. Here is a living breathing, loving human being. Then there’s death and all that’s left is energy released into the atmosphere?
Our hope informed by the resurrection of Jesus is considerably larger than the limp, godless hope of the secular world. Our faith in eternal life has nothing to do with us, with some indomitable human essence that goes on and on. Our hope is in a great, indomitable God whose love is stronger than death, and that ultimately, nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ. God, having gone to such lengths to save us and have us in life, will continue to demand us even in death.
That is why last week when we gathered here for the funeral of Vivian Jacobson that we dared speak of it as a celebration. We grieved to be sure. We will miss the music and vitality that Vivian brought to our lives. And we particularly grieved the way of her death by fire. But, we celebrated. We celebrated that because of Jesus this not a time of “goodbye,” but rather a time to say, “Until we meet again.” We do not grieve as do those who have not hope.
And what we are doing here on this fine Sunday morning is preparing for such a celebration. We are putting oil in our lamps so we might be ready. Having experienced on so many Sundays, Jesus coming to us, being present to us in word and sacrament, we hope for and count on his presence with us forever. Death, the final enemy has been defeated. So we think of Sundays as dress rehearsals for eternal life. Sunday worship is our way of loving Jesus now, so that we may love him forever, and praise God for all eternity.
“Because I live, you shall live,” Jesus tells his followers in the gospel of John. That is why we do not grieve as those who have no hope. Listen again to these words of hope and keep them close to your heart…
“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 be 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 shall 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 each other with these words.”
“Encourage one another with these words.” And so we have. Let’s pray:
Lord, you know that because we have loved life, 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.
Mighty God, 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, in life beyond death. Lord, help us to have faith that your love continues to hold us even when death takes us, and help us to comfort and encourage one another with this hope. Amen.
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