I had a new experience this week. This was my first time as the Toastmaster which means I was the master of ceremony for the meeting introducing speakers and keeping everything flowing. “Halloween Horrors” was the theme, so many of us dressed in costume. I made a pretty cool flapper in my gold dress with a black boa. While shopping for my costume I was inundated with all the scary options: vampires, ghosts, and mummies. You could be a headless horseman, Freddie Kruger, or Jack the ripper. Hands down or maybe falling off, zombies reign in the land of horror. I heard of a zombie ballerina and a zombie businessman all the way to the hard core zombie like the Walking Dead. Those scare me. Even beyond Halloween our culture seems to be preoccupied with zombies.
When I was growing up we dressed up as clowns and cartoon characters, princesses or pirates, witches or wizards; certainly not zombies. We were a Christian nation with churches like this one being planted throughout the 60s. Times have changed. As I pondered this, I think as our society has become less and less religious, and more and more secular, our fear of death is exponentially multiplying. People don’t know what will happen after this life and it scares them. This fear gives rise to zombie fascination. Without a faith to guide the way, what comes after this life truly is horrifying.
Today is All Saints Day; a time we celebrate all the faithful saints both past and present. The practice dates back to Rome, honoring the martyrs for the faith and has grown into recognition of the prayerful spiritual bond between those in heaven and those living on earth. It was practiced in England in the 8th century and later Shakespeare wrote of it as “Hallowmas.” (Much like Christmas is Christ’s mass.) So Halloween is really “All Saints Eve” the night before this religious feast. For centuries, on All Saints Day Christians have honored those who have passed the torch of faith to the next generation and celebrated that with God and Christ, death is not the final word.
My Gramma Heil taught me the faith. She was a strong farm woman who moved from Kansas to California. Her frontier spirit was grounded in her deep and quiet faith. When she passed from this life, I turned to my faith trusting the words “Death will be no more; mourning and crying will be no more” (Rev. 21:4). As a teenager, it was the first time I felt God with me, wiping away my tears, being with me in my grief. Hers was my first funeral, the first time death and religion collided. I did not understand it as clearly as John’s vision shared in Revelation, but it was the moment that hope rooted within the pain of death. It was the first time I knew God was with me, even when my beloved grandmother was not.
When a loved one dies our faith is tested and we ask God, “Where were you?” We are like Mary asking, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother, (my spouse, my dear friend, my child) would not have died.” We feel abandoned by God and want to rage against the mighty creator. But if we get stuck there, we miss out on Jesus’ tears, Jesus feeling our pain, and Jesus being right there with us in our loss. Jesus weeps with you, and for you. In the chaos of life and death we see the glory of God. Jesus said, “if you will only believe you will see the glory of God.” Raising Lazarus from the dead Jesus not only proclaimed the glory of God but also God has victory over death. Death will be no more; you and I partake in the resurrection. Scripture declares, “Therefore we have been buried with (Christ) through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Rms. 6:4).
We explored our being raised with Christ in baptism in our Bible study this week. We were fortunate to have several people, coming from other faith traditions, who remember their baptism. They remember being immersed into the water backwards and being raised up into the newness of their life with Christ. Dying with Christ in baptism and being raised to new life is a vital and visual image, a reality we share. Then we pondered the phrase often said at funerals, “Your baptism is made complete in death.” To be honest that confused us a little because with infant baptism we focus on God’s claim on our life, joining the community of faith, being adopted by God. We were called back to Colossians 2:12 “For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life…” What was started in our dying with Christ in baptism is now complete in our death as we are being raised up with Christ into the new life. Baptism is the first time we are new creations in Christ. When we pass from this life to the life eternal, our baptism is made complete in our resurrection.
As new creations in Christ through baptism, communion takes on a richer dimension. Many of us see this time as being spiritually fed by God, a time of receiving God’s grace for the forgiveness of sins, of joining with the body of Christ. That is one reason we pass the peace before we have communion, uniting us as Christ’s body. Yet Christ’s table is more than a communion feast on the horizontal plain. It is a heavenly banquet. Christ prepares this meal for us in anticipation of our joining him as new creations in the life to come. At Christ’s table we experience a glimpse of God’s transcendence with us as a foretaste of the banquet we are promised in heaven. Both Matthew and Luke tell of the kingdom of God being like a banquet. Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son” (Mt. 22:2). God has prepared a heavenly banquet for his Son Jesus, and we are invited to partake. We are invited to sit at his table and taste the glory of God, have a foretaste of John’s vision with God’s home being among us, God dwelling with us as the heavenly and the earthly join in one sacred moment.
We do not have to fear death; God promises you a house with many rooms, a feast, a heavenly banquet. Every time we come to Christ’s table we are a month closer to the joyful feast God has waiting for us in heaven. A time when Christ will be the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end and our baptism will be made complete. God has victory over death and Christ is “making all things new” (Rev 21:5). One day you will be raised with Christ to new life, and taste the heavenly banquet. Amen.
