All Saints Day

“Taking Off the Grave Clothes”

Isaiah 25:6-9

We didn’t get any kids at our house on Halloween. What a disappointment! I love to hear children shout, “Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!” Have you ever heard that one before? My kids taught me that when they were little.

I love the Halloween costumes, too. Our son Peter sent us a picture of Ryan – our 4-year old grandson. A lot of kids go Trick or Treating dressed up as ghosts or witches or superheroes of one kind or another. Ryan went as a Birthday Cake! Actually, his body was a beautifully decorated table, and his head was the cake ON the table – frosting, candles and all! Take a look at the picture on my office door. What a clever idea!

A number of years ago, dressing up for Halloween got Sandy and me into a little trouble. We were invited to a party sponsored by our local Vietnam Veterans Group. Several of us invested a lot of time figuring out what costumes to wear – Tom decided to be Pee-Wee Herman, Adele was Tammy Faye Bakker, Sandy was an Angel (because her maiden name is Angell), and I…well, I went as the Devil. Go figure!

We were pretty sure one of us would win the prize for the best outfit. And maybe one of us would have won it, if not for one slight problem. When we showed up at the door, we realized that we were the ONLY ONES dressed up! It was NOT a costume party! How embarrassing! But we stayed at the party anyways and had a good time.

It’s fun to dress up!

One of the questions we might ask out of today’s Scripture reading from Isaiah 25 is a fashion question of sorts. Are you ready for it? How are you dressed up for church today?

In this passage, God is present with his people – just like God is present with us this morning. And God is throwing a feast – just like the feast represented before us today on the Communion table. And the feast God is serving is a meal of rich food and the finest of wines – just like the bread and wine of the Sacrament. These verses from Isaiah 25 pretty accurately describe going to church and coming to Holy Communion!

So how are you dressed for church today? How are you dressed to be in God’s presence, and with one another at the banquet table? How are you dressed for the joyful feast of rich food and fine wine?

Well, Isaiah 25 describes a problem with the dress code that day. The people come to God’s party wearing shrouds, like the Middle Eastern veil worn by those who are in mourning. And they are covered by sheets - the kind of sheets they pull up over dead bodies.

Do you see how they were dressed up for church that day? They were dressed in grave clothes!

What are you wearing to church today?

That is a particularly striking question on a Sunday like this when we remember the saints. I find my heart stirred when I speak the names of those among us who have died since the first of the year – Dave Mann, Zeke Carol, Ernst Wechselberger, Tom Burt, Mary Kempher, Bill Gauldin, Rich Brown, Dorothy Hanna, Clair Kubiak, Chris Flynn, Dick Tracy, Chuck Kopmann, Bob Sneden, Barbara Carroll and Bill Kloster. I can add to that list the names of my mother Shirley, and my good friend Bud Shaftoe. Are there names you would add to the list of the saints, too?

And as we remember those we love today, we might find ourselves getting dressed up in grave clothes - the shroud of mourning, the sheet of death.

How are you dressed for church today as we come into God’s presence on All Saints Sunday, and to the table where rich food and fine wine awaits?

One of the most beautiful passages in the Bible is found in Ecclesiastes where we read that there are appropriate times for every activity under the sun – a time to be born and a time to die, a time to laugh and a time to cry – life is full of opposite times! - times to build up, and times to tear down, times to sow and times to reap. And then there is the time like the one described in the banquet scene in Isaiah 25.

There is a time to mourn. But then comes a time to dance and celebrate at the feast of the Lord!

Now I do not want anyone here today who is going through a time of grief to cut it short because of what I’m going to say here. It is normal to grieve our losses. The way God has wired us is as people who need to mourn when we experience losses. Grief is the God-given, natural pathway toward healing.

But God does not intend our grief to be forever. God did not create us for endless sadness. God did not create us for never-ending despair. Death is not the final word on our lives.

God created us - and our loved ones - for LIFE! And so Isaiah the prophet stands up in the midst of all the people wearing grave clothes and boldly declares, “On this mountain, he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces…”

That is God’s promise to you and me! God will be victorious over death. God will rescue us from the grave! God will wipe our tears away!

And when it happens, there will be the biggest party in the history of the world!

This table to which we come today is a symbol of that party-waiting-to-happen. God is at this table and we are invited to come sit with him. Here is rich food and fine wine! Here is the promise of tears wiped away and shame removed…

…so it’s time to take the grave clothes OFF, and dress up in the clothing of LIFE!

Do you remember how it happened with Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha? He was dead and in the tomb – had been for a number of days. But when Jesus got there, he went to the tomb and called his name. “Lazarus, come out!” And the Bible says, “The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.” It’s almost like a scene from the movie, The Mummy!

But listen to what Jesus says, “TAKE OFF THE GRAVE CLOTHES and let him go!”

And if you can picture Lazarus, standing there like a mummy, perhaps you can understand why Jesus said that! If you’re wearing grave clothes, you can’t enjoy the celebration of God’s greatest miracle! If you’re covered with a shroud and wrapped up in a sheet, you can’t get up and do the electric slide with your friends! You can’t take your spouse out on the dance floor for The Tennessee Waltz! You can’t get the chicken wings into your mouth! You can’t drink that fine wine!

Grave clothes are suitable for the GRAVE, but not for the FESTIVAL OF THE RESURRECTION!

So we’ve got to change our clothes today! We’ve got to let God help us get out from under the shroud and the sheet, and into something more fitting for LIFE!

And this is crucial not only for how we face the loss of loved ones, but also for how we live as people and as a church on a daily basis. We must stop living for death and start living for life!

I posed the question last week, “What would Jesus have to say about the war in Iraq?” I wish I had asked it differently because I may have left you with the impression that the question is whether we should be for the war or against it. What position would Jesus take? I find that an unproductive question, and there are people I respect on both sides of the issue. And to be honest with you, I don’t know that Jesus would even try to answer the question. He lived, you know, in a country that was occupied by the Roman army, but he never once said anything about it - whether he thought it was good or bad, right or wrong.

Instead of just taking a position on what IS, what Jesus did was to teach his followers how to LIVE TOWARD WHAT CAN BE! In a world that is filled with war and violence, Jesus taught about how to live toward peace and reconciliation even with our enemies. Do you see what I’m saying? Jesus refused to be tied down into the DEATH all around, and instead aimed his living toward RESURRECTION. The most important reality of our lives is not the mess the world is in, but rather THE GLORY OF THE WORLD THAT GOD IS CREATING!

But you have to take off your grave clothes and put on your LIFE clothes in order to work toward the joyful world that is represented here at the table of the Lord.

I think what Jesus would do today – just like he did in his day - would be to try to show us what we can do, and how we must live to sow the seeds of peace and life. In the not too distant future, we will be talking about another campaign similar to the Christmas in July project. But instead of sending care packages to our soldiers (which, by the way, is a good thing to continue to do) we’re going to be putting together school supplies and soccer balls and all sorts of things for the children of Iraq. When Dick Kolasheski presented the idea to me he said, “I think the way to true peace over there will ultimately be by winning the hearts of the children. It’s the next generation we need to be thinking about.”

That sounds to me like something Jesus would say. Take off the grave clothes! Put on the life clothes! And start working toward the festival of God’s will when the shroud is lifted from all people, and the sheet is removed from all nations, and God wipes the tears away from every eye.

I think Jesus would want us today to study up on how enemies can move toward understanding, and how bridges can be built between people of different religions and different cultures. I think Jesus would hone in on showing us how to LIVE TOWARD PEACE, rather than settling for the inevitability of war and violence. You know, many people in our world have given up on the Middle East. They say, “It will always be that way!” So they put on the shroud, and pull up the sheet, and pronounce a few hundred million people Dead On Arrival.

But in the face of death, Jesus does not give in to it. Jesus knows that God did not create us to give up on our world or each other. So Jesus goes to Lazarus’ tomb and calls him out. And then he says, “Take off the grave clothes!”

And there’s a personal lesson in all this, too. Our Christian Faith is a global and social faith that is about world affairs, but it is also intensely local and personal.

There are people here today, for instance, who live with the shame of a mistake made, a sin committed, a responsibility not kept. It goes with you everywhere you go, even to church. It’s a constant burden on your soul. It’s like wearing a shroud, and being covered with a sheet.

If you are such a person today, listen carefully to the words of Isaiah, “The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the shame of his people from all the earth.”

This table before is God’s promise that your shame has been removed by the grace of God! When you eat the bread and drink the wine, you do so in celebration of being set free from shame. So change your clothes today! Take off the grave clothes! Put on the clothes of LIFE and leave here today as a new person, with a slate wiped clean by God, and a brand new start for living the life God wants you to have! You are forgiven! You have important work to do! You are set free to LIVE as a child of God!

Oh, what a party this table represents!

Hope for the world! Removal of guilt and shame! And a reunion of the saints.

When we celebrate Thanksgiving in just a few weeks, many of us will go through the experience of remembering who’s missing from around the table. The longer we live, the more empty seats there are around us, aren’t there? And each empty seat reminds us of one of the saints – mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children, friends. Who will be missing from around your table this year?

But this table – the Communion table – is different. It is not the table from which loved ones are taken away, but rather a table to which our loved ones come each time we gather. Listen:

“On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich foods for ALL peoples, a banquet of aged wine – the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken.”

So come and join the saints at the table today!

Take off the grave clothes!

Put on the life clothes!

And leave here today with the God who loves you more than you can imagine, and go and live and work toward the day we will gather with our loved ones and all people on the mountain of the Lord!!

Oh, what a party it will be!