Dying and Living in Jesus – sermon on November 8, 2015
John 6: 37-40 Jesus said: “Those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.”
Romans 6: 3-9 Have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him.
Sermon: Dying and Living in Jesus by Reverend Doreen Oughton
So for the observance of All Souls Day, the lectionary suggests these texts to ponder – John 6, with Jesus’ discussion of how those the Father has given him will come to him and will be raised up to eternal life; and Paul’s letter to the Romans, in which he explains that we believers have, in a way, died with Christ so that we may be raised with him to eternal life. Of course all this talk of eternal life goes with the theme of All Saints and All Souls Days, that we have confidence that our loved ones have been or will be given eternal life, as will we. In our bible study group this week we struggled a bit with the passage from John because Jesus seems to put conditions on those who will be raised up – it will be those who believe in him. So of course the question came up, what of those who don’t believe in him? Surely we count among our loved ones those who are non-Christian. Perhaps we know Buddhists, Muslims, or Jews; Wiccans, SBNR’s (spiritual but not religions), agnostics or atheists. Will they not be raised up to eternal life? Will they be left behind in eternal death? I really struggled with this sermon as well, because I just want to say flat out – “No!” I want to find a context in which to interpret it to say something different – add a few words here and there to add conditions to those conditions. But I have taken vows to preach the Word of God, not the word of Doreen. Of course it is filtered through my perspective, my heart and mind, but that doesn’t mean I can just dismiss something I am uncomfortable with. And so there it is. Jesus says that those who see him and believe in him will be raised to eternal life; and this will include everyone that the Father gave to him.
That’s an interesting phrase, isn’t it – everyone given to Jesus by the Father. I wonder what that means – how they were “given” to Jesus, and how much he knows about who was given. I think of the stories of Jesus’ evolution in the understanding of his mission – especially his interaction with the Syrophoenician woman, the one he informs that he came for the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and he will not throw bread to the dogs. She challenges him and he understands that he came for more than the children of Israel. In other scripture passages, both Hebrew Scripture and New Testament, we hear that God is God of all, that God intends for all nations to know and worship and be ruled by God. And Jesus reminds us that he has come to do God’s will.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells his disciples to go make more disciples in all nations, and commands them to baptize people in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Paul picks up on one of the meanings of baptism in his letter to the Romans. He says that in baptism they have died with Christ. So clearly he is not talking about death as we typically understand it, the end of life in this physical world. No, he says we are dead to sin – that sin no longer has power over us, simply because we are baptized. What do you think? … If we take that to mean that once we are baptized we no longer sin – we no longer miss the mark or move away from God – of course we can all think of plenty of examples that contradict this idea. So what might it mean? Perhaps Paul is reminding people of who they are – encouraging them to stop acting in ways contrary to that, as you might say to someone who has been uncharacteristically unkind or judgmental – “that doesn’t sound like you – you’re bigger than that!” Or it might be a way of saying sin won’t have the last word, no matter how it looks in the meanwhile.
But I love that Paul talks about death before death. I love the idea that we have a chance to practice dying while we are still alive. We have the chance to practice letting go of our preoccupation with these mortal bodies and recognize that they are not the truest thing about us. They will not be part of our eternal life – we will transcend them. Eternal life is the life of the Spirit, and Jesus has taught us how to live according to the Spirit. In the first reading he makes it all about belief in him, but I believe he is not talking about belief as mental affirmation, but about living in his vibration, which is pure love. Perhaps it is our preoccupation with our bodies – our safety, our comfort, our health – that presents a huge obstacle to living more spiritually. And our loved ones have transcended this and are more free to live in the vibration of pure love whether or not they “believed” in Jesus while their souls were embodied. I don’t know. (Re-member)
But I believe that their Spirits do live, and that our prayers and remembrances are sweet to them, possibly helpful on their continued spiritual path, and, I believe, certainly helpful to us – to remember and draw on their wisdom, their love, whatever faith they had that shaped or inspired us. Let us follow their lead and practice dying while we live, and perhaps even find our eternal life has already begun. May it be so.
