All Hallow’s Eve

The Comfort of Our Hope

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By Linda Rex

November 12, 2023, Proper 27 | After Pentecost—Today as I write this blog, my neighbors and friends are celebrating All Hallow’s Eve (Halloween). Here in America, this celebration has become a big deal, and is promoted vigorously by stores and other commercial enterprises, who sell anything from costumes, to food products, and of course, a wide variety of Halloween candy and toys.

Personally, I believe we do not want to celebrate or venerate evil or death. But we do want to be realistic about our human condition, which involves death and dying. In my life, lately, I have had to grieve multiple losses, and some of those losses have involved losing dear ones to death. Death is an evil that has been allowed into our human existence, and is something everyone of us has to face at some point. For some of us, death is something we’d rather not talk about or face. For others of us, it is something we have had to deal with more than once, and is a normal part of our existence.

When the apostle Paul wrote to the members at Thessalonica, he was answering questions about what happens to people when they die. In 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18, Paul wrote that he did not want the believers to be ignorant of what happens to people who are dead, whether spiritually or physically. He did not want the believers to feel hopeless or face death without some sense of comfort. So he reminded them of the central foundation stone of their faith—the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Using the euphemism of sleep, Paul showed that death was no longer their master. Because Jesus Christ took on our human flesh and died the death we all will one day die, death became something new. Jesus went into death and out the other side into new life, bringing our human flesh with him into a place of eternal life in face-to-face union with his Father in the Spirit. Death, then, is powerless in the face of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Death has lost its sting. It has no hold on us.

We find hope in the reality that all of humanity has died in Jesus and risen in Jesus. Because of this, as Jesus says in John 5:28b-29, “an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.” Because of Jesus, there will be a resurrection of every person.

What happens then will be determined by Jesus, for he has born all our sins and is offering to every person eternal life—knowing and being known by him and his Father, in the Spirit (Jn. 17:3). The writer of Hebrews says, “And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Heb 9:27-28 NRSV). Jesus has already dealt with sin through his death and resurrection. Now he is drawing all men to himself.

As we trust in Jesus, in the reality of our inclusion in his death and resurrection, we participate in his own face-to-face relationship with his Father in the Spirit. This means we begin, by faith, to experience eternal life in the Spirit even now, as a foretaste of what we will experience for all eternity. This union and communion with God through Jesus in the Spirit which we participate in even now by faith in Christ is what we will live in for all eternity—this is a gift. It cannot be earned.

And as a gift, our participation in Christ’s own relationship with his Father in the Spirit, is not automatic. As Paul explains in 2 Cor. 5:18-21, God has reconciled every person to himself in Jesus Christ, therefore each of us needs to, by faith in Christ, be reconciled to God. It is a relationship which requires participation by both sides. God has done all that is needed on his side. Now we embrace the gift given to us in Jesus and begin living it out by faith, participating in the reality of all he has done for us in his life, death, resurrection and ascension, and in the gift of the Spirit.

We stand with open hands, receiving this incredible gift given so freely, and begin living in the truth of it. And we live in the truth of that life now and on into eternity in Christ. Death has, indeed, lost its sting (1 Cor. 15:55). Death has no power over us any longer. In Christ, we have hope, and this is our comfort when faced with death and dying.

Heavenly Father, thank you for delivering us from death through your Son Jesus. Thank you that by your Spirit, we can live in the truth even now of the eternal life in face-to-face relationship with you offered to us through Jesus’ death and resurrection. We receive, by faith, your gracious gift and ask for the grace to live in the truth of who you have declared us to be—your very own beloved adopted children, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

“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

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The Lifting of the Veil

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By Linda Rex

Wednesday night I stood in front of the church building near the road with Maria, and later with Betty, so I could hand out candy and invite people in for cocoa and cookies. It was fun to see the kids in their costumes, and to appreciate the efforts of their parents to see that the kids were kept safe while they trick-or-treated.

I was reminded of how when I was a kid, my parents did not observe Halloween. We watched the kids go by, having left the lights off in the front of the house so they wouldn’t ring the doorbell. When we could sneak out, brothers and I liked to hide in the camelia bushes and ferns in front of the house so we could startle those who walked by. I don’t think we were ever very successful in our efforts, though.

My parents were diligent in their efforts to please God, and since they believed Halloween was a pagan holiday which celebrated darkness and evil, they didn’t want anything to do with it. I can appreciate their heart with regards to wanting to do what was right in God’s sight, but I have since learned that the Halloween we celebrate today is different than what was originally on the Christian calendar. Halloween was converted to Christian use in conjunction with All Saints’ Day.

All Hallow’s Eve (Halloween) occurs the night before All Saints’ Day, which occurs every year on November 1. All Saints’ Day is celebrated by many traditions as a day to honor faithful believers who have died. For example, the Episcopal Church in America says this feast commemorates all saints, known and unknown. They consider All Saints’ Day to be one of the seven principal feasts of the church year, and one of the four days recommended for the administration of baptism. Many churches celebrate All Saints’ Day the Sunday following November 1 rather than on that date which often falls in the middle of the week. All Saints’ Day is meant to be a time when believers celebrate the miracle of the resurrection, in that those who have already died are safely at home with Jesus because of what he did in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension.

The All Hallows’ Eve celebration which occurs the night before All Saints’ Day was originally intended to make a mockery of the powers of darkness and evil. Death has no real power any more because Jesus entered death and penetrated it down to its very core and exited the other side in glory, taking our human nature with him. The apostle Paul celebrated what Christ accomplished for us in 1 Cor. 15:20-22: “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.” We often read this section of Scripture at funerals because we need to be reminded of our hope.

We are freed from death’s power once and for all in and by Jesus Christ! As Paul wrote: “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:51-57 NASB).

There is a victory over sin and death which is ours in Jesus Christ. It is only right to celebrate the miracle of what Jesus has done for us. Death and sin have, in reality, reached their end—their time of influence and power are over, even though we still experience their effects in this life. The hurt that comes when we lose a loved one is real—we were not created for separation but for union and communion. But we must always remember, this life is not the end. It was never meant to be. In Christ and because of Christ, there is life beyond the grave.

The early Christians faced death often—they were persecuted, tortured, and martyred for their belief in Jesus. Yet even the weakest of them, and the women and children, bravely faced such horrific experiences because of their strong belief that in Christ, death wasn’t the end. Death, and the suffering which went with it, was only a door they would go through so they could once again be with Jesus. Even though death and suffering to us are horrific and awful, to those who trust in Christ they are merely passing birth pangs in preparation to our birth into our glorified humanity.

When I worked at the nursing home, death was part of the normal course of events. We cared for people, and when it was their time (and sometimes when it seemed it wasn’t), they moved on. Death for anyone left behind is not easy. We know death is a time to celebrate their new birth, not just to grieve our own loss. But it is still hard, and it is still painful.

Lately I have found myself unaccountably brought to tears or deep sadness. The truth is, I am grieving, and have been grieving for some time—grieving the loss of several very dear people and important relationships. Over the years I have lost my parents, grandparents, and my father-in-law, and some close friends. I have lost companions in the faith, and dearly loved members of my congregations. Each of these people held a special place in my heart and I miss them. My life has not been the same since they left. I have moved on, but I still feel their loss.

Sometimes we are angry with those who have left because they didn’t take better care of themselves, or because they left everything in a horrible mess, or because they were such an integral part of our lives, we don’t know how to go on without them. We feel guilty about being angry, but anger is what we must feel and deal with before we can move on. Death is a violation and an invasion of our peace and our safety, and such violations naturally create anger. We use that anger to deal with what is—the reality of our loss—and we, step by agonizing step—move on into a new place. We create a new existence which doesn’t involve those who are gone in the same way.

Halloween can remind us that evil, sin, and death are destined to come to a complete end because of Jesus. All Saints’ Day can remind us that moving on with our lives doesn’t necessarily mean we move on without those we love. The truth is we are all connected to one another in Jesus Christ. And that connection doesn’t end when someone dies. In reality, death cannot in any way separate us from one another, for we are all one in Christ and by the Holy Spirit. When Jesus took on our humanity, he did not only take on the humanity of good people. He did not just die bearing the humanity of good people. He took on every person’s humanity, becoming sin for us, in our place, on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Jesus in our place and on our behalf, stands in glory today, bearing our humanity—which has been cleansed and glorified. This is our hope, and our expectation, and our joy. This is what we celebrate!

Dear Abba, thank you that in the face of evil and death we have hope. Thank you that we can trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ to bring us beyond death into our new life in him. Thank you that you are with us in the midst of grief and sorrow and will carry us through our pain and loss into a new existence. We trust in your faithfulness and love, in Jesus and by your Spirit. Amen.

“The LORD of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain;/A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow,/And refined, aged wine./And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples,/Even the veil which is stretched over all nations./He will swallow up death for all time,/And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces,/And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;/For the LORD has spoken./And it will be said in that day,/‘Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us./This is the LORD for whom we have waited;/Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.’” Isaiah 25:6–9 NASB

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