All Saints Sunday (MPLS)

Revelation 21:1–6a

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”

John 11:32–44

When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

‘Text Message’ Reflection:
From Pastor Meta Herrick Carlson

My pastoral colleague and friend Rev. Matthew Fleming just published a book about Revelation. It’s part memoir and part wonder for John’s vision—a fantastical tale we will never be able to nail down or explain succinctly.

Matthew grew up in a fundamentalist, evangelical tradition that had him steeped in a particular interpretation of Revelation, so the book chronicles some of his unlearning and new learning about these chapters—and what they might mean for readers all these years later.

My framework for reading Revelation is to remember that the horrible monsters and the overwhelming evils described never get the last word. Every stress cycle returns to the Throne Room where the Lamb of God gets the last word. When we think the worst thing is the end of everything, we are swept back into the heart of God where all of creation is renewed, wild and holy, healed and whole.

This passage is my favorite selection from the book of Revelation. It reminds me in the trenches of this life—when sorrow and grief and loss and uncertainty have me in their snares—that this doesn’t get to be the end. And in fact, the end is the beginning.

This sounds like especially good news on All Saints Sunday. I want to believe in an edgeless table, a feast that never ends, a celebration of life that delights in the reunion of creatures and cosmos according to powers I cannot predict or control. I long for the mysteries of the Throne Room that surround us: both already and not yet.

‘Text Message’ Reflection Questions:

• What were you taught to believe about the book of Revelation?
• Who are you remembering this year on All Saints Sunday?

Prayer:
God of Life, we lean into your promises about life and love that last forever. Open the doors to the Throne Room a crack this week, that we might tune our ears to the songs heaven is singing and we might taste a morsel and sip from the feast that has no end. In Jesus’ name, Amen.