Sermon for "Festival of All Saints"
Saint John 11:17-27

A wealthy Texas Oil Tycoon died after a protracted illness. His Attorney gathered together his entire family for the Reading of the Last Will and Testament. All had come from far and wide to see if they were included in the bequests. For Cousin Willie, the time had come at last for the fulfillment of his hopes and dreams - or so he thought. The Lawyer ceremoniously opened the Will and began to read …

To my Sister, Nancy, I leave my 3000-acre ranch.

To my Brother, George, I leave my Bank with all seventeen of its branches.

To my Brother-in-law, Henry, I leave my Oil Stocks.

To my Uncle Stanley, I leave my High-rise Building in Houston.

And finally, to my Cousin Willie, who always wanted to be remembered in my Will, "Hi Willie!"

In an old "Peanuts" cartoon comic strip, Charlie Brown is watching a Golf Match on TV …

The Announcer is saying, "All right, fans, this is it. The last day of the match. The old Pro has to make this one. He's down to the last putt, and he can't play it safe. He has to go for it. There's no tomorrow!"

Little Sally walks in just in time to hear the last part: "There's no tomorrow!" and she panics. She runs out screaming to all the kids, "They've just announced on TV that there's no tomorrow. Run! Hide! Flee to the Hills! Run to the Rooftops!"

In the last panel, the whole gang is huddled together on top of Snoopy's Doghouse. Linus is holding his security blanket and he's saying. "Somehow I never thought it would end this way."

There are times when the voices of doom and gloom begin to get to us. And we begin to wonder if there will be a tomorrow. There are even voices within ourselves that begin telling us to flee to the hills in despair. And then comes the Lord Jesus, saying, in today's Gospel Reading, in effect, "Do not fear! Tomorrow will come, I promise you!"

Today's Gospel Episode takes place in the City of Bethany where Jesus' friend, Lazarus, has died. The Apostle John tells us that "Many had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother." Then Jesus arrives, and Martha says to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now, I know that God will give you whatever you ask of Him." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again … I am the Resurrection and the Life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" Martha replies, "Yes Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world. (John 11:19-27).

At the center of our being, both as individuals and as a people, we know that there is a tomorrow, and that it is full of hope, full of promise, and full of assurance that, by the Resurrection Power of God, we are bound for glory in a new tomorrow.

The New Testament writers assure us, over-and-over again, that even when life's tragedies and calamities seem unbearable, there is always hope. There is a future for all of us because God is in our future.

We read in the Letter to the Hebrews, "Let us keep firm in the hope we profess," wrote the sacred Author, "Because the One who made the promise is faithful" (Hebrews 10:23).

Hope is a miracle of everyday life. In troubled times, hope is the anchor of the human spirit. Never let it slip from your grasp!

We are a people of hope. We live in the abiding hope that, in the Apostles Paul's words, "The One who began this good work in you will see that it is finished" (Philippians 1:6).

A woman in a Convalescent home was given a party to celebrate her one hundredth birthday. Her Pastor came to offer his congratulations. "Her mind was keenly alert," the Pastor said later. "A Reporter had come to interview her, and when he asked that high-spirited one-hundred-year-old woman. "Do you have any children?" she replied, without hesitation, Not Yet!"

Christianity is a "not-yet" Faith. Our full human potential is not yet realized. And so, we hope to grow, expect to grow. Our ability to love one another is not yet perfected. And so, we hope to improve, expect to improve.

We people of hope have been commissioned by God to share in the responsibility for carrying His work to completion. "My prayer," Paul has written, "is that your love for each other may increase more and more and never stop improving your knowledge and deepening your perception so that you can always recognize what is best" (Philippians 9:10).

The Apostle Paul has written, "…suffering brings patience, and patience brings perseverance. And perseverance brings hope.

And this hope is not deceptive because the Love of God has been poured into our hearts, through the Holy Spirit which has been given us" (Romans 5:3-5).

The following notice appeared in the window of a Coat Store in Nottingham, England …

We have been established for over one hundred years, and have been pleasing and displeasing customers ever since.

We have made money and lost money. We have suffered the effects of flawed rules and regulations. We have been cussed and discussed. We have been lied to, held up, robbed and swindled. And the only reason we survive in business is to see what happens next.

It keeps us hoping in a new tomorrow.

What a great day it will be when our love for the Lord, who gives us hope, makes us secure enough and sensitive enough and aware enough to give others an abiding hope that they will become the uniquely beautiful persons God has created all of us to be.

Cling to hope! It is a miracle of everyday life. The Church needs, and the world needs, people of hope.

William Jennings Bryan beautifully expressed his feelings about everyday life in these words …

Some Religious skeptics say, "Oh the miracles? I can't accept miracles" And yet …

One may drop a brown seed in the black soil and up comes a green shoot. You let it grow and by-and-by, you pull up a root and find it red. You cut the root and you find it has a white heart. Can anyone tell how this comes about? How brown, cast into black, results in green, and then red, and white? Yet we eat our radish without troubling your mind over miracles.

My dear friends! On this All Saints Sunday, Every day is a miracle of our God-given life that sustains our hope.

Every day is a miracle in which the Resurrection Power of God transforms sorrow into joy and death into New Life!

CLING TO HOPE IN THE PROMISES OF CHRIST!

Thanks be to God!!!!! Amen!!!