Revelation 7:9-17; Matthew 5:1-12 Remembrance Sunday 11 5 17

We have a difficult time talking about death. When someone we know dies,
there is a tendency to talk about the event in terms that feel gentler: She passed on.
He transitioned. They went to be with God. The underlying hope is that by using
softer language, the pain will not be as deep. As you and I know, the more we
experience the grief associated with death, there is no way to ease the pain just with
the words we happen to choose to name the end of life. As people of faith, we rely
on Gods presence and Gods blessing to overcome the worst moments after a death.
When we are isolated by loss / devastated by the absence of the one we love,
we feel just that: an absence. It may feel like an emptiness or dis-ease, a gaping hole
or an abyss. This is especially true after a death. However that absence hits us, no
one person can heal it. The scripture Anne read from the Revelation to the apostle
John, tells us that coming together with others enables us to be aware of Gods
presence. The revelation depicts scads of people coming from all corners of the earth
for the purpose of being in Gods presence. There is no limit to who gets to be in
Gods presence literally everyone is there from disparate backgrounds, experiences
and nations, from all tribes and tongues. This image brings to mind that Jesus said,
Where two or three are gathered, there I am in the midst of them. Gods presence
is more evident when we get together. The absence of the loved one is eased, (even
if it is only a moment. It is eased by Gods presence in the gathering. Then, the
scripture says, God will lead them and shepherd them, and wipe away every tear from
their eyes.

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 The other experience we have in the midst of grief, is the thinking that we are
being unjustly punished by having this person taken away. We question whether we
should have done something different, wrestle with feelings or thoughts of guilt, and
wonder why fate or God or mother nature has turned a cold shoulder toward us. We
feel almost cursed by bad fortune / singled out to suffer for some unknown cosmic
reason. Jesus looked out on the crowd that gathered around him. He saw how many
losses of all kinds that they were experiencing. He had compassion for them and
chose to reassure them in a very particular way. He said, you are blessed when your
spirit is depleted, you are blessed when you grieve, you are blessed when you are
persecuted, and you are blessed when you dont think you have a voice. God is not
part of depleting your spirit, or making you mourn, or handing out punishment. God
is about blessing you when your world is upside down. God brings a blessing of
wholeness/Shalom into the chaos.
I invite you to take a moment now to remember someone significant to you
who has died. It can be a recent loss, or one from a long time ago. You can close your
eyes... Close your eyes. Open your hands on your lap to imagine their hands in
yours... Inhale deeply. And exhale. Sit for a moment in your remembering. //
As you are holding this person in your heart and mind, I will remind you that
there are others here. Our gathering reassures us that God is present. You are not
alone. //
As you are holding this person in your heart and mind, I will remind you that
God is blessing you because you are grieving. God blesses you today. God blesses
you every day that there are tensions or tears.

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 Now I invite you to bring your remembrance to a different place. Open your
eyes, and bring your memories of your loved one to this table. Imagine they are in
this place, sharing this experience of remembering Jesus and his loved ones. See
them as part of Gods presence here filling you, and as part of Gods blessing making
you whole. This is what we mean when we talk about the communion of saints. It is
a timeless gathering where God is fully present, and the people who gather from
north and south and east and west, all of us, are blessed.
Amen.

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Prayer of Dedication
Let us pray: Eternal Spirit, we dedicate all that we have to your tender care. You
provide all things for us so we lack for nothing. We follow you to the still waters, and
receive your divine comfort. Your loving-kindness blesses all creation, and so we give
you thanks and praise. Amen.

Invitation
It is worth repeating: No matter who you are or where you are on lifes journey, you
are welcome here. That applies to worship, fellowship, leadership and especially to
this table. Jesus extends the invitation it is not mine or this congregations or the
denomination or even Christians. It is Jesus alone who invites you as he invited all our
ancestors and will invite all who are to come after us. This is a gathering of a cloud of
witnesses to the marvels that God does in us and through us.

Great Thanksgivine
The Lord be with you

O Lord our God, We thank you

For the many people throughout the ages who have followed your way of life.
For those you led out of slavery, across the desert and the sea, to a promised land.
For the prophets, kings and everyday people who struggled to hear your voice
For your many saints and martyrs, men and women, who offered up their very lives,
so that your life abundant may become manifest.

O Lord, we thank you for Jesus who became our Christ,

and the truth he gave to us:
That it is by giving that we receive;
by becoming weak that we shall be strong;
by loving others that we shall be loved;
by offering ourselves that your kingdom shall unfold;
and by dying that we shall inherit life everlasting.

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We thank you, O God, and we especially honor the memory
those individuals of this congregation who have lived among us
and shared their faith in personal ways,
who have finished the race and now reign on high with you.
We honor the memory of those who have graced our lives at other times
and in other ways
Who are present with us around your table,
whose names we lift up before you now in our hearts and aloud:

For all the saints who from their labours rest,

Who you hold in your eternal embrace, we humbly pray, Amen.

Distribution
Knowing that he would be leaving them soon,
Jesus sat at a table with those closest to him.
He gave them a way to recall their memories of him in their midst
a way that they could see, hear, touch and taste

Prayer after Communion

Let us pray: For the saints in our lives, for the bread at this table, and for your
steadfast love, we give you thanks, O Lord. May we serve you as our ancestors did,
seeking out the lost and lonely, befriending the friendless, feeding the hungry and
comforting those in grief. We turn to you, willing to serve in the days ahead. Amen.

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Revelation 7:9-17

After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count,
from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before
the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their
hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, Salvation belongs to our God who
is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb! And all the angels stood around the
throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their
faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing, Amen! Blessing and glory
and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God
forever and ever! Amen.

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, Who are these, robed in white,
and where have they come from? I said to him, Sir, you are the one that
knows. Then he said to me, These are they who have come out of the great
ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day
and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter
them. They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike
them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be
their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God
will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Matthew 5:1-12
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain;
and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.
Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be
filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil
against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in
heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.