Tears and Joy
II Corinthians 6:3-10
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
Harry G. Winsheimer
November 2, 2008
All Saints Sunday

This is All Saints Sunday.   It is a day that may bring tears to the eyes of some of you.  That is okay.  Today we remember.  Remembering is vital to our emotional and spiritual health.  I have enough chronology to have said farewell to all of the generations before me in my family, and to two of my generation.  The spirit of the day is tender. 

I think of many saints whom I have known.  I have conducted about 700 funerals, many for people whom I barely knew.  Some were saints who blessed me, some were my friends in the faith.  We served the Lord together.  We were partners in Christ’s church.  One of them was Van Keriakos.  Van was an active elder of the church when he became ill.  He was vibrant.  He volunteered with the retired Air Force group.  After retiring, he dropped off his wife in downtown Washington, DC, and often came to the church to volunteer.   As one person said, “He did everything around the church, except mop the floor.  And, he probably did that.”  He was a Stephen Minister, served on and chaired the Sacraments Committee, helped in the library, taught Sunday School, was a deacon for years, and an elder on the session when I came to the church. 

Van was one of those people who wore well around the congregation.  Jesus said of Nathaniel that he had no guile in him; I am sure that he said the same of Van.  Van had a faith that was strong and permeated his being, causing him to be positive.  He had firm confidence in the Lord.  He was a loving person, gracious with people, always affirming church staff and volunteers.  You could be having a downer of a day in the church office, and Van would walk in and lift your spirit, just be being pleasant and positive and listening.  My administrative assistant encouraged me to read several scriptures at his funeral that spoke of love – love was Van.  For the two years that he fought cancer, he remained Van. When I conducted his funeral, I could say, “He was a saint.”  When we placed his cremains into the ground of Arlington National Cemetery, I had to discipline myself to do my role with composure.

If Van could hear me now, he would be squirming over my praising him.  He would want us to talk about God, his family, and other people.   Really, more than praise him; I thank God for the memory of him.

I think of others who have walked with me, or who have crossed my life.  There are a few whom I could have done without.  All are threads in my life’s tapestry.

I wish that we were sitting in a family room, balancing a cup of coffee, and sharing the stories of people who make up your tapestry.  I would love to hear about them. 

One who is very important to me is the Apostle Paul.  I suspect that I would have found him to be driven compulsively, and therefore, I would have been uncomfortable around him – maybe feeling a little guilty that I am not as driven to share the Gospel.  In other respects, I think that he was such a loving and generous person that I would have felt very welcome near him.  He understood grief.  He understood pain.

I have chosen four of his words for the theme of the sermon, but I need to read the context.  The Apostle Paul wrote of himself and the infant Christians in the city of Corinth.  II Corinthians 6:3-10

We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute.

We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see – we are alive;  as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Paul emphasized how hard he tried to present Jesus Christ to the people of Corinth by living in a winsome way.  What struck me was the suffering through which he went, the effort he put forth, the willingness to deny self-advancement and pleasure for the sake of Christ and for the sake of the people.  He wanted that much for them to know Christ!  The other quality that impressed me, and is the reason for reading and commenting on this passage, is the contrasts.  He lists several negative, painful experiences.  Yet, the spirit of his message is upbeat!  He holds two seemingly contradictory emotions.

In his lists of contrasts held at the same time is one that is startling: sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.  We normally don’t put those two together. 

I have conducted funerals and ministered to the families of the dead for almost 47 years.  Experience taught me to read grief language, verbal and body.  I walk into a room after the death of a person, and can feel the quality of the relationship with the deceased.  A healthy relationship with mutual love and respect is expressed in the contradictions of grief and thanksgiving, tears and smiles, wails and stories.  The Apostle has that healthy ability to hold together both joy and sorrow.

He feels sorrowful.  He does not pretend.  He does not deny reality to feel good.  …afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger… – that’s real.

If today you find yourself grieving over someone who died over the past year, or an old grief erupting, give yourself permission to grieve.  Give each other time to grieve -- grief takes time.  It influences our emotions for months and may pop up for much longer than that.  Certain days, certain things, certain places, certain activities may jerk our mind into grief. 

Do grieve.  Kenneth Haugk wrote:
It’s important to let yourself grieve even if you’re someone who is usually very stoic or nonexpressive.  You don’t need to become highly sensitive or dramatic if that isn’t in your nature.  But do let yourself feel your loss as much as you can and find ways to deal with your painful feelings that fit who you are.  You don’t need to relate this way to all people at all times---I was selective with whom I would share my grief [after my wife’s death].  But in the long run, allowing yourself to grieve is much healthier and less painful for you and for those you love than trying to be strong and keep everything bottled up inside. 

True strength doesn’t mean being unemotional and fiercely independent.  It’s letting yourself be human, recognizing your own limitations, and allowing others to help you when you really need it.

Be strong in the true sense of the word by letting yourself grieve.

The Apostle grieved.  In his first letter to the church in Thessalonica, he wrote that he did not want Christians to grieve as others do who have no hope.  We may re-phrase it: Grieve as those who have hope.  I Thessalonians 4:13  Also, Jesus wept when he was told that his good friend Lazarus had died. 

Grieving is part of God’s healing prescription.
 
Grieve --- and rejoice.

The Apostle also feels the emotion of joy – always rejoicing.  His joy did not grow out of the soil of a prosperous, pain-free, adulation-filled, successful life.  His joy was rooted in Jesus Christ.  It germinated with his conversion on the road to Damascus, and flourished as the mature faith that was expressed in writings that we read two millennia later.  He was so focused, had such a sense of purpose for his life as a missionary for Jesus Christ, that he would suffer for Christ.  The suffering was only a road bump on the way to telling the story of what God had done in Jesus Christ and would do in their lives.  Jesus Christ was important.  Paul was his messenger.  What happened to himself along the way really did not amount to much.  That the message get told was supremely important!  When people got it, he felt even more joy. 

Have you heard someone say when they had lost a dear one, “I am thankful that we had her while we did”?   It sounds hollow maybe.  Maybe sounds as if the person is trying to feel better by saying it.  That may be true.  Also, the person really may feel thankful.  Our emotions may be volatile and may oscillate.  Resentment-type grief may be felt over the loss of the person.  This is the feeling of having someone stolen from us, and being cheated of our anticipated future.  The other is gratitude for having had the presence of the person for as long as we did.  It is thanksgiving.  It is a sense of being blessed while the person was around.  That sense of blessing and gratitude is rejoicing. 

The Apostle rejoiced, because of his mission as the missionary for Jesus Christ.  He rejoiced over the good fortune of his converts.  He had another reason to rejoice of which he wrote extensively.

He anticipated that his God-given destiny was to be with Christ in glory.  We have orchard owners here today.  We live among fruit trees here in Adams County.  We can understand the Apostle’s image.
Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. 

…for as all die…so all will be made alive in Christ.  But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits [the first ripe apples or first peaches to ripen], then at his coming those who belong to Christ.  [In our time, we will ripen; we will be re-created; we will be made alive.  We will join Christ in heavenly glory.] 
I Corinthians 15:20-23

That is our future!  Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!  16:57  That’s reason to rejoice.

Summation:

So, on this All Saints Sunday, grieve and rejoice.  Cry and thank God for the person and life you miss.  Look back with regret that the person died, and rejoice that you had him or her.  And keep in mind that there is more road ahead.  Your journey is not finished.  Your work for God is not over.  God wants to walk with you.  Proceed with God.  Travel each day with the Lord.  Travel in the hope of resurrection to join your beloved in the great communion of saints around the throne of our Lord in eternity.

Return to the Sermons Menu