Last week as I was preparing to write this message the siren of a fire engine wailed past our home and it brought back memories of the only house fire I've ever been involved in, the time our Minnesota farm house burned on a chilling October Sunday night in 1957.

          It had been a cold, wet and dreary fall, and Dad had done something that Sunday he'd never done before - he had gone out to work in the field.  He wanted to finish combining a few acres of soy beans before it was too late, so he went against his personal rule of never working in the field on a Sunday.  And that night our house caught fire.  Needless to say, he never did that again.  That night I learned it's not good to break a pledge you've made to the Lord!

          We had an old house and the fire started in worn electrical lines under some old clothes hanging in the basement.  The dense smoke would have smothered us all as we slept upstairs had not Mom awoke and screamed.  She was a bit hysterical so Dad covered her head with a towel and took her down the stairs.  My brother and I climbed out a window and jumped off the porch.  The house didn't burn completely, but the smell was around for months and its memories for a lifetime.  In recalling that night I remember the sound of my mother's cries as she saw flames burn through the roof.

          I think of things like that when I remember loved ones who are gone.  Today we're observing "All Saints Sunday."  A saint is one made holy by God's grace through faith, a Christian who lives for others, not just for self.  All Saints Day is November 1.  There have been many days set aside for certain saints, but the earliest choice of a day to remember all the saints was in 720 AD, when Pope Gregory III designated November 1.  On October 31, 1667, 150 years after Luther posted his 95 Theses, Duke John George II of Saxony designated November 1 the day to remember the faithful departed, and so we observe it today.

          All Saints Day is also "All Hallows Day", the day after "All Hallows Eve," Halloween, which was celebrated then much like we do today.  When Luther went to the church at Wittenberg that day, there were people getting ready to dress as goblins and ghosts and walk the streets begging for a handout, though with far more superstition than we have today.

          All Saints Sunday often brings a lump to our throats.  Memories of loving parents, faithful friends and good neighbors are a blessing to us all.  We're grateful when loved ones have faith in Jesus when they die, but their loss is always hard.  It's difficult to be left behind, even when you know the time has come and their departure is the best thing.

          Whether it's the loss of a loved one or loss of health, whether it's the breakup of a marriage or breaking a leg, we all have reasons to weep.  There's a myth that real men don't cry.  That's not true; men just don't like to let others see them do it.  In times of sadness women may weep, but men get angry.  After Mom died, my Dad would sometimes chase us out of his room if knew tears were coming.  He wasn't hiding them; he just wanted to be left alone.

          But praise God the day's coming when there'll be no more tears!  The Bible says in Revelation:  "Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst.  The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat.  For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water.  And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

          "No More Tears."  Johnson & Johnson's Baby Shampoo has made that motto a household phrase.  If you get it in your eyes, it won't sting.  I'm told it has to do with chemistry, that the right pH balance keeps eyes from stinging and tearing up.  Wouldn't it be great if we'd get the pH balance in the rest of our life so right that we'd all have no more tears?

          Some folks believe they already have.  They think that if we educate people right, life will be so good there'll be no more tears.  Or if you get the right things, you'll live happily the rest of your life.  But life will always give us something to cry about.  There are tears of joy after childbirth, and tears of relief after victory, as well as those at the death of a loved one, or from a senseless war, or when we lose our self-respect.  Christians in Sudan, Indonesia or Palestine well know the tears of injustice.  So long as we live in this world of sin, there will always be tears.  Blaming others will never keep away the pain life often brings us.  Only God can wipe away our tears.  Even Jesus wept, and He had good reason to.

          I once had a Confirmation student who, when told he actually needed to memorize his Confirmation memory verse, wanted to find the shortest one he could, so he picked John 11:35, "Jesus wept."  When he told me his selection I said, "Eric, if that's your reason, I think He just wept again."  In the end, he chose a more appropriate verse!

          Our Lord Jesus was a real man among real people, and He cried as He stood at the tomb of His dear friend.  But why, when He knew in just a few moments He'd raise him from the dead?  Perhaps He was genuinely sad or maybe because He saw others weeping.  That's a human thing, you know, to weep when others do.  Never be ashamed of your tears of sympathy.  It's a good part of what makes us truly human.  Tears often bless others, and they also clear our own eyes and settle our emotions far better than anything a doctor can prescribe.  Tears always help us see life more clearly.

          Jesus wept when He saw the people's hardness of heart.  He wept over Jerusalem when its people rejected Him, and He still weeps when He sees us today, wandering away from the truth.  Christ has great sorrow when children suffer or when His own dear brothers and sisters abandon Him for the delights of the world.  He also knows the heartbreak and sadness of unrequited love.  Paul told us to "rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn." (Romans 12:15)

          But thanks be to God that one day there'll be no more tears.  Here on earth, however, there will always be sadness, but not when we're with the Lord.  Our text also says, "These in white robes--who are they, and where did they come from?"  ..."These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

          These days the only time we see a group of people in white robes is on Confirmation Day, and, believe me, folks, those young people think they've been through the great tribulation!  Two long years of classes and hard assignments and memory verses!  And then writing and reading an essay, out loud in public.  That's tribulation!  But never fear young people, for God will take you through much greater trials than those and He will bring you through your struggles stronger in your faith.  Troubles should always make us stronger.

          To make something white by washing it in blood is an interesting metaphor.  When I want to wash something white, I'd better make sure everything else in the load is white.  I have a small book in my library, 101 Ways to Get Your Adult Child Out of the House. One suggestion is to wash their whites and "accidentally" drop in a red sweater.

          To make our laundry white, we shouldn't mix it with dark colors.  But God washes us clean in the blood of His Son, the Lamb, Jesus Christ.  1 John 1:7 says, "The blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."  Old Testament ritual laws required a sacrifice for the sins of people, and we know that Jesus was that sacrifice for us.  He fulfilled that requirement once and for all by shedding His blood on the cross as a sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins.  No longer does anyone or anything have to be sacrificed to pay for sins.  It's all been done.  Jesus Christ is the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." (John 1:29)

          I remember well the Sunday when our congregation was still worshipping in the mortuary chapel, the Sunday morning we discovered a body lying in state in an adjoining room.  There were a few snickers when I mentioned this in church, but everyone was respectful and understanding.  After the service I asked an usher what our attendance was.  "Seventy-four," he said, "not counting the guy in the other room."  That Sunday I recorded that our attendance was "74 souls and one body."

          In Missouri, the candidate for U.S. Senator leading in the polls is already dead, victim of a plane crash.  I wonder how many will still vote for him.  This Tuesday is Election Day, and you and I will have an opportunity to vote for those leaders and issues which represent our beliefs.  As you cast your ballot, I urge you to take a stand worthy of Christian principles.  The issues and candidates we choose will be with us for a long time, so vote for the people and issues that best agree with your biblical beliefs.  That's the best we can do, and it's what God would have us to do.

          It's an incredibly busy world we live in.  Last week I had breakfast with a friend who explained to me the need for long hours and many sacrifices if you want to make it in today's business climate.  He started his own company and isn't home as much as he should be.  I'm hoping he'll not regret having been gone while his children grew up.  It's vital to balance your work and family life.  Living only to work and make a lot of cash is a hard life, one that often brings tears of regret.  Take care, my friends, not to forget the important things of faith and love and joy and God.

          May God give us all faith and love and joy today as we remember those who have gone before us and now rest with Him.  May we all, through faith in Christ, join them one day in glory before His heavenly throne where there will be no more senseless war, no more personal problems, no more politics and no more tears.  What a day that will be!  Amen

Copyright © 2000 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.