"The Light at the End of
the Tunnel" based on 1 John 3:1-3
All Saints Day -
Pastor Troy Slater - Our
It's time for one of those childhood
confessions. You know, one of those that
mom's just love to hear about some thirty years later. And I'm going to start off by saying I never
claimed to have been the smartest child while growing up. But my brother and I, we liked to do quite a
bit of exploring. Well, living in what
was at that time a new part of Hays, we had a newly installed underground storm
drainage system in our neighborhood. You
know the kind with the grates along the road that the gutters feed rain water
into which then takes the water to a ditch or something. Well, for a couple of eleven, nine year olds,
that system, it was just begging to be explored. And so being a couple of "bored"
grade schoolers out on summer vacation, down we
went. Took off the manhole cover,
dropped down the four feet or so into the square, concrete basin and then after
probably a couple of dares and gathering our courage or stupidity or whatever
you want to call it, off we went into the dark two or two and a half foot in
diameter concrete drain pipes. Now, we
had a pretty good idea where these pipes would take us - a ditch down at the
bottom of a hill about a quarter a mile away or so. And that is in fact where it did take us - we
did make it out of our little exploration unscathed. But I will never forget that feeling I had as
we got in there a couple hundred feet or so and we looked back and could see
nothing but absolute darkness and ahead was nothing
but the same. There for a while we
started wondering if maybe this had forked off and we were crawling to who
knows where. And so
our pace slowed up a bit and the pipe that we were in seemed to squeeze in
around us. But after a bit -
seemed like a mile of crawling on our knees - we saw just a glimmer of
light. And that glimmer grew and as it
grew our pace quickened and the pipe didn't seem to be quite as cramped and
squeezing in on us as it did before we saw the light. For us that light at the end of the tunnel -
it made all the difference. It calmed
our fears, it quickened our pace. It
made all the difference. …
But I don't think you have to crawl
down into a storm drainage system to know what a difference a light at the end
of the tunnel can make. When the world
seems so dark, like you'll never again laugh or smile quite like you used to, you
need a light there at the end of that dark tunnel. When life feels like it's pressing in around you,
like you're heading down the wrong path, you need a light at the end of the
tunnel to give you a little hope. We can
all use a light at the end of the tunnel to keep us going and let us know we'll
make it. The parents whose child needs
special assistance; the family with the loved one off fighting a war; the
business man or woman who is struggling to keep things afloat; the grandmother
who's receiving cancer treatments; the widow in mourning. As we face our individual and family
struggles; as our churches struggle; as we look around and find a world that
seems to be heading further and further down the path of self-destruction, we
need a light there at the end of the tunnel.
We need a light - even if it's just a glimmer. ….
And so thanks
be to God, thanks be to the God who makes saints out of sinners, today we have
a light. On this All Saints Day the Lord
God gives us a glimpse of a light at the end of the tunnel.
Although I
suppose we ought to be careful for sometimes that light at the end of the
tunnel, it can be a train, can't it? A train heading right at you. And so yes, we must be careful. And that's true even when we are speaking of
God. For the truth is that God's light,
and even just a glimpse of it, it will expose the truth. In Psalm 90, Moses wrote, "Lord … we are consumed by your anger
and terrified by your indignation. You
have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your
presence." And then in the
Gospel of John, Jesus says, "Everyone
who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that
his deeds will be exposed."
The truth is that God's light exposes all, even our secret sins. The truth is that God's light,
it exposes who we are and what we have done.
And so the light that we see today, well it could very well be a train
that's coming in the form of God's present and eternal punishment upon us whose
deeds God sees. …
Could be, but
it isn't, is it? Not that we don't
deserve it, but it isn't. For today we
hear that for those in Christ, those baptized believers whose robes have been
washed white in the blood of the Lamb, today we hear that the light at the end
of the tunnel is not God in judgment against us, rather we hear that it's God
in His mercy and grace for us. The good
news for you and for me - us living in this land of darkness - the good news is
that your sin is forgiven. The good news
today is that Christ Jesus gives to you His very body and blood given and shed
on
And as children of God - there is a
bright, shining light at the end of the tunnel.
As children of God there is a heavenly Father working all things
together for the good of His children. As
children of God there is a light to our path, a victory for our battles, forgiveness for our sin.
As children of God there is a light that shines into our lives - even
into the darkest corners, even when we're afraid we've gotten lost, even when a
dark world is pressing in around us. For
children of God, there is a light called God's grace that even outshines the
grave - that darkest of places. …
This morning
during our prayers, as a part of our All Saints Day observance we will remember
before God those saints of this congregation who departed this life over the
past twelve months. We will give thanks
to God for them and we will pray for hope and comfort for those who mourn their
deaths. But for those dearly departed,
at least from a human perspective, death and darkness appear to have written
the final pages of their story as their bodies lie buried, right? The grave trumpets a cry of "victory!" Darkness appears to have extinguished the
light in their lives.
But today we remember - for those
dearly departed whom we will name and for all of those who have died in the
faith - today we remember that in the end, an entirely different ending will be
written. And not just for them, but also
for us. For our Savior has defeated the
grave, having risen from it on that first, bright Easter morning. Our Savior has won the victory over Satan,
forever earning the forgiveness of all our sin.
Christ is risen, just as He said! Christ is risen!
And baptized into Christ, where He
goes, His people go. Baptized into
Christ, what He is, His people become; you become; those who have departed in
the faith become. In our reading John
writes, "Dear friends, now we are
children of God - now - right now we are children of God - and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we do know that when He appears, we shall
be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." In other words, right now we can see the
light that Christ gives, but it's still just a glimmer, isn't it? And even then it's only seen by faith. For until the day of Christ's return we still
have so much darkness, both around us and in us. And so really we can't even comprehend the
full magnitude of the brightness of the glory that Jesus has won for us. I mean, we can't even begin to imagine a life
where there is no more sin and suffering, tears, death. We can't even begin to imagine having bodies
like Christ's glorified body. We can't
imagine it. And so while we do know for
example that as Christ is holy we shall be holy; while we do know that as Christ
is immortal, we shall be immortal, still, "what
we will be has not yet been made known to us." We can't comprehend the glory that awaits
us, the glory that the souls of our dearly departed in the faith, experience
even right now.
But we do know that there is a light
at the end of the tunnel. We can see
it. Through faith, we can see it. As we gather around our Lord's table, as we hear His word of absolution pronounced upon us,
as we see yet another child of God being made through the waters of Holy Baptism,
we can see that light. And we know that
while it may be only a glimmer right now, it's what we need. It's what we need to calm our fears; it's
what we need to quicken our pace as we journey through the darkness to our
heavenly home. It's what we need to strengthen
us and sustain us as we get squeezed in by the world. It's what we need and so it's what our God
has given us. He's given us that light
at the end of the tunnel - He's given us Jesus Christ our Lord and our
Savior. Amen.