St. Peter Lutheran Church
2929 F.M 972 (at F.M. 1105)
Walburg, Texas 78626
Office: (512) 863-
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Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ
Last Updated:
Oct.29, 2018
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St. Peter Lutheran Church at Walburg, Texas
2018 -
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."
And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.
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Everyone talks about "a good death." From Socrates drinking poison to the latest action film where the secondary character sacrifices himself for the good of others, we all admire good and noble death. This is what makes Jesus' death so strange. He does not face it with stoic resolve, but pleads with God "to take away the cup" (Luke 22:42, Matthew 26:39) and seems to declare that His death is painful to him by asking why God has left Him there to die (Matthew 27:46). What gives? Did Jesus not get the memo about how to die a heroic death?
Yet the more we think about it, it seems like we are the ones who are in error. I've never met a person who was happy to die. We say trite things about funerals and good lives and noble causes, but at the end of the day we would give anything to be with that person once again. The Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, writes "Do not go gentle into that good night./ Rage, rage against the dying of the light." Death is not beautiful and we know deep in our hearts that human beings were not created to taste it. We come up with platitudes and reasons for "a good death," but death is always wrong. Telling ourselves "pleasant fictions" will not save us from this truth.
It is to this that Christ confesses. Sin and death have robbed us from being with God and manufacturing philosophies that end with the grave is ultimately giving into something that was never God's plan.
In All Saints Day we confess that sin and death are frightful enemies, but that Christ overcame death (Hosea 13:14, 1 Corinthians 15, 1 Peter 3:18) and we who lay hold of him realize what God already knows, death is not the end for those in him (John 3:16, Hebrews 2:14, 1 John 5:5). As we enter into "All Saints Day" we know that though death has separated us from our loved ones, Christ has reunited us with God (Romans 8). And where we find God, we will find his people too. There has only been one good death and that was the death that removed death forever (1 Corinthians 15:55) and makes all things new.
Pastor Phil
Remembering All Saint’s Day:
Life in Christ, Before & After the Grave