Christ Among Us!

Easter Sunday

This day is the climax and capstone of the church year. Today we say, “Christ is Risen!” And we echo in reply, “Christ is Risen Indeed!” Hebrew-speaking Christians in Jerusalem say, “Ha Mashiyach qam!” Greek-speaking Christians say, “Christos Anesti (Χριστός ἀνέστη)!” Our grandparents in Russia-Ukraine might have said, “Christus ist auferstanden!” Our French-speaking neighbours when we moved to Canada said, “Le Christ est ressuscité.” I can still hear my Zimbabwean brothers and sisters sing out, “Namhla uvukile! Alleluia!”

All around the world we celebrate in every language the reality that Jesus overcame death and hell and has set us free. Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!

The Idea of Resurrection

What is “resurrection” anyway. Our words are too small to capture the enormity of this event. Lazarus was raised from the dead a few weeks before (John 11), but that just meant that he was alive again – as if he had never died. The resurrection of Jesus means much more than simply “brought back to the life we have on this earth.”

In the reading from John 20, Jesus refers to being glorified, taken into the heart of God and then returned to us in his risen state. When he meets others later in John’s gospel, he does not avoid physical contact. He has now been “glorified”, whatever that means, and stands before them in his risen glory. Resurrection means more than simply “made alive again”. What is that more?

Many think of earth and heaven as two spheres or realms, in which heaven is “up there” and earth is “down here”. Down here is earthly and real; up there is spiritual and only may be real. You can see this viewpoint in the way that we think about the coming of Jesus at the end of times. “Lo he comes with clouds descending …” Jesus will come down from heaven to earth: At least, that’s the way we think of it. He is “up there” now, and then he will be down here with us. You can see this viewpoint also in the way that we talk about what happens to us then, as well as what happens when we do. We will go “up to heaven” to live with Jesus “up there”. 

Of course, the NT uses this language. “You Galileans, why do you stand here looking into the sky. Jesus will come back in the same way as you have seen him go.” (Acts 1:11) But the New Testament also uses other language that suggests something other than this two-level kind of thinking with heaven and spiritual and God “up there somewhere” and earth and physical and real down here around us. The NT also speaks of a new heavens and new earth, something that is already present. It speaks of Jesus appearing, not simply coming back.

Consider the way Luke 17:30 puts it: “It will be just like this on the day that the Son of Man will be revealed …” You hear that note: When [Jesus] will be revealed. Jesus is here now, already, even though we cannot see him. In his second coming, he will be revealed and we will see the one who has always been here with us. Or as Hebrews 9:28 puts it, “Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” Again, John says in 1 John 2:28: “Now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.” Or John the Revelator’s picture of the judgment at the end of all things: “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence …” (Rev. 20:11).

The most common metaphor for all of this is that Jesus is “coming” again, but I have emphasised these particular texts to help us see that this does not mean Jesus is somewhere off in the sky and will come down to earth at the end. Rather, Jesus is here, and we will see him. He will step out from behind the curtain, and we will see him. He will take the veil from our eyes, and we will see him.

Paul does use the image of going up in 1 Thessalonians 4: 16 and 17: “The Lord himself will come down from Heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” But taken together with all the other passages, I suggest that Paul is trying to picture something beyond our comprehension and uses images to help us grasp its wonder and glory. I want to offer another image alongside Paul’s – not in place of it, but something to help us get inside of it.

 

As N.T. Wright has noted, we think of the End of all things as being the moment when the earth is destroyed and we go up to Heaven. Earth, we think, will be taken up into Heaven, but the book of Revelations suggests as different picture. I read from Revelations 20 earlier: “The earth and the heavens fled from [God’s] presence.” The next chapter elaborates on that picture in language borrowed from Isaiah 65 and 66: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. And there was no longer any sea.” This is the new creation. This is the creation as it was meant to be, and we live in it. Earth is not taken up into Heaven, but the New Heaven and the New Earth come down and swallow up the old creation with all of its faults. This old creation, full of sin and despair, flees from God’s presence, and we live in the New Creation, inaugurated by the resurrection of Jesus.

So What?

Where is this new creation? Out there somewhere at the end of time? Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is within you!” (Luke 17:21) Listen to the verses where Jesus said this: “Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, ‘The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say – Here it is, or There it is – because the kingdom of God is in your midst.’”

Do you get it? The resurrection is the inauguration of God’s Reign in the New Heavens and the New Earth. We don’t have to wait until the end of time for this new creation, because it is already here in us, in our congregation, in the gathered people of God, stuttering and stammering about, struggling to make it through, and already God’s Reign is here in us!

Wright suggests an image to describe this reality. Think of us as the characters in a play, with an audience that we can’t see because of the floodlights and action that goes on all around us beyond our senses. Then the curtain is raised, floodlights go off and the general lights come on, and we can see what is really happening. We have been on our own little corner of a much larger stage than we knew existed, and when the curtain goes up and the lights all come on, we see what has really been going on all along – the full reign of God in the new heavens and earth.

Really?

Life in the congregation of God’s People is not always easy. It is not always nice. We are not always kind to each other. The old creation lives on in our memories, and we act out of those memories all too often. But we really are a new creation, the promise of the resurrection. Paul says it, “If any one is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Our life together may be filled with failure and regret: In that respect, it’s a lot like the disciples’ experience with Jesus. That’s why Jesus died for them and for us. Jesus rose for them and for us. Jesus creates heaven and earth anew in them and in us.

The Texts

Look back at the texts that we read. Isaiah 25 draws the picture that I have been trying to describe:

On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the covering that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the LORD God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, “See, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

This is an image of the new creation, brought to us by the resurrection of Jesus! This is a picture of the fuller reality of God’s Reign, already here and yet still coming.

In John 20, we have the story that we have heard many times – Mary Magdalene (and some other women named in the other gospels) come to Jesus’ grave early in the morning; they find it empty, so Mary runs and tells Peter and John that the grave is empty. They run to the grave and find it empty, with the evidence left behind of Jesus’ graveclothes. Then Mary returns. She sees two angels who ask her why she’s crying; she replies that the grave is empty and she doesn’t know where Jesus’ body is. Then she sees Jesus, but doesn’t recognise him until he says her name, “Mary.” She falls at his feet, and he tells her not to touch him because he is on his way to the fullness of the Godhead. Mary then returned to the disciples and told them what she had seen.

The note about Jesus going to his Father – what I called “the fullness of the Godhead” – is a clue to the inauguration of the new creation: When Jesus is glorified, he makes all things new. But I note just one small point about this interaction between Jesus and Mary, decisive in helping us understand the new creation. Mary did not recognize the risen Lord until he said her name. She knew him because he knew her. At the very centre of the new creation, we see the reality of relationships.

I said that the new heavens and earth have already come, and that we find them in our midst. How do we find the beginnings of the new creation? Where is it? It is in our relationships – with God and with each other. The way that God cares for us and the way that we care for God. The way that you care for your brother or sister and the way that they care for you.

You remember the old TV show, “Cheers”? It was set in the bar where “everyone knows your name.” You sometimes find this kind of caring enveloping friendship outside of the church – quite often, in fact. It’s something that God has placed within us and wants to nurture in all of our lives, but we take it a step further in the church.

Remember Philippians 2: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others.” This is the mark of God’s Reign. This is the beginning of the new creation, brought in by Jesus’ death and resurrection. We take care of each other at the deepest most fundamental levels.

An old preacher’s story makes the point. A man dreamed that he had died and found himself standing before two doors. One door was marked as the way to Hell. It opened, and he saw a great banquet table filled with the best food and drink imaginable – just like the vision in Isaiah 25. But everyone seated at the table had only a spoon chained to their wrist, which was far too long to turn around and put into their mouths. They suffered forever straining to reach the bounty before them, forever going hungry.

He turned towards the other door, marked as the way to Heaven. It opened, and he saw a similar great feast, all the best food and drink available for the guests sitting at the table. He saw that they also had the same long spoons chained to their wrists, but they were all feeding each other. They enjoyed the banquet to the full as each one looked out for the interests of the other.

It’s a simple picture, but it is also true. Jesus’ resurrection inaugurates the new reality of God’s Reign in the New Heavens and the New Earth. We can step into that new creation as we embrace the reality of Jesus’ resurrection, a reality we see most clearly as we enfold each other in the love of Christ. The New Creation really is the place where everyone knows your name. God knows it, and God calls you and me by name, just as he spoke to Mary.

It’s true. Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!

Steinbach Mennonite Church

Easter Sunday 2024

Scriptures

Isaiah 25:6–9

⁶ On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. ⁷ And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the covering that is spread over all nations; ⁸ he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

⁹ It will be said on that day, “See, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

 John 20:1–18

The Resurrection of Jesus

20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. ² So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” ³ Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. ⁴ The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. ⁶ Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, ⁷ and the cloth that had been on Jesus’s head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. ⁸ Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed, ⁹ for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. ¹⁰ Then the disciples returned to their homes.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

¹¹ But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb, ¹² and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. ¹³ They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” ¹⁴ When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵ Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). ¹⁷ Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” ¹⁸ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and she told them that he had said these things to her.

 

Focus Statement

In the garden, when Jesus called Mary’s name, all things were made new. In a time when women were considered insignificant, the resurrected Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene, trusted her to be a reliable witness to his resurrection, and commissioned her to be the first to preach the good news of his resurrection. Since that day, social constructs and barriers are broken down, the shroud is lifted, and sins are forgiven. We are a new creation. Death is swallowed up, and life is everlasting! Alleluia, Christ is risen! Christ is among us!

Life after Death: The bread and butter of Christian Faith

Today we begin a three-part series on death and dying. I begin this morning, and Lee will develop the theme further in parts two and three. We conclude on the afternoon of November 22 with another “foodless faspa”.

One might say that the purpose of Christian living – indeed, of human living – is to learn how to die. Everyone who has gone before has lived and died. All of us in our turn will complete our lives by dying. It is the Christian belief that the hard passage of death, which is sometimes felt as a curse, is in fact God’s great gift to us. Death is the door to eternity, with the offer that eternity is filled with God, what one songwriter has called “the land without tears”.

If this is the case, then in Paul’s words we “walk in the resurrection”. We live the way God wants us to live now, because resurrection life is already bubbling inside of us. We explore this foundational idea this morning through two Scripture passages and ask what it means for the way that we live.

Job 19

These verses from Job 19 are best known for the wonderful aria in Handel’s Messiah, “I know that my Redeemer liveth” – just after the Hallelujah chorus. They are interesting in that Job speaks them in the midst of complaints. This chapter begins with the words, “How long will you torment me and crush me with words?” Job is speaking here of his friends, who are not helpful in their efforts to explain what is happening, but just before the verses we read, he says, “Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.” Then Job turns and a song of unlikely praise and hope breaks out: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.”

This is an affirmation of pure hope, but it is a hope that proves to be true. Within the Old Testament we find little about the afterlife; people did not think much about what we call “eternity”. Even in Jesus’ own time, when the Pharisees had begun to teach the reality of the resurrection, many still believed that after death there was only “the grave”, Sheol, a place where the dead are … well, dead. When faced with his own death, Job breaks out in assurance that somehow – even if his troubles kill him – he will be alive with God. God is his Redeemer.

1 Corinthians 15

Paul spells out the foundation of that hope in 1 Corinthians 15. The first eleven verses of the chapter provide a summary of basic Christian belief: Christ died for our sins; Christ was raised; Christ lives, and we can know him. In much of our preaching and Bible study, we emphasize the teachings and ministry of Jesus; Paul reminds us that his life and teaching rest on the foundation of his death and resurrection. Christ died, and Christ was raised: This is the beginning of our lives in Christ.

Verses 12 to 19 of our text make the point clearly. If there is no such thing as resurrection (as the Sadducees claimed in Judaism), then even Jesus was not raised. If Jesus has not been raised from the dead, our preaching and faith are useless. Everything hangs on the death and resurrection of Jesus. Without that, we are bound by the patterns and structures of sin, in which we live our lives. Paul puts it this way: “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

Verses 20 to 28 develop the point.

·         Christ has been raised from the dead

·         Everyone died in Adam’s sin; everyone rises in Christ’s resurrection

·         Christ wins the victory [over sin and death] first for himself, and then for all who belong to him

·         When Christ rules over every other authority and power in the universe, he will hand his authority over to the Father.

·         The last “enemy” to be defeated is death

·         The final two verses are complicated. I read them to mean: Christ’s final victory re-establishes perfect order in the world, in which God the Father reigns through God the Son and all people take their place in God’s “New Heaven and New Earth”.

 Bringing the Scripture into our Conversation

What does all of this have to do with us today? I know a Mennonite who is attending a Catholic Church. I asked him if he could become a Catholic. He replied, “The trouble is I would have to affirm that I believe the whole of the church’s doctrine, and I don’t think I can. As I Mennonite, I promise to do something, and I can do that!” I would disagree with him: Mennonites also “believe something”, but he is right that we emphasise Christian living over Christian believing.

That being the case, what does it mean for our daily lives to believe in the resurrection of Jesus? We will pursue this question more deeply in the Going Deeper time, but I give one consequence of this belief for us to consider.

We all live on the basis of what we believe is most important in life or fundamentally true. One of the best ways to find out what a person really believe is true is to consider what that person actually does. If someone says, “I believe that we should love everyone and help anybody who is in need when they are in need”, but we observe that person acting in a hateful way, exercising a destructive power over the person in need, then we can conclude that  their real belief is something different. By their actions, they have proclaimed, “I believe in using power to benefit myself before anyone else.”

What does a life lived in the truth of the resurrection look like – both the resurrection of Jesus and our own death and resurrection? In Romans 6, Paul writes:

What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? ² By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? ³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

 

We walk in newness of life. We walk in the resurrection. We have “died to sin”, and we live in his resurrection. Let me list some possible ways that we can “walk in the resurrection”.

·         People in our world live fearfully. We are taking measures to deal with the threat offered by Covid-19, including holding our Going Deeper class as a Zoom session this afternoon, instead of meeting in the sanctuary. We take proper precautions, but we know that God is “King of the universe”. A Zulu song we used to sing in Zimbabwe says, “Even though we walk in danger and evil on this earth, we are going to Heaven.” We do not need to be paralyzed by fear, whatever we face.

·         Unfettered individualism is a strong value for most people in Canada. Although we value our individual freedom and the equality that God has placed within us, we do not insist on our absolute right to do whatever we want to do. We recognize that we live in mutual submission as brothers and sisters, children of God. We do not rule over each other, but we do care deeply for each other.

·         Most people in North America believe in what peace teachers call “the myth of redemptive violence”. When one is attacked, the idea goes, a righteous person may respond with violence. It is wrong, they say, to attack other people first, but, like Popeye defending Olive Oyl, the good guy is justified in demolishing the bad guy. We follow the teachings of Jesus. As we “walk in the resurrection”, we recognize that we do not fear what may happen to us if we pursue peace. We can live for peace in everything that we do – in our families and in our jobs and in our nation and in our relationships. Another Zulu hymn says, “Peace in this world of sin: the blood of Jesus pours out peace.” Amen! As we sang earlier, “We are people of God’s peace as a new creation.” We live for peace and remember the peace of God on this Peace Sunday in Canada.

·         Many people are willing to cheat on a deal if it gives them an advantage, or to cut corners on a job if they can get away with it, or take something that they want without paying if no one is looking. We follow the teachings of Jesus. Our “yes” is yes, and our “no” is no. We do what is right when people are watching and when they are not. We walk in the resurrection.

 

In short, we live by the standards and values of God’s Reign, even while we are in this life. If the resurrection is real, if we have died to sin and live “in newness of life”, we look different than people around us. We act the way Jesus teaches us to act, filled with his Spirit.

 

The Personal Side

As I work on this sermon, I have been diagnosed with unstable angina. I feel the precariousness of human physical life. How does this message about the resurrection and life after death speak to me in my human frailty? I speak cautiously now. It is easy to say that God comforts us in our weakness. It is harder to face that weakness squarely.

 

Note how Job speaks. “My heart faints within me.” I know what he means! Note how Paul speaks. “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” The problems and troubles of this world are real. Jesus warned his disciples just before his crucifixion, “I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!” Jesus was speaking especially about the persecution that they would face as his followers, but the truth applies more broadly.

 

I have referred several times to Zulu hymns. African hymnody often picks up the theme of the trouble we face in this world – “this world of trouble”, “this world of sin”, and so on. They have it right: Life is hard, and death is harder. Death would make us fear and turn against God if it could. Then we read the whole verse and we see, “in me you may have peace.” We hear Jesus, “take courage; I have conquered the world!” Death may be God’s enemy, but in the resurrection, Jesus brings us the death of death. We are enabled to walk in the resurrection, knowing that even death cannot finish us.

 

This is a great truth, and this is a hard truth. Death teaches us to rely on God. As someone said in our Going Deeper Time a few weeks ago, death forces us to rely on God. We cannot overcome death, but we can rest in God, who has conquered death. This is the reason that Paul says (1
Thessalonians 4: 13f): “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died.” We grieve at death, but we know that Jesus rose from the dead and will bring us also with him at the end of time. We will rise with Jesus and live forever with Jesus.

 

Conclusion

This then is the hope of Christian living – that we live and die in Christ, so that we do not need to fear death. We can live in this life the way God wants us to, and when the end comes, we can die in Christ – and live forever.

 

I think of the words of another great hymn, “Abide with me”. This was written by a pastor who was near the end of his life. It is essentially his last words to his congregation.

1. Abide with me; fast falls the eventide; The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide;
   When other helpers fail and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.
2. Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day; Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
   Change and decay in all around I see—O Thou who changest not, abide with me.
3. I need Thy presence every passing hour; What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s pow’r?
   Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be? Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.
4. I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless; Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness;
   Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory? I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.
5. Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes; Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies;
   Heav’n’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee; In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

 

Steinbach Mennonite Church

8 November 2020

Going Deeper Questions:

·         What does the resurrection of Jesus mean to you? Why is it important?

·         Mennonites have emphasised the importance of how we live, not just of what we believe. What difference does the resurrection of Jesus make in the way that we actually live day to day?

·         How do you feel about the fact that each of us will die? Paul calls death the last enemy to be defeated. If death is God’s enemy, how can we welcome death as a friend?

·         What are your favourite Scriptures that speak about death and dying?

 

Texts:

Job 19: 23-29

²³ “O that my words were written down! O that they were inscribed in a book! ²⁴ O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock forever!

²⁵ For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; ²⁶ and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, ²⁷ whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.

My heart faints within me! ²⁸ If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’ and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him’; ²⁹ be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment.”

 

1 Corinthians 15: 12-28

¹² Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; ¹⁴ and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. ¹⁵ We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. ¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. ¹⁷ If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

²⁰ But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. ²¹ For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; ²² for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. ²³ But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. ²⁴ Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. ²⁵ For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. ²⁶ The last enemy to be destroyed is death. ²⁷ For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is plain that this does not include the one who put all things in subjection under him. ²⁸ When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all.

 

The Land Without Tears (Ralph Carmichael)

Thru the night of regret and sorrow flow my shameless tears

Lost from sight was that glad tomorrow, naught but wasted years.

In my weakness I knelt to pray

In his kindness I heard him say:

“I’ll take you safely across the way, across the way

Into the Land without tears. Without tears. Into a land without tears.”

 

Now I know he’ll walk beside me thru the darkest night,

As go, he’ll be there to guide me in the path that’s right.

When I come to the close of day, when he speaks I will hear him say,

“I’ll take you safely across the way, across the way 

Into the Land without tears. Without tears. Into a land without tears.”