Year B All Saints’ Day, 3 November 2024
St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA
“In All of Life”
Collect Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
Revelation 21:1-6a
I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
"See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them as their God;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away."
And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." Then he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end."
John 11:32-44
When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"
Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days." Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me." When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."
Good morning, saints and sinners. And welcome. No matter how you see yourself, you are welcome here. And today we recognize All Saints’ Day, when we hold close those Holy Ones who preceded us.
Last weekend I got to meet a new friend who used to work in the Chaplain’s Office at the University of Richmond, my and my wife’s alma mater. She worked there many years after us, but we knew many similar people. It was fun to reminisce.
I told her the story about the gift I had in knowing the Catholic campus minister at UR. Wendy Wood was a wonderful saint of god with a kind heart and a wonderful sense of humor.
My sophomore year, my roommate was Catholic and he invited me to come to the Ash Wednesday service. I did, and I remember when Wendy saw me she made me feel so welcome. She knew I was faithful, but not Catholic. I went in and talked to her about it later. This Baptist boy caught a glimpse of something I had never felt in church before.
When I had the ashes imposed I had a sense of people around the world gathering that very day to worship God and have ashes imposed reminding us of our mortality and need of Christ. But that idea of a church universal was what struck me so deeply. That is what the word catholic means anyway, universal. It was a new part of my faith which I have never since let go of.
It was part of the long and slippery slope that expanded my view of God, the Church, and how to follow Christ. Thanks be to God! I am so thankful that God led me and my family into the Episcopal Church, and we have been repeatedly blessed in the years we have been a part. It was why it was so important for me to see the installation of our new Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe yesterday, and see friends from our the country whom I have met over the years. It was like a virtual family reunion. And we have some furthering of the Episcopal family even more today. Directly following this sermon we will celebrate a baptism, and nothing makes me happier than welcoming someone into the family of God.
And later we will celebrate the other great sacrament of the Church, Eucharist. We received both of these from Jesus himself, and that is why we see them as the two key sacraments. Both are also tied to things we all must do.
Birth and eating, two simple things we all do, be born, and eat to live. But if you look at the other sacramental acts that we have as a church, they are mostly recognizing and solemnifying other life moments.
Confirmation is when we recognize that teens (for those who are getting confirmed as teens) are of an age of accountability and they are responsible for the person they are and will be. At infant baptism the parents and godparents speak for them, and this is when the adults becoming speak for themselves.
Reconciliation of a Penitent is what is normally called confession, and yes, we do that. Unlike our Catholic sisters and brothers, our approach is different. An old phrase sums up our position, “All May, Some Should, None Must.” But in life all of us make mistakes and miss the mark of who we should be. We recognize that inevitability and give a pathway home.
Matrimony is Christian marriage, where we stand before God and our friends and families and make promises of union with another person. This life-long commitment is the desire we have when we gather. That is our prayer when we celebrate the union on those days. But coming together in loving, committed relationships is another part of life.
Orders is the ordination to the diaconate, priesthood, or episcopacy. While this is important to those ordained and those closest to them, it is also necessary in the life of the Church to be able to keep and maintain the sacraments we are talking about. We include Holy Orders so that the others can keep being sanctified as well.
And lastly, there is Unction, the anointing of those who are sick or dying with holy oil, oil which has been blessed by the bishop for these most holy times. Birth, all the stages of development and life, and even death, the sacraments celebrate life, and as we sang,
for the saints of God are just folk like me,
and I mean to be one too.
I bring all this up on All Saints’ because if we are in Christ we are the Saints of God. As St. Paul wrote the Church in Corinth (I Corinthians 1:1-3):
Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are called to live in Christ, we are called to be born and born again in Christ, and when the time comes, we are called to transition from this life to the next in Christ.
The Life of the Church is based on our lives, each and every one of us. We recognize all aspects, the Good, the Bad, the Heartwarming, and the Heartbreaking. Everything belongs [thanks, Richard Rohr].
In our Revelation reading this morning, which is one of the most popular choices at funeral services, speaks to the Final Culmination, and the John of Patmos said he heard these words in his vision:
"See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them as their God;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them
And that is what we are going for in our sacraments, placing God central in these life moments, reminding us that God is in the ordinary and that all of life can be blessed. When Jesus wept at Lazarus’ death, it was said, “See how he loved him.” And as you probably have heard me say, the miracle of the incarnation is that Jesus points us to the real nature of God.
That is why we can celebrate the saints who have gone before because we worship the God of the Living, not the dead. That is why we can hold up all the seasons and stages of life and how the Church celebrates them and makes them holy. God wants to be in all our life, and in our death. God wants to be with you, always.
I want to be a saint in God, but not because of what I do, but because of whose I am, and who that allows me to be. Blessings this All Saints’ Day! Amen
