All Saints

Remember me when you come into your kingdom... we sing, in deep Russophile voices. But the Beatitudes for this year C in our three-year calendar are those of Luke, not Matthew, and include woes as well as blessings, and a final admonition : Do to others as you would have them do to you.

The hardest of all, the easiest of all. . . if we could treat others with the empathy we treat ourselves but without identifying them, their needs and wants and aspirations and fears and regrets and evils, with ours. 

That is blessing indeed: for them, and, leaving it to God, perhaps to ourselves.

 

Daniel 7:1-3,15-18
Psalm 149
Ephesians 1:11-23
Luke 6:20-31

1 November 2025
All Saints' Day

Year C

https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/HolyDays/AllSaintsC_RCL.html

In year A we will encounter the more familiar Beatitudes from the gospel of Matthew (5:1-12):

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

"Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

el Día de los Muertos

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. 

Around Halloween, in downtown Tucson or west in the barrio neighborhoods across the river, there is a procession and a celebration, the latter of which somewhat reminds me of Burning Man. It does that because part of the ceremony is lighting a large temporary structure but this one is a brazier basket that holds tokens in memory of loved ones deceased. I have not gone that far, therapeutic though it might be. 

What I have done is stood along the parade route, noting people in wild or remarkable costumes, and especially noticing a group marching in memory of people lost in the desert. There were among that group founders of early efforts to reach migrants, including members of Derechos Humanos, Humane Borders, Tucson Samaritans, and No More Deaths, and one of the original Casa Alitas / Casa Mariposa hosts. 

We have a lot to mourn in the desert, on behalf of lost loved ones, even anonymous as many of them remain. This festival, and this presence of witnesses, reminds us that these people who have been lost have had lives to be remembered. We can celebrate them even as we deplore their fate. The desert is harsh and unforgiving. We need not be.

https://www.visittucson.org/events/festivals-and-annual-events/all-souls-procession/

Revelation 7:9-17

Psalm 34:1-10, 22

1 John 3:1-3
Matthew 5:1-12

https://hymnary.org/text/for_all_the_saints_who_from_their_labors

1. For all the saints, who from their labors rest,
who thee by faith before the world confessed,
thy Name, O Jesus, be for ever blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

2. Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might:
thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight;
thou, in the darkness drear, the one true Light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

3. O may thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold,
fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
and win, with them, the victor's crown of gold.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

4. O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

5. And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
and hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

6. The golden evening brightens in the west;
soon, soon to faithful warriors cometh rest;
sweet is the calm of paradise the blest.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

7. But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
the saints triumphant rise in bright array;
the King of glory passes on his way.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

8. From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast,
through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia, Alleluia!


The Hymnal 1982: according to the use of the Episcopal Church #287

For All the Saints

 For All the Saints

As we approach the weekend of All Hallows Eve (October 31), and the following weekend when many of us remember All Saints, I have been remembering a couple of visits I made long ago, and a couple even longer.

When I was in college my advisor Donald Nicholl was newly arrived back from England. In fact, when I first went to see him in his office, his books had not arrived. The shelves were bare, but the walls were not. On them he had fixed pictures, perhaps just photocopies, of people he called his “friends” - or we might call saints. 

They appear later between the pages of his book Holiness (Darton, Longman + Todd) and we certainly heard about them in his classes on holiness in world religions. They were an eclectic bunch: Ramana Maharshi, Thomas Merton, Mohandas Gandhi, Dorothy Day, …Living and dead, they were people he lived with intimately, in the spirit. So he called them his friends.

Years later after his death I went to visit his widow. Together we visited his grave. And I slept in the spare room, which had been his study before his death. Around him as he lay on the daybed had been those same friends, those saints, taped to those walls. They had traveled with him. 

And now Dorothy had put up her own wall of saints. Some different, some the same. An old friend, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and others. It makes me think: who would I put on my wall of saints? 

Longer ago was my Memorial Day visit with my great aunt to the cemetery in Colma, California: no, not the one where Wyatt Earp and Josephine are buried; the one next door with the bishops. As we stood there by the family monument with only a surname carved on the stone, Aunt Carol pointed out where various family members had been laid to rest in the ground around us, now covered with grass. I jumped when she pointed out I was standing on my great great cousin. I suppose there is a place there now for her, too. And she would appreciate the visit to the place.

For other relatives of my own generation there are a couple of beaches to visit in California, to remember places they loved best, before they were lost to the tide that sweeps away us all.

But this coming month I will remember them as they were, and perhaps I will put up my own wall of saints, with them among them.

JRL+

Oct 20, 2021

A version of this essay was published in the Keeping the Faith feature in the Home + Llife section of the Arizona Daily Star on Sunday October 31st 2021, page E3, under the title, "Remembering our own saints."

Remembering 5A

For some reason today as I think ahead to All Saints and All Faithful Departed (All Souls) observances later this week, what came to mind was my joy at seeing Eugene and his partner Frank years after I met them in the summer of 1977. Back then I was the 'file boy' as my neighbor Lamar Spencer so kindly put it, a GS-2 clerk-typist at the US Environmental Protection Agency Region Nine headquarters, in downtown San Francisco, at 100 California Street. Years later, after the AIDS epidemic had peaked, I saw them at a party - and was overjoyed. For years I had wondered if they survived, and there they were, and together.

In the meantime I had worked with the Rev. Canon William (Bill) Barcus, who served as the AIDS spokesman for the Bishop of California as long as he could. The last time I saw Bill he waved valiantly to me, hands full of groceries, from the sidewalk in the Castro, along upper Market Street, as I drove by.

And later I tried volunteering at San Francisco General Hospital, Ward 5A, which by then had taken over as the principal treatment center for AIDS patients.

This was well before the disease was fully understood and before more effective and affordable treatments became available.

What I remembered this morning was not the where or what - but the sudden sense of the loss of a whole generation of young men. Loss, and grief, and sorrow.

And some gratitude at their valiant hope - for others if not themselves - and patience.

And the love of others for those who suffered and whom we have lost.

Robert, Andy...


http://pdf.oac.cdlib.org/pdf/csf/sfpl/aidsward.pdf

silkworms and diamonds

“Diamonds do not dazzle with beauty unless they are cut. When cut, the rays of the sun fall on them and make them shine with wonderful colors. So when we are cut by the cross we shine forth as jewels in the kingdom of God. -- Sadhu Sundar Singh

His parable on the necessity of suffering:

“A silkworm was struggling out of the cocoon and an ignorant man saw it battling as if in pain, so he went and helped it to get free, but very soon after it fluttered and died. The other silkworms that struggle out without help suffered, but they came out into full life and beauty, with wings made strong for flight by their battle for fresh existence.”

Robert Ellsberg. All Saints. New York: Crossroad. 1997. 275.

All Saints 2012

The Burial office in the Book of Common Prayer includes these words:

In the midst of life we are in death; of whom may we seek for succor, but of thee, O Lord, who for our sins art justly displeased? 


 
Yet, O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty, 
O holy and most merciful Savior, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death. 


 
Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts; shut not thy merciful ears to our prayer; but spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty, 
O holy and merciful Savior, thou most worthy Judge eternal. Suffer us not, at our last hour, through any pains of death, to fall from thee.

*
 


All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

He that raised up Jesus from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies, by his Spirit that dwelleth in us. 
 
Wherefore my heart is glad, and my spirit rejoiceth; 
my flesh also shall rest in hope. 
 
Thou shalt show me the path of life; in thy presence is the fullness of joy, and at thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore. 


(Book of Common Prayer, p. 484 - 485)

In the name of God, merciful Father, compassionate Son, Spirit of wisdom. Amen.

Jesus said to her,  
Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? 

 (John 11:40)

Martha and Mary’s brother was restored to life: was yours?

Marriages have been rescued from the rocks: was yours?

Children have been saved from car wrecks: was yours? Was your neighbor’s?

How about those we cannot see, do not know?  Is there glory there?

Yes, but it is the glory of the perseverance of the saints, of the faithfulness of God’s people through the ages, who abide with him in love, even should disaster strike.

Some of us have been through earthquakes, fires, floods, droughts, hurricanes, blizzards; others have been through war time or famine; and private bereavements come to us all, friend or family – or stranger, or neighbor down the road.

We share in the grief of others. Because we believe in God, a God who is with us in Christ, we, as the Body of Christ, share in the grief of others, in our church, our town, and our world.

This past Sunday our sister church St. Hilda – St. Patrick suffered the loss of its pastor Cynthia’s husband. Bob Espeseth was killed in a traffic accident in Portland. Cynthia was in a rowing competition and Bob was on a bridge looking down on the race.  As Cynthia's boat went under the bridge, Bob crossed the road to see her on the other side.  When he did, a car on the bridge struck him, and he died instantly. A pastor is left without a husband, the children’s father is taken from them, and a church – not just one congregation – grieves for the loss.

Hurricane Sandy strikes the Caribbean. Cuba, Haiti, and other island peoples, suffer. Then it travels north to clobber the east coast of the North American mainland. Forty or more people die in New York and elsewhere along the Eastern seaboard.

May be there was something that could be done; may be there is something that can be done before next time – but the hurt remains.

And the faith remains; the faith that gives the courage to clean up, move forward, carry on; to comfort the downhearted, to begin to rebuild.

St. Paul’s churchyard, in downtown Manhattan, witness to so many disasters, epicenter of devotion after September 11^th. Centuries old, it witnesses another bereavement – this storm – and remains faithful, mute witness to the saints who have gone before, endured trials in their time – petty trials or savage. Slave or free, subject to the Crown or new citizens of a new Republic, those buried in that ancient yard testify of God’s presence. These are saints among us: the first witnesses, the ongoing witnesses, the witnesses yet to come, all witness to the glory of God: because they know in Christ victory over death.

Death is not the end; it does not have the last word. We even laugh at death: mock it with ghostly costumes on the eve of All Saints – we call it Halloween.

Because Christ is risen, because he is raised, and we are called to him, we are alive in Christ. Death is not the end. But what happens after that is in the hands and heart of God.

What we know, now, we the living, is that we have a mission to carry on, to carry forward, and it is not our own plan, our own agenda. Our true gift to the future is our legacy of hope – hope in the resurrection – and joy in the life lived to God’s glory.

 

May we as we conduct ourselves with others, those near us, and those we know only through the news, begin in charity and complete humility, as we approach the Table of our Lord, knowing that his throne is not far away, and that we have his assurance, that his mercy always overcomes his wrath.

The Lord is gracious and full of compassion,

                  slow to anger and of great kindness.

The Lord is loving to everyone

                  and his compassion is over all his works. (Psalm 145:8-9)

May the judge of the world, judge us in the light of Christ. May we his servants serve him in the world. In the hungry, to give them food; the thirsty, drink; the naked, clothing; the homeless, shelter; those in prison or sick or lonely, in visiting; those in terror of judgment, assurance mercy; in the hope of glory, may we find joy.

The Lord bless 
you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you 
and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon 
you and give you peace. Amen.

(Book of Common Prayer, p. 501)

Celebrating with all the saints

This coming Sunday we gather to celebrate All Saints’ Sunday –

Of course the celebrations began last night on All Hallows’ Eve (Halloween)….

Last night as we returned home from some “reverse trick-or-treating” – visiting our neighbors with some gifts of candy and candles – some friends bid us goodnight, with the words celebrating with all the saints who are to come. 

Celebrating the feast of All Saints, we remember those who have come before us; we celebrate with those among us; we give thanks for those far away who are yet in the company of Christ with us: let us also think with joy of those believers whose lives and witnesses are yet in the future, but already in God’s eye our fellow saints. What a gift! We are part of this great company, past and present, anticipating a future with hope.

Tonight, like others, you may choose to remember the saints who have gone before us, in prayer, perhaps lighting a candle to remind you of their presence with the Lord.

The people of St. Hilda – St. Patrick Church are gathering tonight at 6:30 for an All Saints service, grieving the loss of their pastor Cynthia’s husband. Bob Espeseth was killed last Sunday in a traffic accident in Portland. Please keep them in your prayers. Bishop Rickel has announced that the Celebration of the Life of Bob Espeseth will be held Saturday, November 17th, at 11 a.m. at St. Mark's Cathedral.

Should Christians celebrate Halloween? Yes! Bishop Shannon Johnston of Virgina wrote:

YES! HALLOWEEN IS CHRISTIAN––WONDERFULLY SO!

The most important thing to remember is this: Halloween is the time when Christians proclaim and celebrate the fact that Satan and the occult have no power over us and cannot disrupt our relationship with our Lord and Redeemer, as long as we live faithfully to Christ. We show this by making fun of such pretenders, lampooning them in their face. This is why our costumes and decorations certainly should be witches, devils, and ghosts. In the victory of Christ, Christians are privileged to do this and we must not be timid about it!

Ours is not a fearful faith, cowering from the prospect of falling unawares into Satan’s grasp. In God’s grace and your faithfulness, you are Christ’s own forever. Nothing supersedes that fact. Halloween is therefore one of the boldest Christian witnesses, precisely because of its highly public, graphic, and lampooning nature. Personally, I suspect that those who cannot embrace this are living a fear-driven and even insecure faith. If so, they have bigger problems than the high jinks of Halloween.

http://www.allsaintstupelo.com/pastorspage2005-10-26.html

All Saints Sunday 2011

When I think nowadays of what I am thankful for it turns into a list of saints – living ones included. Saints include people around us who draw us deeper into holiness ourselves, even as they themselves appear as a kind of sign or symbol of God’s presence in the world. Saints – believers – are sanctified people – people set apart for a holy purpose.

Some of them would gladly tell you that they do not deserve the label of “holy person.”

They might say, “Oh, yes! Make me a saint – but not yet.”

Or they might say, “I just don’t deserve this” – meaning they don’t deserve to be put through the training program they figure sainthood would imply. It is too hard, they would say, for human beings to bear.

Nevertheless I find myself making a list of unknowing saints. These are people in whom God is at work for visible or invisible holiness to take place.

As Jesus began to teach on the mountain, he enumerated for his disciples some of the kinds of people whom God makes saints – whom God blesses. They are people like the Psalmist knew – the humble and meek, who are called to rejoice; the afflicted – who will be heard and are vindicated; the hungry or thirsty or poor – who will receive fullness.

The Lord is their Shepherd; they shall lack nothing.

Those who trust in him – those who believe in him with their whole hearts – will not be punished, but saved.

To whom does salvation belong? From whom does it come?

Salvation, the multitude cries, belongs to our God who is seated on the throne and to the Lamb, to the One who judge, the One who redeems.

Those who have suffered hunger or thirst, sunstroke or heatstroke, they will be guided by the good shepherd to a place of wellbeing and comfort.

So saints are those whom God redeems. Sanctity is not a reward for meritorious service. God saves: the saints are justified by faith not by works. There is no boasting save in the Cross of Christ, the paradoxical victory that looks so like defeat – that pulls us beyond the end of the world, beyond death itself, onto new and holy ground. Holy ground – where we already stand, if we only knew…

We are God’s children, now – already – and we have hope in him, the One who will be revealed to all as God’s son and our Lord.

This is the vision of Revelation.

Sometimes seekers of holiness have their own great cloud of witnesses about them – assembled as friends of the heart or companions on the way.

When I would go visit a professor of mine in college, Donald Nicholl, I could see that in his office he had assembled around his desk photographs and portraits of “friends” – as he called them – people whom he wanted around him as witnesses or encouragers. And decades later his widow Dorothy showed me the room where he spent his last days, still surrounded by a cloud of witnesses as he laid on his daybed and composed himself for eternity. Dorothy kept her own cloud of witnesses about her into her final years.

The “saints” on their walls might be different from yours or mine. Some were familiar faces, some were notable people they introduced me to, and some were unknown. All bore witness to the reality of God and of our presence in God, and God’s presence in us.

They became as windows or lights, letting some of the eternal brightness shine into our lives, and our worlds. They do not have to be famous or extraordinary to give us a vision of effulgence – the brilliant radiance of the people of God. In fact it may help some time if they are not, if they are just regular people.

One day in 1959 a monk was waiting for a ride home to the monastery. He had been to the dentist. He was standing on a downtown corner in Louisville, Kentucky.

And this is what he wrote, in his book, "Conjectures of A Guilty Bystander":

In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream ...

This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud. And I suppose my happiness could have taken form in the words: “Thank God, thank God that I am like other men, that I am only a man among others.”

It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race, though it is a race dedicated to many absurdities and one which makes many terrible mistakes: yet, with all that, God Himself gloried in becoming a member of the human race. A member of the human race! To think that such a commonplace realization should suddenly seem like news that one holds the winning ticket in a cosmic sweepstake.

I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.

Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed… I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other. But this cannot be seen, only believed and “understood” by a peculiar gift.


The monk, Thomas Merton, was seeing his fellow human beings “in aspiration” as Donald Nicholl would put it – he was seeing them “in the Spirit” as they were made to be, as they were called to become – as people who could blossom into the fullness of life as God intended them to experience it.

Robert Ellsberg makes this point in his essay on the feast of All Saints, in his book of the same name:


Since the early centuries of the church the liturgical calendar has reserved one day to honor, collectively, all the saints, both those officially recognized and those known only to God. Thus we are reminded that the true company of saints is far more numerous than the list of those who have been formally canonized. There are many anonymous saints who nevertheless form part of the great “cloud of witnesses,” surrounding us with their faith and courage and so participating in the communion between the living and the dead.

This collective feast, All Saints, is also an occasion to acknowledge the varieties of holiness. Though they share a certain family resemblance, the saints are not formed in any particular mold. Some are renowned for contemplation and others for action; some played a public role while others spent their lives in quiet obscurity. Some demonstrated the vitality of ancient traditions while others were pioneers, charting new possibilities in the spiritual life. Some received recognition and honor within their lifetimes, while others were scorned or even persecuted.

The feast of All Saints does not honor a company of “immortals,” far removed from the realm of ordinary human existence. The saints were not “super” human beings but those who realized the vocation for which all human beings were created and to which we are ultimately called. No one is called to be another St. Francis or St. Teresa. But there is a path to holiness that lies within our individual circumstances, that engages our own talents and temperaments, that contends with our own strengths and weaknesses, that responds to the needs of our own neighbors and our particular moment in history. The feast of All Saints strengthens and encourages us to create that path by walking it.



We are called – all of us – into the fullness of the joy of being God’s children, of being set apart for a holy purpose: to become what we are called to be, to become saints. And so,

“There is only one sorrow – not to be a saint.”—Léon Bloy

And in the end there is one joy, to be shared by all: to greet one another, in the Spirit, as the people God has created and called us to be, as his own beloved children, as Saints.


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, for ever and ever. Amen.


-- -- -- --

Ellsberg, Robert, "All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time," New York: Crossroad, 1997, 475-476.

Merton, Thomas, "Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander" (1966).

From the Shorter OED:

fullness: 1. The condition of containing something in abundance. b. In biblical language, all that is contained in the world. [J Wesley: The Earth and all her Fullness owns Jehovah for her sovereign Lord!] c. Abundance, plenty. 2. Completeness, perfection. [G. Priestland: Christianity … hasn’t yet been tried … What right have we to expect its fullness in our time?]

in the fullness of time – at the destined time; eventually.

+

Are all saints scary?

On the eve of All Saints you might well ask, are all saints scary?

Saints certainly are full of awe – and many of them are full of flaws – but are they scary?

What might make us frightened of saints is not Halloween terrors but something more challenging. They remind us of something beyond fear, even beyond death. They remind us of God’s awesome might and absolute holiness. It is enough, if you think about it, to bring you to your knees. And it is enough to bring you to your feet. In darkest night, in coldest dawning, in brightest day, saints remain witness that love is stronger than death. Hope and faith and love, these three abide; and it is saints who testify to that truth.

Could we be saints?

Do we think of ourselves as saints or sinners? For surely, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) but is that the final answer?

We “are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Roman 3:24). But do we think of ourselves that way? When the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Rome he did not greet them as sinners. He addressed them as “God’s beloved … who are called to be saints”. And he said, “Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 1:7) That’s more like it. But wait.

Did you see that? He said, “…who are called to be saints!” What are we getting into?

Who can possibly be a saint?

Nobody – and everyone.

Who are saints?

They are people called by God. The Torah, the Law of Moses, says: “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” (Leviticus 19:2) Is that even possible?

Paul also calls the church the people "who are sanctified (made holy) in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, ... who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 1:2) Becoming holy is not our doing – it is God who gives the gift of grace.

What is a saint like?

Saints are people full of joy – through darkness and light they live under the mercy of God. “Their delight is in the law of the Lord and they meditate on his law day and night. They are like trees planted by the water that will bring forth their fruit in due season.” (Psalm 1:2-3)

What do they do?

Saints are people who show their faith in their lives. They are messengers of the good news, “approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel,” not to please other people or show off, but to please God who knows our hearts. (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

God calls for his people to be impartial and just in judgment, to speak healing words, and not to trade in rumors or speak ill of others. Saints do not hoard hatred in their hearts; they do not bear grudges or take comfort in revenge. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19: 18)

Saints are people who are given a gift – the gift of the joy of knowing God’s grace – and a task: to share the good news of God with the people around them and to take delight in the sharing. To show, in word and deed, here and now, in the place and at the time God has given us, the love and mercy and grace and peace that we know as God’s beloved.

Saints are people – well, as the song says, “just like you and me.”

Maybe it is a foolish thing to do, to try to be a saint; but to accept as a gift God’s love and mercy – that makes total sense. We are God’s beloved people, who are called to be saints.

Almighty God, you have surrounded us with a great cloud of witnesses: Grant that in our earthly pilgrimage we may always be supported by this fellowship of love and prayer, and know ourselves to be surrounded by their testimony to your power and mercy. Make us your holy people, called according to your purpose. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with us all. Amen.

For the Gospel Grapevine, parish newsletter of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, November 2011.

JRL+

What are saints?

What are saints? The lessons tell us they are:

• the righteous
• those who trust in him
• the faithful
• his holy ones
• the elect – chosen, called, set apart.

Saints are those people
who respond to the call of God
to do his work in the world
and to be faithful to his service.

They embody
the reign of God:
the establishment of God’s peaceable kingdom.

They begin to experience life eternal—
life lived in the knowledge of the love of God—
not hereafter but here and now.

Life eternal begins in the present,
secure in the knowledge that nothing
can take away from you
the love of God.

Indeed, the love of God is assured
from the beginning to the end of life—
he is the Alpha and the Omega—
because ‘the home of God is among mortals’.

Emmanuel – God with us – present in Christ.

He dwells with us, among us.
He is present with us in love, joy, suffering, hope.

Here he is with Lazarus—
anticipating and moving forward toward his own similar fate—
a tomb, a cave, a stone across the mouth,
‘he cries with a loud voice’ to one bound
with grave clothes and a wrapping around his head—
all too, too familiar.

No wonder he is anguished.

The God who is present with us,
who calls us to follow him:
Christ before us, behind us, around us,
at our beginning and at our ending;

This is God in Christ as he dwelt among us,
as he came to Bethany, into the home town of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus,
his friends, who not too much later would be mourning him—
even anticipating the grief as his death drew near,
(Mary wiping his feet with her hair, anointing him with burial oils).

And this is the One who raised Lazarus, and was himself raised, from the dead.

This hope of the resurrection,
this hope of life in Christ,
draws us out of our own track
into a larger world.

We can take a broader view
of the legacy we have inherited—
of the gifts in faith we have received from those who have come before us;
of the blessings we enjoy, and of the gifts we have to pass on to the future.

For the church we see around us
is an outpost of a great assembly;
through time and across the world
it spreads out behind and before us.

Today – All Saints’ Day – we remember those
who have come before us as God’s faithful people—
and we call to mind those yet to come—
and those around us and far away,
keeping the faith in the glory of God.

What do we do?
What do we do to live in faith?
What is our mission as a people of God?

Our mission is stated,
as Bishop Greg reminded everyone at convention,
right in the Book of Common Prayer,
and that is where we are going to look for our Mission Statement—
the Baptismal Covenant.

We as a parish have a vision to flesh that out — but we state it first, up front, in the affirmations and pledges we make in the vows we now renew…

We as a parish have a vision to flesh that out—but we state it first, up front, in the affirmations and pledges we make in the vows we now renew…


We are buried with Christ by Baptism into his death, and raised with him to newness of life. I call upon you, therefore, to renew the solemn promises and vows of Holy Baptism, by which we once renounced Satan and all his works, and promised to serve God faithfully in his holy Catholic Church....


The Renewal of Baptismal Vows (Book of Common Prayer, 292)

***


Holy Lord, take us and make us holy,
make us yours and make us obedient,
make us faithful, make us joyful and
make us to be numbered with your saints,
in that glory which is everlasting;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever. Amen.

THE PEACE

God give you the peace of the blessed, the peace that the world cannot give, the peace that passes all understanding. The peace of the Lord be always with you…

THE BLESSING

The Lord give you his grace and make you to be numbered with his saints in that glory which is everlasting; and the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.






Feast of All Saints
Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9
or Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm 24
Revelation 21:1-6a
John 11:32-44

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David Adam, Traces of Glory (SPCK, 1999) 139-141.

Barbara Crafton, GeraniumFarm.org (October 30, 2009).

JRL+

"I'm just tryin' to be a good Christian."--Johnny Cash

God of holiness,
your glory is proclaimed in every age:
as we rejoice in the faith of your saints,
inspire us to follow their example
with boldness and joy;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We will sing a song of the saints of God. We remember them, we anticipate them, and we join with them in the praise of God. And with God’s help, we will join with them in obedience to his will and blessedness in his abundant love.

Through the Revelation of St John we receive a picture of a multitude gathered before the throne of God, worshipping him and living under the wings of his mercy. These are the ones who came through the great persecutions of the early church as if they were being made more perfect in a refiner’s fire. Through their ordeal there was always a presence with them, an Other – they were not alone. These are the martyrs of the church – and they are among the saints.

There are others too: saints are believers, made holy through their faith in God who alone is holy of himself; and the saints are people you see every day.

To prepare you for a song, and for singing it along with the little saints who will sing it with us, let’s remember that everything from great to small is in God’s hands. However tiny and improbable a moment of time may seem, a moment of a turning point, a kindness, a perseverance in faith, it is out of the simple moments of life that a faith and a soul-habit of godly love are forged.

This is the weekend when we remember all saints, every saint, and all souls, all the faithful departed. And we may be thrown back on remembering our own mortality – and our inability to see it all through on our own.

There is a promise for us – if we are weak, he is strong; if we have been cursed, we will be blessed in him; if we are poor, or lacking in any need or faculty, we will be made whole and well and happy. And if we mourn, we will receive the comfort of the Lord. He weeps with those who weep, and laughs with those who laugh. He will always be by your side.

There are as many kinds of saints as there are of people. Through the ages the church has recognized many kinds of people as living exemplary Christian lives.

In the early years of the church, there were the martyrs; soon there were the monks of the desert and the faraway isles, denying themselves and taking up their crosses and following Christ in their own day; there were the organizers of monasteries and convents, like Benedict of Nursia and Hildegard of Bingen and Teresa of Avila.

There were the apostles and first converts who carried the witness across the continents, in Persia, India, the Sudan and Ethiopia. There were the preachers of the gospel to new peoples: Francis of Assisi, Dominic; the missionaries to Africa and Asia and the Americas, Francis Xavier, Father Kino.

There are the modern martyrs, like Janani Luwum and Jonathan Daniels, who stood with the oppressed at the cost of their own lives.

There are you and me, brothers and sisters.

For we carry the gospel and the witness and the mission of the saints with us. And we are all part of Christ’s body, his hands and his voice and his love in the world. Each of us has a gift, and we rejoice in our diversity and our unity.

In his letter to the Romans (12:4-8) the apostle Paul explains:
For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

It is through the diversity of gifts that we balance each other, giving to the whole body our own unique and vital contributions. For each of us, for each of the saints, there is a question to be asked: What gives you joy? What is it that in the doing of it, the giving of it, you experience the fullness of grace?

(I do not mean giddy happiness or a temporary feeling of satisfaction at a good deed done, but a deeper calm in your life at the knowledge you are God’s child and that you are on the right road. It is not a feeling that comes and goes: remember that Mother Theresa of Calcutta, in her private meditations, acknowledged the burden of her work and the desert of sadness she endured.)

When I was a kid I had heroes: I’ll tell you about two of them.

There was Willie Mays – when our Cub Scout Pack went to a Giants’ game, I expected him to hit a home run… and he did, on his third at-bat.

And there was Johnny Cash, whom I think my brothers and I mostly enjoyed imitating – at the beginning of his television show he’d introduce himself, turning to the camera and saying, “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash,” in his deep voice, then playing a chord on his guitar. Picture little boys lined up in front of the TV following his every move. Voices a little higher pitched. Later on he became a more real hero to me, as I learned about his life and his faith. One phrase really stuck with me for years after I read it, and it is relevant today, this week, because it was his response to a request for a political statement:

“I’m just tryin’ to be a good Christian.” (Penthouse interview, 1975)

In a way that is what any saint is trying to do – to be a good Christian, a faithful soul, sanctified not by his, or her, own efforts or deeds or lifestyle, but by trust in God. And to live by that faith – and follow God’s calling.

We move, as we become the people who trust God, from being outsiders, seekers, lost in the world and the world’s devices, to becoming members of the body of Christ, and living stones in the building that is the living Church.

In the letter to the Ephesians (2:19-22) Paul explained:

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling-place for God.
And it is in the people of God, as they follow God, in obedience to Christ, that the Spirit is working, and working through us to bring the joy of salvation, of God’s good news, to the world. Each of us has a gift to receive and to give: each of us, following joy where it leads, has a joy to give to the world, the joy (uniquely filtered through the prism of our souls) of the love of God in Christ.

God of holiness, your glory is proclaimed in every age:
as we rejoice in the faith of your saints,
inspire us to follow their example with boldness and joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord.


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for all the saints

All Saints 2007

One of the great joys and benefits of observing the holidays of the days of the dead is our gratefulness for our connection with them through the communion of saints, which is for the glory of God. We anticipate All Saints Day on All Hallows Eve – the eve of All Saints – and continue our worship November 1st in the feast of All Souls, or All Faithful Departed – a memorial day for remembering those who have gone before us in obtaining “those ineffable joys” spoken of in the Collect. I like to say, “It is always tea-time somewhere in the Anglican Communion” – that our bonds of affection and common heritage include this enjoyment, and that somewhere in the world someone is praying for me as I pray for you and for them.

And yet this fellowship extends beyond space into time – the saints of ages past share our hope for things to come. And we share in their hope, in their love, through our fellowship with Christ, in Christ, memorialized and brought to present life in the sacraments – the body and blood of Christ – the head of whose body we make up the members – and through and with him be all honor and glory to God, including that fellowship which is his joy – the church which is his body – the fullness (fulfillment) – of him who fills all in all.

This all boils down however to some practical behavior, most succinctly and most famously stated in the Golden Rule, the last sentence of today’s gospel reading: Do as you would be done by.

Imagine yourself a buckaroo from Paradise – that is, a cowboy from the Paradise Valley in Nevada. You raise mules. You have a day job: construction work on the interstate, building bypasses around Elko, Battle Mountain, and Winnemucca. You are on the way to work – you have about 80 miles to go. It is Sunday, late afternoon, the sun is setting slowly over the sage, and you are headed up a mountain pass about 8 miles west of Carlin.

On the side of the road, hood up, is an old car – a 1964 Pontiac Tempest. You stop. The young people inside think they have a mechanical problem. You have a simpler explanation and with a siphon hose prove it. “Yep, bone dry.” They are out of gas.

You drive them back to Carlin, make sure they get some gas, follow them to the next town, Battle Mountain, to make sure they are okay. As you leave, you give your parting benediction: “Make sure to stop and gas her up once in a while.”

To them you are an angel – a messenger of God – or someone who has followed the Golden Rule. Who wouldn’t want to be treated the way you have just treated them?

I was not the cowboy. But I was there. And I am sure glad he stopped.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

It sounds so simple – and sometimes it is.

In practice this is carried out in as many ways as the engineer’s dictum Murphy’s Law – if it can go wrong it will – is manifested in the real world. As there are many examples and applications of Murphy’s Law, so there are many of the Golden Rule.

Here is one example. For pastors and their congregations, there are issues of communication, straightforwardness and honor of each other, which come into play.

When I spoke to Greg Rickel, bishop of Olympia, four weeks ago, I asked him if I could use the 10 Rules for Respect in communication he'd introduced at his parish as rector - and he readily gave his permission.

Before I share them with you, though, a disclosure – in the form of a story.

Donald Nicholl, the English Catholic layman who taught me so much at UCSC, loved to tell the story of Gandhi and the little girl. Her mother brought her to the great man complaining of her addiction to sweet foods, and asking Gandhi to do something about it. Gandhi told her to come back in two weeks.

When she did, he took the little girl aside and in a few simple words told her how to break the habit. The mother asked, why did you not tell her this two weeks ago? Because, madam, two weeks ago I was still addicted to sweet foods myself!

In other words practicing the Golden Rule takes – practice!

So with some trepidation... here are the 10 Rules for Respect in communication between a congregation and its pastor:

10 Rules for Respect

1. If you have a problem with me, come to me (privately).

2. If I have a problem with you, I will come to you (privately).

3. If someone has a problem with me and comes to you, send them to me. (I’ll do the same for you.)

4. If someone consistently will not come to me, say to them, “Let’s go to him together. I am sure he will see us about this.” (I will do the same for you.)

5. Be careful how you interpret me – I’d rather do that. On matters that are unclear, do not feel pressured to interpret my feelings or thoughts. It is easy to misinterpret intentions.

6. I will be careful how I interpret you.

7. If it’s confidential, don’t tell. This especially applies to Vestry meetings. If you or anyone comes to me in confidence, I won’t tell unless a) the person is going to harm himself/herself, b) the person is going to physically harm someone else, c) a child has been physically or sexually abused. I expect the same from you.

8. I do not read unsigned letters or notes.

9. I do not manipulate; I will not be manipulated; do not let others *manipulate you. Do not let others manipulate me through you. I will not preach “at” you on Sunday mornings. I will leave conviction to the Holy Spirit. (She does it better anyway!)

10. When in doubt, just say it. The only dumb questions are those that don’t get asked. We are a family here and we care about each other, so if you have a concern, pray, and then (if led) speak up. If I can answer it without misrepresenting something, someone, or breaking a confidence, I will.

*******

This is one example of how we are to put into effect the golden rule, not only to refrain from doing to others what we would not want others to do to us, but positively to treat others as we want to be treated ourselves.

The gospel lesson contains some paradoxical sayings. Jesus seems to be turning worldly wisdom on its head – give to whoever asks of you, invite beggars to your banquets, go the extra mile – and in some ways I think he is suggesting this as a revolutionary, non-violent protest action. The people of Palestine were, after all, deeply oppressed, and violent protest would lead, as it did, to disaster and destruction. What Israel held most precious, the Temple in Jerusalem, was torn down stone by stone.

Our own pretences of worldly wisdom, canniness and morality, are confounded by Jesus’ sayings – and by the reality of the in-breaking kingdom of God. Jesus is not after all selling us a bill of goods, pie in the sky, nor is he trying to get us killed – though living his way can lead to the cross. What he is doing is trying to get us to live into the kingdom, to begin to conduct ourselves as citizens of the city of God.

It looks topsy-turvy, through the eyes of the world. With the eyes of the heart opened, it is a glimpse of paradise.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.



Bishop Gregory Rickel’s biography and answers to search committee essay questions, Diocese of Olympia (http://www.ecww.org/inthenews/rickel.pdf)

Donald Nicholl, Holiness (Seabury, 1981)

C All Saints RCL

The Lessons Appointed for Use on All Saints' Day - Year C - RCL
Daniel 7:1-3,15-18
Psalm 149
Ephesians 1:11-23
Luke 6:20-31

The 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.

all saints

All Saints 2007

One of the great joys and benefits of observing the holidays of the days of the dead – los dias de los muertos, en español; in English, All Saints’ Eve, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day – that is, All Faithful Departed – is our gratefulness for our connection with them through the communion of saints which is for the glory of God. We anticipate All Saints Day on All Hallows Eve – the eve of All Saints – and continue our worship November 1st in the feast of All Souls, or All Faithful Departed – a memorial day for remembering those who have gone before us in obtaining “those ineffable joys” spoken of in Ephesians. I like to say, “It is always tea-time somewhere in the Anglican Communion” – that our bonds of affection and common heritage include this enjoyment, and that somewhere in the world someone is praying for me as I pray for you and for them. And yet this fellowship extends beyond space into time – the saints of ages past share our hope for things to come. And we share in their hope, in their love, through our fellowship with Christ, in Christ, memorialized and brought to present life in the sacraments – the body and blood of Christ – the head of whose body we make up the members – and through and with him be all honor and glory to God, including that fellowship which is his joy – the church which is his body – the fullness (fulfillment) – of him who fills all in all.

flatland

Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9 or Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm 24
Revelation 21:1-6a
Gospel hymn #560: Matthew 5:1-12 (The Beatitudes)
John 11:32-44

All Saints' Day November 1, 2006
All Saints' Sunday November 5, 2006
Trinity Cathedral, Sacramento

In the name of God, source of all being, eternal Word, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

The only tragedy, in the end, is the tragedy of not becoming a saint.

Originally All Saints was a remembrance of, and a communion with, Christians martyred under the pagan kings. Over the years its meaning has expanded, and we remember all saints. What is a saint?

• A witness to the resurrected Christ.
• An example of a godly life.
• A believer.
• An intercessor, an absent friend whom we can ask to pray for us.
• Someone who reminds us that there is another dimension to reality.

A mother of teenagers recently remarked that her son lives much of his life in Flatland. That is, he spends an inordinate amount of time on the computer, the iPod, the PDA, emailing and IM'ing his friends. Most of the conversations consist of, "I'm so bored...." He is living an existence that seems to be lacking a dimension. And so, without grace, are we.

Into the plane of Flatland, the revelation of God in Christ arrives precipitously from above, revealing the existence of a vertical dimension. This forms a crossroads, a thin place, in which the reality of heaven breaks into our one-dimensional, spirit-impoverished Flatland.

Thin places are places where heaven and earth come close together. You might think of a place like Iona, or Lindisfarne, soaked in centuries of prayer. Or you might think of a saint's shrine.

Saints are people who recall us to the divine. They are, in a sense, thin people.

You may have your own gallery of saints - witnesses, martyrs, exemplars of godly living, intercessors, friends who have gone before.

One of my teachers had pictures of his favorite saints pinned up on the wall across from his desk, or his bed.

We meet them in a thin place that is closer than you might think: we meet them in the Eucharist. When we participate in communion, we take part in the communion of saints.

In the communion of saints, we are connected through Christ to all who have gone before, all who witness to his resurrection, all who have remembered him in the breaking of the bread and in the prayers, all who have testified to the reality of God revealed in Christ.

These are the mysteries of our faith: we proclaim them openly, on billboards and radio, in bedside Bibles placed by The Gideons, in our thoughts and words and deeds. And we affirm together our common faith, in the words of the Nicene Creed ...





Flatland: a romance of many dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott

See: http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi783.htm and http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/97




JRL+