endurance

“Some people were talking about the temple and the beauty of its fine stones and ornaments. He said, ‘These things you are gazing at–the time will come when not one stone will be left upon another; they will all be thrown down.’ (Luke 21:5-6, Revised English Bible)

Twenty-three years ago I slapped my hand on the Romanesque wall, exposed by renovations, of Chester Cathedral and said to my host, this is the church Anselm knew. There has been a church on the site since the eighth century. The building now is Gothic in style, but that is wrapped around an earlier Romanesque structure. And so I knew that back when “Cur Deus Homo” (Why a God-Man?) was hot off the copying desk, its author, Anselm the Archbishop of Canterbury, was visiting, the wall he would have touched was the wall I touched. Ten years ago I placed my palm against a large well-worked stone in Jerusalem. It was part of the Western Wall, foundation stone of the third Temple, built under the direction (and the lash) of Herod the Great, just before Jesus was born. Despite our Savior’s words of prophecy, not every stone fell away from every other. The Romans, when they came in destructive fury, left a few standing, just a few. They are the largest and oldest and best-fashioned of the stones in the wall. Though I doubt the soldiers of Titus spared them out of respect for the stone masons. Stones last. Sometimes they are repurposed: they become spolia, salvaged or stolen from an old ruined (mostly) building and put to new use. Churches in Rome have pillars from pagan bath houses. Churches in Spain have stones that were once in mosques that were once churches. Sometimes they stay where they were put, for a very long time. Sometimes they are in ruins, evocative of earlier, lost ages, and forgotten rituals. Stones last. But not forever. And they don’t matter anyway. That is what Jesus tells us. “The Lord is faithful” - the steadfast love of God : that is what endures. ***

By your endurance you will gain your souls (NRSV) Or– By standing firm, you will win yourselves life (REB) Or– By holding fast, you will gain your lives (CEB) Or– By your perseverance, you shall gain salvation. (Luke 21:19) Do you remember the persistent widow from a gospel a week or two ago, how she persisted? And in persisting, she demanded justice against her opponent, or as the King James would say, to be avenged against her adversary. (Luke 18:1-8) Jesus calls his followers to endure and hold on in the midst of persecutions and says that by so doing they will save their souls and their lives. Early in the passage, he talks about what to do when someone says to you follow me because I am the one. I am the one who can save you and the time is near. He says don’t go after them, don’t follow that leader, that false leader. That is part of saving your soul, not to be seduced by false messiahs, false leaders. Today’s psalm ends with this verse: ‘In righteousness shall he judge the world, and the peoples with equity.’ (98.10) What does that mean? Are there other ways to say it? You can also say, he will judge with saving righteousness. You can say, he will establish justice; you can say, he will bring salvation and that that is his victory. And all of these other ways of saying it remind us that it is the Lord who is our king. Christ, the king. In the early days of Christianity within the pagan Roman empire, all you had to do to be convicted of treason was to say that Jesus is Lord —that Christ is King, not the emperor. And that is who we turn to, as our judge for the people who receive this message. It is joy to the world for the Lord to win himself the victory, for the Lord to win salvation. For him to come and judge the Earth means that we will be vindicated, that he will establish a saving righteousness with equity and justice. That is a pretty different sense of judgment from that of the persistent widow’s unjust judge who seemed simply to be awarding the victory to one side or another in a dispute. In the justice of God, salvation and righteousness are established for the world among all people. But it is for us to step out of that tight frame of jurisprudence that simply chooses a winner between opponents in a lawsuit and it is for us to step into a larger world in which justice rolls down like waters and the day of salvation is at hand. (Amos 5:24)

***

“But before all this occurs, they will take you into custody and harass you because of your faith. They will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will provide you with an opportunity to testify. Make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance. I’ll give you words and wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to counter or contradict.” (Luke 21:12-15, Common English Bible)

What would I say if I were hauled up before the magistrate to defend my religion? First of all, it doesn’t seem likely; after all I’m not a Christian in Baghdad or Bahá’í in Tehran or Muslim in western China or Buddhist in Tibet.

And what would I have done that might make them think they could convict me of being a Christian? Have I been comforting the bereaved, visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, or standing up for justice? Have I been doing those things? Have I been encouraging other people to do those things? Or is it guilt by association with people who do those things?

After all, I did sign that “Bear Witness Now” letter along with 100 other pastors that said, this is what Christianity is about, and included three main points.

And those points were about compassion and justice and charity. About God’s love for all people, God’s love for creation, God’s particular love for the poor.

● “For God so loved the whole world” ● “God created the world and called it good” ● "For the least of these”

(John 3.16. Genesis 1.4,10,12, 18, 21, 25, 31. Matthew 25.40, 45._

Maybe that's enough to get me busted. I hope so, cause I haven’t done a whole lot else. Nothing to stand out. Then again, what does stand up? How would we know?

There’s a story about an old Scottish pastor reflecting back on his life who worried that he’d never really had his words or his ministry turn someone’s life around; except maybe, he thought aloud, maybe that little Davy Livingstone. David Livingstone, you may know, devoted his life to a very dramatic ministry in Africa, missionary, physician, explorer, and anti-slavery crusader.

Maybe we won’t know what would stand up in court, if we were brought before kings and governors. Maybe we would slide by because of the modest nature of our commitments. Maybe we would. Maybe some of us will have to stand up and stand out, because of the nature of the gospel. Of the gospel, not our own bravery or detachment or internal virtue. Because he calls.

He calls us. As he called Nicodemus, and Andrew and Peter, and Matthew. And a blind beggar no one knows the name of. Of Mary and Martha. And of that saint we sang of, on All Saints, that we met at shops or at tea. (Love that.) Because the saints of God are just folks like we—

May the Lord direct your hearts towards God’s love and the steadfastness of Christ. 

(2 Th 3.5, REB)

JRL+

https://chestercathedral.com/about/heritage-culture/the-building-and-its-history

https://www.mezquita-cordoba.com/en

Lesbia Scott, “I sing a song of the saints of God”, Hymn #293, The Hymnal 1982, ‎page 515. [https://hymnary.org/hymn/EH1982/page/515]

[https://www.britannica.com/biography/David-Livingstone]

https://www.bearwitnessnow.org/

November 16th, 2025

Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost
CProper 28

Malachi 4:1-2a
Psalm 98
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Luke 21:5-19

https://ctktucson.org/sermons/endurance/

words and deeds

 “Some people were talking about the temple and the beauty of its fine stones and ornaments. He said, ‘These things you are gazing at–the time will come when not one stone will be left upon another; they will all be thrown down.’ (Luke 21:5-6, REB)

Twenty-three years ago I slapped my hand on the Romanesque wall, exposed by renovations, of Chester Cathedral and said to my host, this is the church Anselm knew. There has been a church on the site since the eighth century. The building now is Gothic in style, but that is wrapped around an earlier Romanesque structure. And so I knew that back when “Cur Deus Homo” (Why a God-Man?) was hot off the copying desk, its author, Anselm the Archbishop of Canterbury, was visiting, the wall he would have touched was the wall I touched.

Ten years ago I placed my palm against a large well-worked stone in Jerusalem. It was the Western Wall, foundation stone of the third Temple, built under the direction (and the lash) of Herod the Great, just before Jesus was born. Despite our Savior’s words of prophecy, not every stone fell away from every other. The Romans, when they came in destructive fury, left a few standing, just a few. They are the largest and oldest and best-fashioned of the stones in the wall. Though I doubt the soldiers of Titus spared them out of respect for the stone masons.

Stones last. Sometimes they are repurposed: they become spolia, salvaged or stolen from an old ruined (mostly) building and put to new use. Churches in Rome have pillars from pagan bath houses. Churches in Spain have stones that were once in mosques that were once churches. 

Sometimes they stay where they were put, for a very long time. Sometimes they are in ruins, evocative of earlier, lost ages, and forgotten rituals.

Stones last. But not forever. And they don’t matter anyway. That is what Jesus tells us. “The Lord is faithful” - the steadfast love of God : that is what endures. 

By your endurance you will gain your souls (NRSV)

Or– By standing firm, you will win yourselves life (REB)

Or– By holding fast, you will gain your lives (CEB)

Or– By your perseverance, you shall gain salvation.

(Luke 21:19)

Do you remember the persistent widow from a gospel a week or two ago, how she persisted? And in persisting, she demanded justice against her opponent, or as the King James would say, to be avenged against her adversary. (Luke 18:1-8)

Jesus calls his followers to endure and hold on in the midst of persecutions and says that by so doing they will save their souls and their lives.

Early in the passage, he talks about what to do when someone says to you follow me because I am the one. I am the one who can save you and the time is near. He says don’t go after them, don’t follow that leader, that false leader. 

That is part of saving your soul, not to be seduced by false messiahs, false leaders.

Today’s psalm ends with this verse: ‘In righteousness shall he judge the world, and the peoples with equity.’ (98.10)

What does that mean? Are there other ways to say it? You can also say, he will judge with saving righteousness.

You can say, he will establish justice; you can say, he will bring salvation and that that is his victory.

And all of these other ways of saying it remind us that it is the Lord who is our king. Christ, the king.

In the early days of Christianity within the pagan Roman empire, all you had to do to be convicted of treason was to say that Jesus is Lord —that Christ is King, not the emperor.

And that is who we turn to, as our judge for the people who receive this message. It is joy to the world for the Lord to win himself the victory, for the Lord to win salvation. For him to come and judge the Earth means that we will be vindicated, that he will establish a saving righteousness with equity and justice.

That is a pretty different sense of judgment from that of the persistent widow’s unjust judge who seemed simply to be awarding the victory to one side or another in a dispute.

In the justice of God, salvation and righteousness are established for the world among all people.

But it is for us to step out of that tight frame of jurisprudence that simply chooses a winner between opponents in a lawsuit and it is for us to step into a larger world in which justice rolls down like waters and the day of salvation is at hand. (Amos 5:24) 

“But before all this occurs, they will take you into custody and harass you because of your faith. They will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will provide you with an opportunity to testify. Make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance. I’ll give you words and wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to counter or contradict.” (Luke 21:12-15, Common English Bible)

What would I say if I were hauled up before the magistrate to defend my religion? First of all, it doesn’t seem likely; after all I’m not a Christian in Baghdad or Bahá’í in Tehran or Muslim in western China or Buddhist in Tibet. 

And what would I have done that might make them think they could convict me of being a Christian? Have I been comforting the bereaved, visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, or standing up for justice? Have I been doing those things? Have I been encouraging other people to do those things? Or is it guilt by association with people who do those things? 

After all, I did sign that “Bear Witness Now” letter along with 100 other pastors that said, this is what Christianity is about, and included three main points. 

And those points were about compassion and justice and charity. About God’s love for all people, God’s love for creation, God’s particular love for the poor.

● “For God so loved the whole world” 

● “God created the world and called it good”

● "For the least of these”

John 3.16. Genesis 1.4,10,12, 18, 21, 25, 31. Matthew 25.40, 45.

Maybe that's enough to get me busted. I hope so, cause I haven’t done a whole lot else. Nothing to stand out. Then again, what does stand up? How would we know? 

There’s a story about an old Scottish pastor reflecting back on his life who worried that he’d never really had his words or his ministry turn someone’s life around; except maybe, he thought aloud, maybe that little Davy Livingstone. David Livingstone, you may know, devoted his life to a very dramatic ministry in Africa, missionary, physician, explorer, and  anti-slavery crusader. 

Maybe we won’t know what would stand up in court, if we were brought before kings and governors. Maybe we would slide by because of the modest nature of our commitments. Maybe we would. Maybe some of us will have to stand up and stand out, because of the nature of the gospel. Of the gospel, not our own bravery or detachment or internal virtue. Because he calls. 

He calls us. As he called Nicodemus, and Andrew and Peter, and Matthew. And a blind beggar no one knows the name of. Of Mary and Martha. And of that saint we sang of, on All Saints, that we met at shops or at tea. (Love that.) Because the saints of God are just folks like we—

https://chestercathedral.com/about/heritage-culture/the-building-and-its-history

https://www.mezquita-cordoba.com/en

Lesbia Scott, “I sing a song of the saints of God”, Hymn #293, The Hymnal 1982, ‎page 515. [https://hymnary.org/hymn/EH1982/page/515]

[https://www.britannica.com/biography/David-Livingstone]

https://www.bearwitnessnow.org/

Malachi 4:1-2a Psalm 98 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 Luke 21:5-19

May the Lord direct your hearts towards God’s love and the steadfastness of Christ. 

(2 Th 3.5, REB)

JRL+

standfast

By your endurance you will gain your souls (NRSV)

Or–

By standing firm, you will win yourselves life (REB)

Or–

By holding fast, you will gain your lives (CEB)

Or–

By your perseverance, you shall gain salvation.

(Luke 21:19)

Do you remember the persistent widow from a gospel a week or two ago, how she persisted? And in persisting, she demanded justice against her opponent, or as the King James would say, to be avenged against her adversary. (Luke 18:1-8)

Jesus calls his followers to endure and hold on in the midst of persecutions and says that by so doing they will save their souls and their lives.

Early in the passage, he talks about what to do when someone says to you follow me because I am the one. I am the one who can save you and the time is near. He says don’t go after them, don’t follow that leader, that false leader. 

That is part of saving your soul, not to be seduced by false messiahs, false leaders.

Today’s psalm ends with this verse: ‘In righteousness shall he judge the world, and the peoples with equity.’ (98.10)

What does that mean? Are there other ways to say it? You can also say, he will judge with saving righteousness.

You can say, he will establish justice; you can say, he will bring salvation and that that is his victory.

And all of these other ways of saying it remind us that it is the Lord who is our king. Christ, the king.

In the early days of Christianity within the pagan Roman empire, all you had to do to be convicted of treason was to say that Jesus is Lord —that Christ is King, not the emperor.

And that is who we turn to, as our judge for the people who receive this message. It is joy to the world for the Lord to win himself the victory, for the Lord to win salvation. For him to come and judge the Earth means that we will be vindicated, that he will establish a saving righteousness with equity and justice.

That is a pretty different sense of judgment from that of the persistent widow’s unjust judge who seemed simply to be awarding the victory to one side or another in a dispute.

In the justice of God, salvation and righteousness are established for the world among all people.

But it is for us to step out of that tight frame of jurisprudence that simply chooses a winner between opponents in a lawsuit and it is for us to step into a larger world in which justice rolls down like waters and the day of salvation is at hand.

(Amos 5:24) 

 

Sunday 16 November 2025. JRL+

to him all of them are alive

Jesus said to them, ‘Those who are considered worthy of a place in … the resurrection from the dead … cannot die any more, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.’ (Luke 20:34-38)

For me the key words in this Gospel passage are “children of the resurrection” and, even more so, “to him all of them are alive.” 

As we approach the Lord’s Table we go to meet the Lord — who is alive and those too who are alive in Him, alive in the Resurrection. And even, I’ve been thinking, we go to meet those who are yet to come.  

Hope for the future, as well as peace about the past, and faith — both comfort and challenge — for the present, are all proclaimed to us in this gospel.

For in Christ we are in communion with all the saints, all who live and die and are raised with him. 

So as we go up to the altar to take communion we go up not for ourselves only but for all who share in the joy of the saints.

This is a sacrament that we take never so for much for ourselves as when we take it as members of the body of Christ: one bread, one body.

From Isaiah (25:6) we receive this vision of a feast at the end of time:

‘On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples

   a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines,

   of rich food filled with marrow,

   of well-matured wines strained clear.’

The heavenly feast! If we take resurrection seriously, a couple of things happen. 

For if we take resurrection seriously, we take each other seriously. How shall I regard you if I know you are an eternal being, that you will live forever, that in Christ you have a home in his heart? And how then shall I look at myself - at my own actions, at my self-regard or self- envy, my self-criticism or my downward looks, if Christ is real? 

“Eternal life starts here” could be written over the gates of your life - today, any day, as you enter the church, as you approach the communion rail, as you start again, today, to live life as you want it to be lived. 

Even the sorrow of life cut short — or spent badly — is redeemed in the resurrection. And its hope is in us, and we in it. So we can resist despair and live on, live now, in the fullness of that hope, the assurance of redemption.

Father Fuller (from St. Frances Cabrini) said: “Our faith in our future resurrection must affect our lives now.” Knowing who we are and believing in the future changes how we treat each other, how we treat ourselves, how we approach life. 

We are called to live in the fullness of confidence that death is not the end — the end is in Christ — the finality of the goal of all life… as all things are gathered to him.

To live now with the resurrection life before us means living now not only for ourselves but for others: in our sacramental life, in our workaday life, in our home life, in our social and political life…

How we treat one another,  how we treat ourselves, how we live— is in the light of the life of Christ, that frees us, empowers us, and leads us — into strange, new places.

Now, we may not all agree on particular actions — I’m thinking of the social-political realm — but we know of one another who sends us, why and what is behind our actions, the source of our motivations.

The Baptismal Covenant calls on us “to seek to serve Christ in all persons” — and uphold their dignity as children of God, affects how we conduct our public lives — not just how we vote, but in how we speak to others with whom we disagree. Our attitude of certitude or frustration or despair or even anger over public policy must be leavened with hope — with knowing that we are children of God.

How are we then to live? as God’s children, as transcendent beings of infinite value, — as creatures of dust and glory whose mortal acts of the moment are significant in light of our immortality, of the hope of the resurrection, that is, of our presence now in Christ. 

And this presence of Christ in us, which we enact and celebrate as we go up to communion, motivates us, not only to kneel or stand before him Sunday morning, but to stand with him in all the moments of our lives.

In Christ we are all one people. Using political divisions or election anxiety to separate us does not, ultimately, work. For we know that our redeemer lives, and on the last day he will triumph — and we with him. 

We begin to realize, as Christ draws all people to himself, that we are already one in the Spirit, and those boundaries we may seek to draw will all evaporate, dissolve, and blow away in the wind of the Spirit. That Holy Breath that in the Beginning moved across the face of the waters has not been still since creation’s dawn — it is still moving. And as it moves, what the world puts up against it will not stand.

The Rev. Dr. John Leech serves as priest associate at the Episcopal Church of Saint Matthew, Tucson.

The Arizona Daily Star published a version of this essay in the Keeping the Faith feature of the Home + Life section on Sunday, November 20th 2022, page E3, under the title “Stand with him in all moments.”

The God of the Living

For me the key words in the Gospel lesson for today are “children of the resurrection” and, even more so, “to him all of them are alive.” 

As we approach the Lord’s Table we go to meet the Lord — who is alive and those too who are alive in Him, alive in the Resurrection. And even, I’ve been thinking, we go to meet those who are yet to come.  

Hope for the future, as well as peace about the past, and faith — both comfort and challenge — for the present, are all proclaimed to us in this gospel.

For in Christ we are in communion with all the saints, all who live and die and are raised with him. 

So as we go up to the altar to take communion we go up not for ourselves only but for all who share in the joy of the saints.

This is a sacrament that we take never so for much for ourselves as when we take it as members of the body of Christ: one bread, one body.

From Isaiah (25:6) we receive this vision of a feast at the end of time:

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples

   a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines,

   of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear.

The heavenly feast! If we take resurrection seriously, a couple of things happen. 

For if we take resurrection seriously, we take each other seriously. How shall I regard you if I know you are an eternal being, that you will live forever, that in Christ you have a home in his heart? And how then shall I look at myself - at my own actions, at my self-regard or self- envy, my self-criticism or my downward looks, if Christ is real? 

“Eternal life starts here” could be written over the gates of your life - today, any day, as you enter the church, as you approach the communion rail, as you start again, today, to live life as you want it to be lived. 

***

Even the sorrow of life cut short — or spent badly — is redeemed in the resurrection. And its hope is in us, and we in it. So we can resist despair and live on, live now, in the fullness of that hope, the assurance of redemption.

Father Fuller (from St Frances Cabrini) said: “Our faith in our future resurrection must affect our lives now.” Knowing who we are and believing in the future changes how we treat each other, how we treat ourselves, how we approach life. 

We are called to live in the fullness of confidence that death is not the end — the end is in Christ — the finality of the goal of all life… as all things are gathered to him.

***

To live now with the resurrection life before us means living now not only for ourselves but for others:

 — in our sacramental life,

 — in our workaday life,

 — in our home life,

 — in our social and political life…

How we treat one another, 

how we treat ourselves, 

how we live - 

is in the light of the life of Christ,

 that frees us,

 empowers us, and

 leads us - into strange, new places.

Now, we may not all agree on particular actions — I’m thinking of the social-political realm — but we know of one another who sends us, why and what is behind our actions, the source of our motivations.

[see Statement of Faith Leaders United for Peaceful Elections in Arizona]

Our Baptismal Covenant calls on us “to seek to serve Christ in all persons” — and uphold their dignity as children of God, affects how we conduct our public lives - not just how we vote, but in how we speak to others with whom we disagree. Our attitude of certitude or frustration or despair or even anger over public policy must be leavened with hope — with knowing that we are children of God.

How are we then to live? 

— as God’s children, 

— as transcendent beings of infinite value, 

— as creatures of dust and glory whose mortal acts of the moment are significant in light of 

our immortality, 

of the hope of the resurrection, that is, 

of our presence now in Christ. 

And this presence of Christ in us, which we enact and celebrate as we go up to communion, motivates us, not only to kneel or stand before him Sunday morning, but to stand with him in all the moments of our lives.

***

In Christ we are all one people. Using political divisions or election anxiety to separate us does not, ultimately, work. For we know that our redeemer lives, and on the last day he will triumph — and we with him. 

We begin to realize, as Christ draws all people to himself, that we are already one in the Spirit, and those boundaries we may seek to draw will all evaporate, dissolve, and blow away in the wind of the Spirit. That Holy Breath that in the Beginning moved across the face of the waters has not been still since creation’s dawn — it is still moving. And as it moves, what the world puts up against it will not stand.

Readings for Year C, Proper 27. The Third Sunday before Advent:

TRACK ONE

Haggai 1:15b-2:9

Psalm 98

2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17

Luke 20:27-38

Faith Leaders United for Peaceful Elections in Arizona

In partnership with the Arizona Democracy Resilience Network

As faith leaders from across Arizona, we come together from different religious and political backgrounds to express our support for safe, fair and secure elections. With early voting for the November election just days away, we are concerned by the hateful rhetoric and threats against election workers, activists, supporters of the candidates, public officials and even places of worship.  

The values of our faith traditions drive our belief in this cause.  All of our constitutional freedoms, including our religious freedom, depend on the integrity of our elections – the foundation of American democracy.

We support the following fundamental principles for safe, secure and fair elections and we ask everyone – from public officials to civic leaders, people in a position of power to voters everywhere – to commit to the same:

Candidate Principles for Trusted Elections 

We ask candidates to be guided by the following principles: 

1. Honest process: Cooperate with election officials, adhere to rules and regulations, and refrain from knowingly propagating falsehoods about the electoral process. 
2. Civil campaign: Encourage a peaceful election atmosphere during the pre-election, polling, counting, and post-election periods. Denounce any attempt to intimidate, harass, threaten or incite violence against opponents, their supporters, and election workers. 
3. Secure voting: Respect voters’ freedom to exercise their lawful rights to register and vote, free from interference, obstruction, or intimidation. 
4. Responsible oversight: Encourage political parties and others to train poll-watchers on the election process and appropriate roles and behaviors, responsibilities, and obligations. 
5. Trusted outcomes: Make claims of election irregularities in accordance with the law and acknowledge the legitimacy of the outcomes after the results have been certified and all contestations decided. 

These principles are key to sustaining our healthy democracy and they are supported by a majority of Americans but they are being threatened today as we enter a new election cycle. We invite everyone to join us in our support of the fundamental principles of our democracy.

[You can show your support by endorsing these principles at this link: https://principledcandidates.org/]

All Hallows

Jesus said, “The fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive." 

(Luke 20:37-38)

In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

This is a time of sorrow, of remembrance, and sometimes of joy. It is the season, and the week, and in some homes the day, that we remember those who have died. We remember individuals close to us, loved ones, fellow worshipers, friends, and colleagues. We remember those far away. And we remember those long ago. 

Fresh it comes sometimes, the memory of the loss of someone dear to us, long ago. Or we are reminded, willy-nilly, by some random reference in a passing conversation, or news item. We pass the freeway exit. We taste something, or a fragrance comes to us, and we remember them.

We remember, too, those who are passing now, or recently, not only those we know personally, but those we hear about through news reports. This past weekend the headlines about a crush in a crowd in Korea and the murder of innocents in Mogadishu vied for space, while Ethiopia, Congo, Yemen, and other places were found further down the page, or on inside pages, or awaited their turn in our attention.

Some of us remember every day or every week those who have died coming through the desert, and we light a candle at a shrine, or remember them in our prayers.  

News items, or visitors, bring to mind tragedies of the past. Anticipated grief, expectation of loss to come, sometimes controls our consciousness. It looks like something is going to happen and we find ourselves getting ready to absorb it, or trying - in advance - to forget it, or address it, or both.

So we have a holiday or two, or three, this weekend and next. Monday is All Hallows’ Eve, the night before All Saints’ Day, Tuesday and Wednesday, November 1st and 2nd, we observe El día de Los Muertos*, and on Wednesday, All Souls, All Faithful Departed** - and next Sunday we continue our remembrances, as we listen to the gospel in which Jesus explains to cynical skeptics the resurrection of the dead and the hope it gives, as our God is the God of the living, ‘for to him all these are alive.’

That last is a hard and beautiful doctrine, hard to get your mind around and assimilate, for it is so different from our cultural messages, even well-meaning ones, and the consolations quickly offered at the time of grief. But it is good news, nevertheless. 

And well worth remembering. If the dead are alive to God, and we are alive in Christ, then especially when we come to church and take communion together, and especially these days, we should be able not only to mourn but to celebrate the lives of those who have lived before us, as they are alive in God.

* “Día de los Muertos acknowledges the symbiotic relationship between life and death. El día de Los Muertos is celebrated on November 1st and November 2nd, in which the spirits of the dead are believed to return home and spend time with their relatives on these two days.” https://www.mexicanmuseum.org/dia-de-los-muertos

** “This optional observance is an extension of All Saints' Day. While All Saints’ is to remember all the saints, popular piety felt the need to distinguish between outstanding saints and those who are unknown in the wider fellowship of the church, especially family members and friends. Commemoration of All Faithful Departed did not appear in an American Prayer Book until 1979, and it is celebrated on Nov. 2. It is also known as All Souls’ Day. Many churches now commemorate all the faithful departed in the context of the All Saints’ Day celebration.”

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/glossary/all-faithful-departed-commemoration-of/

Readings for Year C, Proper 27. The Third Sunday before Advent:

TRACK ONE

Haggai 1:15b-2:9

Psalm 145:1-5, 18-22

or Psalm 98

2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17

Luke 20:27-38

TRACK TWO

Job 19:23-27a

Psalm 17:1-9

2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17

Luke 20:27-38

A version of this essay was published in the Keeping the Faith feature of the Home + Life section of the Arizona Daily Star, Sunday November 13th 2022, page E3, under the title, "Celebrate loved ones lost." 

https://arizonadailystar-az.newsmemory.com?selDate=20221113&goTo=E03

no greater love

Turner House, Cowell College

Sojourners titled its Scripture commentary for May "What we see on Pentecost is a bewilderment." I'd call it rather an un-bewilderment, as it was on Ascension and Pentecost that the followers of Jesus saw him for who he really was, and was becoming. Hence the connection, noted by Michael Ramsey, of Ascension with the sovereignty of God come to earth in Jesus Christ. 

For May 9th, their commentary is titled "God's Friends" and that does capture something of this Sunday. One commenter, Herbert McCabe, says that God loves us because we are in Christ and share his Spirit." Rather I would say, "God loves us." - full stop - and then "We are in Christ and share in his Spirit." His indwelling spirit enables us to enter into the inner life of God that is Love and it empowers us to take that love into the world. 

So as we re-open, or contemplate re-opening, our lives 'post-covid', let us not only continue precautions, but think about more than what it means to relax about personal restrictions - wash hands, wear mask, keep distance, no risky mixing - but what it means beyond taking care of ourselves to be sent as disciples of the living Lord. And indeed, as Stewart McDonald points out, beyond 're-gathering' among ourselves.

What should we be doing, as we are released from timidity and boredom into a more opened-up world? How shall we serve him, proclaim him and witness him, embody his kingdom spirit, this spring?

We begin with the pursuit of truth in the company of friends: learning to love one another as he loves us. And then we go forth rejoicing...

Christ the King Episcopal Church, Tucson.

9 May 2021
Sixth Sunday of Easter

• Acts 10:44-48
• 1 John 5:1-6
• John 15:9-17
• Psalm 98

Sojourners, May 2021, 48-49.

A. M. Ramsey."Ascension." Alan Richardson, ed. A Theological Word Book of the Bible. New York: Macmillan. 1950. 22-23. 

https://www.cityonahillpress.com/2009/01/15/modest-memorial-carries-heavy-history/

Sacrificial Goat

Jack Zajac