The Feast of All Saints

Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion in the mystical body of your Son Jesus Christ:  Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you.....

                                                              The Book of Common Prayer, p. 245

The Collect for All Saints' Sunday reminds us of the mystery of life and death in a profound way.  First it describes all those who have gone on before us as being somehow knit together.  Think about that for a minute: your great grandmother and my great grandmother. And all those who died in the Holocaust and all the children who have died in childbirth or in utero: all knit together into one holy and mystical body called the Communion of Saints. Wow!

 And in this prayer, we ask God for the grace to follow them; we ask God to bring us in death into a place where the joys are "ineffable."  I had to look it up. Ineffable means "incapable of being expressed in words," so what we are asking God to do is to bring us into a place so filled with joy that words cannot describe it. 

 In a world where death is often associated with despair, disease, anger, or tragedy, God promises something different. God promises us a place where the joys areineffable; a place where the sting of death is transformed into                                                                               something of indescribable joy.

All Saints' Sunday, then, becomes a time where we are offered a glimpse into that mystery, a glimpse through the thin veil into the ineffable joys that God has promised us. As we remember those we love who have gone on before us, we remember, too, that God has a place for us in that Kingdom. 

  

Holy Hospitality

We are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves 
because you have become very dear to us.                   1 Thessalonians 2:8

The Hospitality of Abraham

In this letter, we can sense Paul's affection for the people at Thessalonica.  

This fondness stems from two things: their receptiveness to the gospel and the warmth of the welcome they extended to Paul. 

Which makes me wonder:  how welcoming are we of the stranger? 

And what if the strangers started proclaiming the Gospel in ways that were not our norm? 

Would we shy away from those visitors? Ignore them? 

This Sunday, we will be reminded of the greatest of the two greatest commandments; 

the two on which hang all the law and the prophets: Love God and Love our Neighbors. 

Even those who do things differently. 

The Gospels demand Holy Hospitality. 

How are we doing? 

On the Pernicious Problem of Evil

God's works will never be finished;

and from him health spreads over all the earth.  

                                              Ecclesiasticus 38:8

Exodus - Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall’s painting haunts me because of the sheer masses of people approaching the figure of our Lord. Chagall intentionally used very dark tones to symbolize the ever-present notion of pain and darkness in the world.

This week I am thinking about ISIS. 

Where is God in the torture and in those beheadings?   Where is God when villagers are lined up and shot?   

Can this force of Evil be stopped?

                                             

The scripture from Ecclesiasticus seems to suggest that God’s work will never be done, and perhaps that is the good news we seek. That God is eternal, and that God will never stop working to overcome evil and darkness in                                                                   the world.

Our faith tells us that God will prevail. Therein lies our hope. 

Fickleness and Faithfulness

Your people have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it….  Exodus 32:8

All through the books of Genesis and Exodus, we see God as provisioning his people, offering them sustenance and structure, safety and salvation. We would expect they would be grateful and loyal in return, right? 

Yet, while Moses is up on the mountain with God, the people get impatient.  They second guess the promises God has made to them, and they rebel against God.  They build a golden calf as an idol and worship it – forsaking the God of Abraham. 

How quickly do we forget God's promises to us?  What are the “golden calf” things in our lives that cause us to stray from walking as true disciples of Jesus Christ?  What prevents us from developing relationships with our neighbors, from feeding the hungry, or lifting up the oppressed?

Lord, help us set aside those idols that cause us to forget. Amen.