November 1, 2009 - All Saints Day, Year B (RCL)
Today is All Saints Day, the feast of All Saints, or All Hallows, which means the same thing.
it’s a day when we celebrate the people of faith who have gone before us;
we rejoice in their place in heaven,
and we look to them
as examples for our lives and faith.
But it wasn’t always
exactly like this.
Originally
All Saints Day
was held in May, and was a kind of catch all
for all the saints
whose saints day hadn’t been properly celebrated
and those more obscure saints
who had someone been overlooked
when it came to handing out saints days.
Some time around the eighth century
for a reason long lost to history
the celebration of All Saints, at least in the Western Church
migrated to the first day of November.
And that date was particularly useful in places like England and Scotland and Ireland, where the church was struggling to hold its own against traditional religions.
All Saints
fell right in the middle of Celtic new year. And it wasn’t just the time of year that they had in common;
the pagan Celts believed that at this time of the year, the veil between this world and the next was very thin and that the dead came through to confront the living for good,
or for evil.
All Saints, by contrast,
was the day when all the triumphant dead in Christ would be commemorated and celebrated.
No longer would the time be one of fear of death and the dead but one of "rejoicing with the Saints in Light".
The day after All Saints
was the feast of All Souls, when we remember all those who have died.
And the night before All Saints
became a time
when secure in the promise of resurrection,
Christians could participate in the festivities
as a way of laughing at death and evil.
And so these three days
are a time
when we claim once again
the power of the resurrection
over death,
when we remember those who have died,
when we look to the examples of the saints
as examples of faith for all of us,
and when we remind ourselves
of the promise of heaven.
And the three days are united in our readings, though I’m not sure how deliberate that was on the part of the people who put our lectionary together.
It begins with the gospel reading.
I have to admit
that my first thought when I read it
was to wonder if the people who chose our readings
really thought about what they were doing
when they chose the story of Lazarus
for the morning after
Halloween.
There we are at the side of a grave of a man;
the grave is new, just four days old.
The man’s sisters are there,
still not quite believing
that their brother is dead,
and family and friends
to support them.
And Jesus, who has only just arrived,
too late
to help their brother when he was sick,
too late, even,
for the funeral.
And now he is here,
and for some unknown reason
he tells them
to move away the stone
that is closing
the tomb.
Well, you know what happens to a body
that hasn’t been embalmed.
Four days
is more than long enough for decomposition
to begin.
And so the man’s sister
says to Jesus,
“But it’s going to smell bad - really bad.”
But Jesus
doesn’t seem to listen,
and instead
begins to pray.
and then suddenly shouts,
“Lazarus, come out!”
And from the tomb
lurches Lazarus
still wrapped
in the cloths
that had shrouded
his body.
I’m guessing
that whoever chose this reading for All Saints
was thinking that this would remind us of Jesus’ power over death...
not of zombies
or mummies - though if you’re stuck for a costume for our All Saints celebration tonight,
St Lazarus would be a good one!
And what the reading set for today doesn’t tell us
is that Lazarus
was no zombie
Lazarus
was no mummy.
After they unwrapped him,
he went on to live
a normal life.
Just a few verses later
he’s hosting dinner
for Jesus
the next time
Jesus comes
to town.
And as far as we know,
at a good age
Lazarus died
like anyone else.
What happened to Lazarus
looks like resurrection, but it’s not permanent.
What is really important
is not Lazarus, but Jesus.
Jesus is the one
who has power
over death.
Right there and then,
as a temporary measure.
But after his own resurrection
it’s permanent.
Jesus has power over death
for all time.
And that’s why we can hope for resurrection,
not as a temporary measure
but for all of eternity.
That’s the hope of heaven.
And it’s the hope
that our other readings point to today.
The bible doesn’t say a whole lot about heaven,
I guess, because it’s something that none of us has ever seen.
And so it always feels
just a little bit
out of our grasp.
Our language can’t quite catch hold of it.
And that’s why most of the time
when the bible speaks of heaven
it speaks in metaphor.
It’s like being on a mountain, the sort of holy place
like Mount Moriah, where Abraham went to sacrifice his son
and God provided an alternative sacrifice
and Isaac was saved;
like Mount Horeb, where God appeared
in a burning bush
and commissioned Moses;
like Mount Sinai
where God gave Moses
the Ten Commandments;
like the Temple Mount
where God appeared year by year
in the holiest of Holies;
like the mountains
that Jesus so often climbed
to find a quiet place
to pray;
like Mount
where God appeared at the Transfiguration
and blessed his son;
like the hill of Gethsemane
where God reached out
and somehow, through the death of his son,
reconciled us to himself.
Heaven
is like a mountain,
a place
to meet
with God.
And there,
there we will find a feast,
a feast more lavish
than we’ve ever tasted,
a feast with fabulous vintage wines
and richly spiced food.
And over the meal
we will talk and laugh
and it will be like the best of Easter and Thanksgiving and Christmas
rolled into one,
and there will be no room for anger or sorrow or sadness.
Heaven will be like that.
And it will be like a city,
glorious and wealthy,
with the finest of architecture,
metal and stone,
carved and gilded,
a city where there is no poverty or homelessness,
no fear or misery.
Like a city dressed up, decorated for the holidays,
elaborately ornamented as a bride
dresses for her wedding.
Heaven will be like that.
But most of all,
the most important thing about heaven,
is that God will be there.
Not just in the kind of nebulous, spiritual presence
that we experience here on earth,
but God will be there,
hovering round, making sure we have everything we need.
Wiping away any tears that we have left
with the corner of a handkerchief.
That’s the vision of heaven,
the hope of heaven.
the promise of heaven.
But this is the Feast of All Saints, not the Feast of Heaven.
Because heaven is nothing
without the people of God,
those people
who to quote the hymn
have been patient and brave and true,
who toiled and fought and lived and died
for the Lord they loved and knew.
They have gone before us,
and today we celebrate their lives,
and seek inspiration from them
for our own lives of faith.
We are the people of God
and we follow in the footsteps of the saints,
follow them
all the way
to heaven.
And so I now invite you
to follow in the faith of the saints
as we stand and reaffirm our faith and theirs, on page 304 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Celebrant: Do you believe in God the Father?
People: I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
Celebrant: Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
People I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
Celebrant: Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit?
People: I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Celebrant: Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and
fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?
People: I will, with God’s help.
Celebrant: Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever
you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
People: I will, with God’s help.
Celebrant: Will you proclaim by word and example the Good
News of God in Christ?
People: I will, with God’s help.
Celebrant: Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving
your neighbor as yourself?
People: I will, with God’s help.
Celebrant: Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
People: I will, with God’s help.
© Raewynne J. Whiteley 2009