All Saint's Day

Good morning! And happy November!

The air is getting cooler,
The days are getting shorter:
And yet: the month of November is a steady celebration of harvest, abundance,
and gratitude.

And in the church:
This season begins with a very important celebration:
The celebration of All Saints day.

It’s a day of gratitude:
where we remember and honor the saints who have gone before us:
Those faithful and famous:
And those who we knew in our own time and lives.

As we celebrate All Saints day, we gather to remember those who have died,
And we anticipate the glorious resurrection that is yet to come:
For us, and for all who have gone before us.

It’s particularly special today,
Because we have these stones:
Formed out of the ashes of our brother Joe:

One of our own faithful departed.
These stones are a significant reminder that those who have died are still with us:
Still united to us in what the church calls “The great cloud of witnesses.”

On all Saints day:
We remember that we are not just individual followers of Jesus:
We are all united and connected to one another through the living God:
Or as our collect says today:
We are: “knit together in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of
Christ our lord.”

As we remember, honor, and pray for those who have died:
It feels funny at first to also talk about money.

That’s the other thing we’re doing today.
Kicking off this month of gratitude, with our stewardship Sunday.

Initially, I thought “how am I going to connect these two things?”
All saints and stewardship?
It feels so weird:
To honor those who have died,
And also talk about money.

Money seems meaningless in the midst of grief and death.
It’s why they say that old adage, “You can’t take it with you.”

It seems gauche to ask you to fill out a pledge card,
While also remembering those who have died.

But the more that I thought about it, and prayed about it:
The more it began to make sense.

Actually in a real “Jesus” Sort of way:
Everything I initially thought, got turned upside down:
And the Spirit brought new life:
To think about things more deeply, and differently.

There are, of course, practical reasons for asking you to give a portion of your
income to the church.

Practically speaking, we need income:
to keep the doors of this church open.
To keep the lights on,
To heat and cool the building:
To have a space to worship the living God,
And to provide grace, mercy and healing to each other, and all others.

And practically speaking:
We invite people to pledge their giving for the year,
So that we can set our budget:
And know what we can expect to work with to continue our ministries.

These practicalities are important, and they’re real.
But they’re also “first glance thinking”
(Until the Spirit turns it all upside down.)

It gets flipped upside-down when we realize that the knitting together of all the
faithful followers of Jesus is the whole point of the church.
That’s what All-saints day is.

This holy: All-saints celebration:
Is basically the epitome of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
To be knit together to all the faithful:
Placing our hope in the ultimate resurrection of the dead,
And the eager anticipation of our own glorious resurrections.

What I’m trying to say:
Is that the church exists in order to carry the legacy of Jesus, and all of his faithful
followers throughout the centuries.

So when we give to the church:
We’re preserving that legacy.
The legacy of Jesus which knits us together:
To those we love who have died,
And to those faithful that we’ve never met.

And if we’re being honest:
It makes sense to connect this honoring of those who have died,
With the financial responsibility to continue the mission of the church.

It is, after all,
At the moment of death:
Either or own, or that of our loved ones:
That we most long for the mission and legacy of Jesus: which is revealed to us
through the church.

It’s why an unresponsive loved one,
On a deathbed,
Might show signs of response during the recitation of the Lord’s prayer.

It’s why the 23 rd Psalm is such a comfort in times of grief and loss.
“Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death:
I shall fear no evil.”

It’s why Mary:
In today’s Gospel:
Weeps and says to Jesus “Lord! If you had been here, my brother would not have
died.”

And it’s these moments:
Of death and resurrection:

That are most pivotal to the life of Jesus:
To the life of the church:
And to the eternal life promised to us, and all the faithful departed.

But one more thing about this famous story of the raising of Lazarus.
While Mary and Martha are overcome with grief over the death of their brother:
Jesus cries out with a loud voice:
And Lazarus: Who was dead:
Came ourt:
Once again alive.

Except:
This was not resurrection:
In the way that Jesus was resurrected.

Lazarus is going to die again:
A human death,
Like each one of us.

His sisters (If still alive) will mourn and grieve him yet again.
But the message of Jesus:
The legacy of the saints, and all the faithful departed:
The hope of the church:
Is that death never has the last word.
Death is never the end of the story.

Because the end of the story is a new beginning:
A new heaven, and a new earth:
Resurrection of the body,
Life everlasting,
With all those who have gone before,
And all those who will come after.
United and knit together by Jesus himself.

But that new beginning isn’t here yet.
And it’s our job is to continue the legacy:
Carry the legacy of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
Pass on the legacy of the mission of the church:
And hold the legacy of all the saints:
Including those we have loved and lost.

I invite you today,
To two different ways that you can carry these united legacies.

You have two small cards today:
One a pledge card:
And one a blank card.

You know what the pledge card is for.

Offering up some of your income to continue the legacy of Jesus through the
mission of the church.

But the blank card is a little bit different.
I invite you to write the names of your own faithful departed:
Those loved ones in your life who have died:
So that we can honor and pray for them today:
Continuing their legacy:
As we wait for resurrection in the new heaven and the new earth.

(Please write as legibly as possible, so that I can pray the names out loud.)

And when you’re finished,
With one or both of the cards:
You can bring them to the altar:
And when the time is right:
I’ll lead is in prayer:
Prayer for all the faithful departed:
For those you name on your cards,

We’ll pray over Joes ashes:
And commit them to the living God.

We’ll pray for the continued mission of the church,
And we’ll pray for ourselves:

As we strive to continue and carry Jesus’ legacy.