The Feast of All Saints |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Preaching Text -- The Epistle of the Day
1 John 3:1-3
Today we celebrate the saints universal. We keep the Feast of All Saints. And there is also a hint of the Fast of All Souls in our celebration today. We remember all the saints, especially those who are not household names in the Kingdom of God. We pray for the repose of those whom we have known and loved in this life. All Saints is a celebration of hope, of the Easter hope. Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the tombs bestowing life. All Souls is the deep yearning of the heart to see not by faith but by sight that Christ is victorious in the midst of his saints and proves indeed what we say every time we commend our deceased loved ones to the company of the saints with the words: "for us life is changed, not ended." All Souls is to All Saints what Good Friday is to Easter Sunday. Even the colors that I wear this reflect that. We celebrate All Saints today, for it is Sunday, the Day of Resurrection. And so it is the Easter Vestments that I wear and not the black of All Souls and Good Friday that are never worn on Sunday.
In a sense there are two Epistles that we have heard today; one in place of the Old Testament, in keeping with the Easter practice of reading the Apostles twice. The reading from Revelation points beyond the grave to those who have served faithfully in their day and generation. The reading from First John points to us who as yet live and believe by faith and not yet by sight. It's this later reading that I want for us to focus on, for truly it speaks to us!
In between Sundays, in my work as a chaplain, it is a rare week when I am not found at someone's deathbed. It's always interesting to see how the living speak of death. There is so much that we simply don't know. That often makes people so uncomfortable that they cannot bear to be in that moment or to speak of death. But for us as Christians, we need not be fearful. St. John reminds us that what will be has not yet been revealed. But he also points out for us what is already true and has already been revealed. The very first verse of this reading for today is powerful:
"See what love the Father has given us,
that we should be called children of
God; and that is what we are."
He does not say that we shall become the sons and daughters of God. The apostle is holding before us the truth of our relationship with God that began in days past in this life when we were baptized into Christ. He grabs our attention and points to this truth. He takes us by the shoulders and moves our very head to point our eyes in the right direction and says to us: "Look at this!"
God has made us to be the children of God. We are sons and daughters of the living God who has claimed us as his own, who holds us in his hands, and who will never let us go. And there is nothing that can change that wonderful truth. Today we are God's children, and when our eyes close in death, we continue to be the beloved children of God. And whatever is to be in the life to come, in all of it's mystery, filled with so much that is unknown, needs to be pondered with the strength of that conviction that in all the days of this life and in the life to come, we shall always be the children of God loved by God with a love so strong that no words known to us can fully describe the fierceness and the gentleness of that love.
Remeber this unchangeable truth today as once more we commend those we love but see no longer to Christ. Remember this eternal grace as we are reminded that one day we too shall go the way of our fathers and mothers and fall asleep in Christ. We are today the children of God, and so shall we ever be!
But then remember, dear friends, to be like John for the world. Remind others of this unchangeable truth that we are and ever shall be the living children of God, for Christ has promised us a share in his victory. And if we have eyes to see and ears to hear, how many there are who need to hear and receive the gift of being reminded that we need not fear the unknown, for what we do know is greater than the mysteries that surround life and death. We don't need to focus on anything else than that single truth.
"Beloved, we are God’s children now;
what we will be has not yet been
revealed. What we do know is this:
when he is revealed, we will be like him,
for we will see him as he is. And all who
have this hope in him purify
themselves, just as he is pure."
The Rev'd Timothy Alleman ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Rector of Holy Cross
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