Sermon for All Saints
Day
St. Philips In The
Hills Parish, Tucson, AZ
The Rev. Vicki Hesse,
November 4, 2012
For Readings, click here
May the words of my
mouth and the meditation of all hearts be acceptable to you, o Lord, our
strength and our redeemer. Amen
At the
seminary I attended,
there is
a large dining hall
with
high ceilings and sky-blue walls.
Along
the walls on all four sides of the room and
positioned
several feet above eye-level
is an
array of formal portraits
depicting
a great cloud of witnesses,
all
of them significant and
distinguished
figures in the seminary’s history.[1]
Notably,
this includes
the
first African American Student,
who
later became the sixth bishop of the Diocese of Washington and
a recent
female dean of the school,
who
transformed the school’s policy
against
discrimination on sexual orientation.
These historic
figures, while not formally “red letter”
or even
“lesser” saints,
did not
let their death have the last word.
They
continually inspired us as seminarians.
We learned
about the resistance, difficulties and
suffering
they went through.
We
learned about their love of God,
loyalty
to the seminary and
their passion
to serve God’s kingdom.
In their
witness, they used God’s freely given gifts
of
faith, hope, generosity and
commitment
to justice,
to shift
the world towards God’s dream.
=.=.=.=.
At the
hospital where I served as a chaplain, there is a long hallway outside the
pastoral care department.
There,
by the exit door,
was a
small black and white photo of William,
hung
just at eye level.
William
was one of the first patients
in 1921
at that hospital.
William risked
his health
to
participate in one of the then-newest institutions
of his
city.
By God’s
grace, William’s ordinary faithfulness spoke to me.
William’s
witness to the unceasing power of the Spirit
to
inspire medical caregivers made him a daily saint,
one whom
I greeted as I checked in for work.
=.=.=.=.
These
people (great and humble)
strengthened
their witness of God’s grace.
In their
own ways and in their own suffering,
they
remained grounded in the deeper truth
of God’s
indestructible grace,
the
grace about which we heard
in the
readings for today.
In the
Hebrew scriptures,
we heard
that “the Lord of hosts will…
destroy
the shroud cast on all peoples,
and will
swallow up death forever.”
In the
Revelation to John, we heard that
“God
will wipe every tear from their eyes
and
death will be no more.”
And in the
Gospel, the raising of Lazarus,
we learn
that through Christ, God, (not death)
has the
last word,
so that we
will see the glory of God.
God,
not death, has the last word.
We hear
Jesus cry out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
and echoing
earlier stories about how
sheep
know the shepherd’s voice,
the dead
man does come out.
God,
not death, has the last word.
Jesus said
to them, “Unbind him, and let him go!”
In the
lives of those dining hall figures,
in the
life of William at the hospital,
in the
life of Lazarus, and
in our
lives here at St. Philips,
God
continually reveals God’s love.
We hear
in all these examples that powerful announcement.
While death
is inescapable, it is only part of the journey.
God,
not death, has the last word.
Through
Christ, we know a life of faith
grounded
in resurrection and new life,
surrounded
by all kinds of saints.
All
these saints,
including
the saints in the congregation here gathered,
have helped
me to become stronger
in my
discipleship and ability to do God’s work in the world.
In
observing the ninety-plus ministries,
I see
the impact that
your faith
has on your lives and the lives of others.
And so I
hope you will join me in tithing to St. Philips.
This is
what the saints ask of us:
to support each other in Spirit and
in Love
with our gifts and graces.
I
believe that through this community,
we can claim
resurrection and
new life
in God’s love.
By a
show of hands, how many of you keep pictures
of
everyday saints
around
your house, work place or study?
I do,
too.
We do
because in these images
we
experience God’s love as the last word on our lives,
not
death.
We do
because we pray with everyday saints
who give
us experiences of faith, hope and love.
We do
because we continue to love them
as they
love us, beyond death.
And
today, just like as every time we gather at the Lord’s table,
we join
with them in holy communion.
Here, at
this table, we receive the holy Sacrament
and are
brought together in kairos time
with all
the saints into the joy of God’s eternal kingdom[2].
Listen
to your saints. They will tell you that
Jesus,
not death, got the last word.
Nothing
can separate us from the love of God, nothing.
And, that
frees us, it unbinds us, it lets us go.
That
frees us to risk everything for the world that God loves.
Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment