By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, RectorFrom the Book of Revelation we just read, "Then one of the elders addressed me saying, 'Who are these robed in white, and where have they come from?' I said to him, 'Sir, you are the one that knows.'"
St. John, whom we call The Divine, had a vision of heaven and in this vision he saw those who went through the prism of persecution and stood before the throne of God spotless and pure, dedicated through their faith and belief to the service of God.
John was told, "...the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
These are the saints as John understood them. John wrote the Book of Revelation as an old man imprisoned on the island of Patmos. This island is in the Aegean Sea and like our legendary prison island of Alcatraz, Patmos was a cruel rock tantalizingly close to the home it's prisoners knew, yet treacherously out of reach.
In his vision and poetry, John reviewed his life, the sacrifices he made and the sacrifices made by so many he knew and this informed his vision of what reward awaited him and those who worked so hard and made similar sacrifices for the same belief in the same man.
"...and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes..." I suspect there were many tears in John's eyes as he wrote, and as he suffered on that island and thought of those who suffered so much for what they believed. Imagine such a strong belief to lead them into such suffering and such fates as those who stood in white robes in John's vision.
St. Paul, in a writing of his own, praised the saints who ran with patience in a race of endurance to achieve a laurel crown that would never fade. Perhaps Paul watched a marathon race and projected himself and his work into the image. As we witness the runners in today's race in New York, perhaps we can imagine ourselves runners in a race that doesn't require us to cross the finish line first to be the winner, but simply to run.
There are many images to describe those who believe in something strong enough to sacrifice anything, and sometimes everything, for their goal or dream.
Occasionally, there will be a knock at my door breaking the quiet and interrupting my reading of the newspaper. On these occasions there might be pairs of people, usually young, each working for what they believe. One pair might knocked on doors on behalf of their religious denomination, wanting very much to share their faith with me and save me from what they truly believed was the error of my ways and invite me to find the salvation they believe they have. My initial annoyance melts away after I close the door on them, and I actually became impressed that they work so hard for what they believed in. I don't remember ever seeing Episcopalians going door to door inviting others to share our way of worship or discuss our beliefs.
Another pair of young people have knocked on my door another day with another mission. Theirs was political in nature, asking for my vote in the upcoming election, truly believing in the vision of their candidate. Again, I am impressed by the zeal of those who would risk the negative responses of residents for the sake of their beliefs and commitment to their vision for a better country.
We celebrate today the saints who lived in the service of Christ. We celebrate today the saints who died in the service of Christ. We renew our vows to be one of those saints, to break bread together, to follow the teaching of the apostles, to acknowledge our faults and seek forgiveness, to see Christ in all persons and honor the dignity of all people. We renew our vows to pursue justice.
We will shortly baptize William Keith Critz, listen to his godparents making these vows for him and affirm our support of him in th is life of faith. We will welcome him in to the company of faithful believers.
In the ritual of Baptism I will ask if you belief in God the Father, then I'll ask if you believe in God the Son, then I'll ask you if you believe in God the Holy Spirit. I will not ask you if you'll go door to door proclaiming your answer, but while you're reading the responses I want you to imagine yourselves doing just that. I've been imagining my self doing that all this past week. I don't think I will go door to door, but I have to tell you I have a whole new respect for those who do. I'm not sure I would want to go to prison for my beliefs as Christians do in some parts of the world, or be killed for being a Christian as happens in some parts of the world. But I am humbled by those who are imprisoned and killed for their beliefs and like John the Divine can easily imagine them dressed in spotless robes before the throne of God receiving the reward of those who followed their faith come what may.
I can, like Paul, hope that as I run this race of life, hope to have a measure of the patience and endurance they have, and feel the wash of grace that tells me that I am winning simply by being in the race. My achievements are modest and humble by comparison, in fact not even worthy to be in the same category, yet the God who made us, accepts us where we are and as we are. The God who made us constantly invites us to enter the race and will guide us as we run, pick us up when we stumble and refresh us when we tire.
Yesterday in her sermon at the Washington Cathedral during her historic investiture as the first woman Presiding Bishop, Katherine Jefferts-Schiori described our faith and work as a way of coming home and finding that deep peace known as "shalom." She said,
"That vision of homegoing and homecoming that underlies our deepest spiritual yearnings is also the job assignment each one of us gets in baptism -- go home, and while you're at it, help to make a home for everyone else on earth," she continued. "For none of us can truly find our rest in God until all of our brothers and sisters have also been welcomed home like the prodigal."
All of us are called into Christ's service in so many different ways. We each have different gifts, different goals, different visions and different levels of commitment to achieve them. But make no mistake, faith takes commitment, whether a pledge to support the house and work of this community, or the zeal to walk with another on their path to faith, or one of the myriad of ways God calls us into service, we get there by entering the race. By trying. By wanting. Belief is not easy, and working for a belief that's not easy is even harder. But God takes us where we are and leads us into deeper union, deeper faith and deeper life. Beliefs change, evolve and grow, but unless we start somewhere, we won't go anywhere.
In the confirmation class I teach, we began a lesson on the Bible by reading the creation story from Genesis. One of the youth, got a quizzical look in his eyes, cocked his head and asked me, "You don't expect us to believe this do you?" And just as I don't expect him or anyone to believe everything they read, I hope we all have some beliefs that bring us closer to God in stories and images that speak to us and that we can share with others. Stories that will inspire and challenge them to come up with their own beliefs in the ultimate spiritual realities of God's love. I don't know how God created the world, but I believe God did. This essential truth seems to underlie all cultures who have stories that speak to them and describe their belief.
Without any beliefs we are lost to despair and cynicism. We are paralyzed and hopeless without goals, vision, or even love. But the beliefs we hold are worthy of our commitment, work and sacrifice. Each saint who went before has their own story and witness as they followed God's call, and we can join them by following God's call to us.
Most of us don't go door to door, but we answer this call by how we do live out our commitment. Like today, we may make pledges and writes checks to places that are doing God's work in the world. In addition, like our youth this week, we may get on planes and go to devastated places in our country to help out victims of hurricane disaster. We might support causes like marriage equality, signing petitions for legislation we believe in or gather food for the hungry. We might challenge those who make a racial slur or tell jokes at the expense of another. We might change our lives in subtle or dramatic ways to reflect changes and growth in our faith. We are saints already by virtue of our baptism and we enter the stream of believers in a living water of faith not knowing where it will take us, but knowing that wherever it does, God is there.
We don't compete for God's love, it's abundant and available to all. It's not awarded to those first over the line, but equally to any who care to enter the race. Today we celebrate all the saints and also to remember that we stand among them, loved by God and dedicated to God's service. Amen.
© 2006 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ
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