All Saints

By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, Rector

This morning we observe one of the main feasts of the Church Year, All Saints Day. The actual day was November 1, which was last Monday. In the days when Christianity was new, there was a practice of placing Christian holidays on or close to Pagan holidays in the hope that they would come to eclipse them - which they did. For example Christmas was placed on the Roman feast of Saturnalia - a day in honor of Saturn, the Roman god of the harvest. It was a time of merriment in which masters and slaves reversed roles for the 3-5 days of its duration. (It's an interesting day to celebrate the Christian God who became human.) Needless to say the strategy worked and while people know Christmas, we have long forgotten Saturnalia.

A case can be made for a similar happening with All Saints Day and the Celtic feast of Samhain. That pre-Christian feast celebrated the harvest and observed the thin line between the living and the dead. When the crops were harvested and the plants which bore them left to die, the cycle of life was celebrated and a feast enjoyed. Gourds were carved to ward off evil spirits and costumes fashioned to mock them. When the Christian Church arrived on the British Isles this feast with its costumes came to celebrate the saints of the Christian year and costumes that mocked death and celebrated Jesus' triumph over death and the victory over demons and the powers of darkness.

However, I think a reverse has happened in the case of All Saints Day. The secular fascination with Hallowe'en has eclipsed the day it was supposed to celebrate. All Hallow's Eve, of the Eve of All Saints has taken on a life of its own, and the holiday it is supposed to herald has been largely forgotten.

Ghosts and Ghouls and all types of monsters, princesses and hobos, boxes of pop corn and cell phone costumes, super heroes and the like, have supplanted the men and women known as saints in the calendar of Christian memory. So it's our task to remember the main feast day of All Saints. We are all saints and over time have come to recognize specific people as examples "of godly living" as the collect says it. Part of what we recognize as "saintly" is the courage of faith convictions to do extraordinary things for the good of others. They carry the message of God's love to different configurations of people over the centuries that the church has existed. They have seen Christ in all persons and served them.

The Episcopal Church inherited the list of saints from the Roman Church, though our relationship to them is slightly different. We honor them for the lives they led and we name our churches after some of them - even the ones that, alas, like Blessed George, are not necessarily historically factual. While we may doubt the historicity of a medieval soldier named George slaying a dragon, we hold to the spiritual truth of men and women who battle amazing odds successfully in living out their faith and accomplishing true miracles in those lives. And some of then are most definitely named George.

Whereas our Roman friends still require stringent background checks and miracles before they dub the name "Saint" on an individual, the Episcopal Church has created a book of saints that includes the actual, the hopefully actual, and even the doubtfully actual saints of old with contemporary saints whose lives model faith and fortitude in larger than life ways.

One such saint is Martin Luther King. Dr. King is responsible for many miracles and is beyond doubt an example of virtuous and godly living.

Some of the youth from this parish gave up a day off from school this past Thursday to go to the New Jersey Food Bank. We got a tour of that very impressive facility which feeds and clothes thousands of people each year. It began in 1975 when a woman named Kathleen DiChiara collected dented cans from supermarkets and gave them out to people in need in the Newark area from the back of her car. Today the project is huge and gathers food from many venues including churches like ours who have food bins and bring them to be distributed.

There is a banner at the Food Bank over the hallway leading into the main storage facility with a quote from Dr. King. It reads: Life's most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others?"

Service is the sign of hope in our world that connects what we believe and what we do about it. Giving service in any fashion to those in need is ministry and proclaiming through action that God loves all people, and that they are blessed. Not blessed in that their circumstances are dire, but blessed in that they are not forgotten by God and they are loved.

The Gospel lesson connected with All Saints Day is the Beatitudes. The list of those who are blessed is among the most beautiful passages in all of the scriptures and they are words of hope for those who seem to be forgotten by the world.

Blessed are the poor, blessed are those who are hungry now, blessed are those who weep, blessed are you when people hate you on account of the Son of Man... We sometimes mistake the word "blessed" with the world "lucky". But that's not what it means at all. It means "consecrated, sacred, holy." Set aside for a particular purpose. And more often that not the purpose is to manifest the love of God, through their actions or in calling forth an action in others.

The service that we do for those in any need, if it comes from our faith conviction that God is reflected in all people and our work honors that, then we are living into our faith. Through our prayers, through our actions, through our contributions, through the welcome we extend to the visitor.

Saints dedicated their lives to service in God's name. They still do. It's so very important that we create service venues for our youth and engage in it ourselves. It takes us out of ourselves in a good way. I guarantee that if you're sad or angry about something, the antidote is service to another person, no matter how seemingly small.

We continue our stewardship campaign today and hope to gather pledges next week for the work and ministry here at St. George's. We are a vital and vibrant presence in Maplewood, in the Diocese of Newark and in the country and beyond. Our service and faith commitment has reached out to people in the Indian Ocean region affected by the 2004 Tsunami, the people in Haiti, South Africa, Mississippi, to name a few. Our voice has been heard in Trenton and Washington. People who have been hurt by religious institutions, families of origin or current families or battered by life's circumstances have found healing here in prayer, music, study and food. Later this morning we'll bless a tricycle given in the memory of Gabriel Batiste who would have been 5 years old last week. When death or loss hits us, we process the healing through giving in a variety of ways. The joy this tricycle will give a child at the Turning Point Community Services Family Shelter, helps his parents Miguel and Suzette and grandmother Yolanda in their healing over his untimely death.

We are saints in a long tradition or those committed to God through Jesus who are inspired to reach beyond ourselves, and in the process become ourselves in a way that is deeper and more fulfilling than we can imagine. By George, there are dragons out there, and by God we'll take them on. Amen.

©2010 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ

All Saints Sunday

By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, Rector

As the familiar strains of "For All the Saints..." still hang in the air I want to welcome all the saints here today. For those of you who are visiting, a special welcome and invitation to join with us on the flip side of the Halloween coin. There are many stories of the origin of Halloween, but the fact that there are so many means its true origin lies in the obscure past. Most cultures have a celebration of the dead as a way of keeping the restless spirits away and there is something very primal about these celebrations that still move us even today.

The Christian Church tried to divert attention from these Pagan celebrations by placing feasts celebrating All Saints, who are equally as dead, but not malevolent. The Saints we celebrate today lived lives to inspire us in our faith and serve as examples to embrace rather than restless spirits to avoid and fear.

What has emerged over the centuries is a hybrid of celebration which acknowledges the darkness and light of how we approach death. It embraces the fear and hope with which all of us, at one time or another, experience when we mourn the death of a loved one or contemplate our own mortality.

The original purpose of costumes and noises were to scare the spirits away, though I must confess, I’m not sure the abundance of Princess and super hero outfits would have done the trick. Nor the baby dressed up as a strawberry. Maybe instead of scaring the restless spirits, they’ll melt their ghostie hearts and give them rest.

In any event, today is a major holiday in the church’s calendar to celebrate Saints past and present. It’s a day to embrace the lives of those who have served God faithfully and inspire us to do the same. It’s a day also to celebrate the living saints, all of us, and encourage us in our daily lives to strive toward the ideals we set in our lives of faith.

Today is also a day in which we Baptize and welcome three babies into the faith and fellowship of the Christian church, and a day those of us who are already baptized will renew our own baptismal vows.

The Gospel story we read today was the telling of the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. This story has elements of the Halloween costumes - where Lazarus emerges like a mummy from the tomb dressed in strips of cloth - and the joy of new life when those strips of cloth are taken away. The famous verse "Jesus wept" (expanded a little in this translation) shows the pain of loss, and sympathy for the pain of those who mourned for Lazarus. Shortly after, all grief is passed and the firm words of "Lazarus, come out!" and "Unbind him, and let him go." become words that triumph over the sadness.

God is the creator of life and the promise of the faith that we share and pass on to these babies and each other is that even in the deepest pit of grief, God will come and bring us into new life. Fear often binds us, and keeps us from living fully and loving fully. Jesus’ words, "Unbind him..." have particular meaning to those who get lost in grief. Just as the dead are unbound and transformed into new life, so too can those who grieve be unbound and transformed into new life.

At first I thought this was a rather gloomy choice for a lesson today. But the more I worked with it, the more I liked it. Especially for these babies. I think the words of Jesus can be expanded beyond the grief over one person, to the many ways we grieve in our lives, the ways we are bound, and the many ways we are transformed. Each time we experience a change, it’s like a small death has occurred. Changing jobs, changing homes, changing family structures - even changing ideas or ways of thinking. We often enter change fearfully, perhaps with tears, and misgiving. We grieve the old patterns and ways, and the uncertainty of the future can bind us and hinder us from moving forward. There is no doubt that sometimes change is painful, but it more often than not opens up to new life and new ways of thinking and living.

These days we’re living in are filled with changes that are definitely frightening and we do grieve the former days that now seem a lot more carefree. And we don’t know what tomorrow or the next day will bring. Fearfully we might wonder if it will bring more bad news. Faith gives us the strength to address change boldly and look for the growth that will occur if we look for it. God, the creator of life, creates new life in all situations.

These babies were born on the threshold of a changing world. Our global relationships are being tested and painfully restructured. The financial crisis can lend to better ways of doing business in a modern world. The rights of women, so long abused and denied around the world as well as in the US are being scrutinized and those abuses are being challenged. Race relations are entering vastly new territory with the election of President Obama, and the rights of gay men and lesbians are being addressed loudly. For each change, someone will cry "progress" and someone else will cry "disaster." But the faith of the saints who entered into the struggles of their day testify to the truth of God’s love and the perseverance of justice and wisdom. The words of Dr. King’s prose are especially pertinent when he said that "the arc of a moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice".

While some fear that life is ending, others proclaim that it is being transformed. The world is strong enough for justice. These babies will be part of that world transformed and their baptism signals that they will be raised with Christian teaching of love, inclusion, and justice. I also believe that just as the world is being transformed, the church is also. Too long has the church been bound by fear of change which has led it to be judgmental and hurtful. The pain it has caused lives side by side with the glory it has radiated, like the nights of Halloween and the sunny days of All Saints. But that is changing too. And I hope these babies will be part of it. The teachings and healing of Jesus cannot be eclipsed by the shortcomings of the church as a human institution. We need to be unbound by the fear of the unknown future and grief over the nostalgic past. Our faith in God can lead us to embrace the transforming power of God’s love in this world. So, when we are bound, listen for the voice of Jesus crying loudly, "Come out!... be unbound and go!" Parents and godparents of Ava, Gian Carlo, and Lucy; when their fears threaten to paralyze or bind them in their struggles and challenges, in the name and love of God, unbind them and let them go. We’ll help. Amen.

©2009 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ

All Saints Sunday

By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, Rector

From 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