From Pastor Jess:
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. -Matthew 5:7
This Sunday, we celebrate All Saints Sunday, which means many different things to different traditions and people. For some, it’s a day to remember and mourn those who have died. For others, the focus is on famous saints - the apostles, martyrs, healers, visionaries and miracle-workers - who, after their death, were given a day on which the Church remembers them every year.
In my faith tradition, the focus was on Baptism, because we were taught that it is that sacred bath and God’s Word that make one a saint, not a confirmed miracle or martyrdom. So, on All Saints’ Sunday, we talked about what it means to be a saint while being alive in a very complicated world, as a very complicated and conflicted person. Saint and sinner, both. Deeply flawed, and wholly loved. Full of contradictions. We may do some really big, wonderful things in our lives, but our goodness is not what makes us saints- it’s God’s unambiguous declaration that we are beloved.
We didn’t ignore our grief at having lost people we loved. In typical paradoxical fashion, we mourned, and celebrated that because of the promise of resurrection, our beloved dead were still present with us, especially at the communion table. We all ate together, every time, the whole communion of saints.
I personally like learning about the lives and acts of those “official” saints. I often find them fascinating and inspiring, and in the end they come across as real human beings, just as complex as the rest of us. But what I really love is being a witness to all of you saints, and how you live in this world of despair and joy- how you show mercy, how you discern what the next right thing to do is, how you struggle to be faithful and loving while feeling exhausted by
those who are giving the name “Christian” a newly terrifying reputation, one that not only lacks mercy, but thinks that mercy is dangerous and weak. You reveal that lie for what it is.
Blessed are you, all you saints.
My Office Days for the week of 11/2 are Monday & Wednesday, and Tuesday for Bible Study at 10:30.
Rev. Jess Lambert