Stephen Waller
Homily for Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost, Year B, Proper 26 – 10/31/21
Ruth 1:1-18
Psalm 146
Hebrews 9:11-14
Mark 12:28-34
From the Book of Ruth: “Where you die, I will die — there will I be buried.”
Can you see them? Do you sense their presence among us here this morning? My friends in Christ and Thomas the Apostle they are, indeed, here with us today for our Eucharist…they are here with us for every Eucharist.
The Book of Common Prayer tells us that “Life is changed, not ended” when we die to this life. We are today and always are surrounded by a great Cloud of Witnesses…by those who have entered into the nearer Presence of God. They show up at every Eucharist…not sleeping in as some of us are on occasion tempted to do.
Can you see them? Have you ever seen them? Can you?
The Episcopal Church has two times during the calendar year when we have a Three Day Feast. You know the first of those days as the Triduum of Holy Week….Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Great Vigil and first Mass of Easter on Saturday evening.
Today we begin the other Three Day Feast: All Hallow’s Eve, All Saints’ Day and All Souls Day. The Episcopal Church carves out three days to celebrate those we love but see no longer and the heroes and heroines in The Faith…all those who have gone into the nearer presence of God.
Why does the Church do this? Because The Church knows that its Body is made of the people you are with this morning and with All those who have gone before. The Church keeps us “in touch” with those we love but see no longer. Here, at Saint Thomas the Apostle, you will be able to have those you love who have died named during the Parish All Saints’ Celebration on November 7th. I understand that those names will be read outside in the Garden this year…so, Friends, please do send the office the names of those you wish spoken that day.
They are our brothers and sisters in the Faith. They are still among us as we gather here to break bread and share the Cup.
Look around you in this Nave: Along the wall under the Apostles you will see the niches of many who were once, like us, alive in this place, who are now with God. Take some time when you can…sit down… and read those names to become familiar with your siblings in Thomas the Apostle. They have stories to tell. You may also do the same thing in the interior Garden, on both sides of the fountain are niches of other members of the parish. Read their names on their plaques. Too, there are several names of others who are not in a niche but, instead, simply in the earth where I planted them while I served as Rector. You should also know, if you do not, that above our heads in this Holy Space on the other side of the ceiling boards are the names of people who are no longer among us. When the Nave was being redone, the builder, Ron Siebler, asked the parish members to write the names of people dear to them on the boards before he nailed the boards up….More witnesses in that Great Cloud are inscribed above all our heads.
The Shovel
An aside: Standing in Elliiot’s Hardware many years ago about to check out, I held this pointed shovel in my hand which I would be using to dig those in-ground graves. The lad behind me in line asked: “Father, what are you going to do with that shovel, bury somebody? I responded, Why, Yes, young man I would be using it to bury the dead that very day…he backed up giving me lots of space… I suppose distancing himself form the reality that we all die some day.
And that reality, that we all will die some day, should be another reason we rejoice in the Three Day Celebration of those who have gone before us…one of these days, you and I will be among those remembered at the Altar having joined that Great Cloud of Witnesses who have gone before. Our lives will have been “changed, not ended.” The Church understands this Change as Good News. We, those left behind when someone dies, do struggle to let them go and give them to the God who created them….and who created us. The Church knows that these losses hurt deeply, but it calls us in these Three Days to the reality that they are still among us in ways we do not understand or know.
That is why I began by asking if you could see or sense them. When someone dies, they are alive in a different way. People do report that they have experiences of connecting with the dead…not through mediums but through a visitation of the dead to the living. Those who have died are not just alive because we remember them…they are alive in God, present to us even if not seen or sensed. They are the reason for this set of Three Days.
All Hallow’s Eve, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day captures everyone who has died and gone before us where we will all one day go.
The Church asks us to celebrate this Triduum just as much as it calls us to celebrate the one before Easter. The Church understands that you and I are connected not only to one another in Christ in this Nave, but also to all those who have gone before us…where we will all one day go.
Rejoice! Their lives are “changed, not ended.” Give God thanks for those you love but see no longer and rejoice in the Great Cloud of witnesses who came before us in the Faith.
Happy All Hallow’s Eve, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. I warn you now, if God allows me, I plan to hover around this parish altar when my time comes…
AMEN.
