All Saints

Jan 12 2025

The Aroma of the Heavenly Feast

The last time I made popcorn the smell reminded me of my mom. The kernels exploded out of the hot-air popper into her green and white mixing bowl. I melted butter as she had. I sprinkled the buttered kernels with salt and stirred it all up. I popped three kernels into my mouth. Delicious! (She ate her popcorn one kernel at a time, so she was a bit more proper than I was.) It may make me old fashioned, but I don’t microwave popcorn in a bag. Why? It does not evoke memories. It does not smell right. It does not bring my mom back to life.

On this feast of All Saints, we celebrate the dead and bring their memory back to life. Yet, when we think about those who have departed, those who have gone to heaven before us . . . well, I think that we have it backwards. But, really, truly, they are the living. We are the dying. From the flash when we were conceived, through our first whiff of lilacs, until that moment when our breathing stops, we are dying for the aroma of eternity. Something heavenly awaits us.

Can you sense that? My mom is alive! My grandma is alive! Your mom or brother or child or sister or aunt or dad is alive! Within the limits of our earthly snuffling, we only sense barrenness where we used to inhale their fragrance. We cannot perceive them. That hollowness can hurt. But they are partaking of the feast of heaven—the most sweet-smelling chocolate cake on earth cannot compare. They have gone before us into the banquet of life. The God of glory is the Fragrance of fragrances, the Delight of delights. Today, with all the church, militant and glorified, may we get a whiff of that glory!

Consider/Discuss

What is your initial reaction when you read that we are the dying and those who have gone before us are the living? Does that feel morbid or glorious? How does it change your worldview when you shift that perspective?
Who do you most want to celebrate today on All Saints Day? Which of the Beatitudes does he or she best exemplify?

Living and Praying with the Word

God of glory, you give us so many heroes and heroines of the faith! They toiled for what was right. They fought for justice. Thank you for giving us so many examples of people of holy virtue. They lived and died for you. They knew you and loved you. We want to be saints, too. Lift us higher! Empower our faith! Take us with you to the banquet! Ah, the joy of All Saints!

Jan 12 2025

Scripture Study for

The scene in Revelation, which occurs as an interlude in the depiction of apocalyptic judgment, focuses on those who will be protected because of their fidelity to God. The “seal of the living God” is like a signet ring used to claim ownership; those who have been marked with the seal belong to God and are therefore safe. They are among the “great multitude” that includes Christians from beyond ethnic Israel who have “won the victory” and remained faithful during the time of persecution. The robes washed white in the blood of Christ signify renewal, joy, and resurrection; the palms signify victory. Now safe, the faithful worship God with the Lamb, a fitting response to the salvation won from them both.

The First Letter of John has, up to the point of our reading, been developing the theme of “fellowship with God,” which means a sharing in God’s eternal life through Christ. This fellowship is manifested in loving others, repentance, and avoiding sin. To be in fellowship with God means to be a child of God. This places us in the light, in truth and goodness, not in the darkness of moral depravity. The relationship is in place and is safe as long as we remain in fellowship with Christ. Those who have hope in the future glory that they will share with Christ ensure that they are pure, avoiding turning away from Christ and his commandment, which in the Johannine literature is summed up in the phrase “love one another.”

The Beatitudes are, on the one hand, good news of “blessedness.” On the other hand, they make clear that following Jesus is difficult. Poverty of spirit means renunciation of both material and other “possessions.” Meekness, mercy, and peacemaking often go against our desire to strike back or get even. We must work diligently to develop the kind of single-minded devotion to God implied in purity of heart and hunger and thirst for righteousness. And of course, no one seeks persecution and insult. Those who are able, throughout their lives, to finally meet the challenge of the Beatitudes are perhaps few, as Jesus will later warn, but they will indeed be blessed.

Jan 06 2025

The Power of One

Holy Trinity Parish in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., recently inaugurated a one-day operation called “The Power of One.” The goal was to engage as many parishioners as possible in various kinds of service in the community during one day. The “one” is not the one day or any one individual, but one community—a community working together for the good of the greater community. The power, of course, is rooted in the love God poured into their hearts to flow out into the world.

Today’s feast celebrates the power of one that entered into the world through the dying and rising of Christ, and has been a presence in the world through all those who have been drawn into the one body of Christ through baptism. It is the power that comes when men and women are poor in spirit, mourn the world’s sorrows, are meek, hunger and thirst for righteousness, are merciful, clean of heart, peacemakers, and withstand persecution for the sake of living in right relationship with God, others, and the world. They not only will receive heaven, they bring it into the world during their lives.

All Saints holds up a vision reminding us of our future when we will be fully joined with those who have gone before us, but with whom we are one even now in singing praise to our God, as we are reminded at every Eucharist. With them we cry: “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.”

Consider/Discuss

Have you known the power of belonging to a community doing good?
Who are the saints who witnessed to you through their faith and now rest in the Lord?

Responding to the Word

God and Father of all, thank you for the gift of your saints, especially those now forgotten men and women who embraced and incarnated the Beatitudes in their lives. May we join with them for all eternity to sing praise to your glory in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.

Jan 06 2025

Scripture Study for

The events of the first apocalyptic vision unfold on earth; those of the second take place in heaven. Both visions depict vast assemblies of the righteous. One hundred forty-four thousand is clearly a symbolic number. Twelve is squared and then multiplied by a thousand, resulting in a number that indicates completeness. The multitude gathered around the throne comes from every nation, every race, every people, and every tongue. The universality is complete. The multitude represents those who survived the distress of the end-times because they were purified through the blood of the sacrificial Lamb. This distinction entitles them to participate in the celestial celebrations.

According to the Letter of John, love is generative, transforming. It makes believers children of God. Everything that happens in their lives is a consequence of their having been recreated as God’s children. They are a new reality and consequently they are not accepted by the world, the old reality. The type of behavior they choose is frequently in opposition to society at large. The “now but not yet” of Christian eschatology (teachings about the end-time) is clearly stated. Though believers have already been reborn as children of God, their transformation has not yet been completed, nor has it been fully made known to them.

In form and content, the Beatitudes are wisdom teaching, not Christian law, as is sometimes claimed. Like most wisdom forms, they describe life situations that draw a connection between a particular manner of behavior and consequences that flow from such behavior. Most if not all of the sentiments expressed in the Beatitudes are found somewhere in ancient Jewish teaching. While the teachings of Jesus are all in some way directed toward the establishment of the reign of God, the values that he advocates are frequently the opposite of those espoused by society at large. This fact offers us a way of understanding the challenges set before us in the Beatitudes. They invite us to turn the standards of our world upside down and inside out.

Dec 12 2024

God Our Joy, God Our Blessing

For twelve years, I taught scripture to sixth and seventh graders on Wednesday evenings. Each year, when we got to the Beatitudes, they would roll their eyes and go “duh.” They’d heard it before: “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

I tried another tactic; I created a debate. One of you convince us that the Beatitude is true. Your opponent will persuade us that it is not true. For example, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Yes? Show us how that works. “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” No? Hmmm.

Now they were excited. Twelve-year-olds like to win arguments. The next Wednesday, you could feel the energy in the room. When we came to “Blessed are the clean of heart,” a girl walked confidently to the front. I had heard the boy who was to debate her practicing in the hallway: “Clean of heart—hah! Gangsters get away with all kinds of things! Who needs to be clean of heart?” He was ready. The girl told a story. “When my grandma was a teenager, she said that she was really mean. She deliberately hurt people. She didn’t want anything from anybody. She never listened to her parents. She liked to live wild. One day, she was bored. She just sat and watched the clock tick. She watched the second-hand move round and round . . . and suddenly she realized if that clock kept moving, her life was going to end. She’d be gone. Dead. And what would she have done with those minutes? Something moved inside of her heart. She thought about God. She didn’t want to be mean anymore. She wanted to be clean. So she changed. She started to pray. She went to church. Now, for me, she’s the most loving and wonderful grandma any girl could want, a real saint. ‘Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.’ It’s true.”

The boy stood up to begin his rebuttal. He sat back down. “How can I argue with that?” he said.

Consider/Discuss

There are plenty of arguments about why Christianity is only for the foolish. Clean of heart—ha! Merciful—that’s only for the soft. The meek— they get walked on. But one living example of a saint, someone who lives a good and kindly life, filled with the Holy Spirit, is like a mountain peak that rises radiant above the clouds. That one life outshines any negative arguments. On this All Saints Day, what do you know of ordinary saints who have had their “robes washed” by the Blood of the Lamb? This week, share with someone a “before-and-after” story about what the Lord has done to create a saint you know.
Every saint is called to conversion, allowing the Lord to purify him or her. Some conversions are abrupt, like the grandmother in the story, who turned a sharp corner in her life toward goodness and God. Some conversions come like a long slow curve that takes you gradually around a bend to set you on a different path. What has your conversion story been like? As you strive toward holiness, what change are you currently working on?

Living and Praying with the Word

Jesus, thank you for surrounding us with saints. Some have gone before us and are worshiping you forever. They were poor in spirit, pure of heart, merciful, peacemakers. Some live among us, still working their way toward you. We thank you for them all. Lord, we too want to be saints. When all is revealed, we want to be like you, for we shall see you as you are. That is so great. Thank you! Help us to turn the corners of conversion and lead us in the paths of holiness. Praise and honor to you, Lord Jesus Christ!