Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9 Psalm 24
Revelation 21:1-6a John 11:32-44
Lectionary Link
The past and the present is absolute. Why? Because nothing can change that the past happened and the present is happening.
We may argue endlessly about why we happened and how we happened but that we happened cannot be denied.
We are like a brick in the wall of reality; the one brick cannot be removed from the wall of reality. On All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' and All Souls' days, we reinforce the reality that we and all people really existed and exist.
And that seems quite obvious, so what is the point?
Our existence is qualified by many factors. Like existing with and for whom? Like how did we live our lives with others? Like will our lives be like many of the lives of others before us, forgotten like most people who have existed in human history? And if we are forgotten and unknown by people of the future and if accessible records of our existence are extinguished, what happens to forgotten or unknown people?
So, we can be people very insecure in our mortality. And what do people insecure about their mortality do? They might want the drug of immortality called fame or glory. If I can be famous then I can create my own everlasting life in a way so that the memory of me might be registered by contemporary and future people.
The gist of All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' and All Souls' today centers upon how we sanctify the human need for fame, glory, recognition, and esteem. What is the best way to access personal esteem? How do we baptize the energy of wanting fame and glory?
It centers upon the difference between fame and excellence of the virtuous kind.
There are lots of famous people in history; many remembered people of whom have been deemed infamous: the Caesars, Genghis Khan, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and many more.
The great contribution of America to fame is Hollywood fame; glamor marketing value fame summarized in the proverbial Andy Warhol’s, "fifteen minutes of fame," for everyone. Today we have the tabloid effect; no publicity is regarded to be bad, just as long as one dominates the headlines for one’s constant fame.
How do we deal with the "wanting to be known and remembered" impulses of human life? How do we do this without being trapped in the psychologically determined state of narcissism?
I believe the Gospel secret to these questions has to do with the ultimate spotlight of fame and esteem which can be shone upon anyone. It involves the events and the continuous occasion of knowing that we are loved by God.
The events of heavenly fame occurred in the baptism of Jesus and on the Mount of the Transfiguration when the heavenly voice said, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." This signified the coming out of Jesus as the saintliest of all the saints. This signified an event which could be known in the lives of every person who comes to the moment of deep familial identity: "You are my beloved son, my beloved daughter, with you I am well pleased."
This is the baptismal reality which we promote in the church for every person.
So, what do we do with this baptismal event? We accept ourselves as beloved and do so without getting what is called a "messiah" complex. It seems as though many of the vocal broadcasted preachers and other public figure blowhards get the "messiah complex," without truly understanding the blessed esteem of being beloved by God.
If coming to this occasion of knowing that one is loved by the greatest Being of all is the "saint-making" event of our lives. How do we live saintly lives? We become prism personalities refracting the beloving of God by letting others know that they are beloved with this same "God is love" energy of life. Easier said than done; why? This "God is love" energy has to have endless strategies within many situations to all of the people in our worlds.
The saints of All Saints' Day are the people who refracted the loving energy of God in such impactful ways that the memory of their lives went beyond their regions and their time. Why? Because we as a human community need living examples of how to live well, and how to refract the love of God in different ways in a multitude of settings. The saints are reminders to us that we need to be at the work of expressing strategies of love to reach the people in our lives whom God has brought to us to declare to: You are God's beloved child; and God is pleased with you. God did not make a mistake with your existence."
The Souls of All Souls' Day are the people who have been beloved in our lives and who helped to share with us that we too are beloved. And today is a great day of celebrating our connection with a beloved community of people who left us such a legacy, as a reminder that we are to be a living beloved community, who are still in the business of declaring the chief event in life for anyone is to know that one is beloved by God. If we have this spotlighting event, then it is enough.
But it didn’t always seem to be enough. Why? Become in the harshness of life and the cruelty of some imperfect nurture, we have been malformed about our own belovedness. This is why we need the saints and local mentoring souls to let us know a human love that can bring us to the big event of knowing that God in a profound way is a loving heavenly parent. The saints and mentoring souls in our lives help lead us to knowing ourselves as God’s beloved people in a community of the beloved.
So, why have All Saints' and All Souls' Days? With medical care, good health practice, and cosmetics, we try to preserve longevity of life or at least the appearance of healthy life. And what does death teach us? It teaches us that we will fail. And what do we do with this failure? We preserve the memories and the contributions of people as part of our community lore for as long as we can. We create our canonized saints as our Hall of Fame, and we have our own little hall of fames of our local family heroes. But we know that we who try to preserve the memories of others, will also die.
And when all preservation has failed, which it surely will; we will have the ultimate act of faith, namely, to commit ultimate preservation to the active and profound memory of God, who better than Artificial Intelligence with endless terabytes of memory, can preserve with divine memorial units the reconstituted continuity of our existence into the future, something which we call in our faith, resurrection life.
All Saints and All Souls day, really are just another reason for us to say: Alleluia, Christ is Risen, the Lord is Risen, Indeed. Alleluia. They are days of being a part of the preservation of the belovedness that God has bestowed upon each person, now and forever.
We thank God for giving us the great succession of saints and souls, who like Jesus, accepted their status of the beloved of God. Let us accept today our ultimate fame and glory as being beloved by God. And as we sing the song of the saints of God, lets also pray: "God help me to be one too." Let us go forth and be and share this endless beloved community of Christ. Amen.
We may argue endlessly about why we happened and how we happened but that we happened cannot be denied.
We are like a brick in the wall of reality; the one brick cannot be removed from the wall of reality. On All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' and All Souls' days, we reinforce the reality that we and all people really existed and exist.
And that seems quite obvious, so what is the point?
Our existence is qualified by many factors. Like existing with and for whom? Like how did we live our lives with others? Like will our lives be like many of the lives of others before us, forgotten like most people who have existed in human history? And if we are forgotten and unknown by people of the future and if accessible records of our existence are extinguished, what happens to forgotten or unknown people?
So, we can be people very insecure in our mortality. And what do people insecure about their mortality do? They might want the drug of immortality called fame or glory. If I can be famous then I can create my own everlasting life in a way so that the memory of me might be registered by contemporary and future people.
The gist of All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' and All Souls' today centers upon how we sanctify the human need for fame, glory, recognition, and esteem. What is the best way to access personal esteem? How do we baptize the energy of wanting fame and glory?
It centers upon the difference between fame and excellence of the virtuous kind.
There are lots of famous people in history; many remembered people of whom have been deemed infamous: the Caesars, Genghis Khan, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and many more.
The great contribution of America to fame is Hollywood fame; glamor marketing value fame summarized in the proverbial Andy Warhol’s, "fifteen minutes of fame," for everyone. Today we have the tabloid effect; no publicity is regarded to be bad, just as long as one dominates the headlines for one’s constant fame.
How do we deal with the "wanting to be known and remembered" impulses of human life? How do we do this without being trapped in the psychologically determined state of narcissism?
I believe the Gospel secret to these questions has to do with the ultimate spotlight of fame and esteem which can be shone upon anyone. It involves the events and the continuous occasion of knowing that we are loved by God.
The events of heavenly fame occurred in the baptism of Jesus and on the Mount of the Transfiguration when the heavenly voice said, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." This signified the coming out of Jesus as the saintliest of all the saints. This signified an event which could be known in the lives of every person who comes to the moment of deep familial identity: "You are my beloved son, my beloved daughter, with you I am well pleased."
This is the baptismal reality which we promote in the church for every person.
So, what do we do with this baptismal event? We accept ourselves as beloved and do so without getting what is called a "messiah" complex. It seems as though many of the vocal broadcasted preachers and other public figure blowhards get the "messiah complex," without truly understanding the blessed esteem of being beloved by God.
If coming to this occasion of knowing that one is loved by the greatest Being of all is the "saint-making" event of our lives. How do we live saintly lives? We become prism personalities refracting the beloving of God by letting others know that they are beloved with this same "God is love" energy of life. Easier said than done; why? This "God is love" energy has to have endless strategies within many situations to all of the people in our worlds.
The saints of All Saints' Day are the people who refracted the loving energy of God in such impactful ways that the memory of their lives went beyond their regions and their time. Why? Because we as a human community need living examples of how to live well, and how to refract the love of God in different ways in a multitude of settings. The saints are reminders to us that we need to be at the work of expressing strategies of love to reach the people in our lives whom God has brought to us to declare to: You are God's beloved child; and God is pleased with you. God did not make a mistake with your existence."
The Souls of All Souls' Day are the people who have been beloved in our lives and who helped to share with us that we too are beloved. And today is a great day of celebrating our connection with a beloved community of people who left us such a legacy, as a reminder that we are to be a living beloved community, who are still in the business of declaring the chief event in life for anyone is to know that one is beloved by God. If we have this spotlighting event, then it is enough.
But it didn’t always seem to be enough. Why? Become in the harshness of life and the cruelty of some imperfect nurture, we have been malformed about our own belovedness. This is why we need the saints and local mentoring souls to let us know a human love that can bring us to the big event of knowing that God in a profound way is a loving heavenly parent. The saints and mentoring souls in our lives help lead us to knowing ourselves as God’s beloved people in a community of the beloved.
So, why have All Saints' and All Souls' Days? With medical care, good health practice, and cosmetics, we try to preserve longevity of life or at least the appearance of healthy life. And what does death teach us? It teaches us that we will fail. And what do we do with this failure? We preserve the memories and the contributions of people as part of our community lore for as long as we can. We create our canonized saints as our Hall of Fame, and we have our own little hall of fames of our local family heroes. But we know that we who try to preserve the memories of others, will also die.
And when all preservation has failed, which it surely will; we will have the ultimate act of faith, namely, to commit ultimate preservation to the active and profound memory of God, who better than Artificial Intelligence with endless terabytes of memory, can preserve with divine memorial units the reconstituted continuity of our existence into the future, something which we call in our faith, resurrection life.
All Saints and All Souls day, really are just another reason for us to say: Alleluia, Christ is Risen, the Lord is Risen, Indeed. Alleluia. They are days of being a part of the preservation of the belovedness that God has bestowed upon each person, now and forever.
We thank God for giving us the great succession of saints and souls, who like Jesus, accepted their status of the beloved of God. Let us accept today our ultimate fame and glory as being beloved by God. And as we sing the song of the saints of God, lets also pray: "God help me to be one too." Let us go forth and be and share this endless beloved community of Christ. Amen.
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