LAKE JAMES

NORTH CAROLINA

The Solemnity of All Saints + 11/5/06 + St. Paul’s, Lake James

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Over 60 years ago, I joined the Cub Scouts! I had looked forward to the day when I could belong, go to regular meetings, and proudly wear what, to me, was a most impressive uniform of blue and gold! When the great day finally arrived and I put on that uniform for the first time, I came and stood before my mother for her approval, proudly informing her that “this was the most important event and day of my whole life!” I was sure I’d never forget it. In fact, the reason I do still remember it so clearly is not because of the moment itself, but because the intensity (perhaps even the unconscious pomposity) of my solemn declaration as a 9 year old was something of which my mother used to remind me when, in my adolescent years, I’d try to impress her with how very important other things were, such as “Mom, I really need to buy that car, everything depends on it!” Or, “I have a really big exam in school tomorrow and if I don’t do well on it, my whole future will go down the drain!” Or, “I’m going to ask Susie to go to the prom with me. If she says “yes,” life will be glorious and I’ll never forget it!” The response, spoken lovingly and kindly, was usually “remember how you’d never forget the most important day of your life – the day you joined the Cub Scouts?” It became not just a standing joke for my parents and me, but a very helpful way of putting things in perspective. Since I remember it enough to mention in this sermon, it obviously made an impression on me, and I have no doubt that, without it, both joining the Cub Scouts and the ringing declaration of a 9 year old would long ago have been forgotten, along with many other childhood incidents. And that would be all right. It’s quite normal to forget many things, but there are some we do remember and think important enough that we should.

Some of the events which happened when I was a youngster are now taught in history classes, often seeming to be “history” with which young people of today feel little or no connection. A few years ago, I read of a newspaper reporter who asked high school students who Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhauer were. The replies ranged from “I think they were sports heroes a long time ago” or “old time movie stars” to “I dunno.” Only two out of 37 had any idea at all of who they were!

In the reading from the Hebrew Scriptures we heard this morning, the author of the Book of Ecclesiasticus, thinking about people of previous generations, wrote “there are some who have no memorial, who have perished as if they had never lived; they have become as though they had not even been born, and so have their children after them…” It seems to be part of our human nature to want to be remembered after we die. We name buildings, streets and cities after ourselves, we erect monuments, even utter ringing declarations that “so and so will never be forgotten!” only to find that later generations eventually ask “who was that street named for?” and change its name to honor a more contemporary luminary. Yesterday’s fame, for so many, is tomorrow’s faded laurel wreath or a blank stare from someone who says “I never heard of him!” Certainly one reason for the strong desire to be remembered is a way to avoid death, a way to overcome the fear that dying may mean the end of us. An 8 year old boy put it well in a book called “Little Children’s Letters to God.” His letter reads: “Dear God, what is it like when you die? Nobody will tell me. (I just want to know, I don’t want to do it.) Sincerely yours, Mike.”

Lynn and Mac Hoffman sent me a copy of a letter to God written by a little girl named Jane which has a suggestion for dodging death. She wrote “Dear God, Instead of letting people die, and having to make new ones, why don’t you just keep the ones you’ve got now?”

As a boy growing up in the synagogue, I became familiar with a phrase in the Reform Jewish Prayer Book, a phrase which is said just before prayers for the dead. Speaking of the dead, it says “they still live on earth in the acts of goodness they performed and in the hearts of those who cherish their memory.” Even as a youngster, that bothered me. I reasoned that eventually those who remembered the dead and their acts of goodness would themselves die, so where would the first dead people be then? With no one left to remember what hey had done, or who they were, how could they still be said to “live?”

The message of the Feast of All Saints is that, as Ecclesiasticus tells us, while some people may be remembered longer than others, all of us are part of a “chain of generations,” connected to those who have gone before us, and also to those who come after us. Inevitably, some people will be better known than others. We Christians are quite familiar with the names of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, Saint Benedict and Saint Francis of Assisi, and a look at the calendar of the Church shows may other names, people who may be less familiar to us, but who are commemorated during the Church Year by the designation of special holy days in their honor. Beyond that, we also know that there are many other saints whose name we may never know (at least in this earthly life). That’s why we celebrate this day, honoring and thanking God for what the Book of Common Prayer calls “the whole company of heaven.”

But how about us – you, and me? Another lesson to be learned from this holy day is that even if we never get to be named in the Church Kalendar of Saints, we still fit in! The God who called Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David, the same God whose Son Jesus gave Himself for us, is the same God who never stops loving us and calling us into a closer and loving relationship with Him and with each other. As is true for some of you, my parents were called home by God many years ago and so are no longer around for me to be able to see, to talk with, or just to enjoy their company. But I can and do delight in my children and grandchildren. In that pattern, we can see the fact that each of us is a steward of what, for a time, we think of as “ours” – meaning not just material possessions, also our loving connections with other people. While we face the certainty that our day will also pass, and that our places will be taken by others coming after us, that is not a reason for sadness. It’s part of the Good News which is that God has designed us that way, that our existence now, and in the years to come, depends not on others remembering us, not on having buildings or streets names for us, but on God’s promise of eternal life!

We are not alone! We are part of a great community, that body which the Creed describes as being “One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.” That body, the Church, has three parts. One is called “The Church Triumphant” and consists of the blessed saints in Heaven.

A second part is called “The Church Expectant” in which are the faithful departed, our beloved dead in Paradise continuing to grow in holiness. The third part is “The Church Militant” which includes you, me, and all baptized Christians throughout the world.

The Feast of All Saints is a particularly appropriate day to call to mind people who have been special in our lives, people who, regardless of whether they are now alive or dead, are those whose influence was significant in bringing us to faith. Those of us here this morning who were baptized as infants could not have come to that holy Sacrament without the help of parents, grandparents, Godparents or others who saw to it that we were baptized. Others of us who came to faith as adults surely know how important others were in our faith journeys. Regardless of when we became Christians, in one way or another, all of us have received loving assistance from others and we now have the privilege of doing the same for others. In the Collect for today, we acknowledged all that, saying that God has knit us together in one communion and fellowship, that is, “The Church.” We prayed for grace to follow God’s blessed Saints in all virtuous and godly living, so that, in due time, we too, might come to the everlasting life of the world to come. That’s the bright promise into which we were brought by our baptisms. It’s why we can say “Alleluia! Praise the Lord!” You know, it even beats joining the Cub Scouts!

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The Reverend Alfred T. K. Zadig, Sr.

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