Memories as All Saints Day approaches

In late October, approaching All Saints day, my thoughts and memories always turn to the saints who have passed on.  Both my parents died at this time of the year.

I actually have wonderful memories of the months during which we accompanied my dad as he moved toward his death and passed away just before All Saints day in 1992.  And one of the most memorable worship services I ever attended was in my home church on All Saints Sunday in1976– the week after my mother died. I understood then more clearly than ever what it means to be amongst the saints who have gone ahead and the saints with whom we still abide. As worship services finished that day we all marched out of our rural church into the surrounding cemetery singing When All the Saints go Marchin' in accompanied by a dixieland jazz band. My mother's funeral had been just a few days earlier when she had joined dozens of my ancestors buried in that graveyard - saints who have gone on ahead of those of us still living on this side of death.

It is for this reason that the time around All Saints (called Dia de los Muertos in Latin America), is one of the most meaningful times of the church year for me.  And now, as we proceed on to the last Sundays of the liturgical year the appointed texts are steeped in scripture themes about last times and resurrection.  It is a good time to ponder and reflect on such questions.  The reason I am thinking about this is that I have to prepare two sermons to preach in two different churches in the coming weeks.  This is a challenge for a lay person who is not used to sermon preparation.

My brother-in-law, Bill, a really good Lutheran preacher – died after a long struggle with cancer in 2004.  I remember the phone call from my sister when she told us that Bill had just gone in for another chemo treatment and the doctor told him: “Bill, you should go home and make your final preparations and arrangements’.  And I think Bill did just that though he had been doing his inner work of preparation during all those months leading up to his passing.  

Bill’s funeral in a large Lutheran church in Madison, with a procession of  some 60 robed pastors, led by the Bishop and hundreds of voices raised in songs of praise, then recessing to the sounds of a massive pipe organ playing  Bach’s Toccata and fugue in D minor -  was enough to lift the hairs on the back of my neck and make my spirits soar toward heaven.

A few weeks later – at a calmer moment – my sister asked me: “So, Jerry, where is Bill now?”   I remember her question much better than my answer – a question for which I didn’t have an adequate response.  For even though I have repeated the creed thousands of times in worship services – “I believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting” – I still have difficulty in grasping and visualizing, and understanding its meaning. 

The  Gospel text from LUKE 20:27-38 where some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question, helps bring some clarity - That is one of the sermons I am working on.

Bill often used stories in his preaching.  So I want to tell a story that I think Bill would have liked to explore this text a bit further.        

    

There is An Italian legend about a master and servant. 

It seems the servant was not very smart and the master used to get very exasperated with him.  Finally, one day, in a fit of temper, the master said: "You really are the stupidest man I know.  Here, I want you to carry this staff wherever you go.

And if you ever meet a person stupider than yourself, give them this staff." 

So time went by, and often in the marketplace the servant would encounter some pretty stupid people, but he never found someone appropriate for the staff.  Years later, he returned to his master's home.  He was shown into his master's bedroom, for the man was quite sick and in bed.  In the course of their conversation the master said: "I'm going on a journey soon." 

     "When will you return?" asked the servant.

          

     "This is a journey from which I will not return." the master

     replied,

     The servant asked: "Have you made all the necessary arrangements?" 

     "No, I guess I have not." 

     "Well, could you have made all the arrangements?" 

    

     "Oh yes, I guess I've had time.  I've had all my life.  But I've

     been busy with many things." 

     The servant said: "Let me be sure about this.  You're going on

     a journey, from which you will never return, and you've had all

     your life to make the arrangements, but you haven't."

             

     The master said: "Yes, I guess that's right." 

     The servant replied: "Master, take this staff.  For at last I

     have truly found a man stupider than myself."

I won't be posting the whole sermon as that is too long for a blog post. But you get some of the point, I hope, and any input on the theme is always welcomed. Peace.