All
Saints' Day Homily By The Rev. Marcia McRae
St.
John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA
1
Nov.
2015
Year
B:
Isaiah 25:-9; Psalm 24; Revelation 21:1-6a; John 11:32-44
United Thank
Offering boxes & our wallets have portraits of dead people on
them?
Even in our secular life we intentionally recognize the lives &
contributions of the dead.
Beloved
Brothers & Sisters, on this All Saints' Day we give God thanks
for the great cloud of witnesses to our faith in Jesus! Among
those witnesses are well-know Saints &
our local saints
of St. John's, whose icons & photos we see around us...& Lazarus, whom we see gain new life through Jesus
in our Gospel. We know this is not the ever-lasting life of eternity:
We know Lazarus died or we'd see regular interviews of him in our
frenzied media world.
Frenzy
is life out of balance. Frenzy is part of that shroud Isaiah
assures us in our 1st
lesson that God
will overcome. Instead of “shroud”, The
Jewish Study Bible says
“covering”, “the illusions that befuddle us will disappear”
when God destroys evil & sorrow2.
Frenzy
& befuddlement show in our lack of stewardship of time &
energy. Our scriptures point us to balance, to the gifts God gives
us: hope that calms us in life's storms, peace in our befuddled
world, new life that we know through Jesus, who has lived among us,
has wept with us, & helps us see anew.
Revelation
tells us:
“See, the home of God is among mortals....See,
I am making all things new”. Notice
the positive reinforcement in Revelation: The home of God is
among mortals...I am
making
all things new: not stuck in past tense was
& isn't now, not future tense will
be
but isn't yet; not made
as
in over
& done with, not will
make
as
in yet
to be accomplished. “It
is done.”
Day by day we live into this reality.
It
is like Lazarus: Jesus calls him forth, he is raised from the dead,
now the work is to unbind
him & let him go: set
him free
from what holds him back.
What
holds you back?
The
gift of eternal life is
at work in you – in us – to live fully & faithfully now,
knowing we will know the gift of eternal life completely when we join
the Saints after our own deaths. Until then, we have much to learn.
All
Saints Day teaches us much, including about stewardship.
We see stewardship of relationships in our Gospel. We see Jesus' relationship with his friends, cherishing Lazarus & his sisters, sharing in grief. We know grief doesn't end with a funeral. It doesn't end when we get all the paperwork done: the thank yous written, the death certificate sent to the bank, to the insurance company & to Social Security. [At least Martha & Mary don't have these details to handle. They have more freedom to focus on grief.]
We see stewardship of relationships in our Gospel. We see Jesus' relationship with his friends, cherishing Lazarus & his sisters, sharing in grief. We know grief doesn't end with a funeral. It doesn't end when we get all the paperwork done: the thank yous written, the death certificate sent to the bank, to the insurance company & to Social Security. [At least Martha & Mary don't have these details to handle. They have more freedom to focus on grief.]
Lazarus
has been buried 4 days & his sisters & friends grieve
together/in community. Grief is a process that calls us to
stewardship of time, energy & emotions. This process can be long
& can come at different, unexpected times, sometimes years after
the death. [That's
why we offer our Blue Christmas Service of Solace & why your
Daughters of the King pray daily by
name for a
year for those who mourn. This is a gift of stewardship of time &
skills that your Daughters of the King exercise.]
Stewardship,
as the dictionary says3,
is “the activity or job of protecting & being responsible for
something...; especially:...careful
& responsible management of something entrusted to one's care.”
Jesus shows us careful & responsible management of what's
entrusted to him. He shows us stewardship of skills & time –
gifts that God gives us so generously day by day.
Why
does Jesus delay going to Lazarus? Maybe to shows us the stewardship
of his energy, the need for him to rest for the hard work to come.
Maybe to nurture stewardship of the faith & trust of his friends,
to give Martha & Mary an opportunity for faith grow through his
delay.
Notice
the stewardship Jesus shows us in his use of his time & energy:
he says “Take away the stone.” He relies on others to work with
him in this miracle. He doesn't do everything himself. If Jesus can
call a dead man to life, he can easily tell a stone to scoot out of
the way, or move it himself. [Someone
who grew up working in his dad's carpenter shop, is surely strong
enough to move a stone. I hear an echo of Jesus' days fasting in the
wilderness when Satan tempts hungry Jesus to turn stones into bread:
Jesus turns him down.]
Jesus
shows us stewardship of physical resources. These include our skills
& our finances. We see stewardship in this great cloud of
witnesses that surrounds us: local saints & Saints from other
times & places. We see skills in singing, hospitality, teaching,
wisdom, creativity, generosity, courage.
“Saints
call us to our true
vocation,” as
our Bishop says in his latest eCrozier.4
Catching our attention & “reminding us of our true
calling...saints are both dangerous
& necessary.
They're dangerous in that they can upset the best-laid plans for our
lives. And they're necessary because, without them, we wouldn't know
of the hope we have in Jesus....”
He
says:
“In my office, saints surround me...Every time I go out the door,
Martin Luther King, Jr. & the Blessed Virgin Mary stare me down
reminding me of the cost of discipleship.”
As
our lives & situations grow & change, we are wise to check
with God about how we are to live into our new reality, to pray for
grace in this costly work of discipleship.
We
see living into a new reality in the life of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, who died at Auschwitz during the frenzy of life out of balance, that
shroud called World War II.
The
only Saint to have an amateur radio license, he applied modern
technology to his work of ministry as a missionary in Japan, where he
used a printing press in his work with the poor & later in Poland
opposing the Nazi regime against which he also used his radio skills
to combat the Nazi cause. AND he sheltered Polish refugees, hiding
2,000 Jews.”5
Arrested
& imprisoned by the Gestapo, he endured beatings because he
answered honestly “Yes” to the repeatedly asked question: “Do
you believe in Jesus.” Branded as prisoner 16670 & dressed in
prison stripes he was put to work hauling blocks to build a
crematorium. In the dark cell, Maximilian shined the Light of Christ,
spoke of God's infinite love & waited to eat until others had
food.6
When
3 prisoners escaped, the prison commander chose 10 men to be starved
to death to deter others from escaping. One of the 10 men cried out:
“My wife! My children!”
Maximilian took his place.7
“In
the starvation cell he celebrated Holy Eucharist daily & led the
men in prayers & hymns.” Calling him “the patron saint of our
difficult century,” Pope
John Paul II canonized him in October 1982.
Among the crowd gathered, the Pope embraced Francizek Gajowniczek, a
man in his 90s, the man who had cried out “My wife! My children!”8
The man in whose place Maximilian died.
Bishop
Benhase says:
“It's
dangerous to surround ourselves with the Church's saints.
They
keep coming at us &
calling
us to saintly lives ourselves...
So, be careful when you come forward &
receive
the sacrament...
God
may be calling you to be much more
than
you are right now.”
Bibliography
Barfield,
Ginger. “Commentary on John 11:32-44”. Accessed: 30 Oct. 2015.
http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2660
Note:
Author is Professor of Theology & Executive Director of the
Academy of Faith & Leadership, Lutheran Theological Southern
Seminary of Lenoir-Rhyne University, Columbia, S.C.
Benhase,
The Rt. Rev. Scott A. “Saints, Dangerous & Necessary”.
eCrozier #278. Oct. 30, 2015. http://ecrozier.georgiaepiscopal.org/
Accessed: 23 Oct. 2015.
Harper’s
Bible Commentary.
General Ed.: James. L. Mays. San Francisco: Harper & Row
Publishers, 1988.
Harper’s
Bible Dictionary.
General Ed.: Paul J. Achtemeier. San Francisco: Harper & Row
Publishers, 1971.
Holy
Bible with the Apocrypha.
New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press.
1989.
Jewish
Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation.
New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stewardship
Accessed: 31 Oct. 2015.
Rice.
The Rev. Whitney. “All Saints’ Day, Year B – 2015”. Sermons
That Work. Accessed” 30 Oct. 2015.
http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2015/10/18/all-saints-day-year-b-2015/
Note:
The Rev. Rice of the Diocese of Indianapolis is Priest-in-Charge of
the Shared Ministry of St. Luke’s Shelbyville and St. Thomas
Franklin. A native of Lee’s Summit, MO, she comes to ordained
ministry by way of the University of Kansas & Yale Divinity
School. More of her work is at www.roofcrashersandhemgrabbers.com.
“Saint
Maximilian Kolbe, Martyr of Charity”. Monastery Icons website.
http://www.monasteryicons.com
Accessed: 3 Aug. 2015.
1Benhase,
The Rt. Rev. Scott A. “Dangerous & Necessary”. eCrozier
#278. Oct. 30, 2015. http://ecrozier.georgiaepiscopal.org/.
4
Benhase,
The Rt. Rev. Scott A. “Saints, Dangerous & Necessary”.
eCrozier #278. Oct. 30, 2015. http://ecrozier.georgiaepiscopal.org/
Accessed: 23 Oct. 2015.
6
Ibid.
7
Ibid.
8
Ibid.
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