On the Way to Wonder

This week we are walking from All Saints Day to All Saints Sunday, the first Sunday in November.  Saints are people who have greatly blessed our lives and encouraged us on by their example and their love.  We grieve their absence when we see pictures that carry strong memories.  We keep little keepsakes around the house that remind us of them.  Music may trigger strong memories also.  Our five senses are receptors that hold strong memories.

         One of our early quick trips to the States involved a meal at my parent’s house.  Our eldest was perhaps six years old.  My mother baked our favorite, baked chicken.  Our son took one look at the dinner and asked, “Grandma, whose chicken was this?”  He only knew chickens that ran in our pen!  I’m guessing that if my siblings and I were to take a vote, my mom’s chocolate chip cookies would be near the top of favorite.  Yup, I couldn’t just eat one.  Her recipe is worn beyond readability.  These memories are connected to taste.

         Psalms 34:8 tells us, “O taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are those who take refuge in him.”  It makes me think of that chocolate cookie melting in my mouth and the release of tension in my body as I experience the love.  I think King David meant something like that.  As we remember the saints we do grieve, missing them but we also sit and meditate on memories that take away the pain of loneliness and meaninglessness.  They loved us and cared for us.  God cares for us.  When we go to communion, we kneel and receive the wafer and the cup and are commanded to remember.  Jesus cared so much he shed his blood and gives us life.  Jesus gave his body that builds and sustains us.  Taste is important.

         Paul deepens this connection between taste and sainthood in Hebrews  2:8,9,  “As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them (humans), ⁹ but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”  Christ tasted death so we will not have to eternally die and perish.  Wow, that is a meal worth celebrating.

Music and Memories

This week we honor saints who have gone before us, who surround us, and who follow in our footsteps.  For the older generation, dealing with the scrapbooks and sorting through pictures is a huge challenge.  Pictures carry so many memories and remind us how saints and sinners have formed our lives.  The statues that sit on mantles, hang on walls, and decorate our homes often carry deep memories and honor the saints.  My father’s sailor’s hat only recently was relinquished from me, the oldest daughter, to my younger brother.

         Today I want to focus on music as a receptacle of memories.  My parents died about a year apart and I was able to fly home for the funerals.  Adrenalin and friends carried me through the ceremonies.  Back in Africa, one day I decided to put on the Mitch Miller CD that played old family songs we sang back in the day.  Suddenly I was sobbing my heart out, grieving the death of my father as the words to “That Old Gang of Mine” floated in the air.  We associate many songs with people and meaningful events. We know the baseball game often starts with the National Anthem.  We have favorite Christmas songs we always watch and carry memories.  Couples often talk about “our song” that has accompanied them through the years and brings tender moments to mind.  Music gets linked to saints that have blessed our lives.

         George Frederick Handel’s oratorio Messiah is possibly one of the most famous classical music pieces in the world and is played thousands of times at Christmas and often at Easter.  Handel wrote the piece in 18 days and it premiered in Dublin in 1742, near Easter.  Now it is a Christmas must.  The opening portion, “Comfort Ye My People” is one of my favorite parts as it so captures the heart and intent of God – even in the Old Testament.  “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. (Isaiah 40: 1-2)  The cloud of saints in heaven is experiencing their reward for their journey here on earth.  We in the crowd of saints here on earth can look forward to the “Halleluiah” chorus when all memories will be set right.  Blessings as you listen.  What is your favorite song that reminds you of a saint in your life?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/handel-s-messiah-6-surprising-facts-1.3351122

We are traveling down “memory lane” as we remember “All Saints”- those past, those present, and those following in our footsteps- this week.  Dealing with memories of these “saints” is a huge personal challenge.  Some people who have so impacted our lives take years of counseling as we try to “declutter” their impact on our lives.  Others people who have impacted our lives, we keep photo albums that mean so much to us.  We love those pictures that remind us who we are and where we come from.  We have another method of honoring saints, though.  That is in the “statues” or the things we keep that bring the person into present memory.

         I look around my living room and I have hanging there a bronze wall hanging of a mailbox.  It was a popular artsy thing to do in the 60s or 70s.  My father was a postal inspector and I gave it to him to honor his years of service fighting fraud.  It hung on their wall and was a favorite place to hide jellybeans on Easter.  I have inherited the art piece and it reminds me of him but it also carries a story that formed me. 

         One college holiday I worked in the post office sorting mail and whined that it was sooooo boring.  I received a proper lecture on the importance of mail.  Mail connects people.  Mail carries checks that keep people alive.  Mail carries wedding, death and release from prison announcements.  Mail is important!!!  The written word is important.  Our messages are important.  The open mailbox hanging on the wall reminds me.

         When I think of iconic statues that have carried messages to the world through the centuries, I think of Michelangelo’s statue, David.  One of the favorite Bible stories that we teach our children is the story of David and Goliath, 1 Samuel 17.  A youth comes from the fields where he watches his father’s sheep, to bring food to his brothers on the warfront, bullied by a giant, Goliath, seven feet tall.  There we have an iconic setting, the seemingly impossible challenges facing us when we feel so totally overwhelmed.  We know that feeling.  As the story goes, David takes five stones from a brook and meets the giant with his sling.  David famously confronts Goliath, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. (17:45)”

         The mailbox reminds me of the importance of the written word.  The statue of David reminds me that “enemies” come against us threatening death but God helps us be “saints” that bring life, hope and courage to others.  Look up from your reading now and gaze around your piece of reality.  Is there some thing that reminds you of saints past, present and future who bless your life?  Say a prayer of thanks.  Or if there is need for a prayer of forgiveness, that works too.  We are works in process being formed in cast off, imperfect pieces of marble.  God is working with us.  Thank goodness!

https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/the-story-of-michelangelos-david

We are traveling this week between “All Saints Day,” November 1, to “All Saints Sunday” this year on November 7.  We are still in the Pentecost season and we are still using Mark as our lens for understanding the life of Jesus and the impact of his life on ours.  Yesterday we pondered how difficult it is to “declutter” memories.  Some things we just can’t forget. And in some way the Bible is a collection of memories of the saints who have gone before us and who have impacted our lives with their stories.

          Today at a Bible study I attended, a friend brought a picture she had laminated and keeps on her refrigerator of her mother’s last moments with her father.  She is leaning over the hospital bed, her hands on either side of his face communicating with him.  He, a doctor by profession, understood all the machines he was hooked to, and knew he was passing.  In the picture, he is gazing in love at his wife and life’s partner and showing no fear of the coming moments.  That is an iconic picture for my friend as it captures a memory, a moment that she does not ever want to forget. 

         We look at pictures and remember truths about who we are and how others have impacted our lives.  Pictures capture spiritual truth also.  We see the “saint” in context.  The wrinkles, the hospital gowns, and the irregularities fade as the picture captures a truth.  Not all pictures are like that but many are receptors of our memories of saints, people who have blessed us by their walk.

         This makes me think of one of the most iconic pictures from the Bible painted by Leonardo de Vinci, “the Last Supper.”  It was painted around 1496 so represents de Vinci’s interpretation of Mark 14:17-26..  Jesus’ 12 disciples are gathered around him. These are 12 ordinary people who changed their world.  They are not educated as we think today.  They are flawed as we are today.  Judas betrays as some do today.  Peter denies as we often do today.  But Jesus trusted these men to carry the story of the nature of God who incarnated, worked with ordinary people like us, died and resurrected so that “All Saints Day” speaks of death that opens into eternal life.  We do not know what eternity will look like but we have this painting that pictures faithfulness into eternity.  Thank you, Lord.

Catholics and many others call November 1 “All Saints Day.” Next Sunday, November 7 will be All Saints Sunday.  We will remember those people, the saints, in our churches that have died this year.  In my little congregation there will be 13 names.  As far as I know, none are Coved related.  The reality of life weighs heavy on my heart.

         In the past five years my husband and I have moved twice.  I remember our first realtor whose favorite word was, “DECLUTTER!”  We carried boxes of books to Half Price Bookstore.  Good Will inherited clothes we did not think we would loose weight to fit into again or that would not be needed in the new climate.  Children inherited family memorabilia that we hoped one day to pass on to them.  Others items were held to avoid a family feud.  Yes, we shredded and tossed out a lot of paper stuff.  The one thing that has followed us and that we find so hard to simplify are the photo albums, the memories.  I kept promising I would get to them in the new setting, when things settled down and I could think straight.  Have I done it yet?  NO!  My friends are bemoaning the same plight.  Memories of our loved ones or even our enemies, people who have hurt us, are difficult to just “declutter” like old wedding gifts.

         But wait, “saints” refers to three “c” groups. First is the cloud of saints that surround us, the saints who have gone before.  Secondly there is the crowd of saints that we live with.  And thirdly there are the children, the “saints becoming” that follow behind us.  “Saint” is how God sees us whether we are with him, on our way or becoming.  It is our standing in Christ even as we realize we are sinners.  We are a bit of a mixed bag.  Our lives create memories that impacts others.

         Take a moment and light a candle. 

         Can you think of a saint who has gone before who has blessed your life?  Say a prayer of thanks.

         Can you think of a saint, someone who is alive now, who blesses you and helps you carry your burdens?  Say a prayer of thanks.

         Can you think of a young saint whose life you would like to impact?  Say a prayer for them.

         Thank you, Lord, for those who have gone before to show us the way, for those who walk beside us on our journey, and for those lives we impact for you.  Blessings are you walk down memory lane.

Tomorrow, October 31 is the second largest commercial holiday in the United States, second only to Christmas.  Where did this holiday originate?           The Celts perhaps 2000 years before Christ, celebrated Samhain on November 1 as their New Year’s day, end of harvest, and beginning of the dark time of the year.  It was considered a “thin place” or time when the boundary between the seen and unseen could be crossed.  The ghosts of dead people could visit the living.  Large bonfires were built and sacrifices offered to appease these spirits.  By 43 CE Romans had overtaken the British Isles but they too had celebrations that became incorporated with the Samhain celebration of the Celts.  Pomona, of the Romans, celebrated the passing of the dead.   The symbol of the goddess Pomona was the apple (bobbing for apples?). Those two celebrations combined. In 609 CE Pope Boneface IV declared May 19 as the day for the celebration of the lives of martyrs.  This date was moved to November 1.  By the 9^th century All Saints Days was firmly established as November 1.  The “eve of All Saints Day” or Halloween was October 31.  Costumes were worn in these celebrations to hide from the spirits of the dead who were believed to roam around seeking “treats” or threatening “tricks.”

         On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the Wittenberg church door calling for public debate.   He opposed the belief that the dead could return to life and seek help in their after life.  He opposed indulgences as acts of good deeds to help the dead spend fewer years in purgatory.  He opposed the authority of the Pope in selling indulgences.  We looked this week at “Grace alone.”  We are saved by God’s grace because he is good not because we become good.  “Faith alone” is our avenue of relating to God directly and not having to go through in-between places or saints.  “Word alone,” scripture, is the ultimate authority and not councils and traditions that have contradicted each other.  And ultimately “Christ alone” for salvation as there is no other name whereby we must be saved.   The newly invented printing press spread Luther’s challenges and so the Protestant Reformation is dated to October 31, 1517.

         As Christians we do not believe we need to wear costumes to hide from evil.  We do not believe deceased ancestors return to play tricks on us.  We do believe evil was defeated on the cross.  And we certainly believe in welcoming the children in our neighborhood and getting to know people.  We need not fear for we know Christ is alive and that is not a trick.  It is a treat!  Blessings.

In Athens (Acts 17:16-34), Apostle Paul met with the Epicureans (people who lived by their pleasures – eat, drink and make merry for tomorrow we die ) and the Stoics (people who rely heavily on logic).  These men took Paul to their center and wanted to hear his religious views.  Paul noted that there were many gods and idols is their town, even one to the “unknown god.”  Today we too have many gods, things we trust and in many ways worship – education/intelligence in all its forms and pleasure.  We want our lives to be fulfilled and lived to its potential – for all.  We call it equality and the right to pursue life, liberty and happiness.  The problem is that life is not fair.  We have the rich and we have the poor.  The other problem is that there is the “unknown God,” the creator who made everything.  We cannot see this being but we suspect from life that the being exists.  Jesus Christ came claiming to be the embodiment of that God, revealing that God to us.

         In Luther’s time, it was believed that there was a kind of spiritual hierarchy.  The saints, because of their religious lives had more merit than the ordinary person and so if prayed to could intercede for a beloved departed.  I have heard it explained that even as I ask a friend to pray for me, if saints are alive in heaven, I can ask them to intercede for me also. It kinda makes sense for prayer but not for salvation, The saints died but it is only Christ who walked through death who demonstrated real power in all areas of life and death.  Protestants only recognize Christ’s death on the cross as salvatory.  “There is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)”

         Luther confronted this hierarchy of values.  He believed we, like the thief on the cross, had direct access to God and we did not need to go through a saint.  Nor did he believe the Pope received special messages from God.  This was revolutionary.  Christ alone reveals the real nature of a God who walks with us, understand us, and has the power to walk us through death to new life.  In Star Wars the good guys bless each other by saying, “The Force be with you!”  Christians say, “The Lord bless you!”

         Let us finish this week with one more acronym:

         C __________________________________

         H __________________________________

         R __________________________________

         I ___________________________________

         S __________________________________

         T ___________________________________

We are gifted, graced, not because we are good but because God is good.  Grace alone.  We unwrap that gift through faith as we trust and accept the grace offered.  It is not our works but our faith in Christ that is critical.  Faith alone.  How do we know this?  We as mere mortals are limited by our humanity, our understanding of history and eternal principles.  We have heard about grace and experienced changes through faith, but if we look up the list of churches, synagogues and mosques in our town we will know that the “voices of authority” are many and confusing.

         In Luther’s time the Pope was the ultimate authority but he lived in a different country, spoke a different language and sometimes agreed and sometimes disagreed with the Popes who went before him.  In Luther’s famous trial at the Diet of Worms when he was asked to recant and reject his writings and questioning of the religious system, he is famously quoted as saying

         “Since your most serene majesty and your high mightinesses require of me a simple, clear and direct answer, I will give one, and it is this: I cannot submit my faith either to the pope or to the council, because it is as clear as noonday that they have fallen into error and even into glaring inconsistency with themselves. If, then, I am not convinced  by proof from Holy Scripture, or by cogent reasons, if I am not satisfied by the very text I have cited, and if my judgment is not in this way brought into subjection to God’s word, I neither can nor will retract anything; for it cannot be either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise; God help me! Amen.”

         Luther believed in putting the Word of God into the hands of the ordinary people and so translated the Bible into German.  He started confirmation classes for children and maintained that traditions and councils must base arguments on Scripture.  Suddenly the individual was empowered to read scripture and have direct access to God.  It is true that many flavors of Christianity have arisen from this freedom.  Not all Protestants agree on scripture interpretations but they do agree on the authority of scripture.

         2 Timothy 3:16 assures us, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may bethoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Our acrostic today focuses on how scripture has us find our way.

         W ______________________________

         O _______________________________

         R _______________________________

         D _______________________________

Blessings.  Enjoy “God”s Word” by Amy Grant.

So how does belief become faith?  I may believe that someone is the President of the United States, but that does not mean I have faith in all the proposed policies debated over news broadcasts each evening.  Believing is not having faith.  Ephesians 2:8 shares, “By grace we are saved through faith..”  In Luther’s day indulgences were a big thing.  Indulgences were pieces of paper sold by roving priests like Tetzel that, if bought, guaranteed the forgiveness of a certain number of years in Purgatory.

         “The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines purgatory as a          “purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of      heaven,” which is experienced by those “who die in God’s grace and          friendship, but still imperfectly purified” (CCC 1030). It notes that “this final purification of the elect . . . is entirely different from the punishment of the damned” (CCC 1031).”

Luther challenged this belief, creating a rift between Catholicism and Protestantism.  Both believe in Christ, have similar Bibles, and actually have much in common.  Faith alone says that it is not because of an amount of my faith or because of my purification that I can draw near to God but because of trusting in Christ’s work on the cross, that we are saved.  Faith alone is all that is needed to be in relationship with God.  There does not need to be further purification.  We are saint and sinner.

         A Biblical story that exemplifies the Protestant’s stand is the two thieves on the cross, Luke 23: 39-42.  Both men believed Jesus was on the cross.  Both seemed to believe that Jesus was a good guy.  Neither had access to theological training and they appeared to be ordinary people.  As the one thief  is dying, he turns to Jesus and says, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  There is no big theological understanding but he pleads for mercy and to be where ever Jesus is going to be.   Jesus responds, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”  Faith puts one’s life where one’s beliefs are.  I can agree that it is a chair but when I sit on it, I exhibit faith that it will hold me.  I can believe Jesus is a great person but when I trust him to guide my life and future, that’s faith.

         Many of us struggle with guilt over pass failures and in many subtle ways try to deserve God’s grace.  On the other hand, we may cast a critical glance at another and silently judge that their actions make them unworthy of God’s love.  It is not our actions but Christ’s actions that is important.  Faith alone is the means of receiving grace – salvation. 

         Today spend a moment forming an acrostic from faith.

         F ________________________________

         A ________________________________

         I ________________________________

         T _______________________________

         H _______________________________

Blessings as you trust in that relationship.

We all know how life works.  The student who gets all the right answers, gets the most rewards.  The best looking young woman becomes Miss …..  The person with money for sure must have the easiest life.  We believe that.  In the Middle Ages there was a hierarchy of value also.  God is at the top, then angels, then people but more specifically men and then women, then living creatures, then living plants and at the bottom of the list was the rock or inanimate objects.  We struggle with this hierarchy of value even today.  We see it in our battles with racism, with pay inequalities, and other more subtle prejudices like dealing with people with disabilities or poverty.  The subtle message is that we get what we deserve.

         “By grace we are saved…” starts out Ephesians 2:8-10.  The “grace” of Christianity directly confronts the hierarchies of life.  We say “the ground is level at the foot of the cross;” meaning we are all sinners and no one is more deserving than any other to receive the goodies of life or eternity. 

         The all time favorite hymn “Amazing Grace” was penned by John Newton in 1772.  Newton was born of a Catholic trained shipping father and a nonconformist mother.  At a young age he was orphaned and raised by his mother’s friends.  Newton had many near death experiences but it was not until the middle of a violent storm at sea that he turned to faith.  He is famous for having been involved in slave trade though is thought to have treated his slaves well as he believed that was the Biblical directive that justified ownership.  Later in life, under the influence of Wilberforce, Newton fought against slavery.

         Newton understood that there was nothing “good” or deserving about his life that merited salvation for himself.  He saw himself a “wretch”, “lost,” and “blind.”  By grace he was saved, God reached out to him.  He did not crawl up to God, earning favor, by doing acts of faith or giving large gifts or doing great deeds.  He knew he was saved by grace alone, “sola gratia.”  We sometimes make grace into an acronym: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expensive.  Perhaps you can think of other words that go with grace to describe the miracle of salvation:

         G ____________________

         A ____________________

         C ____________________

         E ____________________

And so we say, “thank you!”  Blessings.